Keystone Habits and Being Watchful

First a note: I’m writing this article in mind that the Bible is the only source of true wisdom: holy, inerrant, and inspired by the Holy Spirit. I do, however, believe that some secular writers sometimes get things right. In the case of The Power of Habit, I think Charles Duhigg describes well how God created people with the ability to form habits. I also enjoyed his factual reporting on how different people and businesses use this idea to their advantage. The following quotes come from The Power of Habit.

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pg.111, “He [Bob Bowman, Michael Phelps’s coach] didn’t need to control every aspect of Phelps’s life. All he needed to do was target a few specific habits that had nothing to do with swimming and everything to do with creating the right mind-set. He designed a series of behaviors that Phelps could use to become calm and focused before each race, to find those tiny advantages that, in a sport where victory can come in milliseconds, would make all the difference.”

pg.112, “And once Bowman established a few core routines in Phelps’s life, all the other habits—his diet and practice schedules, the stretching and sleep routines—seemed to fall into place on their own.”

pg.122, “This is the final way keystone habits encourage widespread change: by creating cultures where new values become ingrained. Keystone habits make tough choices…easier.”

(Emphasis mine.)

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In the book The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg dedicates an entire chapter, “Keystone Habits, Or the Ballad of Paul O’Neil: Which Habits Matter Most,” to discussing a specific set of habits called “keystone habits.” Based on the chapter, including the above quotes, I would define keystone habits as a few habits that, when followed, spill over into other areas of life (and business).

From the examples he gives in the chapter I gathered that keystone habits also stem from the areas in our lives where we tend to be the most undisciplined. When Michael Phelps began training, he couldn’t find ways to effectively calm himself down enough to focus on racing. His coach, Bob Bowman, taught him a couple influential habits: how to relax and how to find the right mind-set to get ready to compete. When Paul O’Neill took over the company Alcoa (an industrial corporation which produces aluminum), he focused on one habit: safety. This keystone habit turned Alcoa from a floundering company into a flourishing company. He taught his staff to communicate with him and with each other, helping and supporting the entire business operation together.

As I read through the chapter all I could think about was how much my keystone habits related to the sins in my life that I struggle with over and over again, repeatedly, consistently, perhaps even daily. I’ve heard these sins called “besetting sins,” or sins one might fight against for all of his or her life. They are the sins that seem specifically ingrained in our being from before we can even remember. They’ve always been part of us, waiting to pounce when we feel exhausted and weak.

The creation story in Genesis teaches us that sin is passed down from Adam all the way to us. We all have some good habits—habits that benefit ourselves and our neighbors or habits that help us function in our everyday lives. These habits can draw us closer to God as we love God and others through them. We also all have sinful habits—habits that go against God’s law and will for our lives in Him. Then we have those ugly besetting sins, which seem to be in a category all of their own.

Last year I posted this about my eating habits. In the past, I posted this and also this. I think that keeping my eating habits in check–disciplined and to God’s glory, not overeating or overindulging–might be something I struggle with for the rest of my life. Its easy to think that if I could only do one specific thing (drink more water, eat less sweets, eat more protein at breakfast) all of my issues would—poof!—magically disappear in a cloud of dusty sparkles. Frankly, that just won’t happen. Eating in a way that honors God requires my daily focus and attention, and probably will for a long time to come.

When I do go for extended stretches of time eating well, to God’s glory, I find that this newfound self-control and self-discipline spreads to more areas of my life. Things “fall into place,” as the above quote from The Power of Habit implies. I exercise more consistently and read my Bible more often. I spend time considering the things of heaven instead of the things of this earth (i.e. my next snack or meal).

So, I would describe how I eat as one of my keystone habits. Do I eat in a way that honors God, or am I looking for a way other than Jesus to find comfort and relief from the stress of motherhood? The answer to this question certainly does spill over into every part of my life, affecting my daily routines and how I relate to God.

Sin and the habits that flow from sin deeply affect how we feel about ourselves. When I give in to overeating again, I feel ashamed and upset with myself. I’ve failed—again. A vicious cycle ensues where I eat more to feel better about my overeating. I know that at some point all of us feel trapped in our sin, no matter what sin the vicious cycle entails for us. We can only break the cycle through faith in Jesus.

Sinful habits also deeply affect our relationship with God. When we know which sins we struggle with the most, we must be on our guard against them. Many years ago, I read the book The Enemy Within by Kris Lundgaard, which includes key concepts from a couple of works by John Owen. At one point in the book, Lundgaard says something like, “The mind is the watchtower of the soul.” (Sorry I don’t have a citation. Our copy of the book is packed away somewhere!) I remember this idea so well because it changed the way I thought about temptation and sin. Fighting temptation isn’t passive. It’s an active struggle in which we go on the offensive, setting in place as many safeguards as we can and trusting in the Holy Spirit to strengthen our souls for battle. Our mind warns us when danger is getting close, so we react the way we planned to react, with trust in Jesus’s power to save. If we become complacent and allow our besetting sins to lay siege to our hearts, we can’t say we didn’t know. This guilt especially can make us feel far from God.

We are never really far from God, though! He promises to forgive us for our sins, and graciously provides a way for us to resist temptation. He gives us wisdom in the Spirit (How can we be more watchful next time?) and hope through Jesus (We have a great high priest who knows our weaknesses). I know that sometimes I’ll overeat and those familiar feelings of shame will creep into my heart. We all fall short of God’s glory–each and every one of us. But we can recover if we remind ourselves of God’s grace through the gospel of Jesus Christ and make every effort to understand our sinful habits and how we can fight them with the help of the Holy Spirit.

I think understanding the ideas behind “keystone habits” can help us in our watchfulness, too!