It is almost time for New Year’s Eve, which means it is almost time to set up your new year’s resolution… In years past, I usually come up with goals in several categories between health, faith, business, and family. I create several goals in each category. Some are simple, like read 3 books. Others are difficult and specific: Flip 20 houses in a specific state.. Right now I am reading “The Power of Habit” by Charles Duhigg. His opening chapter talks about a keystone habit concept for change…
They interviewed a woman who was previously overweight, a heavy smoker, and genuinely unhealthy.. Now she was a non smoker, completely healthy, had lost an enormous amount of weight, and participates in marathons.. Now for her New Year’s Resolution, it would have been easy to list all those things as goals.. For her it was simpler.. When one habit was fixed, the rest fell in to place… Now this was the obvious one… She had a moment, where she decided to swear off smoking, so she did.. That was her only plan and intention, and the book defines why the moment occurred. More importantly, what ended up snowballing was the rest… She ended up exercising and running to deal with her cravings. As a result, she wanted to start eating healthier.. As a result, she lost a ton of weight… As a result, she started focusing on running better.. As a result, she started competing in marathons…
So a keystone habit defined in his book, is a habit that is such a significant change, it ends up changing everything in your life… Other examples could be something like: I want to eat 100% organic. As a result, you wouldn’t eat fast food anymore, you would plan your meals and shopping trips more carefully, you would stop drinking soda.. You would likely see some quick physical changes leading to a desire to exercise, maybe help others eat well etc… It would cost more money to eat, so you would need to re-prioritize your finances. By placing the value of your health above other things, it may lead to other healthy self care habits.. Make sense?
So when looking at your goals for next year, what is the keystone habit? What is the giant shift, that if you accomplish it, most of your other goals will fall in to place.. Could be about making more money, increasing business, or increasing health.. Challenge yourself to find the habit, one big goal, announce it to the world and follow it, and much more will happen..
My keystone habit goal this year? Finish a 70.3 Ironman in May with some of my friends.. I usually have tons of things like exercise a certain amount of times in a gym, and with a trainer, and eat right, blah blah blah… But by making this my #1 focus this year, the rest will happen the way it needs to. I’ll be forced to train a ton, eat healthier, choose exercise and training over tv.. I’ll even read more audiobooks (We train 1-2 hours per day), get plenty of meditation time, prayer, etc..
Recent Comments