In the non-fiction novel The Power of Habit the author, Charles Duhigg, explains how both good and bad habits form, and how we can control or change them to improve our everyday lives and future. As I read the novel I felt like it became more interesting with every page as the author analyzed certain habits, how they formed and how thousands of people were able to change them. When I was younger I noticed that I was developing dozens of new habits every year, and some of them weren’t socially acceptable: I was biting my nails, eating lots of sweets when I was bored and dismissed physical activity for a few hours of computer games instead. However, whenever I tried to get rid of these habits, I never succeeded. Sure I would be able to hold back and not bite my nails for one, two maybe even three days, but in the end my old habit always got the best of me. With time and effort, however, I got this nail biting habit under control and whenever I felt the urge to bite my nails I would tap my fingers on the table or my foot on the ground to the tune of a song. It is only now, four years after changing this habit that I realize that Charles Duhigg said it right: “The Golden Rule of Habit Change: You can't extinguish a bad habit, you can only change it.” It is not possible to simply eliminate a bad habit, however, by keeping the same cue (I am bored I have to do something), and the same reward (this gets my mind off of how bored I am) but by changing the routine (tapping my fingers on the table or against my leg, instead of biting my nails) I was able to effectively change by nail biting habit into a more acceptable one. Furthermore, as I read this book I learned valuable lessons that have helped me create good habits in my life such as going to the gym regularly, and drinking two liters of water daily. This is all thanks to the thousands of examples and explanations that are presented in the book for almost every possible scenario, on top of facts and hundreds of studies that all support Mr. Duhigg’s point. One of these stories explained how a man developed a habit that helped him get off the couch every evening and go for a jog instead of watching TV and “stuffing his face with junk food”. As he explained what the man did to succeed, I was able to relate and deduct why, when I tried to get into that same habit it only lasted for a few weeks while the man was able to make it a lifelong habit. As I read this book I was taking notes, and so far they have helped me change some of my worst habits without as much effort as it might have taken.