In the book The Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg, the author dedicates a chapter to corporations and how habits affect their business. In this chapter, Duhigg introduces the concept of keystone habits. These are behaviors so powerful that they can change and affect most or all other areas of your life. These habits are important for businesses and are absolutely transformational for the individual.
One of my personal keystone habits is my morning workout. By starting the day doing something positive and productive for myself, it spurs me on to be successful in whatever tasks the day may hold. Not only that, but it gives me a chance to face adversity early on in the day and overcome it. It’s a great analogy for dealing with life, and getting that win when I hit a new PR or lift a heavy weight for reps gives me the mental and emotional strength and belief in myself to face down difficult situations in other areas of my life.
Many a morning I’ve come into the gym stressed about this task or that situation. The presentation I have to give to my team. Getting passed over for promotion or some accolade. The co-worker who pissed me off (probably over something trivial!). I struggle hard in the gym, reaffirm my identity as someone who doesn’t back down from a challenge, and I leave better prepared to face the day. Over time, after days, weeks, months, and years of doing this, someone can become a new, better version of themselves, taking on that ideal identity they’ve been reaching for and assimilating it. You are no longer TRYING to become someone who works out regularly or TRYING to become someone who has grit, you now ARE that person. This is the power of the keystone habit. It makes you better at LIFE.
Below are my current keystone habits. I don’t necessarily complete these all together as a habit stack. It’s more that I don’t feel the day is complete unless I do these at some point. I do think it’s important to accomplish something worthwhile for yourself in the morning however. About five years ago that was practicing my instrument and that worked just as well as working out. First thing in the morning I’d practice for 1-2 hours and doing that work to start the day gave me a sense of success and a feeling of making progress towards a goal each day. It just needs to be challenging but doable (like working on a skill or increasing your knowledge in some way), something that improves you as a person, and something that is enjoyable enough that you can succeed at showing up to complete it each day.
- Meditation – This is a new one for me, but I’ve been doing it regularly and I feel it has a lot of benefits, from stress relief to learning about and deepening my understanding of myself and my relationships to others. 5 min minimum
- Training – I mix it up here but generally focus on strength training centered around the big 3 power lifts i.e. squat, bench, and deadlift. I’ve also been known to practice the Olympic lifts, do steady state or interval style running workouts, hypertrophy training and good ol’ fashioned calisthenics. Lately, I’ve been working on incorporating metcons and Crossfit-style movements/equipment into my regimen. I particularly like the assault bike 😈. Show up, that’s it, that’s the minimum
- Reading – I could almost just say that learning something is my keystone habit, but I’ve decided to make reading my priority. Although I highly value learning new skills and improving the skills I already have, those things take time and sometimes special equipment. Reading is more accessible and offers a wide variety of subjects that I needn’t have a clue about beforehand. I try and read a balance of fiction and non-fiction. 1 page per day minimum
For all of these keystone habits, the priority for me is keeping the habit going and therefore keeping that self-identity strong. To that end, I have minimums for each habit in mind and as long as I accomplish those minimums I consider it a win. This is really helpful for my state of mind (staying positive and feeling like I can win the day) and for continuing to see these activities as positive goals that help me be better, NOT as stressful items that must be checked off each day, less I feel like a failure. What are your keystone habits? How do they help you to be a better person?
