A keystone habit is a term that is introduced by Charles Duhigg (author of The Power of Habit). Let’s get more into this.
Most of us want to improve our life. But a better life needs better habits. Habits play an important role in our life. But habits do have a pattern. Some habits are important and some are not. Some habits are stubborn and some habits are fragile. So it’s important to understand the habits.
What is a keystone habit?
A keystone habit is a single habit that leads to other habits in your life. We can say it is a rooted habit to sustain other habits in life.
It has more potential than other habits. It has more potential to transform your entire life. A keystone habit is a habit that sparks the chain reaction for other habits.
The keystone habit creates a domino effect.
What is the Domino Effect?
The Domino effect is basically a cause and effect term and chain of events.
It means when you change the main habit. It will activate a chain reaction of other good habits. And other habits related to keystone habit started shifting their patterns.
So coming back to the keystone habit
We consciously don’t work on the habits. But keystone habits lead other habits to develop. So all habits are the byproduct of keystone habits.
Example of keystone habit chain reaction.
This is Jasmine. She was a junk food lover. Once she started running. She found herself eating less junk food. Junk food was her way to handle stress at the office. Basically she was stress eating. But running was the best alternative for stress management. Because of running her body was back in the shape. And her sleep also improved.
She’s now sleeping better. And her sleep is sound and healthy now. She awake refreshed. Now she turns out to be more productive at work. So she gets the promotion.
She’s happier now. So she’s also looking for persuing her hobby too. She started learning cooking. Because of her running, she started making more nutritious food. As she quit the junk food and cooking most of her meal herself. She’s spending less money. So she started to save more money.
Jasmine became the whole new person within six months. But she didn’t try to make all the changes altogether. The only change she started to make at first was ” running “. So the Domino effect happen and resulted in forming the other habits.
This is the power of Keystone Habit.
One good habit leads to many good habits. You just need to give a push to transform yourself for the better. But remember one thing your all habits are unstable without keystone habit. You need to constantly work on your positive keystone habits. You can’t drop that, you can’t give up on that.
One thing to keep in mind; there are damaging keystone habits too. So take care of that too. Don’t pursue them. A positive habit makes you a better person but a damaging keystone habit can do worse to you. So one should always keep this thing in mind.
You need to build a good keystone habit and need to break a bad keystone habit.
Choose better, for better.
So there are some examples of Keystone habits you must acquire.
You must acquire a keystone habit from the health Trinity.
Health Trinity include –
Exercise
Diet
Good sleep
All of these habits can create many good habits further. Good exercise, a good diet, and good sleep are the root of a healthy life. And when you’re healthy you do better in all aspects of life. Of course step by step. So it will be better if you’ll choose all three of them or one by one as a keystone habit. If I’d to choose from these three I’ll choose sleep first.
Because I believe is good sleep is the best keystone habit one can acquire from the health Trinity. When you sleep better everything turns out to be better eventually the next day. You can be able to give your best mentally as well physically.
Another example is tracking yourself and good planning.
Make a plan for your day, week, or month. Sit down and think about what you’re going to do in the upcoming days. Make a chart. Note that. Prioritize your things.
When you plan everything, start tracking your activities. Start to track whether you’ve done your things or not. How many important works you’ve done and how many you’ve skipped. Track your health vitals, track your financial data.
Without planning and tracking, we don’t remember things perfectly. We cannot know whether we’re doing it right or not. So this is an important keystone habit.
One of the most important keystone habits I’ll suggest is meditation.
We often think we’re busy. We don’t have time for meditation. It will not adjust to my daily routine. But this is important, trust me.
This will take a bit of your time and benefit you in many ways.
Better self-control
Calmness in the busy life
Decreased stress
Decreased anxiety
Better attention
Think and ask yourself what you’re doing to take a break from this busy life? Do you think you need a mental break?
The answer should be yes according to me. Until unless you’re a robot. So you really need to rest your brain which is constantly working. So do try meditation as a good keystone habit.
What is the rule of changing habits?
Improving you and your lifestyle is not as difficult as it seems. You can do it by adopting a good keystone habit and it will lead to form other habits. You just need to choose better for something better.
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