What new keystone habits do you want to develop?

Are you looking for habits to develop that will change your life? Do you want to live a different life, be fitter, more successful, more sociable have a better career or money? All of these wants can come about by changing the habits that you have now into habits that are going to be in place forever and that will make monumental change happen.

What is a keystone habit?

Charles Duhigg in his book “The Power of Habit“ coined the phrase keystone habit. These small habits lead to routines that can impact unintentionally other areas of our lives. They are according to Duhigg, “that central stone in an arch which locks the whole structure together.”

A keystone is a stone at the top of an arch, which keeps the other stones in place by their weight and position. (Collins English Dictionary) A keystone is essential to the structure of an archway, it locks all of the other components in place and allows it to bear weight.

Without it, the arch would be unstable and would fall. This is the same as keystone habits, they are essential to all of the other habits that you have in life, helping you to live a healthier, more organised and happier life.

Habits are something we all have in our lives, whether good or bad and they impact other areas. If you have a healthy eating habit, then this is going to positively affect other areas of your life such as your health and fitness. If you have a smoking habit, then this will have a negative impact on your life.

These habits we will have developed over many years but what if we were to create keystone habits that could transform our lives?

A keystone habit sparks reactions in other areas of our lives to bring positive results. With this in mind, it is important to develop keystone habits that will positively impact your life.

21 Keystone Habits to Develop to transform your life

1. Plan your day in advance

Planning out your day in advance is a great tool to get you organised and prevent you from being stressed and harried day to day.

Taking time the night before to plan out your day can highlight the essential tasks you need to prioritise and help you manage your time more effectively.

It can also mean that nothing gets missed from your schedule.

Having this as a keystone habit can mean that you could also free up time for things that you enjoy doing, and can make you calmer and less stressed.

Once you get into the habit of planning your day in advance, you can then move on to developing the keystone habit of planning your week in advance to maximise your time and output.

2. Develop a regular exercise routine

Exercise has many positive side effects that will add a lot of value to your life. Developing a regular exercise routine as a keystone habit will encourage you to eat healthier meals.

Regular exercise also promotes emotional and psychological well-being and physical health.

It has been shown that regular exercise aids better sleep patterns and less stress and also helps boost confidence and self-esteem.

3. Focus on what you eat

What you consume has major implications for your physical and emotional health. Developing a healthy diet as a keystone habit will aid your overall well-being. Making sure that you have a diet packed full of fruit and vegetables, and limiting processed food, alcohol and sugars will also mean that you have more concentration, feel happier and have less stress.

As well as watching what you eat, it is also a good idea to track when you are eating and set regular eating times. This will prevent you from missing meals or over-eating

4. Practice daily meditation

Meditation helps to focus the mind and allows us to channel our thoughts.

By practising meditation every day, you can begin to increase awareness of what is going on in your mind, and you can begin to train your mind to focus on rational thoughts that will help you as opposed to irrational thoughts that will damage you.

Meditation can help to identify negative habits and can help to develop positive keystone habits. As well as aiding the mind, meditation also has positive effects on the body.

It can help to lower blood pressure, reduce stress and anxiety and can help you to lead a healthier lifestyle.

5. Sleep well

We are all aware of how important a good night’s sleep is for our physical and mental well-being and yet so many of us neglect this crucial component of good health. The health benefits of sleep range from;

• helping to maintain a healthy weight,

• reduces stress and anxiety,

• promotes good heart health,

• helps the body to repair itself,

• aids concentration and cognitive function,

• helps tackle depression,

  With all of the benefits, it’s staggering that so many people don’t get enough sleep. Aiming for 7-8 hours of good quality sleep every night is a keystone habit that will help your mind and body to perform well every day

6. Maintain good self-discipline

To develop a habit and stick to it, you need to have self-discipline, there’s no doubt about that. No matter how much you feel that you want to change, if you aren’t disciplined with yourself then you will find that very quickly you can slip back into your old ways. You need to be aware of your strengths and weaknesses, remove temptations from your life and be diligent every day.

7. Physical Stretching

Physical stretching is an excellent keystone habit to develop, regardless of your age. This is a habit that if executed every day, will carry you through to your later years in great shape.

When we are younger, it is so easy to forget that one day we will be older and not as agile.

By practising some stretching routines every day, your body will stay supple and you will be able to ward off injuries, stiffness and lack of mobility far better.

8. Prepare your Meals in advance

Advanced meal prep is a great way to make sure that you eat healthily every day. By deciding in advance what you are going to eat for each meal and prepping it, you will avoid the temptation to eat junk food or snack on unhealthy food keeping you slimmer, healthier and happier.

9. Read each day

One great keystone habit to undertake that can be easily incorporated into your day is to read.

