28/12/2020
A little bit of advice for the 2021 “new year, new me” goals!
Research from UCL has shown that it takes about 66 days of consistent work on average to make an activity a habit.
We all have a finite bandwidth of willpower and anything that is unnatural to us does require a degree of willpower.
That’s probably attributable to why whenever we hit a new year and we set ourselves 10+ habits to work on, we rarely ever last.
Here is a little diagram to help with habit installation which breaks it down to 3 phases. It’s going to be hard at first as you destroy your old norms, follow it up with installing the new habit and you’ll be soaring through the final stretch.
“All change is hard at first, messy in the middle, and gorgeous at the end” - Robin Sharma
If you fall off the wagon for a day or two, jump back on straight after. There is an analogy that refers to of a car. If you puncture a tire, you don’t then go and slash all your other 3 tires.
Quick tips for 2021 new habits:
1.Be Patient
2. Work on one new habit at a time depending on how difficult it is... perhaps 2 if they are easier together.
3. Track the habit by hand on a diary or wall calendar for 66 days.
4. Don’t worry if you have a few bumps along the road.
What’s 66 days out of a lifetime if the habit will ultimately take you to a better place?
Going back to the car analogy, if you can only ever own one car, with no ability to get a new one, would you choose to take better care of the car? The same should go for your well-being and physical health!
