Over the last few days, I have had several conversations about habits.
To
one extent or another, we are all creatures of habit. Some habits are created as a reaction to the
environment and spaces we occupy. This
would include such things as going to the refrigerator when we want a snack or
automatically pitching clothes for laundry in a certain place.
Other
habits we cultivate with great purpose.
This might be something such as leaving at an exact time every workday
so you arrive on time.
For
a long time, a myth persisted that it took 21 days for a person to firmly
develop a habit. Recent research conducted
by Phillippa Lally, a psychology researcher at University College London, has
proven otherwise.
In a
study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, Lally and her
research team attempted to determine how long it actually takes to form a habit.
According to the study, 66 days are required, on average, to form an automatic
behavior. But underlying that, the study
concluded it took anywhere from 18 days to 254 days for people to form a new
habit, depending on various circumstances.
The
question then arises: How long does it take to break a habit?
I
suspect a similar time frame exists for that.
Certain habits are particularly persistent. When I gave up tobacco 34 years ago, I know I
was much closer to the 254-day mark before I entirely stopped reaching for my
can of chew.
Source: https://jamesclear.com/new-habit
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