Good habits create good health. So, creating new healthy habits should be pretty easy, right?
Unfortunately, that’s just not the case. So many of us start with good intentions but quickly realize our entrenched habits are … well, entrenched. And tough to change.
Here’s a question to consider: What if we’ve been thinking healthy habit development the wrong way?
What if there were science-backed ways to create healthy habits and keep them long-term?
Good news: There are. And mastering them is not as complex as you might think.
How Your Habits Connect with Your Health
First: What is a habit? A habit is a behavior or action that you perform repeatedly. Over time, your brain has learned that when you perform this action, you receive some sort of reward or positive feeling, so you continue to do it.
That’s what we call a feedback loop. Essentially, you’ve conditioned yourself to repeat this activity.
The key to forming new habits is to be specific and clear about your goals. It’s been shown that people are more successful in sticking to their goals when there’s a specific plan in place.1
How Do You Make Your Goals Clear?
For long-term success, “focus on actions,” says Amy Sharn, MS, RDN, LD, Abbott Senior Scientist, Real-World Evidence. “We need to be intentional, which is different than merely having good intentions.
“You need SMART goals to get you there.”
What’s a SMART goal? It stands for:
How Do You Form Healthy Habits?
The key is to form your goals around healthy habits — regular routines that become second nature. Research shows that people who consistently act in healthy ways in daily life do so out of habit.2
“To form a new habit, you have to rewire your brain a little,” says Professor John Weinman, an expert in health psychology and medication adherence from the Centre for Adherence Research and Education at King’s College London.
“Habits are actions that are triggered by cues — whether that’s a certain time of day or a particular place or an activity. When you perform that action, you should have a good feeling, a positive affirmation that makes it more likely you’ll do it again … and again.”
You could try committing to a 30-minute walk every day for a week, either at the same time of day or after the same activity — for example, after having breakfast or lunch or after finishing your work.
Make it as enjoyable as you can so that you connect good habits with a reward. For instance, listen to music, the radio, or a podcast while you walk, or combine the walk with other interests, like taking photos.
How Long Does It Take to Form a Habit?
Now that you have a few great strategies to create new healthy habits, the next pressing question is: How long will it take? How many times will you have to intentionally practice these new habits before they become a natural part of your life — something you just do?
There’s a short answer, but it’s debatable.
According to the popular 21/90 rule, echoed by many self-help leaders, it takes 21 days to make a habit and 90 days for it to become a permanent lifestyle change.
While it’s encouraging to think that any change is possible in just three weeks, the reality is more complicated.
There’s no magic number of days to form a habit or make a lifestyle change, but there are strategies for establishing and maintaining them (in addition to what you’ve read so far).
Try This Strategy: Habit-Stacking
Habit stacking is a concept developed by BJ Fogg in his book Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything, and a term coined by S.J. Scott in his book Habit Stacking.
Habit stacking helps new habits stick because it takes advantage of the connectedness of human behavior.
Here’s how you do it:
You can use this formula, which is specific and time-bound, to start habit stacking:
After I [habit you already have], I will [new habit].
There’s more to it, of course (self-discipline, accountability — all of that good stuff). But habit stacking helps you reach your goals by using the natural momentum of human behavior to your advantage.
To summarize: For long-term success, you want to set SMART, manageable goals that encourage you to be healthier. You then want to turn those goals into routines and reward yourself for doing them each day. The result may well be a healthy, life-changing habit.
What will your next one be?
References
1 Clear, J. (2018). Atomic Habits. New York: Penguin Publishing Group.
2 Wood, W., & Neal, D. T. (2016) Healthy through habit: Interventions for initiating & maintaining health behavior change. Behavioral Science & Policy, 2(1), pp. 71-83.
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