What to do when progress stops: 7 strategies for maintaining momentum

What to do when progress stops: 7 strategies for maintaining momentum

This morning I posted this on The Happiness Diet blog but then soon realised that although the focus is mostly on weight loss the principles are (I believe) relevant to pretty much anyone trying to achieve any goal. So regardless of whether your aiming for happiness or some other form of success, read on and let me know what you think…

I was, recently, chatting to one of the clients of The Happiness Diet who until recently has been making fantastic progress. Over the last 3 months or so Catherine has lost more than 11kg PLUS she reports enjoying life more, being more active with her family, experiencing more happiness, positive emotion and control (and that’s just the brief summary!)

Anyway, she’s been doing great but recently when I checked in with her she noted, without (thankfully) too much concern, that she’d plateaud somewhat. That is, she’d not put on any weight but nor had she lost any more. Impressively, she’d put in motion some of the strategies we cover in The Happiness Diet program but she also asked what else she could do to deal with these periods of limited progress.

So, today, I’m happy to bring you these 7 strategies for maintaining momentum (or maybe for getting back momentum if it’s disappeared for a few days):

1. Firstly, remember that progress is never smooth; its never a perfectly straight line, heading ever upwards towards success and happiness. Ideally, the trend is upwards but I’m yet to meet a client yet (and I’ve seen literally thousands of them over the years) who does not have some ups and downs over the course of their program

2. Secondly, appreciate the ups and downs; that doesn’t mean you have to like the tough periods but it’s worth reminding yourself that they’re perfectly normal and that acceptance and learning are useful mindsets in this context

3. Stay focused on the process and the results will take care of themselves; there are many variables that determine weight loss (and happiness and success more generally) and we don’t have 100% control over all of them. So focus on what you do have control over and stick to your plans and the rest will fall into place in due course

Want to read the other 4 strategies? CLICK HERE TO READ MORE