CREATING NEW HABITS

Some psychologists say that all it takes to create a new habit is 21 days of doing it and that will be enough to ingrain it. Some say 30 days.

And some neurologists say that it MAY take as long as six months to fully set a new habit in place if you are trying to simultaneously override an old one.

Oh my.

Here’s what my experience tells me – the first 21 days are the hardest. If you miss doing the thing you are looking to habituate even once you have to go back to day “1” and start all over again.

Recently I made the commitment to practice a new change technology called Psych – K it’s a quick easy way to support the changes I am making in my own life. I made the commitment to doing 3 of the balance techniques I learned every day, so I would get in the habit of doing it.

Guess what?

Somewhere about day 5 I missed a day, then I missed day 7 and on day 8 I only did two out of the three. Uh oh. See the pattern? Here’s a practice that is not going to be habituated soon.

So I stopped. Thought about it. Made the choice to start again – I chose to do it without judging myself harshly for not doing it “right” the first time. I chose to do it without recrimination. I set my intention again – to do a minimum of 3 balance techniques every day.

I’m on day 6 six now and feeling pretty confident because I know if I don’t get it perfectly right this time, I’ll keep trying until I do – and somewhere between 21 days and, say, oh six months, as long as my desire remains consistent I will ingrain this good habit into my life, balancing and acknowledging myself for it, everyday.

As you are developing your new good habits remember to give yourself permission to be human. If it doesn’t work at first, that’s fine, just start again – and again – until one day you just find yourself doing it spontaneously. Trust me. If this old dog can learn new tricks – you can!