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How long does it take for a person to develop a habit? Stages of habit formation

If it were enough to gather the will into a fist and stick to a new pattern of behavior for only 21 days for the habits to become permanent, everyone would be happy.

In about six months, the world would be close to perfection. But that did not happen.

21 days is just one of the myths that we humans are so willing to believe.

I have a whole list of qualities that I would like to possess, to form a habit. For example, waking up early proper nutrition and many others.

I don't think you have any less. Someone may want to quit smoking or start some useful business. But why are these habits still at the planning stage? It's not about time!

Time to change life

The popular belief that it takes 21 days to form a habit comes from the experience of plastic surgeon Maxwell Maltz. In 1950, he noted that it takes at least 21 days for patients to get used to a new appearance or amputation.

The world started talking about "21 days" as a kind of unchanging "deadline" beyond which we expect the result. But after a while, instead of success, people got disappointed. Few managed to change themselves.

Not 21 days?

Decades later, psychologists from University College London decided to test how much time it actually takes to form new habit.

They studied the behavior of 96 participants for 12 weeks. Someone had to drink a bottle of water during lunch, others worked out 15 minutes before dinner.

On average, according to their data, a habit is formed in two months (66 days). However, for each person, depending on the type of habit, the amount of time required varies widely.

Psychologists say that it can take from 18 to 254 days. It's not three weeks, it's eight months!

Look at the root

But I think that not everyone will be able to change themselves in eight months. Or a year or a year and a half. Maybe it's not even about time. Then what?

It seems to me that among the factors necessary for establishing a habit, there is no time at all. There is the strength of desire, the degree of thinking and the seriousness of the necessary changes.

When we talk about a habit, we mean something useful that will help us rise above our former self. No one wants to deliberately start bad habits.

Bad habits are acquired automatically, and it's not difficult. It is worth a little gape, and that's it!

Good habits are always an overcoming that requires psychological and physical effort.

Going up is always harder than going down

Psychological forces are needed to make these changes permanent. And the more serious changes are coming, the more strength is needed.

But sometimes it comes naturally. There are people who, after serious life vicissitudes, immediately get rid of their bad habits. And they themselves note that this happened easily.

Someone after reading a certain book becomes a vegetarian in a day, someone quits smoking. And it happens naturally. This happens when the degree of thinking of a person rises sharply.

For him, a new habit immediately becomes part of his worldview. And he does not need to count 21 or 66 days.

You may want some changes, but not be ready for them. This, for example, applies to those who start smoking again after a while.

His volitional efforts have been exhausted, and he himself has not yet changed dramatically to make the new habit natural. Then he rolls back again.

So I want to believe in 21 days, but, unfortunately, everything is much more complicated. Going up is always harder than going down.

If it were enough to gather the will into a fist and stick to a new pattern of behavior for only 21 days for the habits to become permanent, everyone would be happy. In about six months, the world would be close to perfection. But that did not happen. 21 days is just one of the myths that we humans are so willing to believe.

Each of us has a whole list of qualities that I would like to have, to form a habit. For example, early awakening, proper nutrition and many others. I don't think you have any less. Someone may want to quit smoking or start some useful business. But why are these habits still at the planning stage? It's not about time!

Time to change life

Maltz suggested that changes in the psyche occur in at least 21 days. During this time, a mental image is formed that overshadows the person's past habits. In 1960, his book "Psychocybernetics" was published, and this idea penetrated the masses. The world started talking about "21 days" as a kind of unchanging "deadline" beyond which we expect the result. But after a while, instead of success, people got disappointed. Few managed to change themselves.

Decades later, psychologists at University College London decided to test how long it actually takes to form a new habit. They studied the behavior of 96 participants for 12 weeks. Someone had to drink a bottle of water during lunch, others worked out 15 minutes before dinner.

On average, according to their data, a habit is formed in two months (66 days). However, for each person, depending on the type of habit, the amount of time required varies widely. Psychologists say that it can take from 18 to 254 days. It's not three weeks, it's eight months!

Look at the root

Not everyone can change themselves in eight months. Or a year or a year and a half. Maybe it's not even about time. Then what? It seems to me that among the factors necessary for establishing a habit, there is no time at all. There is the strength of desire, the degree of thinking and the seriousness of the necessary changes.

