MYTH OF 21-DAYS TO CHANGE A HABIT
Have you heard the myth that it takes approximately 21 days
to change a habit? Although “The Secret”
with whom I worked as a coach advocates 30 days, plus an additional 30 days “will definitely fix it.”
If changing a habit were that simple then everyone would be eating healthy, demonstrating
great leadership, excellent teamwork and communication skills, exercising daily, avoiding over-indulgence on alcohol and all the other habits
we’ve considered changing.
There is research and evidence that you can rewire the
brain. Evolution has shown our ability
to change. Years of my own coaching practice
and conducting training programs has demonstrated the ability of people to learn
new habits. But it takes motivation for self-awareness
and conscious practice of new behaviors to make habits automatic.
The speed at which you can change and sustain a habit is based on your
individual personality, physical make-up, age, environment and other systemic
considerations, which are also the weak links to relapse. Particularly for your personality, it could require ongoing vigilance.
Changing a habitual emotional response, such as anger, is
much more of a difficult long-term challenge than something like reducing
sugar consumption and junk food. Anger
and fear can significantly impact your habits and thus your ability to effectively
communicate, lead and perform in the work place. Once you begin to demonstrate better habits
or skills, then it takes ongoing practice to internalize it as automatic, and
awareness to avoid relapse when you’re under pressure.
If you want to improve bad habits start by first knowing
yourself, how you operate, and what tends to block or disrupt you. After you identify one outcome or habit, then you will reverse engineer the plan. Start by describing the specific actions you will take to achieve the outcome using small steps that can be executed daily. Determine how you will measure or evaluate your daily success and how you will hold yourself accountable to stay on track. Repeat the practices until it becomes automatic and internalized. Here are two additional articles to help:
Posted on the blog http://mycoachken.blogspot.com/2013/05/myth-of-21-days-to-change-habit.html
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