Triggering, doing, and rewarding all work together to form habits. An event prompts action, and once you receive a benefit from it, you continue to do it. Though it’s a great beginning, simply deciding to stop a particular behavior doesn’t necessarily result in the habit being broken. To break old habits, you need to put in some time and effort.

What is the correct response if some people say it takes 21 days to break a habit and others say it takes a month? To learn the answers, continue reading.

What Are Habits?

A habit is any behavior that is repeated frequently enough to become automatic. Habits can be viewed as a type of mental shortcut that is created through repetition, environmental cues, and positive reinforcement of the behavior. While people often call habits “bad” or “good,” it is more important to shift your perspective on habits, and prefers the terms:

• Helpful vs. not helpful
• Useful vs. not useful
• Consistent vs. inconsistent with my goals and values

When deciding whether to attempt to break a habit, Corsica suggests assessing whether the habit is a cause of issues in your life, such as its effects on your relationships, behavior, work, health, and other areas.

We all have bad habits that make life difficult. It’s worthwhile to spend the time and effort necessary in these circumstances to break that habit.

How Long Does It Take To Break A Habit? 

There is no magic number of repeats required to internalize the desired habits, which means there is no concrete answer to “how many days does it take to break a habit?”

Numerous theories about the formation of habits have been proposed by researchers.

Where Did The Concept Of “21 Days” Originate?

Experts attribute the “21 days to break a habit” myth to Dr. Maxwell Maltz, a psychologist who first practiced as a plastic surgeon.

He suggested people needed about 3 weeks to get used to:

• different facial features after plastic surgery
• the absence of a limb after amputation
• a house they’ve just moved into

It’s possible that some of these suggestions are accurate, but Maltz seems to have opted for patient testimonials over factual data.

The fact that none of the aforementioned are habits people want to break is a further significant problem. These illustrations instead illustrate habituation or the process of acclimating to something new.

Making personal changes and acclimating to a new experience is somewhat similar, but they are not exactly the same. It usually takes more sustained, deliberate effort to break a habit.

On the other hand, habituation involves things you’ve already changed (like your physical characteristics) or things you can’t control (like the loss of a limb).

It isn’t much else you can do, so you might get used to these more quickly.

Although habits can become automatic, most of the time there is still some freedom of choice. Yes, you choose to stay up late because you’re used to doing so, but you also have the option of putting yourself to bed at a more reasonable hour.

How About Giving Yourself A Month?

Others answer the question “how long does it take to change a habit” differently. Some self-help culture states that habits take 28 to 30 days to form.

One proponent of this rule, Jon Rhodes, suggests: “For four weeks, you must live intentionally, concentrating on the changes you want to make. There shouldn’t be much work required to maintain it after the four weeks are up.”

Even though this statistic was widely acknowledged, many people preferred Maltz’s 21-day rule because it was easier to implement than the more widely used 28-30 rule.

The Time-frame For Changing Habits Varies

The transition window may be significantly wider than the 21 and 28-day norms, despite the fact that the 21 and 28-day norms appeal to our desire to change things quickly. The study, published in The European Journal of Social Psychology, monitored 96 participants for 12 weeks to see how they formed habits.

It offered knowledge about how long it takes to break a habit as well. In the study from University College London, participants’ automaticity—or how quickly they engaged in the behaviors they wanted to become routines—was examined. Researchers explained:

When behaviors are repeated in predictable situations, control of the behavior is transferred to environmental cues that cause an automatic response, or habit, which makes the behavior more efficient and requires less cognitive effort.

Different activities develop habits over varying lengths of time. Participants develop a habit in 18 to 254 days. For automaticity, an average of 76 days was needed.

9 Tips To Break A Habit

Aim For Small Changes First

Particularly at the start of a new year, people frequently attempt to quit multiple habits at once. This strategy can occasionally be effective, especially if the habits are related, such as staying up late and watching a lot of TV programs. Multiple changes at once can be challenging, particularly when addressing ingrained behaviors.

