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5 small tips to help you stick to your health journey

When you feel like giving up, pause and reflect on how far you've come. Celebrate your successes and then reconsider.
By Valorie Burton

We build confidence when we take action and see results. After a few weeks of dedication to making intentional changes and beginning to see progress, the TODAY Beach Busters challenge participants are feeling motivated to keep the momentum going.

One participant had major breakthroughs by getting serious about prioritizing — letting go of activities that took up too much time, setting stronger boundaries and coming up with a new plan for after-school pick-ups that has created an extra three hours in her day. Another participant is continuing to hold herself accountable and to see it as an act of self-love to do so. The third Beach Busters participant is taking daily steps towards more happiness by exploring more of what makes her happy and giving herself permission to take care of herself, not just everyone else.

We can all learn from this. Success, even small successes, build your confidence in your ability to transform your life by making new choices, little by little.

With just one more week to go in the challenge, I want to see everyone build on their progress by celebrating it, learning from it and committing to making even more progress in the weeks and months ahead. Like them, you can take these steps and ask these questions anytime you are not quite to the goal, but light years ahead of where you once were:

  1. Celebrate your progress. What are you most proud of? What has it taken for you to make the progress you’ve made?
  2. Learn from successes. What have I learned from this process of making changes?
  3. Find wisdom in your failures and frustrations. Where have I struggled and what is the message in the failures or frustrations I’ve endured?
  4. Remember and recommit to your vision. What is the vision I am moving towards? Why does it matter so much to me? What will I do to maintain my momentum?
  5. Acknowledge new hopes for additional changes. Now that I’m gaining more confidence in my ability to make changes, what else would I like to include in my vision? What is a good next step to move in that direction?

Take each of these five steps this week. Answer the questions honestly, as your answers will give you powerful insight that will help you pinpoint your next steps. Be intentional about staying on the path to greater happiness, fitness and well-being. With consistency, you’ll see the shifts and changes you’ve hoped for.

Valorie Burton

Valorie Burton has written 13 books on personal development, is the founder of The Coaching and Positive Psychology (CaPP) Institute and an international speaker on resilience and happiness.