So how long does it take to form a habit?

Despite what you may have heard, its not necessarily 21 days.

Scientific estimates have ranged from 21 days to eight months or more.

This isnt backed by research; its just one guys gut feeling.

But I think it stuck because it fits a lot of our experiences.

Lets say you want to get up early to exercise first thing in the morning.

Well, ofcourseyou can do it once.

But how do you make it a habit?

I had to be up at 6 a.m. every day, five days in a row, non-negotiable.

I enjoyed having a break on the weekend, and then the second week was much easier.

By the end of the third, this really was my new normal.

After all, one day can be a fluke.

So, by that 21-day mark, youve done the thing a bunch of times.

Its probably a good rule of thumb for a timeframe that is long enough to feel like real life.

But that doesnt mean its enough.

The study lasted 12 weeks.

But another school of thought holds that long-term behavior change isbetter described by stages of changethan by calendar dates.

In some cases, a habit takes longer to form than you hope.

Restructure your environment to give you cues and support.

Build self-efficacyby celebrating your small wins.

Plan ahead for how youll maintain your habiteven when youre interrupted (more about that in a minute).

In this stage, you may need to do some things like the following:

Reevaluate your plan.

Is running every morning still working for you?

Think ahead to obstacles you might face.

If you go on a vacation, will you continue the habit?

If you end up falling off the wagon for whatever reason, how will you get back into it?

check that your motivation is something that will continue to work for you.

At that point, there needs to be somethingother thanthe streak that is keeping you at it.

This is often something intrinsic: You like being the person who flosses every day.

Youre excited to sign up for a race with your running partner.

Youre happy that your cholesterol is down from the way youve been eating.

Building a habit is not a matter of white-knuckling it until you hit a magic number of days.

Its a process that takes effort the whole time, even when youre five years in.

Habits are work, but the ones that last are the ones where the work feels worthwhile.