Behavior change is one of the key pillars to making successful long-lasting change in our lives. And ya’ll, “it takes as long as it takes”. Check out Kristin’s scoop on the 21-Day Myth and tips to keep you truckin’ along in your health journey. —Dina
Wouldn’t it be great if forming new habits were as simple as 1-2-3? That once we realized we’d like to adopt a new behavior we could simply “fake it til we make it” for a few weeks until it became routine?
When I was in graduate school, I recall learning that it takes 12-21 “exposures” for new behaviors to become habit. I’ve even conveyed this to clients over the years (sorry). The thinking goes that if you practice something consistently for 21 days, roundabout day 22 it becomes routine.
The problem for me was that this mostly never worked. Sometimes things would stick, but generally I just felt like a failure. I’d tell myself, You’re not trying hard enough, or, I clearly don’t have what it takes, or, I’m just not motivated enough. I always put the blame on myself.
I recently started working with an awesome new client who motivated me to dive a little deeper into the data to learn where this ubiquitous notion of “3 Weeks to Building a New Habit” originated.
Turns out that 21-day rule is a myth.
THE PLASTIC SURGEON
In the 1950s, an American plastic surgeon named Dr. Maxwell Maltz began observing that his patients took about 21 days to get used to a limb amputation or adjust to the new look of their faces. Dr. Maltz began thinking about his own behaviors and noticed that he himself needed about three weeks to form a new habit. He wrote, “These, and many other commonly observed phenomena tend to show that it requires a minimum of about 21 days for an old mental image to dissolve and a new one to jell.”
In 1960, Dr. Maltz published that quote in a book called Psycho Cybernetics, which went on to sell more than 30 million copies and influenced nearly every major self-help leader in the decades that followed. With such popularity, it’s easy to understand how Dr. Maltz’s observation morphed into a declaration of “fact”.
That’s how American culture started spreading the myth that it takes 21 days (or 12 days or any other random number) to form a new habit. Say it enough and people believe it…except it wasn’t true.
ACTUAL DATA
In 2009, a study in the European Journal of Social Psychology revealed that forming a new habit actually took participants between 18 to 254 days (and averaged 66 days) of consistent and repeated practice.
In the study, 96 participants chose their own new-habit task; 27 chose an eating behavior, 31 chose a drinking behavior (most often water), 34 chose an exercise behavior, and 4 chose another behavior (i.e., meditation).
Interestingly, approximately half of the (highly motivated) participants did not perform the behaviors consistently enough to achieve habit status.
Among the “successful habit-formers”, new drinking behaviors were performed more than new exercise behaviors, and these in turn were performed more than new eating behaviors. It’s also noteworthy that the exercise group took 1.5 times longer than the eating and drinking groups for their new habits to become routine. Interesting, right?
THE REAL-WORLD TAKEAWAYS
Don’t give up - Exercise is considered a more “complex” habit than eating or drinking. The more complex a behavior, the longer it can take to become routine. Stick with it. DON’T GIVE UP!
Practice, practice, practice – Consistency and early repetition increase the likelihood of a new behavior becoming habit.
Get support (from The Nutrition Mechanic) - Continued support helps motivate people to keep trying long enough for the new habit to become routine. REACH OUT FOR SUPPORT!
Keep going - Missing one day of practicing the new behavior was okay, but missing a week’s worth decreased the likelihood of the new habit becoming routine. In other words, if you miss a day, get back to it again the next day, and KEEP GOING!
Reject the myth – If you’ve learned nothing else, “It takes 21 days to form a new habit” is a bunch of baloney!!!
Behavior change take as long as it takes. Sometimes the path is short and (fairly) straightforward, more often it’s up and down and twisty and difficult and gradual. That’s okay. We are capable of doing difficult things.
The Registered Dietitians at Nutrition Mechanic have years of real-world practical experience in supporting clients achieve their goals, even the difficult ones. Schedule your free 20-minute discovery call and let’s get started!
-Kristin Foreman, MS, RDN, Sports Dietitian
Email Kristin