keystone habits

The human mind is an irrational mind. No matter how much we think we are in control, we never are. We will always be bound to the natural systems working in our bodies - hormones, evolutionary instincts and whatnot. 

There are plenty of ways to beat these biases and natural body responses to stimuli. Behavioral science studies have a lot on this. You can always check them out. I know I have. I've read a lot on behavioral science and on researches in an effort to really be aware of how my body works and how I can overcome its tendencies so that I can use them to my advantage. 

I've gone from time management to stress management, to how to beat biases when dealing with money, etc. There's one thing that really struck me as essential: it's building a habit. Be it simply having that regular check of asking myself if a particular bias is in play or adjusting my body posture  to prime myself before taking an interview, habits are essential ways to beat being controlled by our bodies' natural tendencies and irrational behavior.

This is why I fell in love with keystone habits. These habits are called keystones since these pave the way toward building other beneficial habits once you establish them. You can check out a lot about keystone habits online. I won't be talking about them here. What I'd like to share is how I'm applying the concept in my daily grind. 

I blended this with the IF, THEN or conditional pattern of effectively establishing a habit. Here's an example of what I do below. I've been doing it for three weeks now, and I still have a long way to go before I establish it as a habit - yes, it takes more than just twenty-one days, it takes sixty-six days to be exact (Google it!). 

1. Don't get off the bed unless you're done with your prayer time (chanting the Liturgy of the Hour, short worship, intercession, scripture meditation).
2. Don't get out of the room to take a bath unless you finish your exercise (I started with forty push ups and squats, but I'm planning to up the ante and squeeze in other exercises like planks).
3. Don't leave the room without making your bed. I picked this up from a military man's speech online and true enough, it works wonders: nothing feels better after a long day than going back to your room knowing you have a made up bed waiting for you! 

I'm on my third week and it feels good to actually be able to do the series of activities at the start of my morning. I've been adding a few stuff on top of these habits and I must say I'm doing pretty good in building them up. I have unavoidable slip ups from time to time but these are actually expected and does not significantly affect your habit forming pattern (unless of course it's already a habit of missing it in itself!)

I'm sure you can build your own keystone habit as well. Start with something small like making your bed and you'll never know where you'll go from there! As for me, I'll probably have to build a habit to push myself to sleep earlier and get the rest that I need. 

Cheers!