I Can Do All Things, for 21 Days
I’m sure we’ve all heard this before; it takes 21 days to make or break a habit.
I’ve personally practiced this principle in every area of my life. When I want to remember something I need to do, I say it over and over 21 times to myself. If I want to memorize a verse, I write it over and over 21 times and then practice saying it out loud 21 times. As I am teaching myself to play piano, I play a difficult note or set of notes over and over 21 times before moving on.
A habit, as we all know, forms in the brain and it continues as a loop, playing over and over in our brains like that song that never ends. Remember that?
This is the song that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friend.
Some people started singing it, not knowing what it was,
And they’ll continue singing it forever just because,
This is the song that never ends… (you get it, right?)
Anyway, that’s what our habits do in our brains. A habit is usually triggered by something. Just like Pavlov and his salivating pooch, something triggers us, we do our habit, and we receive our “reward” for doing what we should or shouldn’t be doing.
I read somewhere that our habits are driven by these eight primary emotions: anger, fear, sadness, disgust, surprise, anticipation, trust, and joy. (I looked it up, it was said by Robert Plutchik)
In order to change a habit, we must really want it. No one else can make us change our habit. It has to come from your own desires. And if we can associate a positive emotion to the breaking of that habit, it helps even more.
When I tried to quit smoking several years ago, at first I didn’t really want to do it. So I didn’t. I mean, I would say I wanted to, and I took steps to do it, but I didn’t because I didn’t want to.
However, there came a point when I got a desire to do it. I decided that I didn’t want my children to pick up the habit of smoking, so I did something about it. I went to a hypnotist and I used the visual that he gave me over and over in my mind, until smoking no longer had power over me. It was actually the hardest thing I have ever done, but I’m so glad I did it.
According to the experts, if we try to add a good habit into our lives, the 21 days of doing the habit helps our muscle memory to keep doing it. However, it takes 14 days for an old habit to lose its grip on us. So for 2 weeks, we’re mostly trying to fight against that bad habit, but the 3rd week becomes that sweet spot when we can actually see that a change may just be possible, and we begin reaping some of the rewards.
An exception to this is that it takes 45 days to break an addiction. So if you’re trying to give up smoking, drugs, and I think some people are truly addicted to sugar; these things can take longer.
So in saying all this, I really just wanted to brag about reaching one of my goals. For 21 days–as of today–I have successfully been accomplishing my first goal. Yay!
What was my first goal? Glad you asked. This is from my list I made about the improvements I wanted to make for this year:
- Start a Keto eating plan
- Keep track of my eating in an app
- Watch or read about keto each day
- Check out new recipes
- Make keto friendly grocery list
For the last 21 days, I have been able to stick to the Keto way of eating, I’ve watched hours of Youtube videos on keto diets, keto foods, keto benefits, and keto recipes. I’ve learned about it, talked about it, written about it; it has consumed my life for the last three weeks. And so what is the reward that helps me to want to continue with this habit?
I’ve lost 10 lbs! Reaching my first goal of 2019, and giving me the desire to continue in the habit. My next goal in weight loss is 20 more lbs. by April 15. (Happy Birthday to me!)
Onto the next habit-changing, life-changing goal: Be more active on my blog! And you guys can really help with this, by being active with me. Leave a commit, share on social media, you can even sign up to receive all updates by email.
So, what about you guys? Did you set any goals for this year? Share them in the comment box below.