Reading is a wonderful exercise in so many ways. It is an excellent way to relax, improves speech and grammar and imparts so much knowledge.

Every day is an opportunity to learn and people who constantly learn, continue to grow in every area of their lives.

Pick up a book and see where it takes you.

10. Positively visualize your day and life going well

Every morning when you awake, spend five minutes positively visualising your day and your life going well. Whether you are working or it is a day off, this practice means that you begin each day in a positive frame of mind, looking for the good in life. With this habit in place, you are far more likely to have positive things happen to you and will be happier and more optimistic as a result.

11. Journal your thoughts

Journaling is another positive, affirmative habit to develop. You don’t need to write pages every day, sometimes a few words or bullets points are enough but getting into the habit of jotting down your thoughts or anything that is on your mind can have a very positive effect on your life, from removing stress and anxiety, helping with depression and allowing you to see your life in a different way. The power of journaling can have far-reaching effects on everything you do.

12. Be grateful for everything

You can’t have too much gratitude in life, for the more grateful you are, the more you will have to be grateful for.

Gratitude is a very simple concept and yet is one that many people struggle with. They believe that it is the abundance of material possessions you should be grateful for and without them, you have nothing to offer gratitude to.

This is a very misguided concept. There is so much in life to be grateful for, even the simple everyday things that you can take for granted such as running water, roads or a sunny day. Look deeply into your life and you will discover an abundance of things to be grateful for and then give thanks for them every day.

13. Use positive self-talk and affirmations

Have you ever really listened to the self-talk that you say? The words that you use to describe yourself or the way that you sometimes berate yourself? If you did you would probably be appalled and yet negative self-talk is such a common occurrence. Get into the habit of using positive self-talk and affirmations to really boost your confidence and make you feel good about yourself. This will have a very positive effect on all areas of your life and will boost your confidence and attitude towards yourself no end.

14. Build and Review your goals daily

When you set goals for yourself, it is a good idea to review them daily to make sure that you are staying true to them and that they are moving forward in the way that you intended. By doing this, you can also build new goals into what you are doing.

15. Keep your life in balance

Everything runs smoothly in life with balance, so make sure to the best of your ability to keep your life in balance. Work/life balance, social life, exercise, diet and self-care all need to be balanced to make your life run in harmony.

Too much of one and not enough of something else can very quickly tip the scales and throw your life and harmony out of balance. Make balance a major keystone habit to have a happy, productive and healthy life.

16. Be mindful and stay in the moment

Try as much as possible to live in the moment. Dwelling on something that happened in the past or worrying about the future is just wasting time and energy. The only thing that you ever have control over is the present and this is only the one place that you are truly living so be mindful and stay in the present moment.

17. Don’t forget about “me time”

Self-care or “me” time is fundamentally important if you are to live a healthy, happy, contented life. If you are someone who always puts the needs and wants of others before your own then you probably experience many negative thoughts and feelings in your life. There will always be times when doing something for another person is needed but they have to be balanced with you looking after yourself and making you a priority.

18. Think about the people you care about

Family and friends are often the bedrock of life but can so easily be taken for granted at times.

Think about the people you care about and who care about you and make them a priority in your life.

It is all too easy at times to forget about people you care about but they need to be at the forefront of your mind so make it a habit to check in with them and incorporate them into your life.

Imagine how your life would be without them and it is easy then to see how much value they add.

19. Allocate time for fun

No matter how busy you are, there is always time for fun in life and it is essential to make sure that you incorporate some fun into yours. Whether it is meeting up with friends or family or doing something that makes you smile on your own, make sure that having fun is a habit that you practice as much as possible.

20. Develop focus as a habit

Having an acute level of focus in life can help you in many ways. Being focused on your health, career, money, family and friends or exercise can all add great positives to your overall well-being.

Practice being focused every day in some form or another and you will soon see huge benefits arising.

21. Keep in touch with nature

Being in touch with nature is a keystone habit that can give you so much in life.

Nature can have an amazingly positive effect, from helping with stress and anxiety to keeping you fit and healthy.

Getting outside every day into nature can be very restorative even if it’s only for fifteen minutes. Make this a daily habit and in return, you will feel happier, calmer and fitter.

Final Thoughts

There are many easy keystone habits that you can develop to transform your life to gain results fast. What you need to do are cultivate the ones that are going to bring you the results that you want from your life.

Charles Duhigg felt that willpower was the ultimate keystone in order for habits to last. Developing good habits can be difficult for many as the temptation to go back to what you did before is always there.

The brain develops the original habits over time and finds it hard to let go of them and create new ones. It can be done though with time and persistence, especially if you are determined.

If you find though, that you are struggling to make new habits, working with a life coach can be very beneficial.

Having accountability can be a determining factor for success. If you would like more information on working with a coach then click the link to discover more. life coaching service

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