How to form a healthy habit

The start of a new year can be a reset button for many people wanting to create change or improvements to optimise their health and wellbeing.

To make change or improve aspects of your life generally requires new habits to be formed. Changing the way we think, react or behave in order to achieve the desired outcome.

But how long does it take to form a habit? a month? 3 months? 6 months?

Habits are behaviours which are performed automatically because they have been performed frequently in the past.  The repetition creates a mental association between the situation and the action.  This means when the situation is encountered the behaviour is performed (Lally et al 2009) ie: having a daily morning coffee, brushing your teeth before bed.

Lally et al 2010 found that it took on average 66 days to perform a new habit automatically. There was variation (18-254 days) in how long habits took to form depending on the behaviour chosen. Drinking a glass of water in the morning became automatic a lot more quickly than performing 50 squats prior to breakfast.

The key factor in making a new habit is to repeat the behaviour in the same situation.  It is important that something about the setting where you perform the behaviour is consistent to cue the behaviour. ie when you get up, before bed, after lunch.  This means it doesn’t matter what time these settings happen during the day.

So looking at this you might want to create a new habit/goal to walk for 15mins every morning before breakfast, doing 5 mins of meditation or deep breathing before bed or daily pelvic floor exercises before your morning coffee. The options are endless.  The simpler the task the more quickly it will become a habit.

Tool to make a new healthy habit:

1.     Decided the goal you would like to achieve?

ie drink more water

2.     Choose a task that will get you towards your goal

ie: have a glass of water before coffee

3.     Plan when and where you will do your chosen task.  Be consistent with time/place that you encounter every day of the week.

ie: have a glass of water before my daily morning coffee

4.     Every time you encounter that time and place, do the task.

The research also showed that missing a single day did not reduce the chance of the habit forming.

Habits take time to form, so give yourself time.  The key to success in consistency!!

Lally P, van Jaarsveld CHM, Potts HWW, Wardle J. How are habits formed: modelling habit formation in the real world. Euro J Soc Psychol. 2010;40:998–1009.

Gardner B, Lally P, Wardle J. Making health habitual: the psychology of 'habit-formation' and general practice. Br J Gen Pract. 2012;62(605):664-666. doi:10.3399/bjgp12X659466