It was nap time. I put Kevin down for a nap and I quietly left the room. I found myself automatically going to my computer and sitting down to work on my story.
I was surprised. I realized that I had gained a hidden blessing from having a goal last month.
I had established a habit.
There is a saying. It goes something like this: "It takes 21 days to establish a habit, and one day to break it." Okay, so, maybe that part about breaking it isn't part of the quote, but it sounds about right.
I became curious about where the origin of the "21 day quote" was from, and I discovered the following source:
Busting the 21 Day Habit Formation Myth
This article was very interesting. It said that this quote originally came from a man named Dr Maxwell Maltz, who was a plastic surgeon turned psychologist. He told his readers that it generally took 21 days for people to change their self-image in regard to their newly modified features. Then, he said, ‘Our self-image and our habits tend to go together. Change one and you will automatically change the other.’ (p108)
Thus, the 21 day habit formation myth was born. According to this article, they did some more research on how long establishing a habit takes and found that association with another event in your day can speed up the creation of a habit. Some people could develop one in as few as 18 days, while it took others up to 84 days.
Basically, it depends on you. They said when you correlate a new habit with an already existing activity (putting the baby to bed) it is much easier to develop a habit. So, as long as I keep working on my story while Kevin is sleeping, I will continue to make progress.
Aren't hidden blessings wonderful?
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