Keystone habits are those activities that which, by doing that one thing, all the other things seem to follow effortlessly. In all, this is great news. There’s no need to exhaust your willpower changing every little thing at once. Choose the right habit and watch the ripple effect.
Developing a new habit or changing a bad habit (I’ve read that you can’t really get rid of habits, only replace them), takes willpower. When I think about my own journey to become healthier again I remember wanting so badly to be able to change everything at once. To wake up one morning and be ready to meditate, exercise, write, eat healthfully . . . and then I would get frustrated and kick off a shame spiral when I could not do all those things.
When you read about keystone habits there are a few common ones proven and often quoted: getting enough sleep, making your bed, running, keeping a food journal . . .
That last one saw the most dramatic change in my habits and ultimately my happiness. I was so against tracking my food. I didn’t want any part of the calorie obsessed nonsense. But the truth was I was disheartened that nothing I did – the exercise and my own judgement that I was eating healthier – brought about any change. So when tracking my food was suggested to me at the peak of my frustration I said ‘fuck it’ and gave it a try.
Tracking my food ultimately led me to be more mindful of what I was eating. I had no idea about what kind of food I was consuming before. No sense of whether I was actually hungry or not when I was eating. No idea of portion size. Really, I wasn’t thinking at all. I was following my emotions as they tugged me from one craving to the next.
As I became more mindful, all of this changed. And suddenly I was exercising like I hadn’t been before too. And I wasn’t drinking alcohol as I had been. And the energy I had led to writing more, reading more . . . nearly a year later that one decision has significantly impacted my life and happiness for the better.
This isn’t supposed to be my sell on food journaling (there’s definitely a downside to the focus I’ve put on my body this past year that I’ve blogged about before), but I do think it’s worth reflecting on what habits you have or could pursue they will reverberate out into the rest of your life.
I’m listening to The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg right now which has me thinking about habits again, but Gretchen Rubin’s book Better Than Before and her wonderful podcast Happier really got me started on being more intentional about my habits. Highly recommend.
With Love,
Natalie