The Myth of 21 Days

The Myth of 21 Days

Have you heard that it takes 21 days to create a new habit?

It sounds so simple: do something every day for 21 days to create a habit.

So when I work with someone and suggest that they eat a piece of fruit every day for 21 days, it should be second nature?

Perhaps, but not necessarily. 

When helping people establish a habit – we can say, “just do it.”

Just take the time to exercise – how hard is that?

Just eat more fruits! How hard is that?

Just eat healthier! How hard is that? (Well, that isn’t straightforward since eating healthier is different for everyone.)

Establishing healthy habits could be including certain types of foods – such as more vegetables.

Or you have meals or snacks at regular intervals – such as having breakfast or an afternoon snack. And not just whether you have breakfast or a snack - but the components of the breakfast and snack.

It is easier to say to create a habit than actually to do, but I promise we always make new habits.

For example, a common habit today is checking their email or social media several times daily. Social media as we know it today wasn’t even a thing 10-15 years ago, yet somehow, we have established the habit of checking it.

Some habits we take for granted – a morning routine, a drive to work, we do without thinking. We bathe regularly, and we brush our teeth. If we don’t, that is gross and could lead to adverse health consequences.

So why is this so hard to establish healthier eating habits? I encourage adopting one practice at a time – make it routine and then consider another.

Here is where the myth of the idea takes 21 days to create a habit. This number or timeline said around a lot, but we can adopt some patterns in a few days, 18 days, and some can take as much as 254 days – 9 months! How many people are that persistent?

I always remind people that if we gave up on things so quickly when we were babies, most of us would have never learned to walk!

Here is the truth: “bad” habits are easy to adopt. Healthier habits are much more challenging – sometimes taking months to establish.

Sometimes goals and habits take time to reach.

You can create new healthy habits.

When I did my first 5K – it was hard and painful, and I didn’t train properly. And that same day, I set a goal to run a marathon within the next FIVE years. Not the following year, but five years.

And it took time. It was going from a run-walk pace for another 5K to a 10K to more 5K events, a half marathon, half marathons, and eventually a marathon. And that was that same event at that 5K five years later.

The running took time to create a routine. It took a lot of time to reach that goal. Did it become a habit? For a while, yes. And severe injury eventually led to no more running under the recommendation of two doctors.

That habit stopped, and exercise stopped for a while. It was so easy to stop. What was “hard”? Reestablishing that habit of exercise in a new way? It took a lot of time, but it is a habit again.

Don’t give up on establishing habits. Let go of the myth of the 21 days. Know and accept it will take a lot more time, and there will be times it gets derailed, and the time may have to restart.