Step 5: Keeping on

You know that you’ve been keeping on when you can successfully overcome new obstacles that get in the way and not lose the gains you’ve made in Step 4. Mastering this stage is crucial if exercising is to be an integral part of the rest of your life.

The techniques for keeping on are the sum of everything that got you this far. So whatever tricks work for you, use them. It doesn’t matter if they’re different from the ones that help your best friend or that work for Cindy Crawford.

Remember what we said earlier: The stage you’re in changes all the time. You may work yourself all the way up to Step 5, but then you get sick or injured, or take a trip, or otherwise get distracted.

You may have fallen to Step 2. Maybe even to square one. Nothing magical about reaching the final Step 5 will keep you there. If you find yourself at some lower level, you have to use the techniques appropriate to that level to climb back up. Then you may have to use bits of them to keep on keeping on.

By Garrett J. Braunreiter