How Long to Install a New Habit?

Some sources used to say that it takes 21 days to form a new habit, which most people are likely to find overly optimistic. Even 30 days is on the optimistic side. The truth is that the time to install a new habit depends on the person, the habit, the environment, and the motivation. How much experience do you already have with habit formation? How much have you trained those discipline muscles? What temptations are present that could draw you away from the habit? How tempting are they? What’s your purpose for installing the habit? Is it really compelling, or does it barely register? As a general rule of thumb, I’d say 60 days is a decent average ballpark estimate for getting a new habit reasonably well installed, but some habits could take twice as long to put on autopilot. Furthermore, some habits will never be properly installed no matter how much time passes – they’ll always require a nontrivial amount of conscious willpower to keep executing day by day. Moreover, even a habit that gets installed for months or years can still be broken eventually. I’m often surprised at the range of times it takes to install a new habit. There’s a lot of variability. When I first went from vegetarian to vegan, I started with a 30-day trial. I’d been vegetarian for 3.5 years at that point. The last item I dropped was cheese. I’d say it only took me about a week to feel like I was permanently vegan. I lost seven pounds in t...
Source: Steve Pavlina's Personal Development Blog - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Productivity Source Type: blogs