Building & Removing Habits
It can take anywhere from 18 to 254 days for a person to form a new habit and an average of 66 days for a new behavior to become automatic.
This is according to a study done by Phillipa Lally on How are Habits Formed in 2009, on participants over 12 weeks.
There’s no one-size-fits-all figure.
So, my suggestion would be to give yourself at least 66 days for a new habit that is moderately difficult.
That is a minimum of 9-10 weeks.
The number of days it takes to form a habit also depends on the level of difficulty perceived by you as well as the skills you may or may not possess for entry.
1. Be open with a beginner’s mindset
Be open to a new habit you want to incorporate because you don’t know if something is truly good or bad for you until you try.
When we see someone having success with a particular habit, it doesn’t mean that we need to do it the same way, either.
Some people enjoy the habit, while others, after trying it for a long time (66 days remember?) may still have a hard time embracing it.
Take doing cold showers for example.
I understand all about the benefits of cold exposure and I tried it for more than 66 days to do it first thing upon waking.
I didn’t enjoy it at all, even after more than 66 days.
Sure, I got the benefits – I was awake after the cold shower, and I always slept well at night.
But, I would stay frozen for quite a while, until I warmed myself up with hot liquids and some physical movements.
I now do my cold showers only about once a week in combination with a steam room session at my gym.
That made it more tolerable for me.
I continue to sleep well at night and stay alert throughout my day because of all the healthy habits I have implemented into my life, despite not having a cold shower every day.
I was open to cold exposure and still am, but it doesn’t mean I need to do it every day.
I listen to my body and do what works for me.
2. Start with Something Easy
Another way to ensure that you will succeed in habit forming is to start with something easy and continue until you feel good about the progress you’ve made, before bringing in another habit.
For example, increasing your water intake throughout the day may be easier than learning how to do some type of resistance training protocol.
You can start by having a dedicated water bottle by your desk, that you can carry everywhere, and sip it whenever you want a little break or between your calls.
Fill it up when you see it emptied.
You will increase your hydration that way than just waiting for yourself to feel thirsty.
Because by the time you feel thirsty, you are already dehydrated.
The kind of benefits that a new habit will bring and how much you value those benefits are like your motivation factors.
If I told you that staying hydrated keeps your skin supple, helps your body to detox and flush out the toxins through urine and sweat, aids the biochemical reactions in the body, and is one of the keys to longevity, would you be more inclined to keep going?
3. Remove or Cut Down on an Undesirable Habit
Removing a habit that no longer serves your needs is also hard.
Instead of ‘removing’ it completely, you may want to ‘cut it down’ gradually.
Take quitting coffee for example.
Instead of quitting cold Turkey, maybe first pay attention to how many cups (recording it would be the best way) a day you have and slowly cut it down from there.
From 5 cups a day, to 4 cups a day for one week, to 3 cups a day another week, and all the way down to 1 cup in the morning for a week.
Coffee is not bad by itself, just like how sugar is not bad.
It is how much and how often we consume it, as well as where we source the coffee from, and if we have become quite dependent on it that we cannot ‘survive’ our day without it.
If that’s the case, you have become addicted to coffee or sugar for that matter.
If you want to remove it completely, you can go down to zero cups for another week.
4. Find a Substitution
You may miss having that ‘energy’ boost or the habit of having a warm and hot liquid first thing in the morning, while you are cutting down on your coffee intake.
Try adding something new in place.
You can have some caffeine-free and natural energy boosting herbal teas, like the Honeybush tea or Peppermint tea.
Or natural supplements like Ashwaganda, Brahmi and Macca*.
*Please see your functional/integrative medicine doctor or naturopath before taking any supplements.
When you feel your 3 pm energy dip, it’s your body’s way of telling you to stop doing whatever it is that you are doing now.
You can get up, stretch, drink water, go for a walk, and even do some jumping jackets for one minute if you are at work.
Or if you are working from home, you can take a quick power nap for 20-30 minutes.
Not only will it distract you and break your regular pattern (which is the beginning part of breaking a habit), it will give you the boost of energy you need without the dependence on an external substance.
It’s a delicate balance between needing and wanting.
5. Habit Stack for Success
Habit stacking is to identify a current habit you already do each day and then stack your new behavior on top.
It was first coined by by S.J. Scott in his book Habit Stacking: 97 Small Life Changes That Take Five Minutes or Less.
In other words, you pair your new habit with something that you are already doing.
For example, if you want to incorporate more physical movements throughout your day, you can start by parking further at the stores.
Or when you are shopping, go to a location that contains at least 2 stores that you can get what you need from.
You can park your car in one spot, or middle distance from the 2 stores, and go from one store to the next.
You can put things back in your car before moving on to the 2nd store.
That is like killing multiple birds with one stone right? 😉
That is essentially what habit stacking is, a win-win in whatever you choose to incorporate together.
Building Habits for a New You
The reason many of us want to break or build a habit is because we have identified something that is not working in our lives.
We want to change for the better.
Did you know every cell in our body gets turned over in about every 7 years?
Our gut lining, the epithelium, gets replaced even faster at every 5-7 days.
Changes are not bad and often are good for us.
It may be hard at the beginning because we are moving towards an unknown and it needs us to break out of our comfort zone.
But we don’t know until we start, until we take that first step, right?
A coach, or an accountability partner, or a supportive friend are great sounding boards when you are encountering difficulties in habit sustainability.
Is there a new habit you want to incorporate into your life, but you can’t seem to be able to stick with it?
Share with me and the community here. It’s through sharing that all of us benefit and grow together.
