How Long Does It Take To Form A New Habit?

In the 1950s, a plastic surgeon named Maxwell Maltz noticed a surprising trend among his patients.

When Dr. Maltz performed a surgery—say, he did plastic surgery on someone’s nose—he found that it took roughly 21 days for patients to get used to seeing their new face in the mirror. In the same way, when patients’ hands or feet were cut off in surgery, Dr. Maltz observed that patients had phantom limb sensation for up to 21 days. A phantom limb is the feeling of a limb after amputation. After 21 days, Dr. Maltz’s patients had no phantom limb sensation.

These experiences led Dr. Maltz to rethink the way humans adapt to change or new situations. He finds that he himself needs roughly 21 days to form new habits. Dr. Maltz wrote down his experience. He said, “From my experience and from other common cases, it takes at least 21 days for people to get out of an old mental state and into a new one.”

In 1960, Maltz wrote a book on his thoughts on behavioral change called ‘Psycho-Cybernetics’. Maltz’s famous quote was also in this book. The book later became a blockbuster hit, selling nearly 30 million copies.

And then a problem arises.

Over the next few decades, Dr. Maltz’s work influenced almost all “self-improvement” authors and motivational speakers such as Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy, or Tony Robbins. As Moltz’s theory began to reach more people, the data began to change.

People forget that Dr. Maltz said it takes ‘at least 21 days’ to form a new habit. People started saying that in short. “21 days is enough to form a new habit.”

And thus the myth spread among everyone that you have to try for 21 days to create a new habit. (Many, of course, talk about 30 days, as if 30 were a magic number!) It’s surprising how often a time frame is treated as a statistical theory.

Of course, one can only guess why people believed the myth of forming new habits in 21 days. Because 21 days is not a long time to motivate yourself. Again this time is not so short that nothing can be learned during this time. And who wouldn’t want to change their life in just 3 weeks?

But the problem is, Maxwell Maltz only described what was happening around him. He did not want to establish any truth. He later confirmed, however, that 21 days was the minimum time to adapt to the new conditions.

So which is the correct answer? How many days does it really take for a task to become part of a person’s habit? Or how many days to quit a bad habit? Does science have any theory on this? Me, you, how can we use this information?

How Many Days Do You Really Need To Develop New Habits?

Philippa Lally is a researcher in health psychology at University College London. Lally and his research team published a study in the European Journal of Social Psychology. In this study they wanted to find out how long it takes people to form a habit.

The study followed the habits of 96 people for 12 weeks. Participants each choose a task, which they practice over the next 12 weeks. Every day they reported whether there was any change in their normal behavior.

Someone chose a very simple habit, such as “drinking a bottle of water at lunch.” Many of the habits were quite difficult, such as “run for 15 minutes before dinner.” After 12 weeks, the researchers analyzed the results. They try to understand how long it takes for a new behavior to become a habit.

The results show that it takes an average person more than two months to develop a new habit. To be exact it is 66 days.

But it really depends on many things. Such as the behavior of the person, how is the person himself, how is his surroundings. From this study by Philippa Lally, we understand that people need 18 days to 254 days to form new habits.

In other words, if you’re hoping to create a new habit, give it 2 to 8 months—not 21 days.

Interestingly, the researchers also found that “missing a day during habit formation had no significant effect.” In other words, if you break the rules occasionally, it won’t be difficult to form new habits. Because creating good habits is either all or nothing.

How To Motivate Yourself

Many may be disappointed to hear this research result. But here are 3 reasons why this result can be taken as inspiration.

First, if you can’t get into an exercise habit after a few weeks of trying, there’s no reason to get down on yourself. It may take you a few more days. So don’t feel guilty for not being proficient in 21 days. Rather cherish this sadhana for a longer period of time. And focus on your daily efforts.

Second, you don’t have to be perfect. Making a mistake once or twice doesn’t have a big impact on long-term habit formation. You should see failure the way scientists see it. Allow yourself to make mistakes. Develop strategies that can quickly get you from wrong to right.

Third, accept this long journey of learning. Habit formation is not an event, but rather a process. It may seem easy to many because of the ’21 day myth’. Many people may think, “Once you have to practice hard for 21 days somehow.” But this is not how habits are actually formed. You need to capture the work process. You have to surrender yourself to the whole thing.

If you understand this from the start, you can adjust your expectations and strive for small improvements. Or you can put too much pressure on yourself. You may think that you can do everything together.