Why it was said

Wendy Wood, who spent thirty years studying habit in the laboratory, writes this against the assumption behind most self-help: that changing behaviour is a matter of trying harder. Her data on how much of daily life is habitual is the ground under it.

What it actually means

Willpower fatigues, varies with sleep and stress, and is exactly what is missing in the moments that matter. Wood's finding is that about forty percent of daily actions are habits, performed with no decision at all, and that the people who seem disciplined have mostly arranged their environment so that the right action is the easy one. The sentence redirects effort from the self to the context.

How to use it

1. 1For a behaviour you keep failing at, change the friction rather than the resolve: move the thing, remove the cue, add a step to the bad option.
2. 2Judge a plan by whether it works on your worst day, not your best.