You can’t simply decide to be a different person

February is here, which means that New Year’s Resolution season has officially come and gone. Recent studies suggest that most January goal-setters give up on their self-improvement plans before the month is over. But, as Amanda Mull wrote last year, almost everyone is capable of forming new habits. The key is in how you approach the process: “It’s largely a function of learning to do something so automatically that you perform the task without having to consciously decide to do it,” Mull explained.

The Atlantic stories in this week’s newsletter are all about habits: how to create good ones, how to get rid of the ones we don’t want, and which ones make the biggest positive impact on our lives.

• “You Can’t Simply Decide to Be a Different Person,” by Amanda Mull. Forming new habits isn’t impossible, but it’s much easier for some people than others.
• “The Power of Habits and How to Reprogram and Optimize Ours,” by Maria Popova. We try to reverse-engineer willpower and flowchart our way to happiness, but in the end, it is habit that is at the heart of our successes and our failures.
• “How We Consciously Form New Habits,” by Maria Popova. A timeless validation of grit and persistence as secrets to success?
• “How to Break the Procrastination Habit,” by Robert Wright. Isn't there something else you should be doing now??
• “The Seven Habits That Lead to Happiness in Old Age,” by Arthur C. Brooks. Your well-being is like a retirement account: The sooner you invest, the greater your returns will be.

Thanks for reading!

— Kelli María Korducki

Last Word

“It's almost never about time, and almost always about priority.” — Sean Lewis, responding on LinkedIn to “The best time-management advice is depressing but liberating.”