K is for Keystone Habit: #HappinessProject #AtoZChallenge

My Happiness Project: K is for Keystone Habit

The AtoZ Challenge means posting every day in April except Sundays, which leaves exactly 26 days – one day for each of the 26 letters of the alphabet.

See my Great and Powerful Theme Reveal – My Happiness Project – for a full list of the posts, updated throughout the month.

And be sure to check out My April AtoZ 2015 Posse, a Twitter list composed of individuals I have every intention of visiting during this year’s challenge.

The hard must become habit.

The habit must become easy.

The easy must become beautiful.

~Doug Henning

K is for Keystone Habit

starts as one

Once upon a time I had a Keystone Habit. I announced it and made it a thing. Then I promptly forgot to make it a priority and dropped it like a hot potato because that’s how I roll.

So let’s start over. Because that is ALSO how I roll.

A Keystone Habit is one which is… get this… a KEYSTONE, both unto itself as well as to other habits that kind of follow along puppy-dog style and end up getting done as a side effect. This sounds a bit hokey so let me break it down.

Your Keystone Habit has three factors:

A Keystone Habit is the bare minimum.
A Keystone Habit encourages maximum efficiency.
A Keystone Habit should evolve.

keep it simple If the first two ideas seem contrary, it’s because they are. But look:

Doing the bare minimum means that, at the very least, if nothing else gets accomplished, you’ve still knocked off that ONE item from your list that matters most. And that’s kind of a big deal for us Depressive types.

Also? Once you’ve done the bare minimum, sometimes it’s THAT much easier to do a couple more things.

My Keystone Habit from “once upon a time” and long ago was to walk two miles daily. I never felt so accomplished as when this task got marked off, because it meant that, even if I did nothing else all day long, I had still exercised. That was my bare minimum.

But usually I did tons more than merely walk. Because in order to walk, I had to pull on my workout clothes, which meant putting some clean laundry away, which also somehow meant making my bed. And after a two-mile walk I was likely to shower, which meant throwing dirty clothes into the washer, cleaning the restroom, styling my hair, and painting my face with makeups.

While for many people that is not maximum efficiency, for me, it really is approaching that level of awesome.

Other Keystone Habits may include flossing your teeth, shining the kitchen sink, writing, blogging, journaling… the list goes on. And on. And on.

The best way to choose a Keystone Habit:

ripple effect Decide what is most important, and what other habits might eventually tag along in its wake.

Think forward AND backward — consider too what you most *aspire* to accomplish.

For example, maybe writing is your Keystone Habit. Maybe it is the one thing you hope to get done each day, and in this scenario, maybe doing so also ensures you keep up with your blog and your calendar, which maybe thereby keeps you on schedule to complete other errands in a timely fashion. That’s excellent.

Alternatively, maybe writing is what you WISH you accomplished each day, but unless you get dressed and do the dishes first, you just ain’t likely to kill that bird. Well then making writing your Keystone Habit would be stupid.

Your Keystone Habit shouldn’t be difficult to maintain. In this particular example, I’d say make dishes your Keystone Habit because that is what would encourage you to move on to writing.

All of which is to say, MY Keystone Habit and YOUR Keystone Habit may end up being exact opposites, and find each other at odds. And that’s okay. You do you, man. Whatever gets your motor humming and moves your boat on the water.

One other thing to keep in mind:

let it be easy Much like each of us as individuals, be prepared for your Keystone Habit to change. There is no way in HELL my Keystone Habit is walking two inches, much less two MILES.

Shit happens. Time moves forward. We grow and we regress.

Take it in stride and come up with something that works NOW, not what worked THEN.

My current Keystone Habit:

Picking up the Living Room. In a cramped apartment this is a big deal, and it’s something I do daily with very little forethought. I notice when I skip it, which means I’m very likely to get ‘er done. And usually, once I’ve pushed the “GO” button, I gravitate toward my daily chore chart and mark off a few other items.

And marking things off a to-do list is pretty much TOPS at beating my Depression.

The easier it is to do, the harder it is to change.

~Eng’s Principle

Every day this month I will share a book* about Happiness, or fighting Depression, or one that cracked me up good.