The Power of Domino Habits and Daily Hinges
A few weeks ago, I came across an amazing concep from a blog by Rían Doris, CEO of FlowState.com.
In the blog, Rían talks about recovering from long COVID, being drained, and needing to regain consistency fast. He introduces a concept that’s both simple and powerful: the “domino habit.”
As soon as I read it, I thought, this is Major League Mindset to the core.
A domino habit is the one habit that, when you do it, sets your whole day up for success. It’s like the first domino that knocks over the rest.
For Rían, it was waking up at 5:30 AM and diving straight into focused work. For many of the athletes I work with, it’s their morning routine. While it may vary, this is an example of an AM routine of a player I currently work 1:1 with:
Get out of bed when the alarm goes off
Make bed with Areté
Take a cold shower
AM Champion Journaling/Gratitude
Eat a healthy breakfast/hydrate
Listen to mindset podcast.
For this player, his domino habit is getting out of bed when his alarm goes off. That’s his trigger to win the first mental battle of the day, start the day off winning, and create momentum for the rest of it.
At MLM, we don’t just train athletes to succeed in games—we train them to win the day before they ever step on the field. The MLM+ App has an entire section dedicated to identifying and tracking these kinds of keystone behaviors. We call it the MLM ‘Checklist for Success’, and it’s not just a feature—it’s a mindset tool that reinforces the habits that create consistency and high performance.
Rían also talks about “temporal landmarks”—hinges in the day that act like pivot points. They’re the natural transitions we often overlook: waking up, starting work, dinner, bedtime.
Instead of just letting those moments happen, he turned them into alarms—hinges—each one guiding him back on course toward his domino habit.
We teach something very similar in the MLM routine-building process. Whether it's your Pre-Pitch Routine, Reset Routine, or your Between-Inning Mental Reset, you're learning to create structured moments that bring you back to center—back to what matters. You don’t just play the game pitch-to-pitch…you live pitch-to-pitch.
That’s what these hinges are. Pitch-by-pitch living.
Just like in our program, the point isn’t perfection—it’s direction. If you miss one hinge, you catch the next. You always have another opportunity to reset and realign with who you want to be. This is how you become flow-prone.
Think of it this way: if you’ve ever said to yourself, “I just need to get back on track,” this is your roadmap. Identify your domino habit. Reverse engineer the actions that support it. Set your hinges. Then let your day flow.
Want to experience this kind of clarity and momentum in your own game, life, and mindset? You can try the MLM+ App free for 7 days. Inside, you'll find the tools to track your habits, reset your focus, and stay locked in pitch-to-pitch and day-to-day.
Let your domino habits carry you. And when the hinge says “turn,” just turn.
Bring it on,
-Brandon
