Raj Kiran Chaudhary's Key Ideas from The Compound Effect
by Darren Hardy

the bigger they get, the deeper the roots grow and the harder they are to uproot. Some get so big with roots, so deep, you might hesitate to even try."

Aristotle said, "We are what we do repeatedly."

There was a man riding a horse. It seemed he was in a great hurry. A man standing alongside the roadside yelled, "where are you going?" The rider replied, "I don't know. Ask the horse."

This is the story of most people. We don't know what we are doing. We perform in auto-pilot mode based on our habits, not knowing what we are doing. 

Thus, it is high time to be in control.

Successful people aren't necessarily intelligent or more talented. It is their habit that moves them towards becoming more informed, more knowledgeable, better skilled and well-prepared.

According to psychologists, 95% of everything we feel, think and do is a result of learned habits. We are born with instincts but not with habits. Habits are learned during the course of time. Since habits are learned they can be unlearned too.

Here are some strategies to unlearn bad habits

1. Identify Your Triggers
2. Clean House
3. Swap It

Look at your list of bad habits and identify what triggers them. Figure out who, what, where and when for each bad habit.

• Do you smoke or drink a lot when you are with certain people?
• Is there a particular time when you crave something like alcohol, nicotine, sweets and so on?
• What situations force you to your bad habits?

Take a closer look and note all these triggers. 

Seriously, clean your house. If you want to stop drinking alcohol, remove every drop of it from your house. If you want to stop watching TV, cancel all your cable and Netflix subscriptions.

Get rid of all those that enable your bad habits. 

Can you replace your bad habits with good ones? Think once.

The author's sister-in-law had a habit of consuming crunchy and salty junk food while watching TV. She would consume a whole bag of chips while watching. When she got aware of this, she pondered and found out she enjoyed the crunchy sensation in her mouth. She then decided to replace a bag of chips with crunching carrots.