When we talk about a habit, we mean something useful that will help us rise above our former self. No one wants to deliberately develop bad habits. Bad habits are acquired automatically, and it's not difficult. It is worth a little gape, and that's it!

Good habits are always an overcoming that requires psychological and physical effort. Going up is always harder than going down. Psychological forces are needed to make these changes permanent. And the more serious changes are coming, the more strength is needed.

But sometimes it comes naturally. There are people who, after serious life vicissitudes, immediately get rid of their bad habits. And they themselves note that this happened easily.

Someone after reading a certain book becomes a vegetarian in a day, someone quits smoking. And it happens naturally. This happens when the degree of thinking of a person rises sharply. For him, a new habit immediately becomes part of his worldview. And he does not need to count 21 or 66 days.

You may want some changes, but not be ready for them. This, for example, applies to those who start smoking again after a while. His volitional efforts have been exhausted, and he himself has not yet changed dramatically to make the new habit natural. Then he rolls back again.

So I want to believe in 21 days, but, unfortunately, everything is much more complicated. Going up is always harder than going down.

Often, in order to achieve important goals in life, a person needs to acquire new habits. How to do it right?

Surely each of us at least once in a lifetime faced with the need to acquire a new habit. It can be anything: getting up early, eating healthy, exercising in the morning, a variety of workouts, etc. It all depends on the goals that you set for yourself, and the methods by which you plan to achieve these goals.

And, as practice shows, it is not so easy to start a new, especially useful, habit. Here, it seemed, for three days I get up at five in the morning - and now every day will be the same. And here it is not. After a few days of “exemplary behavior”, it’s worth oversleeping one single time - and now, on you, the habit is gone.

Another well-known example for many ladies is diets. When you endure, you endure two days, three, four, and on the fifth ... at night you find yourself near the refrigerator, devouring rolls with sausages. Familiar? But I quite seriously decided: I will not eat junk food! Only vegetables and fruits! Why doesn't it work? Let's figure it out.

So, first you need to decide what is a habit? It seems to be a familiar word, but everyone interprets it in their own way.

IN general view, a habit is a certain pattern of behavior that has developed over time, the implementation of which becomes a need. This is some kind of “immutable truth” that is operating in your life at this time. And to abandon it or change it for something more suitable, as you think, is sometimes not at all easy.

It's like quitting smoking. It seems that there is nothing complicated - you woke up in the morning, and you no longer smoke. But why then do so many people fail to quit? What's stopping them? I even remembered an anecdote on this topic: “I don’t understand how people can’t quit smoking? I've quit a hundred times already!"

But at the same time, thousands of people around us are successfully “getting” new good habits for themselves. And they succeed. Perhaps they know something that we do not know? Let's try to open the curtain.

Stages of habit formation

The most important thing to always remember is that desire alone is not enough to develop a habit. Of course, it is very important to understand what you really want, but at the same time you need to work, act.

Here are the steps for developing a habit:

1. Making a decision. This is a very important stage, it is the starting point of habit formation. At this stage, a person asks himself questions: “What do I want? How can I achieve this? What habits can help me with this? ”, And, after determining the desired habit, he decides to develop it in himself.

At this stage, the main thing is not to fall into the trap of "unfounded promises" to yourself, because in this case the decision will remain just in words, without reinforcement by action.

2. One-time action. If you have made a decision, for example, to get up early, do it at least once. Get moving.

3. Repeat two days in a row. This is more difficult than getting up early once. It will take some effort on your part.

4. Repeat daily for a week. Such a task is already more difficult, especially considering social factor- There are no weekends in habit formation, so you have to get up early on both Saturday and Sunday.

5. Repeat for 21 days. This is considered the minimum time to form a habit. If it turned out not to “move out” - this is already a great reason to be proud of yourself!

6. Repeat within 40 days. During this time, according to scientists, the habit is developed and fixed by 100%, until the opposite is developed. After this period, you can already relax a little - the usual thing will turn out easily, without effort and "forcing" yourself.

And why, in fact, exactly 21 days is necessary for the formation of a habit? Why not 10, not 30, not 50? Who came up with this number?

As it turned out, this number has a scientific justification. An interesting experiment was conducted in the USA. Each member of the created experimental group (20 people participated in total) was given special glasses, the lenses of which turned the image upside down. Participants in the experiment had to wear them all the time, 24 hours a day.

