How it started

When I moved to Orange County in Sept. 2018, I started building the habit of taking the stairs up my building every day.

Small habits in my life that have some health benefits (like taking the stairs) are designed to capitalize on each other and remind me that good habits can be built, and bad habits can be removed.

When I committed to taking the stairs every day, I decided that it would not be dependent on my energy level. It does ‘t matter how tired I am, how long my day was, or whether I ‘feel like it.’ I made a commitment that, barring moving furniture or other heavy and unwieldy items, I take the stairs—every time.

When does it become a habit

At first, sticking to the stairs was difficult. I’d come home from work tired. I’d come back from the gym with sore legs. The elevator was right there, but I didn’t take it.

After a few months, however, I stopped thinking about whether I’d take the stairs. The elevator’s welcoming call ceased. In the past 3 years, I’ve probably taken the elevator fewer than 20 times alone (and it’s been a few months since I last took it as I write this).

How to build a habit

Building a good simple habit starts out feeling unnatural. You likely won’t want to do it. You’ll have to expend more mental energy. After a while, however, it moves to feeling neutral. You don’t have an affinity for it, but you don’t exactly hate it. Eventually, you’ll come to find that doing anything other than the habit now feels unnatural. That’s the point where you’ve made it. Habit success.

Building a habit takes time, but not too long. There is no magic number of times or days that you will need to repeat to form a habit, but some averages give us hope that it’s very reachable. According to a University College of London (“UCL”) study on habits, building a new habit can take as few as 18 days or as many as 245 days to form. While that’s not overnight, I find it encouraging. UCL’s best estimate is that it takes 66 days on average to form a habit. Even for habits that take longer, it means that you can probably build a new habit in less than a year (and maybe in as little as three weeks). Work on a few habits each year, and the habits compound through a decade. And even before the habit is fully formed, we can begin reaping the benefits while building it.

As you’re working through your fitness journey, consider finding a new habit you want to form, even if you’re doing it just to prove to yourself that you can, and keep working on your LawyerBody

If you want more, consider starting here to learn more about the importance of weight to fitness.