The brain doesn’t know that it’s September. It has no idea about the calendar. But it does sense that something has changed, and that’s what matters. Dr. Javier Quintero, a physician-psychiatrist, MD and author of the book “How are you? A 21-day journey to find your best version”, explains: “In the summer we have changed our schedules, our routines, the context, even our expectations and after the holidays, it’s time to return to the routine, which, on the other hand, is a great opportunity to think if there is something we want to improve.” When the signals that surround a behavior change, some automatisms lose strength temporarily, and there appears the space to introduce new habits.
That effect, according to Dr. Quintero, has little of magic. “September is a bit like January; psychologically we give ourselves permission to start anew. That said, it’s never a bad time to start a change, nor a March 9 or a November 26,” he explains.
Forming a habit does not depend solely on willpower. “The prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain responsible for planning, making decisions, anticipating consequences, that is, it helps us answer the question does this benefit me, even though I feel like doing something else,” explains Dr. Quintero. It is the one that sustains the goal at the beginning, when the change still costs conscious effort. Each time you choose the less appealing but more convenient behavior, it is that part of the brain that is working, decision after decision.
But it has a clear limit, and that limit is what explains why so many goals are abandoned after a few weeks. “The prefrontal cortex has a limited capacity. We cannot sustain all of our changes indefinitely by willpower alone. When we are tired, stressed or overloaded, that executive control falters and we tend to return to the most familiar and automatic responses,” warns Dr. Quintero. It is not a fault of character: it is how the brain is designed to save energy when resources are scarce.
Basal Ganglia and the Role of Dopamine
That’s where the basal ganglia come in, the piece that turns effort into habit. “With the repetition of a behavior, the brain starts associating certain cues with certain responses. Little by little, what initially required effort and conscious decision begins to be carried out more automatically,” explains Dr. Quintero.
The third element is the reward system. “Dopamine should not be understood simply as the neurotransmitter of pleasure, but as a signal closely related to learning, motivation and the anticipation of relevant results,” notes Dr. Quintero. If something feels good, whether it’s satisfaction, pride or simple relief, the brain marks that behavior as one worth repeating.
Javier Quintero, Medical-psychiatrist and Doctor of Medicine.
Why 21 days are not a magical number
About the myth of 21 days to create a habit, the author of a book with that number in the title is emphatic. “There is no fixed rule that tells us exactly how many days we need to create a habit, but certainly not 21, nor 180. Each behavior requires different times and also depends on the person, on the complexity of the behavior, on the frequency with which it is repeated and the context in which it is performed,” explains Dr. Quintero. There are habits that are automatised quickly and others that may require 10,000 hours.
For a September change to stay alive into December, Dr. Quintero proposes starting with concrete and measurable behaviours. “The brain works much better with a clear plan like ‘I will walk twenty minutes after lunch,’ than with ‘this year I will take better care of myself,’” he explains. Associate the new behavior with something you already do, introduce some reward no matter how small, and above all abandon the all-or-nothing logic. “It’s not the failure that destroys the habit, but our interpretation of the failure,” he sums up.
“September does not possess any special neurobiological property, except that we must return to our habits with the start of a new term. We have built a boundary in September, perhaps more powerful than January 1, and our brain can take good advantage of those boundaries,” concludes Dr. Quintero. There is no need to wait for September, or for next Monday, to start changing something small.
