Does it really take 21 days to adopt a new habit?
A NEW year brings new resolutions and better habits to improve ourselves.
According to a theory that has been around for decades, it supposedly takes 21 days for new habits to become routine and take root in our lives.
The origin of this theory dates back to the 1960s, when the American plastic surgeon Maxwell Maltz hypothesised that his patients needed at least 21 days to get used to their new appearance and form a different “mental image” of themselves.
This observation features in his famous book ‘Psycho-Cybernetics’, which has become a bestseller and a reference in the world of wellness.
Sixty years on, experts are calling this 21-day theory into question. A study conducted by researcher Phillippa Lally of University College London in 2009 reports that a new habit takes an average of 66 days to become automatic.
This time-frame can vary considin erably depending on the person or circumstances, ranging from 18 to 254 days.
According to the researcher, it is difficult to predict the variation in these timescales, but she suggests that it is probably easier to consider a habit as having become automatic when it is simple.
Drinking a glass of water in the morning requires less effort than getting into the habit of exercising regularly, for example, which may give the impression that the first habit is assimilated more quickly than the second.
This idea is supported by a separate study, published in January last year in the journal ‘PNAS’.
“Contrary to the popular belief in a ‘magic number’ of days to develop a habit, we find that it typically takes months to form the habit of going to the gym, but weeks to develop the habit of handwashing in the hospital,” write the researchers.
Their study was based on data from 30,000 exercisers and 3,000 hospital employees.
After examining 12 million exercise sessions and more than 40 million handwashings, the scientists determined that it took an average of six months to get into the habit of exercising, whereas getting into the habit of handwashing was more likely to take a week.
Thomas Boraud, research director in neuroscience at France’s CNRS National Centre for Scientific Research and head of the Neurodegenerative Diseases Institute (IMN) in Bordeaux, shed light on the factors at play in the formation of habits.
“The longer a habit lasts, the harder it is to stop. And the older you are, the more complicated it is to get rid of certain behaviours.
“The individual’s personality also plays a role. Some people are more sensitive to change than others,” he told Ouest France.
As we strive to let go of our bad habits, bear in mind that change can take longer than 21 days, and it depends on various individual factors.
To increase your chances of success, researcher Lally advises considering only adopting those habits that you really want to integrate into your life.