Brian Tracy breaks down how to build a habit in seven steps: decide clearly, allow no exceptions, tell others, visualize it, use affirmations, persist until it's automatic, and reward yourself. Most of what you do comes from habits, and medium-complexity ones stick in about two to three weeks.
95%.
About 14 to 21 days (commonly quoted as ~21 days).
95% of everything you do is a result of your habits, either helpful or hurtful. Hello, I'm Brian Tracy and today I want to give you my seven step formula for developing a new habit. How long does it take to develop a new habit? The time period can be any length from from a single second to several years. The speed of new habit pattern development is largely determined by the intensity of the emotion that accompanies the decision to begin acting in a particular way. Many people think and talk about and resolve to lose weight and become physically fit. This may go on for years. Then one day the doctor says that if you don't get your weight down and improve your physical condition, you're in danger of dying at an early age. Suddenly, the thought of dying can be so intense or frightening that the individual immediately changes his diet, begins exercising, stops smoking, and becomes a healthy and fit person. Psychologists refer to this as a significant emotional experience. Sometimes they call it an se, a significant emotional event. Any experience of intense joy or pain combined with a behavior can create a habitual behavior pattern that may endure for the rest of a person's life. For example, putting your hand on a hot stove or touching a live electrical wire will give you an intense and immediate pain or shock. The experience may only take a split second, but for the rest of your life you will have developed the habit of not putting your hand on hot stoves or touching live electrical wires. The habit will have been formed instantly and endure permanently. According to the experts, it takes about 21 days to break or form a habit pattern of medium complexity. By this we mean simple habits such as getting up earlier at a specific hour, exercising each morning before you start out, listening to podcasts in your car, going to bed at a certain hour, being punctual for appointments, planning every day in advance, or completing your tasks before you start something else. These are habits of medium complexity that can be quite easily developed in 14 to 21 days through practice and repetition. Over the years, a simple, powerful, proven methodology has been determined for new habit development. It's very much like a recipe for preparing a dish in the kitchen. You can use it to develop any habit that you desire. Over time, you will find it easier and easier to develop the habits that you want to incorporate into your personality. First, you must make a decision. Decide clearly that you are going to begin acting in a specific way 100% of the time whenever that behavior is required. For example, if you decide to arise early and exercise each morning, set your clock for a specific time, and when the alarm goes off, Immediately get up, put on your exercise clothes and begin your exercise session. Second, never allow an exception to your new habit pattern during the formative stages. Don't make excuses or rationalizations. Don't let yourself off the hook. If you resolve to get up at 6am each morning, discipline yourself to get up at 6am every single morning until this becomes automatic. Third, tell others that you're going to begin practicing a particular behavior. It's amazing how much more disciplined and determined you will become when you know that others are watching you to see if you have the willpower to follow through on your resolution. The fourth key to developing your new habit is to visualize yourself performing or behaving in a particular way in a particular situation. The more often you visualize and imagine yourself acting as if you already had the new habit, the more rapidly this new habit will be accepted by your subconscious mind and eventually become automatic, like programming a computer. Fifth, create an affirmation that you repeat over and over to yourself. This repetition dramatically increases the speed at which you develop the new habit. For example, you can say something like I get up and get going immediately at 6am each morning. Repeat these words the last thing before you fall asleep. In most cases, you will automatically wake up minutes before the alarm clock goes off at 6am and soon you will need no alarm clock at all. Sixth, resolve to persist in the new behavior until it is so automatic and easy that you actually feel uncomfortable when you do not do what you have decided to do. And finally, number seven and most important, give yourself a reward of some kind for practicing the new behavior. Each time you reward yourself, you reaffirm and reinforce the behavior. Soon you begin to associate at an unconscious level the pleasure of the reward with the behavior. You set up your own force field of positive consequences that you unconsciously look forward to as a result of engaging in the behavior or habit and that you have decided upon. If you enjoyed this video and feel it was valuable in discussing how to develop new habits, share it with your friends or anyone else who might benefit from this information. Remember, 95% of what you achieve in life or don't achieve is because of your habits, either good or bad. The rule is to form good habits and make them your masters. Before we wrap up, I'd like to leave you with a thought to share with your friends and followers. 95% of everything you do is a result of your habits, either helpful or hurtful. I'd love to hear from you. So my question today is what is one habit that you're going to start to form right now. Leave a comment below and I'll be sure to follow up with you. Thanks for watching. And remember, if you want to change your future, take action and take action now. If you enjoyed this video and you feel it was valuable in helping you to achieve your personal or professional goals or to develop new habits, subscribe to my channel like this video and then share this video with your friends or anyone else who might benefit from this information.
