How To Acquire A New Habit In Just 21 Days

Repeat to automate. We got in the car and immediately buckled up, without thinking about it. Our life is full of automatisms, of actions that, by dint of having been repeated enough times, we do with the automatic pilot on, associated with a certain signal.

This is one of the ways in which the brain gains in efficiency, because to carry out these types of acts, no motivation is needed, not even a conscious thought, the external signal is enough to detonate it. It is achieved by repeating … But how many times do you have to repeat an action for it to become a habit?

Acquiring habits easily: detailed guide to achieve it

In 1887, William James, father of scientific psychology, wrote an article entitled Habit in which he exposed the enormous plasticity of the brain and how it takes 21 days for the formation of a new habit. That fact has persisted over the years, so that it has practically become an unquestionable truth. Unquestionable? Other scientific studies talk about how that time can be variable according to the person and also according to the method used for repetition.

However, more data and experiences insist on going in favor of the 21-day theory:

• In the 1960s, plastic surgeon Maxwell Matz described that it took 21 days for his patients to get used to their new appearance or to stop feeling a “phantom limb” (amputated).
• 21 days is the time it takes for stem cells to differentiate into new neurons in the brain.
• It is also 21 days that the emotional biorhythm lasts. All living beings follow cycles related to nature and our own biological functions. In the same way that menstrual cycles last 28 days on average, we have other biorhythms such as emotional or intellectual. And it seems that the emotional lasts 21 days, and not 28 as has usually been established. This was concluded separately in 2000 by researchers Michael Smolensk, an expert in chronobiology at the University of Texas (USA), and Zerrin Hodgkins, from London.

The secret of success: motivation

Regardless of what scientific studies establish as the average time to establish a new habit, what is key is the motivation with which we do it, and how coherent the implementation of this new habit is.

What we want to make into a habit must be something that is connected to something important in our life, something that motivates us. If it is an idea that has simply been transmitted to you by a doctor or a therapist, but it does not emotionally resonate with something important to you, no matter how many days you repeat it, you will end up abandoning it because, deep down, you do not care that much. It is essential to find a meaning to what you are carrying out to be successful and make it a habit.

Get out of your comfort zone

Any change generates a certain level of anxiety due to the uncertainty it produces. That is why the motivation with which we face it is so important. We know that at the beginning it can be difficult, but each time we repeat that action it will cost us a little less, since the neural path used is established more and more permanently until in the end it becomes an automatic act. We will have made our brain work the way we want it to, helping us achieve our goals.

Transforming our actions into habits allows us to lead a healthier and happier life, far from the anxieties of modern life. Maybe it takes 21 days, maybe less or more. If I told you that you can be a new person in less than two months, would that seem like too long? It is within everyone’s reach to do so. It just takes a good idea, motivation, feeling and knowing that this is something really good for us and … repeat.