The New Year and every newspaper, magazine, webpage and "tip sheet" is talking about how to turn over a new leaf, develop new habits, and stick with your resolutions in 08.  That's fine, but so much of the information out there is focused on just how long you have to stick with it until "it" sticks.  7 days, 21 days, a month, 3 months, a year and on and on and on.  We have become obsessed with how long we have to do "it" (e.g. diet, exercise, save money, not-procrastinate, communicate better) until it becomes second nature. There is research out there and like most research the results are mixed. But one thing is crystal clear- there is absolutely no magic number of days that you need to reach to make a new behavior a habit.  At the very best there is a general rule of thumb- the more days you engage in the new behavior (again- read - diet, exercise, saving money etc) the more likely you are to stick with it. So 21 days is better than 15 days and 30 days is better than 21 days.  

The problem with focusing on a certain number of days is that we tend to let our guard down once we reach the number. The reality is that habits are simply formed over time and with repetition. For some people it may be a shorter time period for others it's longer.

So is this good news or bad news? It's both. The bad news-- if you are looking for that magic number - you will never find it. The good news- each day you do the right behavior the more likely you are to incorporate that behavior into your lifestyle.   What does this all mean?

We need to focus on doing our resolutions each day for the rest of our lives. If we slip before we make it to a week, a month, or a year- the only consequence is that we need to start back up as soon as possible.  Let's stop trying to figure out the magic number of days to develop a habit and let's focus on what we can do each day to make the action we have resolved to make a reality.