The SIMPLE Way to Form a Habit / Happy [early] New Year!
For better or for worse - we all have our habits. If you’re like most, some of those habits we’d like to change. Or even START new ones! [PS; New Years is coming up fast!]
Habits are defined actions triggered automatically by a contextual cue that is linked to performance (1). To make sense of this, let’s think of an easy day-to-day example. Think about the habit of putting on our seat-belts (defined action) after we get into our car (contextual cue) (1). Sometimes this is conscious “oh yeah I should probably put this life-saving device on me” but sometimes this is subconscious. Meaning that you don’t even realize you put your seatbelt on until you are 2 blocks into your drive and you remember that the annoying dinging isn’t happening while you listen to your podcast.
Having these established habits is great, but how did they become so routine? How do we get a new habit (like going for a daily walk or practicing breathwork) to become as routine as putting on our seatbelts? Well, there is some interesting research out there explaining it and I am hoping to help all of you readers understand so we have a greater chance of our new habits becoming routine!
As a chiropractor, focusing on health and fitness habits is something I am passionate about and something I enjoy helping my patients with. That said, I understand that starting a new healthy habit can be daunting. Do I have time to exercise? Where do I start? What if I get hurt? All of these thoughts can be holding you back.
The simple answer is to just pick something and stick with it. But there is a bit more science behind it all. In a 12-week study, participants picked one new habit and recorded if they did it every day (2,3). On average, it took 66 days (over 2 months) to form a new habit, just over 9 weeks (2,3). The key takeaway from this is to not be afraid of missing a day, it was found that it did not affect the habit formation process (2). Remember, something is better than nothing!
Pick a new health goal, and understand that it will be a journey, not an event (2). Enjoy your time getting to your goal, and give yourself some grace to fail, learn, and mess-up along the way. For things to become a habit, you will have to put in work (2)! What is going to be your new healthy habit?
Gardner, Benjamin, Phillippa Lally, and Jane Wardle. "Making health habitual: the psychology of ‘habit-formation’and general practice." British Journal of General Practice 62.605 (2012): 664-666.
Clear, James. "How long does it actually take to form a new habit?(Backed by science)." The Huffington Post 10 (2014).
Lally, Phillippa, et al. "How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world." European journal of social psychology 40.6 (2010): 998-1009