We have all heard the saying \u201cif you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always got\u201d but it is very difficult to change habits that have developed over our life time, these are often habits that have silently crept up on us and suddenly we realise that what we are doing is habitual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A study by Phillippa Lally in 2009 suggests that changing a habit takes from between 18 and 254 days. If this is the case then why do we expect to change overnight?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To answer that we have to go back to Maxwell Maltz, a plastic surgeon. In the 1950s Maxwell Maltz gave rise to the general assumption that it takes 21 days to change or develop a habit. Interestingly Maltz described this as \u201cchanging a mental image\u201d rather than a habit. However, Maltz\u2019s observation and his book, Psycho-Cybernetics, published in 1960 has given rise to unrealistic expectations on how long it takes to change behaviour. I have seen claims such as \u201cdo something five times and it becomes a habit\u201d or \u201cchange those habits of a lifetime in three weeks or less\u201d. All have no basis in fact and are what I call Urban Myths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lally\u2019s study showed that on average it takes 66 days to make a new behaviour become automatic, but when setting your expectations it is well to remember that it just might take 8 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What does this mean to us when setting goals & managing strategies? Whether this be in business, exercise, diet or life in general?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In almost every instance I come across I see people setting unrealistic expectations, in that they expect change to happen instantly \u2013 you tell someone to change and \u201cHey Presto\u201d they change! This never happens and the only result is always total disappointment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I see people setting enormous goals, goals that have to be achieved in a very small time frame. Again the end result is disappointment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In order to achieve your desired outcome whether this be in life or business, it is best to set out a strategy that encompasses small goals and longer timeframes. This will give you a much better chance of success in achieving your desired goal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We have all heard the saying \u201cif you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always got\u201d but it is very difficult to change habits that have developed over our life time, these are often habits that have silently crept up on us and suddenly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-your-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/becomegood.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/becomegood.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/becomegood.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becomegood.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becomegood.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=178"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/becomegood.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":179,"href":"https:\/\/becomegood.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178\/revisions\/179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/becomegood.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becomegood.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becomegood.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}