“Change might not be fast and it isn't always easy. But with time and effort, almost any habit can be reshaped.”

Why it was said

Charles Duhigg states this as the promise of The Power of Habit, which explains habits as a loop of cue, routine and reward. The golden rule he draws from that loop, keep the cue and the reward and change the routine, is how the reshaping is supposed to happen.

What it actually means

Two halves, both honest. The first lowers expectations: change is slow and it is not easy, so a week of failure is not proof that you are the exception. The second raises them: almost any habit, because habits are structures rather than character traits. Duhigg's point is that a habit you understand is a habit you can work on. Once you can see the cue that triggers it and the reward it actually delivers, you are no longer fighting yourself in general; you are redesigning one routine inside a loop. The "time and effort" in the sentence are real, but they go into diagnosis and experiment, not into gritting your teeth harder.

How to use it

1. 1For one habit you want to change, write down the cue, the routine and what you suspect the reward really is.
2. 2Test the reward: when the urge comes, try a different routine that might give the same thing, and note what happens.
3. 3Give the change a realistic horizon of weeks, not days, and count slips as data.