How to create a new habit

It takes roughly 30 days for your unconscious mind to automatically absorb a new habit. So, which habit do you wish to change?

How long does it really take to form a new habit, one that sticks? Consistency in sticking to your new behaviour is the fundamental key. However, it appears no one is really absolutely sure how long it takes. A common time frame Is estimated to be between 21 and 30 days minimum, and recent research says 66 days. However, from my experience, I believe creating lasting habits can take a lot longer.

Maxwell Malts, in his book Psycho-Cybernetics, endorses this; however, because we are all different, the length of time Can vary, and may well depend on your level of commitment. I know it can take much longer, maybe six months or even a year. The question, therefore, is: how can we stick with it long enough to make it a habit?

NASA did a fascinating experiment that showcases the importance of consistency. Furthermore, another fascinating study by NASA also illustrates this principle well. In the earlier days of the space program, NASA designed an experiment to determine the psychological and physiological effects on astronauts. How exactly would the spatial disorientation they would experience in the weightless environment of space affect them?

They were keen to discover if being in this weightless environment would have any unexpected negative consequences that could put them and their mission in danger. Would they blackout? Above all, if they did, would they still be able to function? Would they experience any psychological effects that would leave them incapacitated?

Goggles turned their world upside down

Each astronaut was equipped with a pair of convex goggles. These goggles literally turned their world upside down as their entire field of vision was flipped 180 degrees. Next, all the astronauts were instructed to wear the goggles for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, even when they were sleeping.

At first, as you can imagine, they experienced physical symptoms of anxiety and stress. They had elevated blood pressure, respiration and other physical signs, but over time they gradually adapted to their new reality. On day 26, an amazing event occurred.

One of the astronauts could see the world the right side up, even though he continued to wear the goggles 24 hours a day. Between days 26 and 30, the exact same thing happened for each of the remaining astronauts.

What happened is the brain adapted. It was able to create new brain cells and rewire itself, confirming the concept of neuroplasticity. The astronaut’s brains had created new neural pathways that literally “rewired” their brains to see the world normally again.

What was even more astonishing is the results of a second experiment they undertook. This time, they made a slight change and instructed some of the astronauts to remove their goggles for a short period of time partway through the experiment, before putting them back on.

On the 30^th day, their worlds were still upside down, but when they continued on, at 26-30 consecutive days wearing the goggles, uninterrupted, everything was suddenly the right side up.

Create new natural connections

The scientists concluded that the brain requires approximately 30 uninterrupted days for new neural connections to form new habits.

If you apply this to your life, for you to be successful in embracing a new behaviour and turning it into a lasting habit, you must find a way to stick with it. Consequently, you need to embrace consistency as a value. However, it may take way longer than a 30-day challenge to lock the habit in, especially if you forget to stick with it every single day.

Persistence and kindness are required to fully adopt a new behaviour. Furthermore, if you do, you have a far higher chance of turning it into a lasting habit. However, this is where many people fall down. To stick at something new takes a conscious effort, will and energy.

Furthermore, as well as intentional thought and purposeful action; you also need consistency to help build belief in yourself and to prove that you can stick with it. Moreover, to overcome this syndrome, we suffer by not doing the things we know are good for us.

All this can seem like hard work to the part of us that is herd-wired to be comfortable and safe. Furthermore, it takes hard work which goes against our innate hard wiring to be motivated towards pleasure and away from pain.

Consequently, finding a way to keep yourself plugged into your long-term vision to stick with your new habit is key. That is where focusing on creating a champion mindset comes in.

The longer you stick with it, the easier it becomes

The longer you stick with your behaviour, the easier it becomes. Furthermore, by ninety to one hundred and twenty days, research shows it becomes almost natural. Almost as if it has become part of who you are and how you live your life.

Do you remember when you were young, and you were told to brush your teeth? You probably had daily reminders from well-meaning parents helping to make this a natural habit. Now, I do not know about you, but I would never go to bed without brushing my teeth or start my day without brushing them either. It might even be one of your critical keystone habits.

A second key to helping you create a new habit is to start small. Pick one thing and add it to something you already do. This helps you to avoid overwhelming yourself with the burden of having too many things to do. Ultimately, make it a daily ritual: consistency is your new best friend.

If you exercise for only ten minutes, four times a week, it will gradually become a natural and more enjoyable habit. Once you have made it a natural habit, then you can increase the time and/or frequency that you exercise. A third step is to embrace the proven technique of visualisation, which is a type of mental rehearsal.

Imagine what you can create in a year if you pick one small habit a month, stick with it and turn consistency into your best friend. You will have created twelve new habits by the end of the year. Consistency may well be the very thing that transforms your life. All you have to do is make a decision, create a winning plan for your new habits and get started.

Research has shown that it takes about 30 days to begin forming a new habit. In fact, one of these research studies is an incredible illustration of the physiological connection between time and habits.

In order to change a habit, it is crucial that you put systems in place to ensure you follow the new behaviour you have chosen. Otherwise, without thinking, you will revert to old behaviour!

After 30 days of conscious, intentional, deliberate thought and effort it gets easier and easier, and by 90 days it is very much a part of who you are, a new habit; only this time it is one that is serving you and moving you toward your goals. Then you can start the whole process over to change additional bad habits!

It is important to understand that it is not good enough to just decide to break a bad habit. Once the bad habit is gone, what is it replaced with?

Nature abhors a vacuum and releasing a bad habit leaves a void that will be filled with something. So, if you do not consciously replace a habit that is not serving you with one that will, then I can guarantee you that the void will be filled by another “bad” habit because it is easier.

In conclusion, if you are going to use this technique, supported by experiments conducted by NASA, I suggest you follow these steps:

• Select the behaviour you want to focus on in the next 30 days. My advice is not to work on more than one behaviour at a time.
• Develop a specific plan by deciding what you want to do and when you want to do it.
• Implement your plan every day for 30 days.