Taking the first step towards creating a healthy lifestyle is always the hardest. It takes a lot of determination and motivation to want to make that change in the first place, and some confidence to actually start on your healthy path. However, it’s always smooth sailing once you’ve made your new health and fitness journey a habit. Sure, you may see some progress towards your goals fairly quickly, but the improvements don’t always come as quickly and consistently as they do right off the bat.

Reaching and surpassing goals is always a great motivator. But it is important to maintain your motivation and internal drive during the progression towards a goal because this is the time when the results may not seem as evident, but your hard work is not going in vain! We’ve all been at that point where you aren’t seeing the results you want to see, and the effort you’re putting in does not seem to be going anywhere. It causes you to lose interest in what you’re doing and can sometimes lead to a relapse of old unhealthy habits.

Here are a few “tricks” you can use to maintain your motivation:

1  Rediscover your goals

When progress isn’t being made (or isn’t evidently seen), the fact that you’re not changing becomes the focus. It’s always a good idea to rediscover the goals that you are set on accomplishing. Change your focus from the day-to-day to the bigger picture, and remind yourself that reaching goals does not happen overnight.

2  Re-evaluate your goals

Rediscovering your goals helps to remind you what you’re working towards. But what if after reminding yourself of you goals you find that you’re not progressing anymore because your goals are either already accomplished or your goals have changed? Re-evaluating your goals is not a bad thing – people change all the time, and you may find that since starting a health and fitness journey that you want to work towards something different than your initial goal. Set yourself straight, update your goals, and set a new path to make sure you are working towards achieving these goals. This readjustment can rekindle the fire inside and encourage you to keep pushing.

3  Always remember how far you’ve come

Looking to the future gives you something to work towards, but don’t sell yourself short on everything that you’ve accomplished up to this point! Take a minute to see how far you’ve come from the start and to remember the progress you’ve made. It took a lot of hard work to get where you are now, and it’s going to take a lot of hard work to keep moving forward, but it’s good to remember that you’re well on your way.

Maintaining motivation is very important, but it is also important to keep yourself accountable for your decisions. Track your progress, know your habits (both good and bad), and know what needs to be maintained and what needs to be changed. If you’re not seeing the results you want to see, take a look at your lifestyle and exercise regime and see if anything needs to be updated. You’re in the driver seat, and you must take responsibility for your actions.

That doesn’t always mean owning up to your flaws and faults, though! Taking responsibility for your actions also means being proud of your victories. Obviously reaching a long term goal is a huge victory, but don’t forget to celebrate the small victories (or as my one client likes to call them, her NSVs – non-scale victories). Hitting new PBs (personal bests) in the gym, running that extra km, besting your last time, or getting that confident feeling when you go shopping and you’re able to git the next size up or down – all of these are small victories that should never be forgotten. Reaching a long term goal takes a lot of time and energy, but celebrating the small steps is just as important.