Shawn Healey | Dragon KOI project Day 24 of 365: DISCIPLINE AND HABIT
We have all seen the "programs" that talk about the 21 days to form a habit... although modern science doesn't back that up. Most of the time these seem hard and not like too much fun. How much discipline do you have to be to be successful? Interestingly, you only need enough of the right discipline to form a habit, which gets easier and easier to maintain compared to forming it in the beginning. The hard "disciplined" stuff becomes habit, and the habit all of the sudden makes the hard stuff easy.
A study done by researchers at the University College of London in 2009, showed that it actually takes 66 days to acquire a new habit to the point of "automaticity". At this point, participants were 95% through the "power curve" and the effort needed to sustain it was about as low as it would get. Another study by Megan Oaten and Ken Cheng out of Australia, even showed a "halo effect". When one positive habit was successfully accomplished, people reported less stress; less impulsive spending; better dietary habits; decreased alcohol, tobacco and caffeine consumption; fewer hours watching TV; and even fewer dirty dishes.
So do successful people have more of a disciplined life than those who aren't successful? It seems not. Just more focused discipline for that 66 day stretch.
What one habit would make the biggest difference if you could be disciplined for 66 days to form it?
Until tomorrow...
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