Kim Gaskill discusses how long it actually takes to form a habit, pushing back on the popular 21-day myth. She shares personal struggles with slipping into bad habits and explains why recognizing patterns matters for building better routines.
Welcome to a new day. I'm Kim Gaskill and this is the Daily Spark. It is January 21st, 21 days into the new year of 2019, and if you are a believer of that old belief of Maxwell Maltz, who wrote Psycho-Cybernetics back in the '60s. 21 days is all it takes to form a habit or break a habit. Recent studies and several books have disputed that time frame, some saying it takes up to 254 days to develop a habit. But basically, habits are formed by repetition, by patterns, and by behaviors that we repeat and have routine over and over. And it varies with different people. It varies with what habit you're trying to break or form. But I was thinking today about the bad habits that I'm starting to pick up being here and the good habits that I took so long to develop that seem to be disappearing. And it concerns me. It concerns me because I've gotten to a point where I recognize now when I'm starting to form a habit or when my routines or good habits are starting to disappear. They're starting to change. I'm missing things. Missing what I'm normally doing that keeps me productive and keeps me healthy. So today, 21 days into this new year, my question to you is, did you make some New Year's resolutions? Did you set some goals for 2019? And are you expecting that today, the 21st day, is your habits have formed, that you're good to go. Have you developed a habit of going to the gym, or drinking more water, or sleeping better, or getting up early? What are the things that you tried to change your routine or your behavior to develop a new habit? And are you successful yet, or did you— do you need to work on it more? I know I need to work on watching myself while I'm here picking up bad habits. Sleeping in late, watching television too much, procrastinating, letting other people dictate what my schedule is. All of those things, I feel myself slipping away from the good habits I formed and developing bad ones. So If you need more than 21 days, don't fret. Most people do. But try and recognize what habits you have already and which habits you could maybe start to work on. Change your behaviors, develop routines so that eventually it becomes subconscious and a true habit that you don't have to think about. Join me again tomorrow for another Daily Spark.
