Mark Twain is reputed to have said that stopping smoking was no problem, after all he had done so a hundred times! More often than not, we fail to achieve our goals when a lapse, that could have been a temporary setback, becomes a relapse.

During the Action and Maintenance Stages, setbacks are common. Knowing about the stages of change keeps you from just giving up and going back to your old habits. By understanding the cycle you can reassess where you are and know what kinds of actions you need to take to go forward.

Perhaps you cycled all the way back to the Challenge stage and began to think it was not worth it at all. Maybe you are back at Awareness and in need of more information. Hopefully you will find yourself back at Preparation, learning from your lapse and getting ready for another run at Action.

The good news is that once you have taken Action and Maintained the Gains for a number of months:

The enjoyment of the changes will help keep them going. You are less and less likely to relapse with each month. You will experience the temptations of old habits less and less. Your confidence will continue to increase.

So when do you reward yourself?

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