Maxwell Maltz was a plastic surgeon who wrote a book called Psycho-Cybernetics in 1960.
Maltz was all about helping people improve their self-image, not just on the outside, but on the inside.
Something he discovered was that it took patients who had plastic surgery about 21 days to get used to their new appearance. He noted this in his book.
Over time, this observation morphed into the (false) statement It takes 21 days to develop a new habit.
That’s a bunch of BS.
It doesn’t take 21 days to develop a new habit.
You know how long it really takes?
On average, it takes 66 days to develop a new habit.
That’s 3 times as long as what you’ve been told.
And 66 days is the average.
That means for 50% of the time it takes longer than that.
The rule of thumb is the smaller the change, the less time it takes to become automatic.
That means if you started practicing a new behavior or habit tomorrow, and if you stayed consistent with it for the next 66 days, by the end of January you’d have that sucker pretty well nailed down.
This also means that if you want to make a change on January 1st, it’s going to take you until March 1st to really be in a groove where that new behavior is more automatic.
How do you cut down on the amount of time it takes to make a new habit?
Cut down on the new stuff you are doing.
If you want to exercise consistently, start with a small amount of exericse every day.
Five minutes is enough! Five minutes is managable. Five minutes is a great place to start.
Once five minutes a day becomes as automatic as brushing your teeth, then you can increase the number of minutes you are exercising.
This is how I’m adding strength training into my routine.
I’m aiming for 10 minutes every weekday.
Once I’m consistently doing 10 minutes every weekday, I’ll consider increasing to 15 minutes, and I’ll keep doing that until I’m up to my goal of 30 minutes, 5 days a week.
If you are struggling to make changes you can sustain there’s a good chance you are trying to change to much too soon and that you’re expecting it to become automatic in three weeks.
That’s not going to happen.
Whatever change you want to make, whatever new habit you want to create, cut your goal in half and then aim to get 66 “reps” in.
If you want to make drinking a gallon of water a day a habit and you are currently drinking less than 16 ounces a day, you gotta recognize that you are trying to make a big change.
It’s probably going to take longer than 2 months to go from 16 ounces to a gallon of water every day.
So start with a realistic number you can do 66 times in a row.
Then keep building from there until you get to wherever you want to be.
Change takes time.
Change you can sustain takes even more time.
The smaller you start, the more likely you are to be consistent.
And consistency is what builds habits.
There’s a reason why the saying Rome wasn’t built in a day exists.
Because shit takes time.
In fact, for most of us, it takes at least 66 days.
I would add to this to also have a contingency plan. I have been getting close to the 66 days of exercising 30 minutes every weekday morning at the gym before work (I am at 53 weekdays). But, I know the gym will be closed next week on Thanksgiving and when snow comes, it may be closed. So, I am trying to build in backup plans for when this does happen (i.e. going to the gym on a weekend to make up for the missed day, and/or planning an equivalent workout at home I can do instead). I know for me, one missed day can unravel the entire operation! So, I am trying to plan ahead and prepare for when that does happen…cuz it will!
that’s an awesome streak! Keep it up!!!