In an age where our lives are increasingly shaped by data, it can feel like we’re living inside a predictable algorithm. Our habits—what we buy, how we interact online, even how we manage our relationships—are meticulously tracked, and big data has gotten very good at guessing our next moves. Whether it’s suggesting a movie we’re likely to enjoy or predicting when we’ll reconnect with an old friend, the patterns we follow make us appear remarkably predictable.

But while big data may seem to have us all figured out, it misses something fundamental: our capacity for choice. Yes, we tend to form habits and repeat certain behaviors in our personal lives. Maybe you’re someone who always texts back right away, or maybe you’re the kind of person who puts off reaching out to family for too long. These patterns are easy to track and predict, but they don’t account for the moments when we consciously decide to break from them.

In our personal lives, this capacity for change is powerful. We’re not bound by the routines or decisions we’ve made in the past. Just because we’ve always acted a certain way in relationships—avoiding conflict, for example, or sticking to a particular social circle—doesn’t mean we can’t change those dynamics. When we choose to behave differently, to reach out to someone we’ve been distant from, or to make a new decision about how we engage with loved ones, we step outside the boundaries of what data can predict.

At the end of the day, big data may offer insights into our habits, but it doesn’t understand the depth of human willpower. We have the ability to change our personal narratives, break from old routines, and build new paths. No matter how predictable we may seem on the surface, we hold the power to change our algorithm whenever we choose to.