You’ve probably heard the maxim that “it takes 21 days to form a new habit.” However, that’s largely been debunked. This popular saying, stemming from Dr. Maxwell Maltz’s research in the 1980’s, was misinterpreted and applied out of context! Go figure, right?

In reality, current research shows that it can take anywhere from 66 to 250 days to form a new habit, depending on the complexity of the behavior and the individual. Hopefully this news is reassuring if you’ve found yourself struggling to integrate new healthy habits into your life!

In this article, we’ll explore the basics of how humans form habits and share seven principles for creating new ones. I argue that habits, whether forming healthy ones or transforming unhealthy ones, are the most effective way to drive lasting change in anyone’s health journey. 

Why Are Healthy Habits So Hard to Create?

Habit formation is the foundation for creating health and wellness in your life, yet it can often feel like one of the hardest things to achieve. Why?

One of the biggest obstacles to building healthy habits is the delayed or sometimes imperceptible reward.

For instance, choosing a whole grain, gluten-free vegetarian sandwich might not feel as instantly gratifying on a chemical level (i.e. dopamine) as a gooey, crispy, highly processed grilled cheese. Or taking a daily multivitamin like Cielo’s Rise doesn’t always produce a perceptible “feeling” but supports long-term health from the inside out!

Our biological wiring naturally draws us to calorie-rich, high energy foods or activities that make us “feel good”-habits rooted in survival. But in today’s world, overwhelmed by processed food, a passive and reactive healthcare model, and instant conveniences, making healthy choices can be tough and must be driven by intention.

Understanding the Basics of Human Habits

Habits are behaviors that we engage in regularly, whether they’re helpful, harmful, or neutral. Forming new habits, or breaking old ones, requires consistency, much like carving a new pathway through a forest. The more frequently you travel that path, the more it becomes ingrained and worn.

One of the most popular frameworks for understanding habits is Charles Duhigg’s three-step model of habit formation. It involves a trigger, a behavior, and a reward:

1. Tigger (Cue): This is what signals the start of a habit loop. It can be a time of day, location, emotional state, or even hunger pangs.
2. Behavior (Routine): This is the action you can take in response to the trigger or cue. Once reinforced, this part becomes automatic. It can be reaching for a cigarette, dimming the lights, or going for a walk.
3. Reward: This is the perceived positive outcome from the behavior. It’s critical to note that many rewards are rooted in brain chemistry. For instance, eating a donut releases dopamine (along with insulin and sometimes cortisol spikes), reinforcing the action. The long-term outcome may be positive or negative for your health.

To change or create a habit, you can focus on disrupting or reinforcing any one of the three steps above! For example, to better create a new habit, you want to identify a trigger, create the behavior, and ensure the reward. To more effectively break a habit, you can focus on disrupting the loop that exists by either disrupting the trigger or creating new behaviors that result in a similar reward.

7 Principles for Intentional Healthy Habit Formation

1. Set Clear Goals

Clear, well-defined goals make them exponentially more achievable. Vague goals, like “I want to be healthier” or “I want to exercise more,” can be hard to execute. A common framework used to achieve clarity in goal-setting is making them SMART - specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound.

I often tell my patients, “when you can define something, you can deal with something.”

2. Start Small

Big changes are built through a series of smaller changes. Though it’s important to dream big, one of the biggest challenges to the integration of behavioral change is overwhelm and “too much, too fast.” Transformation requires deep integration, quite literally creating a new version of yourself. So start small.

If your overarching goal is to “be healthier,” break it down into tiny chunks. Walk for 45 minutes at least 4 days per week, eat 2 out of three meals at home every day, and create time for a 5-minute gratitude journal with your morning tea or mold-free coffee!

3. Create a Routine

The next layer of successful behavior change is consistency! New habits often fail because we don’t commit to the time needed to practice them. The new trail we’re trying to blaze doesn’t become well-worn enough! Schedule your new habits-literally!

I encourage my patients to prioritize themselves by scheduling their habit-building activities before other commitments, like work or family. It might be uncomfortable at first, but this kind of self-prioritization can be life-changing and a supreme example to those around you too!

4. Use Habit Stacking or Linking Strategies

Habit stacking or habit linking is a powerful technique to support successful habit formation. Essentially, you simply attach your new habit to the end of an existing one to reduce the pressure of setting aside dedicated time.

For example, if you already make yours or your kids’ lunches in the morning, try doing 10 bodyweight squats every time you open the fridge. Small additions like this can build incremental momentum as you start creating your ideal health-oriented life.

5. Build Accountability

We are social beings, and having accountability partners can be a make or break for some habits. Just as easily as we can catch bad habits through enabling social connections (smoking, drinking, gossip, poor nutrition choices, etc.) the same can be said for the power of community in creating good ones.

Whether it’s a partner, friend, or family member, having someone to check in with can increase your success rate. “Health is contagious” is a phrase that I love to share with patients to illustrate the power of social determinants health. Surrounding yourself with like-minded individuals can help you thrive with far less resistance.

6. Use Positive Self-Talk and Rewards

Healthy habits often lack the immediate gratification that unhealthy habits provide so insidiously. Our brains are wired for loving fast rewards, like dopamine from a sugary treat or adrenaline from a violent movie. Positive self-talk can help flip the script favoring those healthy habits. 

After choosing a nourishing meal, try telling yourself, “great job [your name], You’ve made a nourishing choice for your body, mind, and spirit!” Celebrating small wins helps reinforce the behavior and builds continued momentum that becomes more and more effortless over time!

7. Reframe Roadblocks and Setbacks

Setbacks are a natural part of habit formation. The key is getting to a place of acceptance as quickly as you’re able without letting them derail your progress. Acceptance doesn’t mean giving up - it just helps to reduce the emotional charge and internal conflict that setbacks can bring.

By normalizing the bumps in the road, you can keep moving forward without getting stuck in formation. Prioritize progress, not perfection!

Conclusion

Creating healthy habits is a long-term, lifelong process that supports empowerment and self-actualization in your health journey. We constantly adjust and reiterate the process to form the infinite number of versions of ourselves possible.

When we live deliberately, we express our truest selves rather than reacting to outside influences. Understanding and mastering your own habits is a pivotal first step into shaping the life that you want - it can also be an act of selflessness and self-love all at the same time. 

Deepak Chopra says, “habits come in many forms-human attention, actions, thoughts, intention being the first step.”

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