If you’ve ever tried to lose weight, save more money, drink more water and were not successful at it, you are not alone. The same thing if you’ve ever tried to practice gratitude and not managed to develop it as a habit, you are not alone.
The truth is a lot of people DO want to do it, but at some point comes February or March (perhaps even the 2nd week of January ) fall off the track.
To put things into perspective, I recently read a study which shed some light to this old questions on how long does it take to develop a new habit?
The old myth (or if you ask Dr. Google) mentions it may take anywhere between 21-28 days. Of course this depends on the type of habit you are trying to bring into your life.
However research study shows differently - study by Lailly et al (2009) suggests on average it takes 66 days to form a new habit. The study further highlighted that skipping single day was not detrimental in the long-run, however it is those EARLY repetitions which gave the greatest boost in the habit becoming automatic and a person sticking to it.
Whew!!! 66 days looks like a scary number. But WHY is it like that? Why is to so hard to build a new habit, even as simple one as writing a line in your gratitude journal?
In talking with many people the root of the problem is CONSISTENCY and DISCIPLINE. See, discipline requires you to push yourself into action even when you DO NOT FEEL LIKE IT. But it is that consistent DAILY effort that strengthens your discipline and builds new habit pathway in your brain.
You just have to be prepared for the fact your initial high energy to slay your goals, will come to standstill, but you GOT to keep your feet MOVING.
What can you do about it?
I’ve got 3 things you can do right now if you want to upscale your well-being and start living to the fullest (as that is what gratitude does to your life - transforms is from ordinary to extraordinary):
- Commit to 3 minutes of gratitude practice a day.. Carve that time out and mark it on your calendar.
- Find quiet space - where you can simply think of at least 3 things you are grateful for.
- Write it - write it - write it - below is the link to writing prompts for gratitude journaling
5 Key steps to beginner gratitude practice
Here is to 2019 and your goals