Finally the truth about habits is revealed. 

 

You probably have heard and have even told yourself that it takes 21 days to form a habit, yet when it doesn't actually work that way, you give up and either say to yourself, "I didn't really want to do it anyway", or think, "I'll never be able to change".    

 

A study [Lally et al. (2009)] was done to determine how long it really takes to form habits and the findings showed that it ranged from 18 days to 254 days, with an average of 66 days to make a behavior change feel automatic.  Now that sounds more realistic.  The researchers also found that it depended upon the habit.  Drinking a glass of water was an easier habit to create than doing 50 sit-ups a day.  Yup, that sounds right.  And some people are more resistant to habit formation than others. 

 

So where did the '21 days' come from?  According to PsychBlog's How Long to Form a Habit?, that concept may have come from a 1960's book by a plastic surgeon who found that it took 21 days for an amputee to adjust to the loss of a limb.  Huh?   

 

So I'm chucking the idea of 21 days, choosing my habit changes carefully (I'm going to make them SMARTER just like my goals) and I'm taking as long as I need to -- just in case I'm one of those habit-resistant individuals.