Module 13 · Setbacks & resilience · Lesson 4 of 6

Rebuilding momentum and starting again

After a setback, the first step back should be almost embarrassingly small.

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The idea

After a setback, illness, loss or a long gap, getting going again can feel much harder than it did the first time. You may feel rusty, out of the habit, or reluctant to risk another disappointment.

The first step back should be almost embarrassingly small: one short walk instead of a full workout, one page instead of a chapter, one email instead of a whole job search. The aim is not to make up for lost time but to restart the loop. Small steps rebuild the sense that things are moving.

Starting again is not starting from zero. You still have the skills, knowledge and experience you had before. Often they come back faster than you expect once you are moving. It helps to look at what you did before, not to compare yourself with it, but to remember what you are capable of.

Why it matters

Trying to restart at full speed after a setback often leads to another stop. Small, steady steps rebuild momentum more reliably, and each one makes the next easier.

See it happen

After three months of illness, Daniel wants to get back to his fitness routine of five gym sessions a week. He tries it in the first week back and is exhausted by Wednesday.

The first read

He used to manage five sessions easily, so he feels he should be able to go straight back to it.

With this idea

He restarts with two short sessions a week and a daily walk, and adds one session each fortnight. Two months later he is back to four sessions and feeling strong.

What changed

He rebuilt momentum with small steps instead of restarting at his old pace.

Easy to get wrong

• Comparing your first week back with your best week before. Your starting point has changed.
• Waiting until you feel fully ready to restart. Momentum usually returns through moving, not waiting.

What this rests on

Practical wisdom. A widely used way of working. Useful to try — not a scientific law.

• Teresa Amabile & Steven Kramer — The Progress Principle (2011) — A study of thousands of work-diary entries finding that making progress in meaningful work was the most common feature of people’s best days.
• Katy Milkman — How to Change (2021), and the fresh-start effect (Dai, Milkman & Riis, 2014) — Research on why change is easier at new beginnings — a new week, month or birthday — and on making good behaviour easier and more rewarding.

Try it: The smallest restart

1. Pick something you stopped and want to restart.
2. Write the smallest version of it you could do this week.
3. Write how you will add a little more each week.

Reflect

• What have you been meaning to restart?
• What would make the first step back small enough to actually take?

Use it in the coming days

Put the smallest restart on your schedule this week, and don’t add more until you have done it twice.

Where to do it: My Schedule

A small restart with a time on the schedule is how momentum begins again.