How to form a habit in 21 days?
The habit formation in 21 days is a scientifically proven theory, and various researchers proved that most individuals get settled with their new habit in 21 days. There is a quotation by famous psychologist, Dr. Maxwell Maltz’s that “It takes a minimum of 21 days for an old mental image to dissolve and a new one to jell”. So, it can be clearly said that 21 days do work in the mental state of a person. But, he also explains in his book that the concept of 21 days doesn’t imply on every individual, it varies from person to person.
Several circumstances and situations affect the building of new habits. The reason can be any deviation from the daily routine or maybe any mental and physical challenges in one’s life. However, you can be consistent throughout the 21 days journey, and feel proud after adopting that new habit. So here are the tips to build up a fresh habit in day-to-day life:
- Start with a small step: Before eating a whole cake, you will cut it into small pieces, and you will eat the slices until your stomach feels full. The same case is with the habits, to adopt a bigger one, you have to become perfect in small steps. For instance, a person who has just started the habit of reading, he may able to read 10–20 pages in a day in his /her initial days. Maybe after a week he/she will slowly move to 25 pages, but if he/she will expect to have everything at once, then there are fewer chances that he/she will find something fruitful in this way.
- Modifications: Modify your habits, they should not be so rigid. Some people become too restricted with their habits that lose their motivation in between and often feel off-track. The best example is starting a workout, people follow the same diet, gyming and everything, nonetheless, after 2 weeks their inspiration level goes down, as a result, they leave everything, and sit silently at home. The most effective way to be on the track is to make yourself flexible. Think about how you can make changes, so you can do those things in the long run.
- Write your goals: Goals can be short or long, but having clarity of them is necessary. I want to adopt a habit, but what it is, how it can be achievable, should be completely clear in mind. Some people write journals or make notes of their goals or share them with dear ones to get suggestions. The way which suits you the best, you should know it, also, doing anything without knowing the purpose can certainly make you lost.
I hope these three ways will help you to build up a habit but remember don’t take much stress if the 21 days approach doesn’t work for you. You can always build a consistent routine within your timeline. That timeline should be measurable, so you can easily observe continuous improvement in yourself.
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