After a certain time, the brains of the participants learned to flip the image itself, and began to perceive it as normal. There was an adaptation of the brain to inverted pictures. The peak of such coups fell precisely on the twenty-first day.

But as soon as people stopped wearing these glasses for at least one day, the brain returned to normal work, and it took 21 days to flip the image again!

Thus, during the experiment, it was found that the formation of a habit occurs in 21 days. But each pass brings us back to the first day. Even if in fact he is the twentieth.

What about "breaks"?

Undoubtedly, a person who has a very strong motivation to develop a habit will find the strength in himself not to “break loose”. For example, if you need to get to work by 8 in the morning, and get at least an hour, then you will have to get up no later than 6 hours, even if you are a hopeless “owl”. But, if you really like the work, you get enough moral and material satisfaction from it, most likely you will easily develop the habit of getting up early. And no special coercion is needed.

But, if there is no very high motivation in your case, it is very easy to break loose. I overslept once, and off we went. One cake is not scary. And two, three, four ... and now there is no habit.

What can be advised in this case? The recipes are not new at all:

1. Work with motivation. If you want to form a new habit, knowing that "this is how it should be," you will not deceive your brain with such a formulation. He will answer you: “Who needs it? To me? For what? I have a good life as it is,” and he will be right.

Most people tend to do only what is necessary, what cannot be done without. Why improve something that already works?

To deal with this situation, think for yourself good motivation. Realize for yourself what this or that new habit will give you. What prospects await you in the future thanks to her? How will your life improve? How much brighter and richer will it become? You must imagine this to yourself as clearly and understandably as possible. Only in this way will you really want to achieve, firstly, your goals, and secondly, fixing the habits leading to them.

2. Follow the regularity. Even if you do something for 21 days, but at the same time skip the fifth, eighth, twelfth and twentieth, this is still not habit formation. Each pass devalues the previous effort spent. You have to start again from the first day. Therefore, try to still hold out all these days without "truancy".

3. Put in enough effort. Nobody said it was easy. On the contrary, it will most likely be very difficult. Connect all your willpower, and victory will definitely be yours! After all, you realize why you need it, what it will lead to, which means that you will probably have enough strength and patience to achieve the desired results and not give up!

In general, the process of forming habits can be very exciting and interesting. The main thing is to correctly prioritize and firmly go towards your goals.

All successful people managed in due time to put habits to their service. And in order to add more luck and prosperity to your life, you should heed the advice " successful world this." And the recommendations are:

1. Plan. Make a plan or schedule for the day, week, month, year. Hourly daily planning helps to avoid "time holes" - wasting precious hours on unnecessary, non-constructive, leading to nothing. But for the formation of habits, plans are very useful.

2. Enter several habits at once. Wholesale is not only cheaper, but also easier. For example, get up early and exercise. Or add a contrast shower as well. All these habits will begin to be closely intertwined with each other, and by doing one thing, you will automatically begin to do the second.

3. Challenge yourself sometimes. Test yourself for stamina and endurance. Who said you can't, can't handle it? It wasn't there! Prove to yourself what you are capable of. Nothing stimulates the formation of good habits like an exciting competition, but not with someone from the outside, but with yourself! You will not notice how, in parallel with the development of a new habit, such important qualities, as perseverance in achieving goals, discipline, the ability to self-control.

4. Strive for continuous development and self-improvement. A rolling stone gathers no moss. Learn something new, work on yourself, and these grains will bring a good harvest.

5. Periodically go on an "information diet." This means stop watching TV and aimlessly "surfing the net". Read and watch what brings you closer to your goal, helps your professional growth and development, enriches you. There is a lot of negativity in the media. Think: do you need it?

In any case, if you do not live alone in the forest, complete isolation from the world is unlikely to threaten you. If something out of the ordinary happens, you will definitely be informed about it. But the nerves will be more intact. As, however, and productive time.

6. Be sure to include physical activity in your life. Even a short exercise in the morning is not just a good habit that ensures your health. It is also a huge contribution to the energy bank, bringing daily dividends in the form of a charge of vivacity and strength necessary to perform important tasks. I'm not talking about the fact that you have to forget about drowsiness, malaise and the phrase: "I have no strength ...".

