Day 22: A Little About Habits

Yesterday was somewhat of mile stone since it is widely believed and taught by experts that it takes 21 days to make or break a habit.  I, like you, have heard this for a long time and I am not sure I believe it.  Let me explain my thinking. 

A habit is defined as a regularly repeated behavior pattern that is repeated so often it becomes typical although the person may be unaware of it.  That being the case I should come home and run without thinking about it. I don’t.  So I double check and it seems that it could take up to 30 days to form a habit.  That is not fair moving the bar like that.

I want to get up and go for a jog in the morning without thinking about it.  How great would that be?  The alarm goes off and then next thing you know you’re eating breakfast after a 2 mile jog.  That would be awesome.  It never works like that. 

I don’t know about you but my mornings go like this:

Alarm goes off, I hit snooze (without thinking about it, maybe that is my habit)

I snooze once, maybe twice (more habit)

I now get up ”running” a little late (wow, now that I write this out this is my habit)

Now I don’t have time to run (habit, habit, habit)

Oh crap! My habit is snooze.  Now I am going to have to vow to get up and jog every morning for 21 days to break this habit or worse 30 days. Exercising everyday is one thing.  Getting up early enough to jog is something else and I really don’t know if I can do it every morning. I’m not a naturally early riser. 

This would be a real challenge and it makes me nervous proposing it.  There is no safety net it will be either I do it or I don’t.  Now I am going to have to try it at least and I am not looking forward to it. As a bonus it would free up a lot of time in the afternoon. 

Also if I jogged in the morning I wouldn’t have to worry about getting the exercise in later at the end of the day when I am too tired. Who is with me?  I can hear you now: “That sounds great, why don’t you do that and tell us about it.”

Okay I will and then I will have a new habit, exercising early.

One more side note on habits.  While researching the topic I found several experts that buck conventional wisdom and disagree totally with 21 day habits stating that it could take over 200 days to truly form a habit.  In truth I believe that is closer to right.  Think about it, how many times have you, like  me, committed to something (like exercise) and you get excited about it and you stick to it for a few months and it in the end, well you know how this story ends. 

Daily Recap:

Matt – Jog 33 min

Kelly – Speed Walk 55 min.