To incorporate any new habit into your life you will need some time and effort. Both measures will depend on the type of habit you want to acquire. You don't need the same effort and time to eat a piece of fruit every day as you do to go for a run every morning..
When i talk about acquire I do not mean that from the first day you are fulfilling what you have marked yourself. You can be going for a run every morning for several weeks without it becoming a habit yet. When i talk about acquire I mean the time that passes from when you start doing something until you get to do it effortless.
Popular lore says that it takes 30 days to get into a new habit. Try to do something for a month straight and you will have incorporated it into your life. Other sources speak of 21 days. This figure comes from a book published in 1960 by a plastic surgeon who recounted his experience about amputee patients who needed 21 days to get used to the loss of their limb. Probably the television program "21 days" derives from this idea.
Nowadays, some studies are being carried out that seek to provide a concrete answer based on experimentation.
96 participants selected by the University of London took part in this study. All of these people were seeking to incorporate a new habit into their lives. These habits were very different from each other, and ranged from read 30 minutes every day, run 25 minutes every morning, drink a glass of water daily, eat a piece of fruit every day etc.
From day one, the participants were asked questions to find out how automatic they felt about these habits. They asked them if it was difficult for them to carry out the task or if on the contrary they felt that they were beginning to do it without thinking.
On average, it was observed that automatism was achieved after 66 days of practice. This figure is an average of all the tasks performed. Some of these tasks were automated during the first week, such as drinking the glass of water or eating the piece of fruit. Others, on the contrary, needed more days of practice, such as going for a run every morning before breakfast..
The following graphic shows schematically the shape of the habit curves for two of these tasks:
The researchers observed that the results did not vary when one of the subjects skipped a day. The next day they would pick up the process where they had left off. They also observed that first days of doing the new task are the most important and they will decide if that task ends up becoming a habit or not.
So now you know, when you want to incorporate any new habit into your life, you should know that you will need an average of 2 months of suffering. After this time the habit will have become part of your day to day and you will do it effortlessly.
What habit do you want to incorporate into your life soon?
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