How to make new habits correctly, so that it is not so difficult? Asked by psychologists

It takes years to form a habit, and you want to change it in a week, but it doesn’t happen that way. Sustainable changes require time and patience, that’s how our brain works: you can’t cancel a habit, you need to form a new one.

Counseling psychologist, clinical psychologist, AST-therapist

Since childhood, a person forms certain habits, develops them consciously or unconsciously. After a while, a person uses the behavior he is accustomed to, most of which are habits (professional, personal, family, etc.).

One of the mechanisms is proposed by Sean Young, a professor at the University of California, Doctor of Psychology, in his book “Habits for Life. A Scientific Approach to Habit Formation.” If we briefly describe the mechanism, it consists of the following elements:

Staircase. It is necessary to focus on small steps of movement to the goal. At the same time it is necessary to realize that these are small progressive steps.

Community. By forming a community to support the change of people with the same goals, you are more likely to achieve the desired outcome.

Importance. You should understand the value of the actions you are taking for change. If your actions are values-based, it will not be difficult to understand and accept why the change is important.

Ease. Three factors of ease: managing the environment, limiting choices, or using roadmaps (planning). That is, you don’t have to complicate and invent ways to change.

Neurohacking. One needs to change one’s own actions, not just think of changes and promises to change things. The very name of the stage suggests the mechanism of the brain: changes in behavior entail changes in brain function.

Engagement. That is, the changes must be based on the interest of doing them with some reinforcement (rewards).

Habit. The desired behavior must be repeated constantly (the process of creating lasting changes in the brain is called ingraining).

How long does it take for a new habit to “take root”?

Albert Shatrov

trainer-psychotechnologist, psychologist-psychotherapist, coach, acmeologist

There is a popular belief that it takes 21 days to develop a useful habit. We are talking about physical habits: drink a glass of water in the morning, exercise, go for a jog, take vitamins, etc. In fact, it only takes five days to develop a useful habit.

When a person tries to implement a habit by this method, which is essentially using willpower, they give up after a while. Hence the notion that it is laborious and energy consuming to implement habits. In fact, the “21-day principle” has nothing to do with implementing habits, but relates to the topic of adaptation.

For more advice on how to properly form a habit, see our previous article.

Back in the mid-20th century, American plastic surgeon Maxwell Moltz noticed that his clients need 21 days to get used to their new appearance. Then Moltz’s idea was tested at NASA. A group of 20 people were given glasses with lenses that turned the image upside down. In about 21 days, all the subjects adapted to the altered reality.

There’s also the “rule of 21 repetitions,” which refers to skill development, where a skill is the ability to do something, like driving a car or riding a bike. But that’s not about habits either.

Habits are neither a skill nor an adaptation, although there can be certain overlaps. Habits are some actions performed automatically, regularly and, as a rule, without any effort. It takes only five days to develop a useful habit. The main thing is to do it according to a special technology. It looks like this (consider as an example the habit of drinking a glass of water after waking up).

Habit formula. Write down the habit in the form of a formula “After I wake up, I go to the kitchen and drink a glass of water”.

Choose a reward. After you perform the action associated with the habit, you need to reward yourself for it. For example, patting yourself, stroking your belly, smiling at yourself in the mirror, or something to your liking.

Visual-kinesthetic modeling. Imagine in first person that you go to the kitchen, pour water into a glass and drink it, smile to yourself in the mirror.

Live rehearsal. Walk from your bed to the kitchen, pour a glass of water and drink it. Reward yourself with a smile.

Observation. For five days, monitor the performance of the habit.

If done well, the habit will be implemented. In this way, you can develop up to three habits at a time. That is, three useful habits every five days or up to 18 habits per month. Some of them will not require much effort – told about it in the previous material.

But it’s worth noting that it’s not the number of habits implemented in itself that matters. What matters is the quality of life they will provide you with.

Just imagine that you have successfully implemented three habits: to drink a glass of water in the morning on an empty stomach, to exercise, to meditate. What will happen after some time has passed? Over months and years, your digestion and metabolism will improve, you will feel better and always be in tone, and your life will be free of clutter and stress. And if these habits are not three, but more? It’s not far to a superhero!