In his book “The Power of Habit”, Charles Duhigg talks about how certain types of habits – especially good ones – are so important that they can trigger and open up opportunities for other subsequent other habits to go along with it, akin to a snowball effect that eventually builds up to be an avalanche of other things to come. These are called “Keystone habits”: they start a process that, in the author's words, "over time, transforms everything":
“Keystone habits explain how Michael Phelps became Olympic champion and why some college students outperform their peers. They describe why some people, after years of trying, suddenly lose forty pounds while becoming more productive at work and still getting home in time for dinner with their kids” (End Quote).
Of all keystone habits, the author writes, “for many people, exercise is a keystone habit that triggers widespread change”.
And that’s exactly what happened to me.
For the past 5 years, exercise has been a part of my daily morning routine after Subuh prayers, almost every day of the week. Whether on business trip, offshore, vacation (even while on umrah trip), during MCO lockdown or throughout Ramadhan – I make it a priority commitment to remain consistent at it.
Little did I know, that this little routine has been a keystone habit that transformed my life in many ways. This is how:
1. Kickstart the day with a positive outlook & feeling of awesomeness – Exercising and working out often involves “challenging your personal limits”; and there is something infinitely satisfying about confronting those limits head-on: to beat your personal best times, break through your max reps, increase more weights, and/or higher distance. You start your day knowing that you’re just *that bit* better than yesterday, and you subconsciously convince yourself with just that bit more empowerment: if I can defeat my own procrastination, physical limitations, and excuses, I can handle anything easier than that!
And this kind of self-confidence makes me more motivated, focused and productive at work, and at the same time, a much more effective father and husband at home.
2. One achievement ticked off the box – Even if my day ahead turns out to be one of those sluggish, unproductive or stressful days, at the end, I still have this one “win” to celebrate with respect to my personal development. In the long run, these accumulated daily achievements (especially when we witness the results later) does wonders for improving our mental and emotional health.
Looking back, there's an empowering sense of development, almost like there is a video game RPG-like sense of "level up" progression. From "not even able to do 2 pushups" to be able to whip out a full set of one-handed pushups. From not being able to do a single Pull-up (a task I considered "impossible") to be doing full sets of them, there is a genuine sense of personal growth.
3. Improved hydration – Many of us underestimate the importance of hydration. In his book “Superlife”, author Darin Olien says, “A lack of water causes histamine production to increase, suppressing immune activity in the bone marrow, which is where we produce the white blood cells that digest and destroy cancer cells. Water deficit is the primary cause of many other disease symptoms too. Chronic pain, digestive distress, migraines, depression—all may be attributed at least partly to a lack of cellular hydration. The same is true for all the degenerative diseases.” (End Quote)
For me, exercise facilitates a much-improved hydration in my day-to-day life, especially during a busy work schedule when we “forget” to drink water. A typical intensive workout can easily get me to drinking over 2 litres of water by the end; a good chunk of our daily recommended intake, ticked off first thing in the morning!
4. Learning – every time I exercise, I make it a point to listen to a good podcast or lecture, which gives me a boost of inspiration and knowledge to kickstart the day. Admittedly, it isn’t the easiest or most conducive method of learning during intensive workouts, but I am still able to pick up a thing or two, or at least discover a trail that leads me down a deeper learning trail for later. Starting your day off with enlightenment always brings an empowering sense of purpose throughout the rest of the day.
It is also worth noting that in the long run, exercise apparently INCREASES your brain’s capacity for learning. In his book “Spark: How exercise will improve the performance of your brain”, author Dr. John Ratey writes:
“Exercise improves learning on three levels: first, it optimizes your mindset to improve alertness, attention, and motivation; second, it prepares and encourages nerve cells to bind to one another, which is the cellular basis for logging in new information; and third, it spurs the development of new nerve cells from stem cells in the hippocampus”. (End Quote)
5. Eat better – as the saying goes, “You can’t out-exercise a bad diet”. As I’ve learnt in my years of obesity, without good eating habits, exercise alone – lots and lots of running – becomes virtually useless. With that newfound knowledge, exercise now kind of pushes me to be disciplined at eating better, knowing that bad eating habits can completely derail our exercise efforts.
6. Enjoy our food – interestingly, it works the other way around too: Exercise also enables me to enjoy food better. First of all, less feeling of “guilt” when that odd Oreo finds its way in. Just seeing that “calorie counter” (albeit an arguably inaccurate one) on our heart-rate monitor watches at the end of our workout, it brings a sense of satisfaction, knowing that you have some “buffer” to handle those sneaky little snacks. Also, after doing an intensive resistance training at the gym or a bodyweight workout, there’s a feeling of “hope” that your body will put those calories and protein to good use.
7. Improved sleep – last but not least, good exercise allows for a better quality sleep.
There are lots of other amazing benefits, I’m sure, but these alone are so amazing it’s changed my life, as an obese guy who struggled to fit into XL clothing.
If I can do it, so can you.
“If exercise could be packaged in a pill, it would be the single most widely prescribed and beneficial medicine in the nation!” (Dr. Robert Butler, former director, National Institute of Aging)
Let’s take care of this amanah – the only place we will ever call home – to be the best that it can be.
Our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said: “Your body has a right over you” (Muslim)
And what better time than the mornings? These are the times of barakah, as our Prophet used to supplicate:
اللَّهُمَّ بَارِكْ لأُمَّتِي فِي بُكُورِهَا
“Oh Allah, bless my ummah (i.e. grant them barakah) in their mornings” (Abu Daud)
#TheBarakahEffect #KeystoneHabits #Exercise #morningroutine
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