Two years ago, I was eating a lot of grilled cheese. I wasn’t exercising. I was drinking somewhat regularly. Bad habits wove into more bad habits.

Then, my doctor told me I was overweight and had high cholesterol levels.

Habits can be sneaky. One day of grilled cheese does not immediately cause high cholesterol or obesity. It doesn’t make or break us to have one off day. But the sinister part of habits is the cumulative effects of our daily choices.

Bad habits plus bad habits get us further and further off center and can ultimately lead to worse physical and mental health, but these impacts sneak up on us. We don’t notice them right away. Then, when we do start to notice the impacts of our cumulative habits, it can feel insurmountable to change our habits and get back on track.

Keystone Habits

Charles Duhigg brought the concept of keystone habits into mainstream consciousness with his book The Power of Habit. Keystone habits are small behaviors that have chain reactions, ripple effects that can spread and lead to more small behaviors that ultimately change your life.

Keystone habits often involve changes in sleep, exercise, and substance use. The idea is that if I make a positive change in my sleep, fitness, or use of substances, that one change will trigger more positive changes in my life.

Hitting the Gym

I left the doctor’s office knowing that I needed to change something. The easiest change to make was to start going to the gym every day. I didn’t have a goal to run a marathon or compete in a triathlon. I was so out of shape, I didn’t even attempt jogging for the first two weeks of my gym re-entry. I simply woke up and went to the gym each morning.

After a week of going to the gym, I started craving healthier foods, and it felt silly to be eating unhealthily, like all those mornings at the gym were for nothing. So I decided to make a giant salad to bring to work every day.

The salads led to less snacking. Eventually, I stopped drinking and started sleeping better at night.

That’s the idea behind keystone habits. One change leads to another and another.

Unexpected Effects of Positive Keystone Habits

My bad habits took years to negatively impact my health. The same thing goes for positive habits. It took over a year of regular gym-going and salad eating to start noticing a difference in my physical and mental health. That’s why so many people fall off the wagon and give up along the way. They plateau or don’t see quick enough results from all their hard work.

One study in Norway had 700 unemployed participants complete a survey about their sleep, exercise, and substance use habits. Then, they set goals, and some received weekly text messages:

“Hi, we hope you achieved your goals last week. Now it’s a new week and new opportunities to succeed. Keep it up!”

The result of goal setting, regardless of whether participants received text reminders, was that setting goals involving keystone habits led to a reduction in unemployment of around 7 percent.

The key here is that participants didn’t set employment goals; they focused on making incremental changes to their sleep health, fitness, and substance use, which rippled through their lives in positive ways.

So instead of setting resolutions about making more money or getting that beach body, make one small tweak to your daily routine, preferably something related to your sleep, exercise, or substance use.

I don’t think about getting six-pack abs or making a million dollars; I just keep going to the gym, rain or shine, one mile on the treadmill at a time.

I let that keystone habit ripple throughout the rest of my life. My job is to just hit the gym and eat those salads.