21 Day Magic

Developing good habits and stopping bad ones is so important for success in life. Habits become who we are and often determine what we do. If we can figure out a way to develop habits that contribute positively to our life, we will be well on our way to success.

A common question about habits is how long does it take to establish one? I’ve discovered recently that this is a highly debated topic. For me, I’ve always heard around 21 days. This 21-day idea was most likely created from a book by Dr. Maxwell Maltz entitled Psycho-Cybernetics. Dr. Maltz developed this theory when working with amputees. He discovered it took around 21 days for amputees to stop feeling phantom pain in their amputated limb. He also noticed that good habits were created after bombarding the mind for 21 days. Other professional however have argued that the magical 21 days to forming a habit is inaccurate. There have been a handful of other studies that have determined it takes 30 days, 66 days, or some other amount of days to form good habits.

In the end, whether it takes 21 days or some other amount of days to form a good habit I am uncertain. What I do know though is that if we set our sights on doing something for 21 days and are able to accomplish that, then we are well on our way to establishing a good habit. Once we’ve done something 21 days in a row, what’s going to stop us from 22 or 23 or 103? If you do not believe this to be true, I challenge you to try it. Try doing something 21 days in a row and see if you do not have a desire to do it that 22nd day, then 23rd, and so forth. Forming good habits takes self discipline and desire but it can be done. To me, a good place to start is by determining and committing to do something for 21 days and then each day after that it will become a little bit easier and easier. By doing this, I believe we all can form good habits. Good luck!!

Additional Thought: And what about breaking old habits? I believe this is a little more tricky. Our minds are powerful machines that remember incredibly well. Once we’ve formed a habit, that neurological pathway that has developed is hard to erase. For this reason, people can quit a bad habit for many months or even years but eventually fall right back in to the bad habit seemingly overnight. I’ve learned though that the very best way to break an old habit is to consciously replace it with a new one and then reinforce the new one a lot. If we can replace and reinforce rather than simply overcome and endure, we will have a greater chance for success for breaking a bad habit.