Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit, supports the idea that “we are mere bundles of habits,” that much of what we do is automatic: when we get up, what we eat in the morning, which way we drive to work, the first thing we do when we get there, what we do when we get home, and so on.

The secret of success is, if you can get the habits right, the rest will take care of itself. It’s about building the right habits, habits that get you where you want to go.

If you are trying to add something into your day, or cut something out, I highly recommend you check out Duhigg’s book. Every habit has a cue, routine, and reward. Once we recognize the patterns, we have the ability to hack into our natural tendencies, so that you don’t have to fight yourself so much.

Stop swimming against the current. You don’t have to fight against your will power, which is a limited resource. Once you’ve exhausted your will power, and you’ve got nothing left, you’re probably going to go with the path of least resistance, which is how we end up in our habit loop—cue, routine, reward.

Keystone habits are major habits that start to influence other habits. They govern how you approach many aspects of your life. For instance, my keystone habit of climbing influences many of my goals, which effects my training schedule, how and when I train, how I eat, my mood, who I hang out with … basically everything. (To read more about identifying and leveraging keystone habits, check out this article Charles Duhigg wrote for lifehacker.com.)

I love the line from Jim Karn in the classic climbing film Masters of Stone 3. He said something to the effect that people were always asking him how to train for climbing. He told them that when something (climbing) becomes important enough to you, how to train, what to eat, what to do, will suddenly become clear to you.

I think it’s such a moving thought that I used it in my commencement speech from my graduate program.

After you’ve selected WHAT you want to do, what your goals are, the next step is to get the habits right. If you can do that, you can do anything.