5 Keystone Habits For A Strong Mind And A Fulfilling Life
In his book The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg introduced the concept of keystone habits: habits that create the foundation for other habits. According to Duhigg, keystone habits lead to following three things.
- They lead to small wins. Small wins motivate and propel us into putting in more and more effort.
- They are the soil from which other habits take root.
- They provide drive and momentum to do more, be more, and achieve more.
Here are five keystone habits for a strong mind and a powerful life.
1. Make Your Bed
Making your bed in the morning might seem too mundane, but there’s an underlying benefit you can harness from it. If you make your bed in the morning, you enforce the idea that little things matter in life. And because you took positive action, you get a sense of pride for starting out on the right path. Don’t just make the bed, make it better than anyone else. Don’t just wash the dishes, wash them better than anyone else. Don’t just do your job, do it better than anyone else.
For a strong mind, you need to get small wins throughout the day. And making your bed can be your very first win in the morning.
2. Exercise
Exercise not only improves your physical health but also has a host of benefits for your mental health. It increases mental clarity, focus, productivity and even makes you more creative. You don’t need to do some hardcore workout every day. Even 30 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise, such as running, three times a week has the same benefits of a regular moderately intense workout.
Robin Sharma, a renowned life and business coach, says that “if you don’t make time for fitness, you’ll have to make time for illness”. So do yourself a favor, and exercise at least three times a week for a strong mind and a powerful life.
3. Single Tasking
We live in a digital world, a world where everybody keeps their smartphone at arm’s length 24 hours a day. In fact, using your smartphone is the first thing you probably do in the morning.
This behavior tends to seep in into people’s workdays too. They’re checking phones in the middle of working, not realizing that even a short interruption causes a disruption of about 23 minutes in your concentration and about an hour to return to a flow state. Cal Newport, the author of Deep Work says that we need to enter into a flow state to produce work of extraordinary quality, work that is hard to replicate, creates new value, and improves our skill.
Not only working, but if you’re used to being always distracted and not being present in social situations, in work, or even with yourself – then your quality of life is going to decline. For a strong mind and a fruitful life, you need to be present and completely engrossed in whatever you do.
4. Meditate
Research at Harvard has proved that meditation can literally change the brain and is as effective as antidepressants. Regular meditation builds more gray matter in the brain, reduces the activity in the brain’s “me center” – leading to less anxious thoughts and more enjoyment of the present moment.
Long-term meditators have visible changes throughout the entire brain. Moreover, meditation is a powerful tool for self-control. So if you want to be successful, but cannot discipline yourself, start with meditation. For a strong mind, meditation is one of the most powerful practices out there.
5. Goal Setting
Tony Robbins says that “setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into visible.”
Setting goals is important, both to keep yourself motivated and make sure you reach your end goal by setting daily, monthly, and weekly goals. So we recommend that you set daily goals in the morning or the night before.
Once you get used to setting and achieving goals, you’ll realize your own power. You’ll realize that you can change your life, one goal at a time, and become the person you have always dreamed of. For a strong mind, you need to chase goals, because the best moments of our lives happen when we achieve something extraordinary and achieve a worthwhile goal.
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