Often say what to fake new habit necessary 21 day. However, according to a study recently published in PNASusually requires much more. The legend comes from the calculation of a plastic surgeon named Maxwell Maltz. In the 1960s, he noticed that it took his patients at least 21 days to get used to their new face. For this reason, he extrapolated his observations to unexpected limits and, without further research, established what was needed to form a new habit.
Despite little scientific support for his observation, it has become very famous. Many self-help books or even some TV programs have revolved around this belief for decades. To make matters worse, Maltz’s statement has been changed since he established minimum 21 daysbut it began to spread that this was an exact figure.
However, psychologists often disagree. For this reason, some have conducted laboratory studies that contradict the 21-day hypothesis. Against these studies, it can be said that they were not carried out in real environment and that everything depended on the subjective observations of its participants. And that’s what makes the work, just published by a team of scientists at the California Institute of Technology, so special. In it, they demonstrate in non-laboratory conditions that some habits take much longer than 3 weeks. In fact, there is no magic number, no matter how much we would like everything to be countable.
The myth of 21 days
To conduct their study, these scientists observed the behavior 30,000 gym attendeeswho trained 12 million times in 4 years, and 3000 hospital workerswho washed their hands 40 million times in almost 100 shifts. Both going to the gym and washing your hands take getting into the habit, although the former usually takes more effort. This is the first indication that magic numbers do not exist.
In any case, to test this, they used an artificial intelligence algorithm capable of find patterns in behavior participants. Gym goers were required to pass their ID through the entrance turnstile, as is customary, while the restrooms used ID every time they washed their hands.
The goal of the algorithm was to find predictable patterns in his behaviour. And that’s what habit building is all about. In the development of a pattern that to some extent can be predicted over time.
So they saw that gym goers need an average of 6 months make it a habit. Instead, healthcare workers have developed the habit of washing their hands in few weeks.
Routines with little variety
Getting into the habit of exercising is often difficult. So it goes without saying that it takes a lot longer than 21 days for the gym to become a daily routine. But the good thing is that it becomes so commonplace that although there may be individual variations, there even comes a time when they are chosen. the same hours and days of the week.
This is what artificial intelligence has discovered. In addition, it was observed that most of the participants preferred Monday and Tuesday. And, of course, each case is individual. It took an average of 6 months to develop this habit, but some people needed much more or less. In fact, this is something that has already been shown in a previous lab study in which participants were made to associate a cue with breakfast until it became a habit. On average, it took about two months, but there were people who invested from 18 to 254 days.
In short, if you’re trying to make something a habit and after 21 days you haven’t even found motivation, Dont be upset. This may take longer. But at some point you will reach your goal. It’s about persistence, not crossing days off the calendar.
Source: Hiper Textual
