Happy New Year Everyone!!
Into which of these categ
ories do you fit?
A: You make a New Year’s resolution and by the end of January, you can’t even remember you made any…
B: You make a New Year’s resolution, you stick with it and you feel the pride of achievement.
C: You don’t bother with New Year’s resolutions because you know you’re not going to stick with it, so why to even try…
I am somewhere in between all three…
It’s hard to change, and it’s hard to adopt a new good habit. And it takes time … 66 days on average.
I found this interesting article from James Clear on ‘How Long Does it Actually Take to Form a New Habit?’, you can read it here: https://jamesclear.com/new-habit.
Phillippa Lally is a health psychology researcher at University College London. In a study https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ejsp.674 published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, Lally and her research team decided to figure out just how long it actually takes to form a habit.
The study examined the habits of 96 people over a 12-week period. Each person chose one new habit for the 12 weeks and reported each day on whether or not they did the behaviour and how automatic the behaviour felt.
Some people chose simple habits like “drinking a bottle of water with lunch.” Others chose more difficult tasks like “running for 15 minutes before dinner.” At the end of the 12 weeks, the researchers analysed the data to determine how long it took each person to go from starting a new behaviour to automatically doing it.
The answer?
On average, it takes more than 2 months before a new behaviour becomes automatic — 66 days to be exact.
And how long it takes a new habit to form can vary widely depending on the behaviour, the person, and the circumstances. In Lally’s study, it took anywhere from 18 days to 254 days for people to form a new habit.
One of my new habits is to drink more water. It’s very easy in summer but in winter… I know I should because 70% of our body is water, and I know I will feel better, and I know my skin looks better, and I know I have more energy.
So, I decided, at the beginning of December, I AM going to drink more water consciously. I set up my alarm every hour, and every hour I’m having a large glass of water. I’ve been building this new habit for about 30 days, so 33 more to go and I won’t need an alarm. I hope, lol!
Another new habit I’m starting on the 1st of January is to learn two new words in French and Spanish every day… so by the end of 2019 I will know 730 French words and 730 Spanish words… then I just need to learn how to use them 😊
Have an absolutely paw-some 2019!!
Love, Jitka xx
P.S. If your new habit is going greener in 2019, then keep a lookout for a little free gift from me to you coming in the New Year