The Power of Habit in English

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I have been undeservedly lucky throughout my life to work with people who are more talented than I am, and to get to steal their wisdom and gracefulness and pass it off as my own.

APPENDIX A Reader’s Guide to Using These Ideas The difficult thing about studying the science of habits is that most people, when they hear about this field of research, want to know the secret formula for quickly changing any habit. If scientists have discovered how these patterns work, then it stands to reason that they must have also found a recipe for rapid change, right?

AFTERWORD Some Things Learned About Weight Loss, Smoking, Procrastination, and Teaching A few months after The Power of Habit was published, I was at my desk at The New York Times when an email appeared in my in-box.

THE NEUROLOGY OF FREE WILL Are We Responsible for Our Habits? I. The morning the trouble began—years before she realized there was even trouble in the first place—Angie Bachmann was sitting at home, staring at the television, so bored that she was giving serious thought to reorganizing the silverware drawer.

SADDLEBACK CHURCH AND THE MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT How Movements Happen I. The 6 P.M. Cleveland Avenue bus pulled to the curb and the petite forty-two-year-old African American woman in rimless glasses and a conservative brown jacket climbed on board, reached into her purse, and dropped a ten-cent fare into the till.