Brian Johnson explains how to build a keystone habit by choosing one high-leverage behavior, scaling it down to something tiny like one push-up or one minute of meditation, and doing it every single day. Start so small that success is nearly guaranteed and momentum builds from there.
Questions this episode answers
Brian Johnson.
September 16, 2023.
"One push-up per day" and "one minute per day" of meditation (and generally committing to X minutes per day with X possibly = 1).
Hey, hero. If you're enjoying these daily plus ones, make sure you head to heroic us to access a ton more resources to help you move from theory to practice to mastery and express the best, most heroic version of yourself today. And now, here's Brian with today's plus one.
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Optimize plus one. So we're ready to go all in and make that 100% commitment with super bright lines. Fantastic. But here's the deal. First, we need to make sure that we make that jumbo all in commitment on one thing. Not 100 things. One thing. You can pick whatever you want. Research says you'd benefit from making sure that you do something you actually want to do. Sounds obvious, but this is important to keep in mind. Don't do something because you think you should do it. Do it because it fires you up. So what's your one thing? And you may want to consider doing something that would have a really positive impact in your life. Researchers call this a keystone habit. Just like a keystone locks an arch in place and is essential for its strength and integrity, our keystone habits keep us super strong and their benefits cascade into the rest of our lives, which, of course, is. Is a very good thing. All right, let's pause for a moment. Do you have any ideas on what your one keystone habit that you're fired up to do might be? Don't make it a big deal for now. What's the thing that pops up immediately that you're excited to install? You got it. Awesome. Now let's get specific on what you're gonna do. Did you pick exercising, Eating better, meditating, sleeping more? Whatever it is. But let's get specific. Remember that the number one thing successful people do, according to Heidi Gran Halvorsen's uber popular Harvard Business Review blog post, is that they get specific with their goals. So I insert your name here. Shall do what? Fill in the blank. Perhaps it's I will meditate for X minutes per day or I will move my body X minutes every day, or I. I will turn off my electronics X minutes before bedtime. Fantastic. And a couple more things to round out this quick. How to. Number one, make it an everyday thing. For whatever reason, it's way easier to install a habit when you do it every single day and not every third day or twice a week or whatever. Think of Jerry Seinfeld's famous streak of red X's. And number two, make it really easy to do. Like, crazy easy. Stephen Guise tells us we want to create mini habits that are too small to fail. He offers the brilliant advice that we shouldn't say we're going to work out for 30 minutes a day. We should say we're going to do one push up per day. We shouldn't say we're going to meditate for 60 minutes per day. We should commit to one minute per day. Don't say you'll write for an hour per day. Write for 1 minute per day. Go micro with your habits. It may sound silly, but it works. Make it really, really easy to win and really, really really hard to fail. Make it so you can win on the days you feel the worst. Then you'll build some momentum, which is the key to having fun, installing habits and that stick. So pick one thing. Make it a fun high leverage keystone. Go micro. Do it daily +1 +1 +1 we.
Hope you enjoyed today's +1. For more resources to help you move from theory to practice to mastery and express the best, most heroic version of yourself, head to Heroic Us Today. And if you liked this episode, please leave a positive review and hit the Follow subscribe button on your platform of choice. And if you liked this episode, please leave a positive review and hit the Follow or Subscribe button on your platform of choice. Also, have you heard the news about Brian's book? Activate youe Heroic Potential Head to Heroic Us Book to learn more and get your copy as well as check out exclusive content and bonuses. That's Heroic Us Book. Let's go hero.
