It has long been believed and taught that it takes 21 days to create a habit.  In 1960 Doctor Maltz a plastic surgeon published a book called Psycho-Cybernetics which sold more than 30 million copies.  Dr Maltz explained in his book that it took about 21 days for a person who received plastic surgery work, to become accustomed to the changes.  Furthermore according to Maltz, one who had a limb amputated experienced a phantom limb for about 21 days until they adjusted to their new life.

Further recent studies have suggested that habits take much longer than 21 days and can take months.  In one study conducted with 96 people it was discovered that it took an average of 66 days to make a behaviour automatic.

Now, I have been interested on how to create the greatest possible outcome in the shortest amount of time.  I know it is the nature of mankind to do things faster and better.  To find ways of accelerating learning, and forming a habit is most certainly a form of learning.

I therefore have asked myself the question.  Can a habit be formed in one day?

My answer is ABSOLUTELY.

I will tell you why and how.  It really is not that complicated.

Here is how most people would attempt to create a habit.  If you wanted to perform a new action each day like reading for 15 minutes, then on day one you would set an alarm or plan when you would read, and then do it.  You would then repeat the action each day for a set number of days, either 21 or even 66 until you no longer needed to think about performing that action.  It would be an automatic action that had integrated itself into your life.

Now consider another way.  In your imagination see yourself getting out of bed.  See yourself performing the action that you want to turn into a habit.  Now see yourself going to bed. (Obviously you could add more detail like the time of day, how long etc).  What you would have just performed is one repetition of a new habit.  Using this method, one day or one repetition may have taken 2 minutes or so.  If you then repeated this in your mind a number of times, let’s say 21, you would have created a new behaviour that your unconscious mind will think that you have completed every day without fail.  Your unconscious mind will now believe that you are committed to making this thing a part of your life.  This complete process could take about 42 minutes to complete 21 full repetitions.  According to Maltz, you would have formed a new habit, even without physically doing it.  You have formed the new habit in your imagination.  You could then test strength of the new habit by going about your day and noticing if you perform the desired action automatically.

I did this with a client who wanted great health, but could not remember to take a formula that she really wanted to make part of her diet.  She really wanted to flush the toxins out of her body so that her body would let go of fat.  We had discussed what she needed to do, however she was not keeping her commitments.  She assured me that she wanted to take the formula every day, but could not remember.

Therefore I asked her when would be the best time for her to take her green drink.  She told me right after she said her morning prayer.  I said, “Great”.  I then had her play a video in her mind of herself waking up and praying.  I then had her see herself get up and go straight into the kitchen and prepare and drink a cup of green drink.  I then led her through this same process about 5 or 6 more times.  After this I asked her to repeat the process in her imagination until she had completed it a total of 21 times.

A week later she ran to me and reported that she had remembered to take wheat grass each day that week.  I said, “Fantastic”.

Now.  Here is where it gets interesting and exciting.  Can it happen even faster?

The answer is “YES”.  I have discovered a way to create a habit so rapidly that it is almost unbelievable.