Transformative Power of Keystone Habits in Faith

The most spiritually dangerous things in me are the little habits of thought, feeling, and action that I regard as normal because everyone else is like that. It's only human. Dallas goes on, our training and experience must bring us to peace with the fact that if we do not follow our habitual desires, do not do what normal people would do, it is no major thing. [00:01:07]

The law of gravity cannot be repealed, but the habits that are inside me, those little habits of thought and feeling and behavior, those can be changed. And if I want to experience transformation, that's what is required, is the change at the level of habit, what is inside me, inside my body. [00:03:08]

I knew I had to transform Elko, O'Neal said, but you can't order people to change. So I decided I was going to start by focusing on one thing. If I could start disrupting the habits around one thing, it would spread. O'Neill believed that some habits have the power to start a chain reaction, changing other habits as they move through an organization. [00:05:35]

Keystone habits say that success, effectiveness, change, transformation doesn't depend on getting everything right, but instead relies on identifying a key priority and fashioning it into powerful levers. Now we've been talking about how habits work, but where do you start and how do you not get overwhelmed by them? [00:06:21]

A group of researchers asked 1600, I think it was, folks who wrestled with weight issues to do one thing, and that was once a week to write down everything they ate for a day once a week. And so they began to do that. And here's what Duhigg writes: It was hard at first, subjects forgot to carry their food journal. [00:07:05]

Some notice they always seem to snack at about 10 o'clock, so they started bringing a banana or an apple with them. Some would write down what they were going to eat later on that day, and then they would go ahead and eat that healthy meal. The researchers had not suggested any of those things; they just suggested one habit. [00:08:53]

With Ignatius, a keystone habit was actually very similar, only instead of a food journal, a food log, it was kind of a godlog. It's called the Examen. Once a day, just looked back over today and look for where were moments when I found God or where were moments when I pulled away from God. [00:09:23]

Daniel set his mind to not defile himself with the king's rich food and wine. We don't know why that was defilement then. I think Daniel was choosing a keystone habit. I think that was a way for Daniel to exercise agency and to remember although he had been given a new name and he would enter into lots of learning in this new culture. [00:10:08]

I think about the Acts 2 Church, where people devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to prayer. We've talked about that day after day. Daily they met together in the temple courts and around table. I think that's why in the book of Hebrews chapter 10 verse 25 it says, let's consider how we can spur each other on to love and Good Deeds. [00:10:59]

In the darkest days of my life, I would wake up very early in the morning, go downstairs on a little condo, and I would light a fire in our little gas fireplace. And just that act was a reminder that there is light and God is present and there's hope and I can talk to him. [00:11:14]

I had a couple of friends that said, John, you ought to devote yourself to your craft and you need to do something every day. And so that led to this. But when I began this, it wasn't, I was hopeful that would be helpful to people, but it wasn't mostly about that. I needed that. [00:11:29]

A habit makes the process of transformation simple and compelling and doable. What do you think that might be for you? Because love is habit forming. [00:12:58]