Habits: Scientific concepts behind meaningful transformation

The last few years have seen an explosion in scientific research on psychology, motivation and success: grit, willpower, growth mindset and so forth. Perhaps, the most compelling of this has been the research on habits.

For meaningful and successful change or transformation (e.g., weight loss), a basic understanding of the concepts behind habits is critical. Can we purposefully engineer and deploy deeply-automated habits towards the fulfillment of our goals?

I found these two links that helped me grasp the underlying fundamental concepts:

Atomic Habits by James Clear

James Clear’s book Atomic Habits clearly formulates many of these concepts. The Med School Insiders’ Youtube video is a short (10 minute), accessible summary:

Scientific journey on successful transformation

Jeff Wise’s tongue-in-cheek article To change your life, learn how to trust your future self describes the scientific communities’ research on why people know what to do (lose weight, get in shape) but don’t (eat a sundae, sit on the couch).