High ROI of Discipline: Create Keystone Habits

If you’re looking to improve your entire life, turn your attention to keystone habits. These habits pack a punch, acting as the soil from which other habits grow.

So, rather than investing your resources in ordinary habits, it’s imperative to allocate your time, willpower, and energy toward creating positive keystone habits. Discover how these habits work, plus six keystone habits you can implement in your life for greater success.

How to Identify a Keystone Habit

How do you distinguish an ordinary habit from a keystone habit? Consider these three characteristics. Keystone habits:

1. Provide you with a sense of victory.
2. Act as the soil from which other habits grow.
3. Give you the energy and confidence to do more.

How Keystone Habits Work

Consider the concept of keystone habits in terms of financial value. Envision choosing between purchasing a chicken that lays one egg per day for $100 or a chicken that lays five eggs per day for the same price. Assuming you like eggs, the choice is obvious. Investing in the chicken that yields more eggs daily gives you greater value for your money. The same holds true for your habits.

Every time you adopt a habit, you invest valuable resources such as?willpower , time, and?energy ?into it. Rather than squandering these resources on ordinary habits, it’s wise to focus on?keystone habits?that yield the highest ROI.

These high-leverage habits create a domino effect that allows you to instill other positive habits more effectively. For example, forming the good habit of getting eight hours of sleep each night will likely lead to other positive habits, such as waking up early, exercising before work, and eating a healthy breakfast. So, instilling?just this one?healthy habit can lead to many other positive habits.

Now keep in mind that this works the same way for?bad habits . One negative habit can lead you down a dark spiral of other not-so-good habits. Take, for example, the consequences of developing a drinking habit. It’s highly probable that this habit would lead to other unhealthy behaviors, like drug use. Similarly, a habit of staying up too late can lead to other bad habits like?overeating sugar ?or consuming?lots of caffeine .

So, if your goal is to use your willpower to eradicate a negative habit, it’s wise to choose one that acts as a gateway to other unhealthy behaviors (a keystone habit). By eliminating that one bad habit, you’ll likely find that you can eradicate the other unhealthy habits that follow.

6 Positive Keystone Habits to Implement

To propel yourself towards success and fulfillment, consider integrating the following keystone habits into your life:

1. Getting eight hours of?sleep :?This can provide you with the energy to perform other positive habits.
2. Waking up early:?This can give you more time to exercise before work, meditate, and cook a healthy breakfast.
3. Meditating :?This can lead to a daily?yoga practice ?and other stress-reducing habits.
4. Planning your day in advance:?This can lead to working on your other habits if you schedule them in.
5. Practicing?gratitude :?This can lead to other positive mindsets.
6. Working with a?coach :?This can help you adopt numerous positive habits in your life and eradicate negative ones.

Once you’ve chosen the keystone habits you’d like to implement in your life, establish an accountability strategy to stay on track with your goals, such as utilizing an?app for building habits ?or enlisting the help of a?coach .

The Bottom Line

Just as a keystone holds an entire arch together, keystone habits support your overall habits in life. With their support, everything falls into place more effortlessly and efficiently.

Get started on your journey towards better habits by downloading the?Arootah Habit Coach App ?today.