We all know that breaking bad habits or building new habits can be one of the most difficult things we can do.

So today, I wanted to share a key idea from Charles Duhigg’s book The Power of Habit that will increase your chances significantly of creating new positive habits that you can sustain. This key concept is about the important of keystone habits.

The idea behind keystone habits is that:

• there are certain habits that are more important than others;
• it is more important to focus on establishing one keystone habit than focusing on changing many habits at the same time; and
• these habits start a process that, over time, transforms everything in a positive manner.

One crucial aspect of keystone habits is that they provide “small wins” consistently. These small wins provide a small reward each time we stick to the habit that makes it easier to stick with them over time. Small wins also provide confidence that we can achieve even larger goals over time. Mastering keystone habits, therefore, is crucial to building our belief so that we can develop grit and persist in the face of obstacles.

Intrigued? Well, it gets even better…

Keystone habits, as Duhigg notes, actually “shift, dislodge, and remake other patterns,” which makes it easier to leave behind unhealthy bad habits as well.

Some Examples of Keystone Habits

So you are probably wondering, which habits are the kind worth focusing on as keystone habits?

• Regular exercise: Researchers have found that regular exercise has a number of positive ripple effects. People who begin an exercise routine (even just once a week) start making healthier choices about food, are more patient with family and colleagues, and feel less stressed. This habit makes building other good habits easier. (And this doesn’t have to be going to the gym to lift weights, it can be joining a dance class, yoga class or a sports team.)

• Eating dinner together as a family: This keystone habit helps children build better homework skills, great emotional control and more confidence.

• Making your bed daily: Making your bed daily correlates with better productivity, a greater sense of well-being, and more discipline at sticking to a budget. (And if you haven’t seen this video on the importance of making your bed as a keystone habit by Admiral William McRaven, check it out here!)

• Keeping a daily food log: This keystone habit can help create opportunities to keep healthy snacks at your desk, plan healthy meals and change our relationships with food (shifting from feelings of depression and guilt to feelings of agency and control).

• Regular gatherings of a supportive group of friends with a similar vision: Daily or weekly gatherings with like-minded friends can create a culture of support, build accountability mechanisms, and help build resilience in the face of obstacles. This can help to encourage us when we are struggling or feeling down and helps keep us on track in building positive habits.

• Drink enough water every day: This will improve how you feel, reduce the amount of sugary drinks you consume, and will ripple into other healthy choices in what you are drinking and eating.

So these are just some ideas of keystone habits that once in place can start to have a domino effect of positive change in our lives.

And for those parents out there, having your children involved in sports or music or art helps them build a keystone habit. This keystone habits require practice, discipline and patience, which help them build the skills of self-regulation, willpower, and grit.

So if you’re overwhelmed with how to get started to creating transformative change in our life, pick one keystone habit. Stick with it for the next three months and then assess what changes have happened in your life – I bet that one change will ripple out to have many positive impacts!

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P.S. In a previous article Four Mindset Shifts to Help You Stick to Your Exercise Routine, I shared two additional tips about effectively building new habits from James Clear’s book Atomic Habits: mastering the art of showing up and habit-stacking. Starting with a keystone habit – just one – and then mastering the art of showing up and habit-stacking will help you start to ingrain that habit into your life.

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