Frequently Asked Questions About Long-Term Habit Building
As you embark on your journey of building better habits, questions and obstacles will naturally arise. Here are answers to some of the most common challenges people face when trying to make habits that last.
How long does it really take to form a new habit?
You may have heard the popular myth that it takes 21 days to form a habit. While a catchy number, research shows it’s much more variable. A landmark study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology found that, on average, it takes about 66 days for a new behavior to become automatic. However, the range was huge—from 18 days to 254 days—depending on the person, the behavior, and the circumstances. The lesson here is to be patient with yourself. Don’t fixate on a magic number. Focus on consistency, not a deadline. The goal is to make progress, not to achieve perfection in three weeks. True long-term habit building is a marathon, not a sprint.
What should I do when I travel or my routine is disrupted?
Disruptions like travel, holidays, or illness are one of the main reasons habits fall apart. The key is to have a flexible plan. Don’t adopt an all-or-nothing mindset. Instead, scale your habit down to its absolute minimum viable action. If your habit is to do a 30-minute workout at your home gym, your travel version might be to do 5 minutes of bodyweight exercises in your hotel room. If you write 750 words a day, your vacation version might be to write a single sentence in a journal. The goal during a disruption is not to make progress, but to maintain the identity. You are still a person who exercises; you are still a writer. By performing a tiny version of your habit, you keep the thread of consistency alive, making it infinitely easier to ramp back up to your normal routine when you return.
I was making great progress, but now I’ve hit a plateau. What’s wrong?
Plateaus are a normal and expected part of any long-term process. They don’t mean you’re doing something wrong. Often, a plateau is a sign that your brain and body have adapted to the current level of challenge. The initial excitement has worn off, and the habit is now simply part of your routine. This is actually a sign of success! However, if you want to continue making progress, you may need to introduce a new, small challenge. If you’ve been meditating for 2 minutes every day, try increasing it to 3. If you’ve been running the same 2-mile route, try a slightly hillier path. The principle of progressive overload, often discussed in fitness, applies to many habits. Make a small, 5% adjustment to keep things interesting and continue your growth. But remember, it’s also perfectly fine to maintain a habit at a comfortable level. Not every habit needs to be constantly escalated.
Can I try to build multiple new habits at the same time?
While it’s tempting to overhaul your entire life at once, it’s generally a recipe for burnout. As we’ve discussed, even small changes require mental energy and focus at the beginning. Trying to build several major habits simultaneously—like starting a new diet, a new workout routine, and a daily writing practice all on the same day—divides your focus and depletes your willpower too quickly. A more sustainable approach is to focus on one, or at most two, key habits at a time. Once the first habit becomes relatively automatic (after a couple of months), you can then use your renewed focus and the confidence from your success to begin building the next one. Using habit stacking can be a way to gently introduce a very small second habit that is linked to your primary new one, but be cautious about taking on too much too soon.
