How long does it take to create a habit?

• May 3, 2024

Usually, when talking about creating a habit, it is said that you should exercise it for a certain time; that is, you need to do the same thing every day until it becomes a habit. However, it is also known that if you stop doing it on more than one occasion, you will not be able to establish it.

When you want to create a new habit, and even more so if you want to change a bad habit, like exercising or eating correctly, requires a little discipline and commitment, but not nearly as much as making a permanent change. Any deprivation that is perceived is only temporary, so it is necessary to set goals in the short term.

At least that was what was previously thought, since it was considered that to create a habit it took only 21 days, such as drinking more glasses of water. However, this maxim is based on a book published in 1960 by the plastic surgeon Maxwell Maltz .

In his book, the specialist tells that it took some patients amputated, on average, 21 days to adapt to the loss of a limb, so he argues that people take that number of days to adapt to the important changes in life .

However, because eating habits or exercise are mainly related to the social, economic and cultural characteristics of a population and even the family, rescheduling a whole life with or without certain habits could take a little more time.

According to researchers from University College London Creating a habit, such as exercising or eating more healthily, can take around 66 days, a period that allows you to fix and maintain it for many years.

From that moment, the habit acquires a certain automatism, and there is no need for will, or even to think about it intentionally, in order to repeat this behavior, explains Jane Wardle , co-author of the study that was published in the magazine European Journal of Social Psychology.

What this study reveals is that when we want to develop a relatively simple habit, like eating a piece of fruit every day or taking a 10-minute walk, it can take more than two months of daily repetitions before the behavior becomes a habit. .

On the contrary, the omission of a single day is not harmful in the long term, it is those early repetitions that give us the greatest increase in automaticity to establish it.

Fostering good habits related to food and exercise is an everyday task. With only 21 or 28 days, as was thought until now, the neurons do not assimilate a certain behavior enough, so it is easy to abandon it. While changing or creating a new habit is possible, it does require discipline and perseverance.

Video Medicine: The 2 Biggest Misconceptions About Building Habits (May 2024).