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

This is another book that talks about Habits and research into how we act. The author had done a number of studies with Texas A&M students. One of the primary results is that willpower alone is often not sufficient to make a change. Often the best way to make a change in habit is to change the environment so that it is easier to engage in the desired behavior. As a simple example, suppose you want to snack on carrots instead of potato chips. If you have a house full of chips, but need to go to the store to get carrots, you have probably lost. However, if you keep carrots easily accessible, but need to travel to get chips, you will likely snack on carrots. Simply making the "desired" action the "easy" one is one of the best ways to accomplish it.
Changing circumstances can also help change habits. Many drug users during the Vietnam War stopped after they got home. They used drugs to cope with the stress of war and had a ready supply. At home, they no longer had the stress, so didn't have the need. They also did not know where to easily obtain the drugs. This made it easier to break the habit - even with the physical addiction.
The book also gives examples of a few public health efforts that worked and didn't. One campaign encouraged people to eat more fruits and vegetables. Most people surveyed remembered the campaign, but did not alter their produce-consuming behavior. They had the desire to have a better habit, but didn't go through the effort. On the other hand, smoking rates have decreased significantly. Previously smoking could be a default activity. However, now smoking is heavily restricted. Smokers must often travel outside to a designated smoking area to smoke. Smoking has become less accessible and many people no longer smoke.
The trick to making habits stick is to go beyond willpower to make the desired habit the default one.