What is a Keystone Habit?

Imagine....You are down a path that is not all that beneficial for you; but, regardless, that is where you are presently. What will it take to make a change that will benefit you -- if not immediately -- in the long run that is life. Whether you are going through a hard time at home, at work or just life in general, how can you change that one habit that gets you in trouble? That habit could be anything from complaining about how much work you have and being negative all day to eating mindless amounts of junk food due to stress or simply being sedentary 24/7. You name it, but you are caught in a cycle you feel helpless in getting out of most of the time. 

Clearly there can and should be a need to seek clinical help if warranted, but how about the rest of us that are living our lives on a day to day trying to eat right, be productive and make the most out of life? There is no need to "Go Big or Go Home", but attempting small and doable goals would get you on the path to potentially doubling up on habits that you'll want to keep now and in the future. 

Author Charles Duhigg, tells us in his book "The Power of Habit" that "Keystone Habits lead to the development of multiple good habits. They start a chain effect in your life that produces a number of positive outcomes". So take exercise as an example. What if you challenged yourself to start out doing 30 minutes of exercise a day. It doesn't have to be 30 straight minutes of exercise, but if you believe you "loathe" exercise with a passion, how can you break it up into 10 minute segments that don't really seem like heavy-duty exercise? What about taking the stairs at work if you are on the 4th floor instead of the elevator for example. What about doing a set of 10 pushups every time you get up to go the bathroom or even 10 jumping jacks, particularly if you have a sedentary job. You see what I mean? You begin to build on a habit that has positive outcomes and that allows you to build on a healthier lifestyle. Don't you want to feel better?

The nice thing about working on creating a keystone habit is that it has a tendency to become like a ripple effect of positive outcomes in your life that you may not have even realized could exist. What if you are more productive at work? What if you are happier with your spouse instead of being that 'cranky morning person'? What if you were more considerate of your 'work peeps' because you've begun to develop some awesome habits that you didn't even know you could consistently do? So, what's stopping you from starting off small and ending in a 'big way'. You may not want to start your trek down a new road; but, remember the benefits that you will receive once you start to see the ripple effect of healthy habits. Now that is incentive, wouldn't you say?

Create a Healthy Mindset with these 7 Psychological Hacks

December went by at warp-speed and now here we are in mid-January -- a new year with what hopes to be a year of growth, promise and prosperity. In thinking about this though, how many of us slow down enough to really think about that. Sure, we say we will stick to our New Year's resolutions, but what happens when we get derailed? Do we just say "forget about it" and move on or do we jump back into what we say we were going to do in the first place? I'm not really one for New Year's resolutions anyway, but I suppose the new year could give us a reason to reflect on what we've done so far in our lives and what things we would like to be doing now and in the upcoming year and beyond.

As I was reviewing one of my favorite motivational books - 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Covey shares some powerful thoughts on perspective which gives good cause to perhaps even re-think the way we may see things in general. One of his quotes "Two people can see the same thing, disagree, and yet both be right. It's not logical; it's psychological". With that said, it brings me to this good article I found on what we can do when we are low on motivation along with 7 Psychological Hacks to re-boot our mindset to a healthier one. So how about applying the 7 Hacks in order to gain a refreshed perspective on how we really can set some seriously good goals and 'kick start' the year in the right direction?

(1) Visualize Your Long-Term Goals: Even research suggests that visualization is powerful and can empower us to create a potentially awesome future for ourselves if we apply ourselves to do just that. So how about not only having the long-term goal of a successful career, but also focus on the shorter-term goals of being consistent, continually getting better at what we do and simply being positive in knowing that what we do is meaningful and purposeful. If not immediately, consistency pays off in the long run no doubt. Visualize what the payoff will be to yourself and your loved ones when you know that your hard work was worth it in the end. If it takes visualizing being on a beach sipping a nice cool drink beachside or swimming with sharks just do it! The visualization process is all up to you.

(2) Start your task: By at least starting a task that you may not be all that fond of starting, you are setting yourself up for success. Think about how good it will feel at the end of the day when you know you started a task that you were not looking forward to starting in the first place. Who knows, you may start on the task and get further along than you even thought. It is all about perspective and trying to see it through a new lens so to speak.

(3) Set a timer. Ok, so Monday morning rolls around -- how can you make it different? better? How about setting a timer -- even if it's on your phone -- with the purpose of working a solid 45 or 50 minutes before taking a break. Everyone is a little different so the minutes may change, but regardless the works needs to get done anyway, so why not make the most of your valuable time and spend it in the most efficient way? You will thank yourself for doing it. As the article indicates, studies show that there is an average optimal work-break split for everyone. Read the article to find out what it is and find out what works best for you.

(4) Tell someone what you plan to do. There really is nothing like telling someone at work, a friend or even family member what you plan on accomplishing in the next "x" amount of time. There will be a time when they ask you how things are going with the intended goal. This is just another way to keep up on accountability.

(5) Change your self-talk. This can definitely be a mental challenge, right? We all have self-talk going on inside of us. That little voice inside of us that tells us we can or can't do something. It's all perspective. How do we see things? Instead of believing a challenge at work is one that may be too difficult, why not instead turn our self-talk into something more positive where we see the challenge as totally doable and worth completing successfully. As the article points out, "positive self-talk leads to higher motivation, better self-esteem and an elevated mood, while negative self-talk leads to the opposite".

(6) Keep a task list. In keeping a nice task list going throughout the day, you can just scratch the task off the list. Doesn't that make you feel good? Even if the task may be a small one, by writing it down and completing it, a sense of accomplishment happens and we therefore become more empowered to do even more.

(7) Establish consequences. This is a good one! Even if we don't necessarily need to be accountable to anyone in particular -- namely a boss or work colleague -- what happens to those self-employed folks who create their own work schedules? What happens to them if they don't complete a projected task or make a client unhappy with their work? There really are consequences to pretty much anything and everything if we think about it. What is the consequence to not finishing high school? What is the consequence to choosing a bad partner? What is the consequence to making your boss unhappy with your performance? What is the consequence to eating food that lacks nutritional balance? You get the idea. There are consequences to everything, but it is all perspective in how we approach the task to be completed, even if unpleasant, it will pay off in the end.

By becoming more aware of our surroundings, our perspective and our attitudes, we really can accomplish so much. Let's make every Monday one to look forward to instead of one to avoid at all cost.