21 days to a new habit

21 days to change your habits.

 

Apparently it takes twenty one days to form a new habit. I believe that I take slightly longer than that but lets start with the premise that it is true. How it works is this, it takes 21 days of doing something everyday for the neural pathways in your brain to form.

If you try and tell yourself that you are just going to do something for twenty one days then you are less resistant to the thought of change. Your conscious mind thinks "Ok. 21 days, I can handle that, it won't be too bad" By the end of the 21 days you can tell yourself you have the choice to continue or not but actually the 'habit' side of what you are doing has already started to form.

I think it does take slightly longer to break a habit because if it is something you have been doing for a very long time, smoking for example, then the pathways in the brain are very well formed and may never go away. You just have to keep reminding yourself not to follow the old pathway, put up a 'road closed' sign and remember to stick to it.

I have been working with this theory and taking one small step at a time. I can't try to make lots of habits and break lots of habits at once. I just have to go with one at a time which does mean that progress in any real sense is fairly slow, but it is still progress. I have made a chart for the wall which just has 21 days on it. The first habit I am really tying to break is the 'Constant Grazing in the Evening Habit'. Even if I was always snacking on healthy foods, and telling myself that just one more piece of fruit would be fine, or just a couple of rice cakes.... (what can I have next?) I still wanted to stop the habit. It was unnecessary (I wasn't really hungry) and really not good for my waistline eating in the evening too late. I am now on day twenty three and I do think it is starting to feel easier on some nights. Other nights I have had to resort to going to bed early! I have only three crosses where I couldn't help myself and all the other days are ticked as successful.

I just have to keep going on this one but now I am also ready to start the next habit. I am going to add daily meditation for the next twenty one days. I have a list of things I want to change and I think they will take me forever, but then again if we never try to change them, even by one small step at a time, then nothing will actually change. What amazed me was just how quickly that twenty one days passed.

You can also try this website: 21habit.com which will log everything for you! You can even 'play' in committed mode and donate $21 for which you will get a dollar back for everyday you succeed and forfeit a dollar for everyday you fail which the website donates to various charities. I just love this! You can get an app for everything these days.

What would be on your list of habits to break and habits to create?