Many people have aspirations, such as wanting to develop healthier lifestyle habits every day, or habits that increase productivity, but learning habits is not easy. Some say that 21 days is the time needed to learn a habit, but is there any justification for the number 21 days?
In Psycho Cybernetics, written by cosmetic orthopedic surgeon Dr. Maxwell Martz in 1960, it is said that it takes 21 days for patients who have undergone cosmetic surgery to change their mental image of their appearance. However, British psychotherapist Mark Vermeyer points out that while he knows the numbers are appealing, they are actually more complex and take much longer on average.
A habit is an action that you can do automatically without being aware of it. Also, not all habits are beneficial, and sometimes harmful habits take root. There is a theory that the reason why sometimes undesirable habits are abandoned is that habit formation does not occur in the frontal front, which is responsible for rational decision-making, but in the basal ganglia, which is responsible for emotion, pattern recognition, and learning. A paper published in the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience (NRN) in 2006 suggests that the ability to develop and maintain habits may be related to the basal ganglia.
Habits are the small decisions and actions you make every day, said mindset coach and professor Maurice Duffy at the University of Sunderland, UK. Repeating certain behaviors is essential to learning habits. Alyssa Roberts, an eating disorder researcher at the University of Minnesota, explains that habits are formed through familiar processes and adapt to routine.
According to the concept of the habit loop, which was revealed by journalist Charles Duhigg, three steps are required to automate and habituate behavior: signal → action → reward. For example, responding to stressful situations (signals) and obtaining temporary pleasure (rewards) by overeating (actions) can be habit cycles. When this is repeated, the brain sees a specific signal as an opportunity to obtain a reward, and prompts the user to execute the same action to obtain the reward. The amount of time required to establish a habit depends on what the cues and behaviors are and what kind of person the person is. A 2009 study showed that there are considerable individual differences in the time it takes to form a habit, ranging from 18 to 54 days, or that the effort required to wear a habit is different between a relatively simple habit of drinking water after breakfast and a relatively difficult habit of doing 50 abs a day.
Personal motivation, physical resources, ability to lead oneself, environment, and social factors influence long-term retention of a habit. In addition, a 2007 study pointed out that the neurotransmitter dopamine plays an important role in habit formation, and there is a possibility that genetic factors such as dopamine accepting genes may also have an effect.
Moreover, multiple studies have reported that the intensity of self-efficacy, which is the belief that one can act well in a specific situation, is also an important factor in establishing a habit. In simple terms, explain that people who are convinced that they cannot maintain a new behavior are less likely to maintain it. In learning a habit, he says, it’s important to make the goal as attractive as possible and not let the habit become simple self-sacrifice. In addition, if it is a habit of going to the gym three times a week, besides making the action as simple as possible, such as choosing a convenient gym, it is said that rewarding yourself is also effective. Tell them that you can approach them by being blessed for the milestone and giving yourself the gift of a new habit. Related information this placecan be found in
2023-05-21 03:00:37
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