Maintaining progress and managing setbacks

This chapter aims to help you understand:

•   How to maintain progress

•   What a setback is

•   How to manage setbacks

How can you maintain progress?

There are many ways to maintain your progress and continue to build on your success and increase your confidence. You could:

•   Vary your activities and exercises as they can soon become boring.

•   Try fun and enjoyable ways to increase your activity level, like a game of crazy golf.

•   Steadily increase your exercise routine.

•   Set yourself short-term and long-term SMART goals (see Chapter 6).

•   Reward yourself frequently and enjoy it (see Chapter 7)!

•   Pace yourself (see Chapter 8).

•   Prioritize, especially on bad days. Focus on what ‘could’ be done on that day or that week. Avoid the ‘must’ or ‘should’ type of thinking or I’ll just do . . . thinking.

•   Keep a diary and record your progress.

•   Learn a new skill (such as yoga or computer skills), or a new craft (like cross-stitch or painting) or take up a new hobby (like fishing, photography or model-making).

•   Join a leisure group, such as a walking or line dancing group, or a gym, where qualified instructors can help design a programme to suit your needs.

•   Tell others around you how they can help you (see Chapter 13). For instance, they could focus on your achievements or suggest rewards for your progress.

•   Refresh your mind by reading this chapter regularly.

•   Other? ________________________

In your notebook, write down your plan for maintaining progress, including at least three of the above points and/or your own ideas.

My plan for maintaining progress is:

1   ____________________________

2   ____________________________

3   ____________________________

Obstacles to progress

There may be all sorts of obstacles and barriers that affect or even stop your progress.

Tick the factors that you think may affect your progress or stop you making changes in the future:

   Lack of time

   Lack of motivation or drive

   Too many interruptions

   Family issues

   Feeling better!

   Other factors, e.g. feeling very tired, being very angry

Now think about what might affect your progress now and write these difficulties in your notebook.

Work out some solutions and write them down too. It may help to look at the list of ideas on how to maintain progress (see above). You could also use Chapter 10 to help you with specific difficulties.

TIP

Try out the best solution overall!

What is a setback?

A setback may disrupt your daily routine or activities and can last for a few days or several weeks. It can often be due to a severe increase in pain. Or it can be linked to other factors, such as feeling very low, having a viral infection or a severe cold, family illness, a crisis with a child or elderly relative, having to do overtime at work, going on holiday, or worry over debts. A setback stops or limits many activities. It can make you feel down, disappointed or frustrated.

Think about any issues in your life that are likely to cause a setback, such as:

•   Family

•   Work

•   Lack of time

•   Going into hospital

•   Moving house

•   Travelling by car, bus or train

•   Caring for an elderly or disabled family member

•   Holiday

•   Feeling low

•   Other issues? _________________________

Depending on your own situation, some of these factors will be more likely or less likely to cause a setback. Mark the ‘high risk’ factors with (H) and the ‘low risk’ factors with (L).

Maria made the following list of issues that she felt were linked to her latest setback:

•   My tooth pain and infection.

•   Getting angry with my brother, John.

•   Sleep problems, waking hourly.

•   Having fallen out with the neighbours.

•   Worrying about my sister Angela, who drinks too much alcohol, and who will look after her children.

•   Not having enough money to pay the telephone bill.

TIP

Think about your last or current setback. In your notebook, write down what may have contributed to it.

Sadly, setbacks are inevitable. The good news is that what you do during a setback will make a real difference to:

•   The impact it has on your day-to-day life

•   The length of time it lasts

•   How often you experience setbacks