It’s not completely clear why. But for many people, exercise is a keystone habit that triggers widespread change. “Exercise spills over,” said James Prochaska, a University of Rhode Island researcher. “There’s something about it that makes other good habits easier.”
People have asked why exercise is a keystone habit for some people, but not others. The answer appears to have something to do with how exercise changes someone’s self image. If you were a serious high school athlete, for instance, and you stopped working out for a period, and then start exercising again, it’s unlikely that an exercise habit will be a keystone habit for you - it’s unlikely, in other words, that starting to exercise will trigger other changes in your life.
But if you were someone who, like me, never played sports, and doesn’t have a history of exercising, then starting an exercise habit is a big deal. It’s hard to know how to start. You don’t know what to wear, you worry that you’ll look dumb jogging. There’s a small, irrational fear to starting an exercise habit. And so, when you finally overcome that small fear, and start exercising habitually, it causes a shift in self-image: you start thinking of yourself, almost sub-consciously, as the kind of person who exercises. And that kind of person tends to procrastinate less, and avoid frivolous spending.
Put differently, a new pattern can act as a keystone habit when it causes us to start seeing ourselves differently, when it influences how we think of ourselves. If a change seems irrationally scary - if convincing your department to be more productive, for instance, seems frightening; or if giving up drinking causes you a mild anxiety - then that’s a good sign, because it means that if you can make that small shift, you’ll likely set off a chain reaction that will change other habits, as well. Keystone habits gain their strength by causing us to reimagine who we are, and what’s possible.
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