Chances are they were all these things: hard-working, organized, resilient, team-oriented, good at following instructions, and quick witted.

It turns out that decades of research has shown that these are some of the traits most predictive of job performance—no matter the role.

Growing up, I was jealous of my buddy Kevin. 

He was fearless. You could throw him out of the car in any part of town, and he'd walk up to the first person he saw and start a conversation. Within minutes, he'd have a new friend, and within an hour or so he'd be able to problem-solve his way out of the situation.

I, on the other hand, was a sheepish, fearful guy.

Think of personality traits as behavioral thresholds. Someone who's very neurotic is going to have a lower threshold for worrying. They're going to see more things in the environment as threatening. Someone who's very extraverted is going to have a much lower threshold for talking to new people. They're going to see more opportunities for social engagement as they go through their day.

Over the last six weeks, I've spent all my time thinking about organizational development.

Why?

Because all my work experience in the last 10 years has brought me to one conclusion: The way you design your company determines its success.

Almost four weeks ago, I left Walmart and moved to Los Angeles.

I had been in San Francisco for almost ten years and was starting to feel a bit stuck.

As I wrote about 6 months ago, we’re prisoners to our environments. After a year or two, our contexts become our commanders—ensuring that we do the same things the same ways in the same places.

A few years ago, one of my closest friends from college and I discovered something that would change our lives.

It was a research area that harbored some of the nerdiest (and coolest) people in the behavioral sciences. It was called “psychometrics”.

I felt like I had taken the red pill from The Matrix. I saw most behavioral science research in a new way—it wasn’t pleasant, but it was the truth.

I couldn’t help but think that something was seriously wrong with those in the field. It was almost as if common sense wasn’t common to them.

We know from neuroimaging studies that sleep has a massive impact on a part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex—which sits right above the eyes. It’s in charge of something called “executive function”, the conscious control of our actions and thoughts.

So sleep deprived individuals are going to have a diminished ability to inhibit unwanted thoughts and control their focus of attention.

About a year and a half ago, I was talking with a former member of President Obama’s Social and Behavioral Sciences Team.

This was a small group that was, more or less, a roaming behavioral economics consultancy during the final three years of O’s presidency. They worked on various projects, big and small, across various agencies.

Whenever I encounter someone who works in a different area of applied behavioral science (like public policy), I always make sure to ask them as many questions as possible—to see if I can learn anything new.

After the last article, I received a bunch of stories from readers. Some of you wrote me about your experiences “wiping the slate clean”, while others regaled me with tales of transformation after moving to a new city.

But I also received a couple of notes from people asking me whether there’s a less intense, more cost-effective way of shaking things up and building new habits.

In 2010, I woke up one Saturday morning and decided to stop eating sugar. I would only eat beans, veggies, and meat from then on.

A year later, I was still reliably eating the same way.

I didn’t need to “baby step” anything, change my environment, or build any fancy cues into my context.

A few months ago, I was asked to speak to a class at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. The topic? Habit formation.

The instructor wanted me to give the class some valuable applied behavioral science research they could use to be more successful in their careers, so I decided to give them the lowdown (the real dirt) on habits.