7. Smile! You have probably noticed that successful people always make a positive impression on others. First of all, it is the merit of a smile. The ability and desire to smile is a good, healthy habit. Stand in front of a mirror every morning and “hold a smile” for 3 minutes. Over time, the smile will begin to “turn on” automatically. However, this is what you need! Just 3 minutes a day will help you become successful person. Isn't that a reason to try?

All these simple tips designed to make your life better. After all, if this does not happen, then why try, what to strive for? Good habits help to live not only longer, but also brighter, more efficient, richer. Agree, worthy pay for something to work hard?

The habits you need and a happy life!

Many things in their Everyday life we do it out of habit, without thinking, “on autopilot”; no motivation is needed. This behavior allows us not to strain too much where it is quite possible to do without it.

But habits are not only useful, but also harmful. And if the useful ones make life easier for us, then the harmful ones sometimes greatly complicate it.

Almost any habit can be formed: we gradually get used to everything. But it takes different times for different people to form different habits.

Some kind of habit can form already on the 3rd day: you watched TV a couple of times while eating, and when you sit down at the table for the third time, your hand will reach for the remote control itself: a conditioned reflex has developed.

It may take several months to form another habit, or the same one, but for another person... And, by the way, bad habits are formed faster and easier than good ones)))

Habit is the result of repeated repetition. And their formation is simply a matter of perseverance and deliberate practice. Even Aristotle wrote about this: “We are what we constantly do. Perfection, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.

And, as is usually the case, the path to perfection is not a straight line, but a curve: at first, the process of developing automatism goes faster, and then slows down.

The figure shows that, for example, a glass of water in the morning (blue line of the graph) has become a habit for a particular person in about 20 days. It took over 80 days for him to get into the habit of doing 50 squats in the morning (pink line). The red line of the graph shows the average time to form a habit is 66 days.

Where did the number 21 come from?

In the 50s of the 20th century, plastic surgeon Maxwell Maltz drew attention to a pattern: after plastic surgery, the patient needed about three weeks to get used to his new face, which he saw in the mirror. He also noticed that it also took him about 21 days to form a new habit.

Maltz wrote about this experience in his book Psycho-Cybernetics: “These and many other frequently observed phenomena, as a rule, show that it is required minimum 21 days in order for the old mental image to dissipate and be replaced by a new one. The book became a bestseller. Since then, it has been quoted many times, gradually forgetting that Maltz wrote in it: "at least 21 days."

The myth quickly took root: 21 days is short enough to inspire and long enough to be believable. Who doesn't love the idea of changing their life in 3 weeks?

In order for a habit to form, you need:

First, the repetition of its repetition: any habit begins with the first step, an act ("sow an act - you reap a habit"), then repeated many times; we do something day after day, sometimes making an effort on ourselves, and sooner or later it becomes our habit: it becomes easier to do it, less and less effort is required.

Secondly, positive emotions: in order for a habit to form, it must be “reinforced” by positive emotions, the process of its formation must be comfortable, it is impossible in the conditions of struggle with oneself, prohibitions and restrictions, i.e. under conditions of stress.

In stress, a person tends to unconsciously "roll" into habitual behavior. Therefore, until a useful skill has been consolidated and a new behavior has not become habitual, stresses are dangerous with “breakdowns”: this is how we quit, as soon as we start, eat right, or do gymnastics, or run in the morning.

The more complex the habit, the less pleasure it delivers, the longer it takes to develop. The simpler, more effective, and more enjoyable a habit is, the faster it will become automatic.

Therefore, our emotional attitude to what we want to make our habit is very important: approval, pleasure, joyful facial expression, smile. A negative attitude, on the contrary, prevents the formation of a habit, therefore, all your negativity, your discontent, irritation must be removed in a timely manner. Fortunately, this is possible: our emotional attitude to what is happening is something that we can change at any time!

This can serve as an indicator: if we feel irritated, if we start scolding or blaming ourselves, then we are doing something wrong.

We can think ahead of the reward system: make a list of things that give us pleasure and can therefore serve as rewards when reinforcing the necessary useful skills.

In the end, it doesn't really matter how many days it takes you to form the right habit. Another thing is much more important: in any case Can you do it!