For better or for worse, we are creatures of habit. I learned this early when I was a newspaper delivery boy. A customer would tell me that he was going to be on vacation for a week and would not need a paper. Nevertheless, out of sheer habit, I would fling a paper up on his porch each day and then have to pay for that paper myself.

Habits can be frustrating. Have you ever done this? You need to stop by the grocery store on the way home. But as you drive homeward your mind is on other things, and you drive right past the grocery store, out of sheer habit.

Or, you come home in the evening, change into something casual, and then decide to stroll out into the backyard. But as you exit the house, habit kicks in and you lock the door. But you have no key with you and no one else is at home. S…