How to build habits that last
Common wisdom says it takes 21 days.
There are an in-numerous amount of studies that have been done on humans and habits.
The most well known estimate is 21 days. That idea comes from a plastic surgeon called Dr Maxwell Meltz who based his theory off the fact that his patients took roughly 21 days to stop noticing the changes he made to their faces. He hypothesized that after 21 days the brain had unlearnt what the old face looked like and re-learnt what the new face looks like.
The truth is though, 21 days is a poor measure for establishing any habits.
Cue the action
It is accepted as common industry knowledge that habits are formed through the strengthening of neural pathways between a cue and an associated action. So how long does it take for those pathways take shape? At what point do they fire without conscious thought so that our habits become automated?
In a study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, Dr Phillipa Lally attempted to assess habit formation in a study group of 96 volunteers over 12 weeks. Using data analysis techniques, they were able to match a model to the patterns of automaticity in the volunteers. Of the 96, 39 showed a good fit to the model. Of the 39 applicants, the number of days it took for the volunteers to reach ‘fully automatic’ ranged from 18 to 254 days.
That’s a significant range. What does it mean?
Define the goal, then build the systems
Habit formation is unique to each of us and is highly dependant on the type of habit you’re trying to develop and how it resonates with who you are as a person.
At the core of habit formation is the desire to become someone different. The best way to give up smoking is to make the decision to become a healthy person. Once you are driven to become healthy, your mind realises that your smoking habit doesn’t contribute to the person you’re trying to become. It then goes to work to change that habit.
That could explain the variation in ‘time-to-automation’ in Dr Lally’s study. If the habit they were trying to establish didn’t align with where they were going as a person, the willpower required to keep at it would be much higher.
An athlete looking to become stronger is much more inclined to pick up a daily pushup habit than a daily reading habit. It aligns more with their intended direction.
Who do you want to be
If you want your habits to really change who you are as a person, you have to make them sustainable.
It’s always easy to start a new habit. It goes well for a few days, but then the energy and enthusiasm you had fades and you lose momentum.
For a habit to be sustainable, there can’t be an end goal. You’re in it for the long haul, because once you stop, the habits gone and you’re back to square one. So how do you set a habit without a finish line insight?
Accept that the habit you’re undertaking is actually a change in lifestyle. You’re making a conscious decision to change the way you’re doing life. I don’t want to be an unhealthy person anymore, I want to be fit and lean. The moment you stop thinking like a fit and lean person, your habit becomes an effort, and an effort, by definition, isn’t automated.
“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. “— James Clear
Systems are based on a concrete understanding of who you are as a person. The systems of a healthy person are built on the mindset of being kind to your body.
Next time you want to make a significant change, ask yourself, “Why am I doing this? What sort of person do I want to become?”. Let the answer guide you in setting systems to make that change a reality.