The Most Important Habit to Build

It has been a pretty crazy year for me so far. I started off January by selling all of my belongings except for what I could fit into my Ford E-350 Club Wagon, and hitting the road with my wife and 2 cats.

Over the course of a few months we maintained our fitness business online as we traveled across the country living in our van. It was adventurous. But it was not without its difficulties.

We were seeking a simpler life, and ultimately closed the business entirely and once we got to a part of the country we loved, we got physical jobs at a farm and a campground.

With each season, and each major change of life (location, job, etc...) we needed to establish new routines. Routines changed faster than they could be established, and that made it harder to focus on health and future financial plans.

But now that we've been in the general place we want to live and find land to start our homestead on for a few months, it's time to start building solid habits to get us there.

Obligatory "success" stock photo courtesy of Canva.

Having run a successful fitness business for a while, I know that success in both health and finances comes more from consistency than from hard work. Hustle culture be damned. So, it's time to build habits.

Habit stacking is the idea that you build one habit that then reinforces the likelihood of success for the next habit you are trying to build. Don't try it all at once. Rather, build one habit at a time and stack them in an order that increases your chances of success.

So, what is the first habit to build when trying to re-establish routines that move you towards your goals?

It's the evening routine. Let me explain.

Nearly EVERY self-help turdball I've read over the years promotes the idea of a morning routine as the be all and end all of personal development. And they're right, to a degree. If you start your day focused on your goals before the the world has a chance to de-rail your efforts, you'll generally do better. And a morning gratitude practice is just good for your head.

But the problem comes from the fact that the morning routine is terribly hard to establish. How many times have you tried to start some kind of morning habit, only to fail within a week?

If you've experienced this, it's probably because like most people you are trying to cram too much into your day, and it cuts into your sleep time. Or you've gone to bed with a lot on your mind and your sleep isn't restful.

If you wake up less than refreshed, you won't have the mental or physical energy to put into behavior change. And the energy requirements for that are significant. Good sleep is also a pre-requisite for any other health goals.

So, for me, I know that the first habit to build is an evening routine. And this routine has to support not only the energy required for building a good morning routine, (which may or may not be the next habit to stack) but it has to also be in line with my major life goals at the moment.

So here's what my evening routine will look like. This is intended to ease me into a good night's sleep, take my mind off of work, and allow for more reading time. I'm intending to do a lot more writing in the future, and reading is essential to becoming a good writer.

At 9pm, I begin with shutting off all computers. I shouldn't be working this late anyway, so I should likely only be playing video games. Social media this late at night can just be too stressful.

After shutting the computer down, I take a walk around the campground I work and live at, make sure everything that needs to be locked up is locked, and all is safe for the night.

After that, it's reading in bed time. I read fiction, brain candy. I don't want my brain too active when I fall asleep. But I also want to enrich my imagination.

So that's the routine for now. Eventually I'll have to build a morning routine, mindful exercise and eating routines, and work habits that move me towards financial goals. But to do all of that at once is overwhelming and that's where most people fail.

Starting with the evening routine helps to have the energy to succeed at the next routine, which should then reinforce the next one. Patience is key here, and that's something that our fast-paced hustle plagued society just doesn't promote. But it's essential.