Have you ever heard that it takes 21 days to commit to a new healthy habit? Well, this is actually a myth. In fact, it takes an average of 66 days. Depending on certain lifestyle and personal factors, this can actually take between 18-254 days. Exercise habits can even take 150% longer than eating habits.
Seems too long? With a little knowledge, your healthy lifestyle achievements can be a bit easier to adopt. It all starts with your brain.
Think of the fast brain as a big factory machine that just gets the input, does what it’s designed or told to do efficiently and as quickly as possible, and like magic, produces the expected outcome.
This is where we rarely find ourselves operating from. The slow brain is the wrench that you might throw into the fast brain machine in order to shake things up or cause a shift in the process. This part of the brain is less evolved as it’s used only about 5% of the time. Modes associated with the slow brain include:
When the slow brain is actively working for you in a healthy manner, it is intentional, reflective, in-tune and conscious.
As a result, in order to throw a wrench into your own fast brain mode, you need to know WHY you want your desired future outcomes. This connects to the brain’s “reward center” and “inaccurate thoughts” that play a role in making habit change successful long term.
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