This is the real power of habit: the insight that your habits are what you choose them to be.

Self-discipline has a bigger effect on academic performance than does intellectual talent.

When people have a willpower failure, it's because they haven't anticipated a situation that's going to come along.

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

What we know from lab studies is that it's never too late to break a habit. Habits are malleable throughout your entire life. But we also know that the best way to change a habit is to understand its structure - that once you tell people about the cue and the reward and you force them to recognize what those factors are in a behavior, it becomes much, much easier to change.

If you want to do something that requires willpower - like going for a run after work - you have to conserve your willpower muscle during the day.

The same process that makes AA so effective—the power of a group to teach individuals how to believe—happens whenever people come together to help one another change. Belief is easier when it occurs within a community.