Did you know your senses take in around 11 million bits of information every second, but your conscious mind can only actually process about 50?
That means almost everything reaching you is being filtered and handled below conscious awareness. And it's a big part of why patterns, habits, and old beliefs can run so quietly in the background, you're simply not built to consciously catch everything.
Which is exactly why willpower alone never seems to be enough. You can't consciously out-think a pattern you're not even aware is running.