Last
summer I had a plethora of important goals to achieve; I had to quickly recruit
some germane arsenals to boost my focus – the subject, which has unarguably
become a rare commodity in our world today (You probably don’t have to own an
iPhone to fathom this). I did a will-power experiment, scored myself
holistically on a weekly basis – as bona fide as I could – just for a sole
reason: as a vessel for motivation.
Few
months after, I was listening to an audiobook, The Willpower Instinct by Kelly McGonigal. In the book, she pointed
out to some research that showed how exercise incited several positive habits
like eating healthy, increased productivity, smoking less, amongst others.
Hurriedly
I stretched for my last summer will power experimental data and to my
astonishment, a trend emerged. Oblivious
to me, I had killed 3 birds with one stone – The morning I ran; One, I was more
likely to stick to my almost-tasteless
oats meal versus a carbohydrate-laden food; two, read an extra 30 minutes; and
three, spent less time wasting away on the internet. In short, the positive
correlation between my exercise regimen and will power was almost absolute!
Charles
Duhigg in his best seller book – The Power of Habit – calls activities like my last-summer-exercise “Keystone habits”. Here is the book:
“Keystone habits start a process that, over time, transforms everything...Keystone habits say that success doesn’t depend on getting every single thing right, but instead relies on identifying a few key priorities and fashioning them into powerful levers...The habits that matter most are the ones that, when they start to shift, dislodge and remake other patterns”
Apart
from physical exercise, here is another example: Food journaling. Studies has shown that people who kept a daily log of food consumed, has a much
higher chance of eating healthy, and consequently lose more weight; only with
the use of food journals.
In fact,
Duhigg in his book stated that some studies has shown a positive correlation
between making your bed every morning and developing apt budgeting skills, a
sense of well-being, and increased productivity. Lastly – and more important –
is the habit of positive thinking. This will probably have one of the
greatest positive ripple effect I can imagine.
The gist
is, look for a habit that will give you the ripple effect that you desire: I had
guess if you had the opportunity to kill 3 birds with one stone (versus 3
stones), you’ll grab it.
