However, to modify a habit, you must decide to change it. You must consiously accept the hard work of identifying the cues and rewards that drive the habits' routines, and find alternatives. You must know you have control and be self-conscious enough to use it -- and every chapter in this book is devoted to illustrating a different aspect of why that control is real.

Since the 17th century, insurance agents have been the foremost experts on risk.

Once people learned how to believe in something, that skill started spilling over to other parts of their lives, until they started believing they could change. Belief was the ingredient that made a reworked habit loop into a permanent behavior.

Between calculated risk and reckless decision-making lies the dividing line between profit and loss.

Some say because music is as much about personal expression as listening pleasure, sharing is integral to why songs have value in the first place.

Habits, scientists say, emerge because the brain is constantly looking for ways to save effort.

At some point, if you're changing a really deep-seated behavior, you're going to have a moment of weakness.