Good habits, good life!

Habit formation is the process by which new behaviors, through regular repetition, become automatic. Surprisingly, the time it takes to form a good habit can be much longer than most of us realize.

Habits are habit forming.

Psychologist William James said, “All our life . . . is but a mass of habits.” A habit is a behavioral routine that is repeated regularly and tends to occur subconsciously. If you instinctively reach for a cigarette the moment you wake up in the morning, you have a habit. Pay off your credit card balance every month? You have a habit. Always late for meetings? You have a habit. Layer upon layer, through practice, habits grow from cobwebs into cables that strengthen or shackle our lives.

Habits, temptations, and ticks – oh my!

Habits are not temptations. Temptations play on visceral factors like hunger, sex, or thirst. We see the Cheetos bag and we can’t resist. The prospect of saving for a better retirement can’t compete with a new pair of shoes today (see: I want it hot, fast, and NOW)? The urge for frantic trouser activity that just can’t wait. As you’d imagine, the reflexive system wins every time.

Unlike our immediate desires for reward and pleasure, habits are sneaky. Through repetition, they etch into our neural pathways until we find ourselves doing them without thinking. Over time, they become a part of who we are. Some habits, such as nail-biting, fidgeting, and other ticks are classified as nervous habits. For those, the underlying emotional cause is what needs to be resolved rather than the symptom (the habit).

Developing good habits takes time.

The good news is that, through repetition, it’s possible to form—and maintain—new habits! Author Charles Duhigg explains what he calls the “habit loop” of habit formation: choose a trigger, associate it with a behavior, and reward yourself for doing the behavior. Say you’d like to get in the habit of taking a vitamin every day. Place the pill in your coffee cup (the trigger), so you’ll remember to take it in the morning (the behavior), then enjoy your coffee (the reward).

Doing so daily acts as a reminder until, over time, the behavior is done with little or no conscious thought. Habits are a big deal, says Duhigg, because research suggests that about 40 to 45 percent of what we do every day are the result of habits, not actual decision-making. In other words your habits, good or bad, are your co-pilot. Developing good habits when you are young can pay big dividends later in life, especially when it comes to personal economics.

How long until a new habit becomes automatic? To find out, researchers at University College London (Lally et al., 2009) recruited people who were interested in forming a new habit such as eating a piece of fruit with lunch, drinking a glass of water after breakfast, or doing a 15 minute run each day. The time until the new habit was performed ‘without thinking’ ranged from 18 days up to 254 days. On average, it took 66 days for a new behavior to become as much of a habit as it was ever going to become—a surprisingly large number of repetitions.

Here’s the gist.

Do the time. Even for relatively simple new habits, it could take two months of daily repetitions before the behavior becomes a habit.
It depends on the behavior. Drinking a daily glass of water becomes automatic very quickly but doing 50 sit-ups before breakfast requires more dedication.
Stick with it. Don’t sweat the occasional slip up. Research suggests that missing a single day isn’t detrimental in the long-term.
Greatest boost. It’s the early repetitions that most influence making a new behavior a habit. Gains taper off as the behavior closes in on automatic.
Everyone’s different. The time it takes you to form a habit will depend on the type of habit you’re trying to form and how single-minded you are in pursuing your goal.

Good habits generate powerful benefits. Being better organized saves time, effort, and frustration. Good habits improve health, confidence, and feelings of self-control. In the long-run, you’ll find yourself making smarter life-choices. All of a sudden, you’ll realize that you’re a little better off than the average Joe or Jane, and it’s gonna be a great feeling.