Forming Keystone Habits
Pursuing the Identities We Seek
Image by Mike Cox from Unsplash
Don’t care for rules and rigidity? Habits are the opposite of rigid, the opposite of limiting. Well-considered habits are all about ease and automaticity. Habits very much determine the tenor of our days, and KEYSTONE HABITS have the potential to become part of our identity.
Keystone is a term borrowed from the field of masonry and architecture. Keystones are wedge-shaped bricks or stones that are placed in the center of an arch. The keystone is the last piece to be placed, as the keystone locks all components of an arch together and allows it to bear weight. The term keystone is frequently used as a metaphor for strength. Keystones symbolize essential elements or principles on which all else depends.
Keystone habits are foundational core habits, the routines and practices by which someone operates. We engage in keystone habits independent of willpower, motivation or persuasion. In the beginning, crafting a positive habit requires intention and strategy. Crafting a habit requires willpower until it reaches the point of automaticity and eventually identity. Once a behavior becomes part of your identity, simply something that you do, that behavior has become a keystone habit.
People often fail to develop particular behaviors because they fail to form habits that lead to the behavior and identity they seek to adopt. To create habits around the behaviors we hope to develop, we must be deliberate. We must be INTENTIONAL about the identity we seek and are forming. Setting yourself up for success when creating a new habit involves setting cues to get yourself moving in the right direction, removing barriers that stand between you and the habit, and over time, create a mini-system or routine around the new habit. Let’s look at five steps to creating a new habit, in this case RUNNING, in the scenario below.
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New Habit Launch — One Example
Do you want to add runner to your identity? Below are five go-to steps to forming a running habit. The steps shown here can be modified to create a variety of habits. Steps to becoming a runner include:
Create a cue that it’s time to run, and make that cue obvious. How? Lay out your clothes, shoes — EVERYTHING that you’ll need for your run the night before.
Stack the new habit onto an existing habit. Habit stacking is adding a new behavior to your day by stacking it before, after, or between existing consistent habits. Stack running between existing habits (example: I run MWF after coffee and before checking email.)
Make it easy to run by making success CONVENIENT & ATTRACTIVE (great new gear is laid out) and EASY (complete a minimum two-minute, pre-coffee jog MWF).
Remove all friction points. Attend to any obstacle that could/will make a two-minute run the next morning difficult or less likely. Rise 20 minutes earlier on running days, get gear that you’re excited to wear, no email or social media until the run is complete, etc..
Do what runners do. Keep your eye on the systems and habits of runners. Do what runners do for a minimum two minutes three mornings a week for four weeks, and you’re on your way to a keystone habit.
Keystone habits are gold-standard practices. They are habits that over time transcend willpower. Keep your eye on systems and process and you are on your way to curating a behavior that becomes part of your identity, a behavior that is simply something you do.
Forming positive habits hinges on making cues obvious, on habit stacking, on making desired behaviors easy and attractive, on removing friction points, and on focusing on systems and identity-formation.
Be measured, be intentional, enjoy the process of trying new things, and the process of making what works for you STICK! Good luck and thanks for reading.