Compulsion

Whether from conditioning, predisposition, wiring, or whatever.... it seems like we all have our areas of compulsion, where we can't help but go in a certain direction, for better or for worse. I'm wondering how much being cognizant of our compulsions can affect our actions. Is there room for change? If so, how much? Or for the most part do we just have to work with the cards that we have? Or perhaps there are some cards that we can't swap out, but some cards we can through adaptation and brain plasticity.