Keystone Habits
The key you’re missing to meet your health goals.
Health habits are like gas for your car.
What would happen to your car without gas? Obviously, it wouldn’t move. You need gas to go places. You need gas just to start your car. If you don’t have it, your travel plans are going to end before they start. If you have it, you can go on countless adventures.
Keystone habits can have the same affect on your health. Ignore these habits and you will likely dance around your health goals without ever achieving them.
In this post I’ll describe keystone habits, how they effect your life, and how they can help you achieve your health goals.
Keystone Habits Explained
A keystone habit is one habit that causes a series of other choices in your life. Something you do repeatedly and automatically that leads you to make other decisions throughout your day.
In his book, The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg shares the story of a woman named Lisa. At one point in her life Lisa was overweight, had a chronic smoking habit, and was deeply in debt. But 4 years later Lisa had run a marathon, bought a house, and started a master’s degree. What caused this change for Lisa? A change in one particular habit, her keystone habit.
For Lisa it was smoking. In order to reach her initial goal of trekking across the desert, she knew her smoking habit was the main thing she needed to change. Focusing on that one habit started a chain reaction of habit and life transformation.
How keystone habits Affect your life and health
If you build a good keystone habit, it will lead to other good decisions throughout your day. The opposite is also true.
For example, if you kiss your spouse every morning before you head off to work, you’ll be more likely to speak kind words to them throughout the day, greet them happily when you get home, and forgive quickly.
But if you grab a donut for breakfast every morning as you’re rushing to work, you’ll likely reach for caffeine and other sugary foods throughout the day and crash on the couch in the evening. This is a perfect example of how your keystone health habit can make or break your health goals.
How to identify your keystone habits and meet your health goals
What is your keystone health habit? What ONE action determines what you eat, how calm your thoughts are, and if you exercise that day?
My keystone habit is recording my food. Building that one habit has changed the way I eat and think about food. Practically it has helped me improve portion sizes, reduce evening snacking, and given me greater motivation to workout. (It is also the ONE health habit that has allowed me to maintain a healthy weight. You can read more about weight loss here.)
For you it could be your morning routine. Wake up with enough time to make a healthy breakfast, exercise, or spend time reading and you’ll likely choose better options for lunch, have more energy for your run after work, and feel less anxious.
Identifying a keystone habit can be tricky. But it’s worth the investigation. Once you identify the keystone health habit that is the springboard for multiple others, attack it with determination and perseverance. Then, watch other habits change instantly or more easily as a result.
If you’d like to read more about habits, check out one of my favorite posts I’ve ever written here!
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