30 or 40 Days to Change a Habit?

I came across in interesting concept in this article on Steve Pavlina’s excellent website. Its basic premise is that sometimes when we make an intention to change something in our life or get rid of a bad habit, we find the thought of the long trek ahead towards that change becoming concrete daunting. Pavlina’s idea is that we don’t say “I will never smoke/swear/eat junk again” as this feels too difficult, but to abstain from the habit or to execute the new one only for 30 days. He argues that the idea that “I will not smoke/swear/eat junk for the next 30 days and then go back to what I did before if I want to” is much more manageable. The added bonus is that if we have abstained/acted on our intention for 30 days, chances are that we will stick to our original habit. Another benefit he mentions is that it gives us the opportunity to experiment, so we might make the change and realise that it didn’t benefit us – for instance with turning vegetarian or trying out a new hobby.

I thought I would give this a go with something I have always found challenging – sugar. I am finding myself not drinking enough water and drinking coke with every meal instead. So just for the next 30 days I will drink no coke and drink water instead. One thing I know about coke is that although it is very mildly addictive because it seems to make you more thirsty instead of quenching your thirst, if you don’t drink it for a while, you lose your inclination towards it completely (Long-Suffering Sister and my Cousin A haven’t drunk fizzy drinks in years).

I was discussing this with my husband when we went for a walk last night (him listening and me panting hard from trying to walk fast and talk very fast and non-stop at the some time) and he liked the idea, except he mentioned one thing which I thought was interesting.

He says in Islam the indication is that it takes 40 days to change a habit, not 30. Some examples of this that I found were:

And remember We appointed forty nights for Moses, and in his absence ye took the calf (for worship), and ye did grievous wrong ~ Al-Quran (2:51)

The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “Whoever drinks alcohol and gets drunk, his prayer will not be accepted for forty days and if he dies he will go to Hell. But if he repents, Allaah will accept his repentance. ~ Ibn Maajah (3377).

"The creation of everyone of you starts with the process of collecting the material for his body within forty days and forty nights in the womb of his mother. Then he becomes a clot of thick blood for a similar period (40 days) and then he becomes like a piece of flesh for a similar period. Then an angel is sent to him (by Allah) and the angel is allowed (ordered) to write four things; his livelihood, his (date of) death, his deeds, and whether he will be a wretched one or a blessed one (in the Hereafter) and then the soul is breathed into him.” ~ Bukhari (93:546)

There is also a curious link here that indicates the significance of the period of 40 days in the lives of some of the Prophets (AS).

Okay, so maybe 40 days without cola then.
What would you try to abstain for from 40 days?