How to use Keystones to Change Multiple Habits

Wouldn’t it be great if you decided to change a habit and you started and never stopped?  Imagine how it would feel if you could start one habit and follow through to the finish.

How many times have you said, I’m going to…”lose weight, eat less processed food, drink more water,” etc.? 

You’re motivated to do it.  Then you get on the rollercoaster.  You start, hit a boulder in the road, lose motivation and then begins the thought pattern of how big of a loser you are for not finishing.  Repeat over and over and over again. It’s discouraging because you aren’t accomplishing what you desire.  

Truthfully, you can accomplish that goal.   

But you need a better strategy that helps you stick to your goal from start to finish.  

With the simple systems and strategies in this article, you’ll form habits and effortlessly stick to them.  

As a bonus, I’ll reveal how if you choose the right habit – known as a keystone habit – you can simultaneously change multiple habits at once without any extra effort.  

Are you ready to achieve your goal with less effort?

Let’s get started.

ou know how habits work, you can hit your goals without even thinking about it.  

There is a neurological loop at the core of every habit that MIT researchers discovered in the 1990s.  

A habit has three parts: a cue, a routine, and a reward.  

The cue is the trigger which automatically links with a habit.  

The routine is the behavior, which can be physical, emotional, or mental.

The reward is the reason you’re motivated to do the behavior, and a way for your brain to decide if this habit is worth repeating for the future.   

This loop becomes more ingrained as your brain links the cue to the reward.  For instance, your alarm could be your cue for the routine of getting out of bed.  The reward could be eating breakfast.  

Most of our life revolves around habits, so they can feel unconscious behaviors.  It’s how people begin poor habits like smoking but also how they keep good habits like exercising.  Once external or internal cues and rewards are in place, they persist even after motivation or interest is gone.  

Most of the time we mistakenly try to change the routine.  Yet the most importnat part for habits to stick are adjusting the cue or the reward.  

If you follow the correct framework you can literally create any positive habit you want and re-wire bad habits for the better.  

"The Golden rule is to only change one part of the habit at a time. Reward yourself more and you’ll create long lasting change."

Eating something sweet after exercise can help you stick to your routine.  The food is catalyst for the reward centers in your brain. It cements the good feelings and satisfies your cravings.  This is why fit people drink protein shakes immediately after they workout.  

What do we know now?

Always reward yourself.  

The best part is you can choose the reward.  Experiment with changing the reward. 

For instance, think of a habit you’ve been wanting to change.  You can’t just stop, you need to switch it to a better behavior replacement.  

Got that habit in mind?  Next for 5 days of the week think of a reward to accompany it.  

For instance, say you crave something sweet after dinner.  

Although you think you are craving the dessert because it tastes good, habits are typically more complicated than that. Changing up the reward allows you to see what you’re really craving and satisfy it.  

For instance, in Charles Duhligg experiments he ate a cookie at the same time every day.  So he tested

Going for a walk

Eating a substitute food 

Drinking coffee or water

Talking to a friend

 

Do your own experiment and come up with a few rewards.  Write down what happened after each example. For instance, eat an apple when craving sugar.  If it didn’t take away the sugar cravings, it probably wasn’t physical hunger. If you feel better after talking to a friend, then most likely you found the reward that satisfies you.  Now you know how to replace the “bad habit” with a better solution and eventually this will become your new routine.  

Know that you know how to change you’re 10x ahead of those that can’t figure out how to follow through on habits.

Bonus, here’s a way you can 100x improve your life by changing one habit.  Pick the master habit first. What’s a master habit. This is a keystone habit that allows you to naturally change other habits, without any extra effort.  So leverage one thing you do right into a powerful catalyst that creates a landslide of other positive changes. 

Take exercise as an example. People who have an exercise routine, even if only once a week, tend to eat better.  This makes sense that these two are tied together. You feel a natural high from exercising so you also want to eat food that helps you feel better.  Yet more surprising, habitual exercise means you’ll be more productive at work. You’ll be more patient with family and colleagues. You will even use your credit cards less frequently.  Exercise triggers a widespread change and makes creating other positive habits easier.

Nailing the first master habit may be all you need to create lasting behavioral change in many areas of your life.  Now mastering that habit that you felt was near impossible in the past, is achievable with the strategies I’ve shared.  Use the strategies for lasting change and automate building other habits easily.