We all have a variety of habits that we’ve integrated into our lives, some good… some bad. Some of these habits are actions or even patterns of thoughts. Not all habits are created equally, some will enhance your life and other can take away.
Why are Habits so important?
I am of the belief that our habits create the very foundation of our lives. This foundation becomes the springboard from how we leap toward our future. What kind of future are you creating with your habits?
Our brain is hardwired to recognize pattern, when these are actions or thoughts they eventually are streamlined into habits. In my prior post, The Truth about Willpower I reference a couple of examples of how we leverage willpower to create a habit. My favorite example is the one of a child learning how to walk.
The beauty of a child learning to walk lies in the tenacity of the child, despite it’s failures, the child is resilient enough to keep moving forward. Thus, what once required great willpower and focus, becomes automated by our brain. It’s commonly cited that a habit takes 21 days to develop.
The truth is that habit creation varies from person to person.
In one of my favorite books titled “The One Thing,” the authors cite research that suggests that it takes an average of 66 days to acquire a new habit. The full range goes from as little as 18 days to as long as 254 days. Why is 66 days significant in this research?
Because 66 days was the amount of time it took to get 95% of the way the power curve; the power curve in the study represents the amount of discipline required to gain a new skill/habit as a function of time.
Diving a little bit into the concept behind what the power curve represents we find that…
Energy = Area Under the Power Curve
Area under the curve? Isn’t that an integral in mathematics, yes… yes it is! By day 66 we’ve exerted 95% of the willpower (Energy) needed to create this new habit. This is a significant finding because it suggests that habit creation frees up willpower to be used for other things.
This I believe is why Steve Job and Mark Zuckerberg, where able to achieve such high levels of success. They created habits and processes in their lives even down to their closets. Knowing that willpower is a finite renewalable resource, they choose when they leverage it through the creation of their habits.
For an in-depth read on habits and how to create them for yourself, I highly recommend, “The Power of Habits” by Charles Duhigg. We’ve all created habits in our lives and we know they shape the future of who we are becoming. What habits are you creating? Feel free to leave me a comment below. If you’ve enjoyed this post, please do me a favor, share it and sign up to be notified of future posts.
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