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Habits play an important part in health and well-being.
Creating new habits can help you boost your health and achieve your goals.
However, building lasting habits takes effort and time.
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How long does it take to build a habit?
According to some research, it takes anywhere from 18 to 254 days to form a new habit.
The same research indicates that it takes an average of 66 days for a habit to become truly automatic.
So don’t get discouraged if you don’t succeed right away.
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What Is a Habit?
Habits are essentially regularly repeated behaviors that happen almost automatically, with little to no thought.
Researchers suggest that habits can be defined as actions that are automatically triggered by associated contextual cues.
In other words, habits are things we do regularly without much thought or effort.
They’re often automatic behaviors that we’ve learned over time through repetition and practice.
Most of our daily activities are made up of habits, from brushing our teeth to driving to work.
While some habits are helpful and can improve our lives, others may be harmful and can cause problems.
Smoking is an example of a harmful habit that can lead to serious health consequences.
Habits can be a positive or detrimental force in your life, but they can take time to build.
And once a habit is formed, some habits can be very difficult to break.
How Long Does It Take to Form a Habit?
According to one study, habit formation increased considerably over the course of three months.
This effect was strongest for people who stuck to consistently performing the goal behavior during that time.
Individual differences help explain why some people form habits faster than others.
So how long will it take you to build a new habit?
The Specific Behavior
Not all habits are created equal.
Some habits can be formed more quickly than others depending on the behavior in question.
The more complex behavior is, the longer it will take for it to become a habit.
Drinking water is faster, simpler, and requires less mental and physical effort.
Exercise, on the other hand, takes time, planning, motivation, and physical effort.
Habits can make performing activities easier, helping to streamline your daily life and routines.
Protect Well-Being
Good habits can help improve health and protect well-being.
Such habits can also build resilience in the face of life’s challenges.
Help With Goal Attainment
Healthy habits can also help you achieve your goals.
At this point, the habit is established, and it has reached its peak strength.
As a result, the behavior will persist without only minimal conscious thought or effort.
Bysetting manageable goals, you’ll be more likely to stick with your habit-building efforts over the long term.
You might find it helpful to explore different ways of staying focused on what you hope to achieve.
Utilize strategies such aspositive reinforcementorvisualizationto stay inspired, and boost your persistence.
Enlist Support
Get support from friends, family, or your wider community.
Sometimes having a support system in place can make it easier to build new habits over time.
Give It Time
It’s important to remind yourself that change won’t happen overnight.
Breaking a bad habit takes time and there are bound to be obstacles and setbacks along the way.
Being persistent and sticking with it despite the difficulties you face is what will ultimately lead to success.
Be patient and persistent, and remember that there may be setbacks along the way.
A longitudinal field study on the role of self-control in habit formation.Front Psychol.
2020;11:560. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00560
NIH News in Health.Breaking bad habits: Why it’s so hard to change.
2016;20(4):291-310. doi:10.1177/1088868315597841
