TJ Walker argues that habit-formation timelines like 21 or 66 days miss the real point: habits form as fast as their rewards hit. Addictive drugs create instant habits because the pleasure is immediate and intense. Healthy habits like daily push-ups take months because the payoff is distant, so you need to find the long-term value and stick to it.
How long does it take for something to really become a new habit? There's a lot of debate about this in habit circles. Some say two weeks, 21 days, 66 days, six months. I think most of these estimates are way, way off. It often depends on how powerful is the positive feedback, the reward you get, supposedly for a lot of people. You try cocaine, crack cocaine, crystal met, even once you have a new habit because the pleasure is so intense. The problem is so many good habits in life deliver no immediate positive feel good reward. If you do five push ups a day, there's no instant positive reward. If you stop eating sugar, there's no instant positive reward. The rewards come often three months, six months, sometimes two years later. So the challenge is you've got to figure out what's truly worth it to you in the long run and then focus. Now.
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