Keystone Habits: How food journalling reduced credit card spending
The keystone habits that matter most are the ones that have the power to shift, dislodge, and remake other patterns. To your benefit!
Keystone habits have the power to start a chain reaction into other areas of our lives or our businesses. Some of these ripple-out effects are surprising!
In his book, The Power of Habit: Why we do what we do in life and business, Charles Duhigg often writes about two keystone habits: exercise and food journaling. He refers to the study by Kaiser Permanente of nearly 1700 people. The study found that keeping a food diary can double a persons weight loss. The act of scribbling down what you eat every day can became a process of reflecting on your eating patterns and making beneficial changes.
In this Permanente study the participants started looking at their entries and discovering eating patterns they didn’t know existed. Food journaling led to participants eating healthier meals and, interestingly, taking better control of their credit card spending.
So, look for a habit you want to create that can provide a platform for others.
- Set that one keystone practice into motion. For example, make your bed each morning; exercise three times a week; keep a daily food journal of every thing you eat each day.
- Don’t break the chain. Practice and practice until it becomes a habit.
- Notice the ripple-out effect into your life. Notice how are you now working, living, spending.
In The Leadership Habits Program: Begin to rewire your brain without adding to your schedule, you build that one keystone practice to become a habit over the four x 90-minute sessions.
Let me know about your keystone habit and its ripple-out effects.