4 Scientifically Proven Steps to Form a New Habit

It's a common concept that forming a new habit requires maintaining it for 21 days. However, it needs to be clarified as it lacks scientific support.

This number originates from a comment made by a plastic surgeon in a book about his patients' plastic surgery experiences, as he mentioned that it takes them 21 days after the surgery to get used to their new form.

This surgent wrote, “It takes the patient 21 days to get used to their new form. Similarly, patients with amputations require 21 days to recover from phantom limb syndrome. Also, moving out takes people the same amount of time to adjust to their new residence. Numerous other examples demonstrate the need for this time to adapt to any new situation.”

However, there is no scientific basis for these observations regarding habit formation. In another experiment, the same research team found that it takes 66 days for a new behavior to become a habit. 96 volunteers participated in this study, practicing the desired behavior with everyday tasks like eating fruit for lunch or going for a 15-minute run before dinner. Then, they tracked the changes that transpired throughout the study period.

It took 18 days for some participants to notice that the new behavior had become automatic, but it took 254 days for others to get used to it. In contrast, some participants did not form a habit from the new behavior at all by the end of the study period. Ultimately, the researchers clarified that forming a new habit can take time and that the required time can be anticipated.

However, the four steps listed below will help in forming habits and automating the new behavior:

4 Steps That Will Help in Forming Habits

1. Choosing a New, Easy, and Simple Habit

In this study, the researchers discovered a clear correlation between the required time for a new habit to become automatic and its difficulty. Some complicated programs are challenging to incorporate into everyday life, like developing the ideal six packs before summer or getting ready to compete in a major sporting event. This includes any objectives requiring the simultaneous acquisition and mastery of multiple behaviors in a constrained time.

Concentrate on one productive behavior, such as mindful eating, light exercise, or meditation—actions that require no more than 10 minutes a day and don't drastically change your original routine.

2. Repeated Daily Committing

A British study revealed that since it matters to maintain the behavior overall, skipping a day without the new habit has no bearing on how well it is formed. However, skipping a week or more could restrict forming the new habit.

Therefore, it's critical to remember the value of continuing to engage in the positive behaviors you want to form even when you're busy, such as journaling at night or doing yoga on the weekends. If you don't succeed, try to take what you've learned from it and try again using a different approach where you have more commitment to the process.

3. Linking the New Habit to Regular Daily Behavior

In a study, participants were asked to select a new behavior to perform following their regular daily routine. For example, try doing fifty Abs exercises after your morning coffee. In other words, choose a specific behavior to engage in along with the new habit. Feel free to change it until you find something that works for you and encourages commitment.

You might require a reminder in the early days. For example, a piece of paper taped to your coffee machine could be a helpful reminder for your Abs exercises.

4. Choosing a New Enjoyable Habit

Study participants were not given gifts or rewards but were free to select their favorite forms of exercise or healthy eating to incorporate into their everyday routines. Therefore, love and a sincere desire should always motivate any new habit you want to acquire.

The new habit should be enjoyable for you. If it is not, you can motivate yourself with rewards until you start to notice results, which should come about fast if you commit.

In Conclusion

Regarding the number 21, it is undoubtedly unreal, and there is no magic number that dictates how long it takes to form a habit.