How Keystone Habits Can Change Your Life
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In The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, the author talks about how keystone habits can spark transformational change in our lives.
He defines keystone habits as follows:
“Some habits have the power to start a chain reaction, changing other habits. These habits matter more than others. They start a process that, over time, transforms everything.”
Success doesn’t depend on getting every single thing right, but instead relies on identifying a few key priorities and leveraging those to create positive change. Keystone habits are able to create widespread changes through “small wins.” Research shows that small wins have an enormous influence on sparking change, convincing people that bigger achievements are within reach.
In personal finance, this mirrors the “Debt Snowball” method of paying off debt – listing your debts smallest to largest and then paying them off one by one in that order. With each debt that gets paid off, you gain a psychological boost from the “small win” and your snowball continues to increase more rapidly. As these small wins add up, the bigger goal of debt freedom appears more achievable.
How Olympic champion Michael Phelps leveraged keystone habits
My favorite illustration about this concept from the book was how swimmer Michael Phelps established the keystone habits that helped make him the greatest Olympian of all-time.
Many of Phelps’ routines had nothing to do with swimming, yet had everything to do with his success.
His coach, Bob Bowman, helped him establish habits to create the right mindset – being calm and focused before each race.
“Each night before falling asleep and each morning after waking up, Phelps would imagine himself jumping off the blocks and, in slow motion, swimming flawlessly. He would visualize his strokes, the walls of the pool, his turns, and the finish. He would lie in bed with his eyes shut and watch the entire competition, the smallest details, again and again, until he knew each second by heart.”
Once this keystone habit of positive visualization was established it had a snowball effect on Phelps’ other habits – including diet, practice schedules, stretching, and sleep. The initial keystone habit set off a series of small wins for Phelps, which he used in all facets of his training. These small wins added up and formed his race-day routine.
Every race day, Phelps would wake up and eat the same breakfast. He would do his stretching, then a 45-minute swimming workout to get his heart rate up. After getting out of the pool he’d dry off and put on his swimming bodysuit. Then he’d put his headphones on with music from his hip-hop playlist to get in the zone before the race. This routine and timing happened the same way before every race.
Habits in action
The power of this routine is illustrated perfectly, during the 200-meter butterfly in the 2008 Olympics. When Phelps leaves the blocks and hits the water, he realizes something is wrong. His goggles begin filling up with water. He swims the first two laps, with everything getting blurry. By the final lap, his goggles were completely filled and he had zero visibility. He was swimming blind, and his habits had to take over.
Most swimmers would panic in a situation like this, Olympic final – swimming blindly, but Phelps had prepared for this. All those mental reps, visualizing the perfect race and thinking through how he would react if a surprise like this happened. He estimated that he’d need 21 strokes for this final lap, and he began counting as he swam. Upon his 21st stroke, he reached with his arm outstretched and hit the wall, having timed it perfectly. When he took his goggles off and looked up at the video board he saw a huge “WR” flash on the screen. He had won another gold medal and set the world record!
Application to our own lives
We may not be striving to be an Olympic swimmer, but there are many principles in this story that we can apply to our own lives:
Keystone habits can help spark massive change – We need to identify what those habits are in our lives and build on them. For example, working out could lead to other positive changes like eating healthier and improving sleep. Unsubscribing to emails from retail companies could lead to less impulse purchases and a higher savings rate.
Break big goals down into small daily actions – What one action can you do today that brings you closer to your long-term goals?
Positive visualization for what we want to achieve – Our daily habits will directly impact our destination. We should have specific goals we’re working towards. Without a specific end destination you’ll never get to where you want to reach. Phelps knew the exact number of strokes it would take to reach the wall due to the training, practice, visualization, and time he put into his craft. You have to be intentional with the path you want to take in life.
Related Reading:
Why You Should Start Small When Forming Habits
Build Good Habits, Don’t Rely on Willpower
How Our Daily Choices Impact Our Lives
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