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Adapting to life changes
Hello, The Power Moves Community
As some of you may already know, I am currently serving my country in the military. There I have been able to observe some interesting social dynamics in the newly formed (not so volunteer) groups. Today I would like to share one of my observations with you.
In the middle of my 7th week of service, I observed a strange feeling. It was as if our group (about 50 recruits) had collectively exhaled the social anxiety we had felt upon arrival. In the beginning, you were practically thrown into cold water, and you didn't know anyone. The first interactions with a lot of people were also tense and people were mostly focused on themselves to survive the s*** we were thrown into. But after week 7, even the people you had never or rarely talked to were so relaxed in the conversations you started; it was like a 180-degree turnaround. So, I wondered and started researching. Finally, I found this:
"Habit formation can take an average of 59 to 70 days. According to a 2021 study, it can take about 59 days for a new habit to become automatic."
https://psychcentral.com/health/need-to-form-a-new-habit#building-a-habit
Even though this is not a new habit, I think you can draw some important parallels here. I've often felt that when I've had major life changes (especially in my social circle) that I've adapted to the new situation after about 7-8 weeks. Whether it was changing schools, traveling for an extended period, starting a job, losing a social circle, adjusting to new social circles, or military service.
I think this also relates somewhat to the 21/90 rule which states that it takes around 21 days to become accustomed to a new routine and environment and that it may take up to 90 days or more to fully integrate the changes into one’s daily life and make them a permanent part.
What are your experiences/additions in relation to what I said above?
Cheers!
Hello Roberto,
my answer is: "it depends". I think there is a high variation between individual in mutual adaptation and/or adaptation to an environment. So I'm not entirely sure this can be expressed with specific and/or accurate numbers. For instance, in this article on the culture shock, they talk about an adaptation around 3 months "depending on the individual". In medicine, we tend to think gross timescales in terms of days vs weeks vs months. So in this case I think this type of adaptation it is in the months scale.
Based on my experience, my adaptation to a new work environment varies between 2 months and 4 months. During my time in the army, the bonding depended on the similarity. It took me less time to adapt to the swiss french than the swiss german. So my opinion is that there are probably several variables: the group (gender composition, ethnicity, language, etc.) and the environment (including rules, weather, type of experience shared, selection pressure: "need for survival", etc.).
