21 days to a new habit.
Recently i have been doing #onesimplechange with my clients. It is 21 days of doing a healthy habit. Anything from 20mins meditation/day , reading to cutting out fizzy drinks or squats!
Research shows that it takes 21 days to develop a habit. That’s 21 days of going to the gym every day or exercising in some way every day, 21 days to meditation, 21 days to eat healthily, 21 days doing, 21 days of anything! The aim of one simple change is that it is a healthy habit that is easy and simple to start/change.
When you want to start a habit, don’t tell yourself you are doing it for life, tell yourself (your conscious brain) that you are going to try it for 21 days. Then when you have completed this for 21 days your conscious mind has the choice of stopping it or carrying on, or so it thinks. Your neural pathways have formed already and you will more than likely continue with your new habit, you will have seen the benefits along the way your unconscious will want to continue if it has been beneficial. This can also work when trying to break a habit, however research has shown that the neural pathways to any habit could be lifelong and a cue or a trigger can cause us to start back up an old habit, like smoking.
This is not a bad thing; we just have to be aware of our thoughts when we have given up a habit such as smoking or drinking fizzy drinks.
When starting or breaking any habit we tend to tell our conscious mind we are going to change and it’s for life. The trouble is your conscious mind will just say ‘is that right? I’m in charge here, I’ll decide’ so there will be a battle between your two sides of your conscious mind.
If you tell your mind you want to try something for 21 days it won’t be so unwilling to co-operate. We all know we have conversations with ourselves, should I go to the pub should I not, should I go to the gym should I not. There are a hundred conversations we have with ourselves everyday!
When we want to start something or give up something, smoking for example, you might normally say to yourself ‘right that’s it I’m giving up for good’. Immediately your brain kicks in and says no smoking for life, and then it starts to think of all the situations it likes a good cigarette in; first thing in the morning with a cup of coffee, going out for a drink at night, at work when you’re a bit stressed, just after sex etc. Your brain thinks ‘lack of’ instead of the benefits of. It can’t really think as clearly about the benefits because it hasn’t yet had the benefits of giving up smoking but it knows the supposed pleasures that smoking brings.
So what one simple change can we start for 21 days?
Keep a Gratitude Journal
Give up sweets
Read 10 pages of a personal development book a day
Meditate for 20 mins/day
30 squats a day
Write in the blog every day for
Go to bed before 10:30pm
Get up before 6am
Exchange my daily coffee for a daily lemon tea
Drink 2.5litres of water a day
Replace breakfast for a Juice Plus Complete protein shake
Take Juice Plus capsules every morning
I’ve been asking my clients to download this fantastic free app for you to track your change. It counts the days for you and each day you click complete when you have done your change: CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE APP
Remember, sustaining change is always easier – and much more fun – when you have friends along for the journey. They’ll keep you accountable, encourage you through the hard times and cheer you on from the front lines. Click here for more info on Juice Plus onesimplechange
Please comment below with what onesimplechange you are going to make starting this week and let me know your progress! Good luck!
Born To Inspire 