Let’s say you want to stop overindulging in sugar. Even if you are successful in eliminating it entirely from your diet, you might still experience constant cravings. Instead, you might opt to stop the habit gradually.

To start, cut out sweetened beverages and candies. After that, you might reduce your consumption of baked goods, etc. To improve your chances of success, experts also advise identifying a replacement behavior.

Following 9 o’clock, you should stop watching TV. but don’t add another activity to your evening, you might end up watching TV once more out of boredom. You might be able to prevent stumbling by turning on some music and pulling out a puzzle instead.

Stick With It

As was previously stated, breaking a habit typically takes time. So don’t get concerned if you don’t see results right away. Try not to feel guilty if you catch yourself repeating the bad habit you’re trying to break. Instead, take advantage of the mistake to learn more about the behavior’s origins.

What sets off the habit? When does it occur, and how do you feel afterward? You can use this information as guidance moving forward. Usually, missing one or two days won’t have an impact on your long-term success. More crucial is creating a consistent pattern over time.

Ramp Up Your Motivation

It’s best to kick some bad habits as soon as you can, like not exercising. The issue is that you might feel less motivated to persist if you’re only trying to break a habit because you think you should.

If exercise isn’t something you enjoy, you might not be motivated to do it in your free time. You can achieve your goal more successfully by boosting your motivation. Try increasing motivation by:

• looking at the long-term benefits
• finding things you enjoy about a replacement activity
• choosing an activity you actually like
• involving a friend
• using a motivation app or a reminder system to get up and move

These methods can be used to boost your motivation for any habit or replacement behavior, not just exercise. A particularly effective way to increase motivation is to enlist a support system.

Find An Accountability Partner

Tell someone how your habit is progressing. You can stay on track with your goals by using social pressure. For instance, a 2018 study discovered that people who had an accountability partner in setting weight loss goals lost more weight than those who didn’t.

Trade Unhelpful Habits For Helpful Ones

If you usually drink beer with dinner but want to stop, you can replace it with something healthier, like kombucha or non-alcoholic cider. Instead of upsetting your routine by avoiding all fizzy drinks, you can use your current triggers to support the development of a healthier habit.

Reward Yourself

According to researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, rewards help your brain decide whether or not a habit is important enough to remember. You declare that you want to spend less time in front of screens.

Eating a treat you enjoy is one way to treat yourself after spending a certain amount of time away from a screen. The likelihood of breaking the habit is increased because your brain associates less screen time with enjoyable activities.

Do It For You

A good first step when trying to break a habit is: Ask yourself why you want to change. Some habits, such as texting and driving or using Facebook at work, can be broken with fairly obvious advantages. It’s not always simple to see how other habits have a wide range of effects.

If you’re not sure why you want to stop the habit, try to think of some advantages for yourself. The question of whether the habit is bad for you or anyone else can also be helpful.

Practice Curiosity

A mindfulness-based strategy for habit change includes curiosity. The next time you notice yourself engaging in routine behavior, take note of your emotional state. What benefits does the habit provide you with?

Are you looking to get rid of a specific emotion? your emotional state change? Avoid other ways of acting. It may be possible to lessen the urge to act on these feelings by increasing your awareness of them.

Seek Professional Support

Consider speaking with a therapist if your habit is affecting your life negatively. In therapy, you can explore potential causes and come up with fresh solutions without any criticism. If you’ve tried to break a habit but have had no success doing so on your own, therapy may be able to help.

Many things can cause someone to form a habit. Some habits, which are challenging to address on your own, develop in response to severe distress or mental health symptoms. A kind mental health professional can assist you in acquiring the resources you need to effect change.

The Bottom Line

Persistence pays off in the effort to break bad habits. Try to keep moving forward despite setbacks or self-doubt. Accept and deal with obstacles, and assess what’s challenging and what you can do to fix it. People frequently alter supposedly long-standing routines. It can be done.