New Habits Take An Average Of 66 Days – (21 Days Rule)
Is 21 Days Enough Time to Quit an Undesirable Habit and Acquire a New Habit? (21 Days Rule)
Where Does the King of 21 Days Come From?
The 21 Day Rule is based on observations made by a plastic surgeon doctor on his patients.
Dr Maxwell Maltz, in his book “Psycho-Cybernetics” dated 1960, stated that it takes about 21 days for the patient to get used to their new face after plastic surgery, such as nose surgery.
Just 21 days before they get used to their new condition.
In the foreword of his book, “These experiences and many commonly observed phenomena show that it takes a minimum of 21 days for a mental image to be erased and replaced by a new one.” this book has sold a lot worldwide.
Afterwards, a plastic surgeon doctor revealed these observations about the human body and the statement that a new habit is formed in 21 days” has spread so much.
I mention it because it includes the average adjustment time of a single surgeon, moreover, of people who have undergone only bodily operations, on their own bodies.
This is an assumption and generalized to every behaviour.
Then 21 days became a magical number.
Who doesn’t like the idea that it’s possible to change their life in 3 weeks?
So how long does a new habit take?
In 2010, another study was conducted in which 96 people participated.
In this study, the healthy eating and drinking habits of the individuals and the duration of exercise were examined.
Participants were asked to choose a health-related behaviour that they hadn’t already done but could do if they tried.
Every day, feedback was received about how automatically they made this behaviour they chose.
These behaviours are; It consists of eating a piece of fruit for lunch, drinking a glass of water in the morning or running for 15 minutes before dinner and similar behaviours.
Research results invalidate the 21-day rule. Because it has been determined that the average time required to form a habit takes an average of 66 days.
In addition, contrary to popular belief, it has been shown that doing the behaviour for a day or two does not affect the formation of the habit.
It has been determined that the behaviours in the research vary and vary between 18 and 254 days.
The duration varied according to the difficulty of the behaviour and the character of the people.
While one person could do it in 18 days for one behaviour, another person needed 84 days for the same behaviour.
While they reached the habit of drinking water in 20 days, they reached the habit of eating fruit for lunch in 40 days.
After all, 21 days is a legend. Habit formation takes much longer than this time.