The other day one of my wonderful clients sent me a link to a
TED talk, which by the way, if you haven't seen them have some fab speakers.
This particular talk was called 'Try Something New for 30 days' and it reminded me of something I heard a few years ago.
Apparently 30 days is a significant length of time - after which magical things happen. What I remembered was a story told by Jack Canfield, a great coach and speaker from the US.
Jack told of an experiment by NASA on their astronauts - now don't ask me why... I have no idea!
What NASA did was fit their astronauts with specially made goggles that lierally flipped their vision through 180 degrees, so they saw everything upside down. They were told to wear the goggles 24/7 - sleeping, eating and everything in between in them!
Imagine!
How they coped with their topsy-turvy world isn't of interest here, what happened after 30 days certainly is!
One by one, the astronauts,
without taking off the goggles, began to see the world the right way round! What? How could that be?
It appears that what happened was the brains of the astronauts, under a constant stream of strange new input, created new neural pathways in order to make sense of it all. In other words, their brains literally 're-wired' themselves to make the input 'normal'.
NASA repeated this experiment with the difference that they would allow the goggles to come off for short periods of time. In these experiments, the neural adaptation did not happen! In other words, it took approximately a month (30 days) of constant, consistent, uninterrupted input of new ideas in order for the brain to accept it as normal.
So it makes (common) sense that if you want to change a habit or create a new behaviour you simply have to do it (or not do it) consistently for 30 days. And remember, like the astronauts it may not be easy, you may feel disorientated, even slightly disturbed! But after those 30 days, when suddenly everything comes clear and your brain is working in a whole new pattern, imagine how confident you'll be in your ability to achieve any goal you aim for!
So - guess what my question is for you this week? Yep - you got it...
What could you do differently for the next 30 days?
Can't wait to hear of your successes
