We all want to make our life simpler and easier, and yet we tend to keep on making things complicated one after another.
Sometimes, we may feel why nothing seems to be falling into place, or why we are lagging behind in all areas of our life.
The answer, surprisingly lies in our habits, and more so, our keystone habits.
By utilizing our keystone habits wisely, our lives can get simpler and much more meaningful.
If you don’t know what keystone habits is, it is a term given by Charles Duhigg in his book, ‘The Power of Habit’.
What is keystone habits?
Table of Contents
Keystone habits are those habits that have a chain reaction or a sort of a ripple effect on the other habits or other areas of our life. It is like the foundation for all other things to fall in or fall out of place.
But by utilizing our keystone habits wisely, our lives can get simpler and much more meaningful.
We all have these keystone habits in our lives, even if we may not be aware of them.
For most of us, we engage in negative keystone habits.
Keystone habits examples
For example, if you wake up and the first thing you do is check your phone in the morning everyday, that might be a negative keystone habit that may be affecting your focus, your energy and your mood in the morning as well as your focus all throughout the day.
Another example of a negative keystone habit may be having junk food in the evening after work, which translates to having late dinner that translates to going to bed late and hence waking up late.
When I was a student and living without any focus on improving myself, I remember I would wake up late and because of this one habit, I would skip my breakfast, wake up without motivation, energy and without any intention.
I have gotten rid of many of my negative habits and built good habits since then, but I realize now that I actually need to protect my keystone habits.
My keystone habits
This past month I noticed that I was feeling a bit uninspired and off track, and I noticed that this was because I wasn’t exercising much nor giving time to my prayer and meditation.
There are many habits that support my wellbeing such as going on a walk, journaling in the morning, dancing, reading, etc but I came to realize that all of these habits stood on my keystone habits of exercise and prayer.
So this past week, I renewed my determination again to come back to my discipline.
I decided to take care of just this two keystone habit of exercise and prayer in the morning, and because of just this, I was able to follow my daily routine much better.
When I exercise and pray, somehow things just fall into place.
I drink more water, I eat healthy, I go for walks, I do things slowly and calmly and use my phone much less.
So I realize that in order to be consistent at my other habits, I don’t need to worry much about them, but just protect my two keystone habit of exercise and prayer in the morning.
It could be the same for you too.
So I end this with a journal prompt:
What are your current keystone habits? Which is one negative keystone habit you need to let go of that is making all other areas of your life difficult? Which is one good keystone habit you know will make all other things much easier?
P.S this was a small part of my Mindful Monday Email newsletter. To receive weekly inspiration and update from me, subscribe below.
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