Good Habits, Bad Habits: The Science of Making Positive Changes That Stick

If you made a New Year's Resolution this year, it likely involved either a bad habit you hope to kick or a new habit you hope will take hold. And chances are you made that same resolution before. Our conscious mind loves making promises, but the success or failure of those ambitions is determined by our nonconscious, habitual selves. The part of ourselves we tend to neglect.

Wendy Wood is the world's foremost authority on habits, and her research proves that the key to changing our behavior lies within the 43% of our daily life that is entirely routine and lies outside our conscious thought processes. CREATURES OF HABIT: Simple and Lasting Changes for a Better Life will explain the mysterious inner workings of habit and show us how to make ourselves systematically happier, healthier and more successful.

When attempting to achieve results - whether it be frequenting the gym, eating less or saving money - we often articulate our goals to ourselves, share them with friends and family or write them down. But we fall off course while performing the basic steps necessary to accomplish them. Our motivation and self-control aren't strong enough to counter our habitual actions.

Wendy Wood will take us inside our own heads and show us a new way forward. Using context cues, repetition and reward, we can align our habits with our intentions, values and loftiest goals so that we never again make the mistake of planning for change in a bubble. Through scientific analysis of habit and narrative storytelling that highlights the surprisingly mundane actions behind "superhuman? achievements, CREATURES OF HABIT will put all of our aspirations within reach. What this book won't do is offer a series of compelling business-related stories organized around the theme of habit; what it will do is allow every reader to experience a greater sense of self-mastery and more meaning on a daily basis.

Wendy Wood was born in the UK and is Provost Professor of Psychology and Business at the University of Southern California. Her research incorporates neuroscience, cognition and behavioural insights to understand habit persistence and change, and she has collaborated with many luminary psychologists, including Angela Duckworth and Adam Grant. She has written for the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, and her work has been featured in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Time magazine, USA Today and NPR.