How Long Should it Take for a Senior to Build a Habit?
Home care assistance helps aging seniors develop good habits with support and healthy routines.
As your senior lives alone they will need to develop healthy habits and a good routine that will help your loved one thrive while aging in place. It may make you nervous to even think about allowing your elderly mom or dad to age in place, but the truth is with the right routine, they can thrive better at home than in a nursing home. If they need more help building a habit and routine, it’s time to look for home care assistance to help them out.
Home care assistance caregivers are professional people who can help take good habits and build on them and help remind your loved one every day to focus on the routine they want to build. But how long should it take a senior to build a habit? What are easy ways to get this mission accomplished?
Here are some things you need to know about developing a healthy routine with your senior loved one.
Understand What a Habit Is
Sometimes, people confuse habits with routines. A habit is something you do every single day without even thinking about it. A routine can be much more intentional and maybe even something that home care assistance plans for your elderly mom or dad.
Habits are important because they dictate other actions or someone’s routines. If a senior goes on a walk every single morning at 7 am, it may impact their habit of eating breakfast at 7:30 am on the dot. It’s important to look at a senior’s habits and to build a healthy routine. If your senior has bad habits, they can impact their life in many ways.
It Takes Between 18-254 Days to Make a Habit Stick
Someone once mentioned that it takes 21 days to develop a habit, and this sounds nice but isn’t necessarily true.
Your habits will stick based on a few things:
- Cue: What has triggered the new behavior will impact how long it takes to stick.
- Craving: Your senior loved one needs to understand their motivation behind the change, they need to understand the why. The stronger their feelings are the more likely something will stick easier.
- Response: What is the actual habit? Is it small enough that they can build on this habit? Is it healthy?
- Rewards: Are there real benefits?
These four things will determine how quickly a new habit develops. If a senior has no intention or reward or sees a difference after starting a habit, they may never stick with it. This is why checking in with yourself after you start a new habit can be crucial.
How Can a Senior Stick With a Habit?
Not all seniors have an easy time sticking with a habit even if it comes from the doctor’s or it’s something that needs to change. If your loved one needs more help developing habits and a good routine that supports them, they need to look into hiring home care assistance for more help.
Your loved one may just need reminders on what they are supposed to be doing, when, and how. These simple reminders can greatly impact how often they stick to a habit.
If you or someone you know needs help with Home Care Assistance in East Grand Rapids, MI, contact Gauthier Family Home Care. We provide quality and affordable home care services in our community. Call us at (616) 560-4057 for more information.
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