How To Stay Committed When Motivation Fades in 2026

Motivation is a great spark, but it burns out fast. We dig into the real engine of change, commitment that lasts after the mood disappears and show how small, repeatable actions can carry you when inspiration won’t. If you’ve ever promised eight glasses of water, sworn off sugar, or eyed the treadmill with dread, this conversation offers a blueprint you can actually use.

We break commitment down to the smallest unit: one glass, five minutes. Micro steps prevent overwhelm and build identity through quick wins. You’ll hear why missing a day isn’t failure, how to reset to “day one” without the guilt spiral, and ways to design your environment so action becomes the default. We unpack habit formation, discipline that’s more gentle restart than punishment, and the psychology of making health feel like a necessity rather than a mood. Expect practical cues, like stacking habits to existing routines and reframing effort as privilege.

Relationships get the same honest treatment. Long partnerships aren’t powered by constant romance, but by daily care, amends, and perspective. We talk openly about change over time, honoring commitments with integrity, and the non-negotiable promise to commit to yourself. A personal moment, seeing a partner waiting patiently during a shopping trip, becomes a powerful gratitude reframe that shifts irritation to awe. We also challenge the habit of living inside other people’s stories, from celebrity drama to endless comparisons, and show how reclaiming that energy fuels your own.

If you’re ready to stop chasing motivation and start building momentum in 2026, you’ll leave with simple, compassionate tools to keep going: micro actions, habit loops, environment design, and gratitude that sticks. Listen, choose one tiny step, and tell us what you’ll commit to next. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a nudge, and leave a review with your smallest win today.

Chapters

• 0:00 Commitment Beyond Motivation
• 1:10 Falling Off Isn’t Failure
• 2:15 Micro Steps: One Glass, One Tooth
• 3:05 Relationships, Change, And Realistic Commitment
• 6:00 Commit To Yourself First
• 7:10 Habit Formation And Tough Love
• 9:20 Reframing Effort As Privilege
• 11:00 Fresh Starts And Day-One Again
• 12:30 Health As Necessity, Not Mood
• 14:30 Stop Living Other People’s Stories
• 17:00 Gratitude Reframe: The Shopping Moment
• 19:40 What Will You Commit To Next

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Are you in the mood to feel committed? I don't know. I suppose it depends on what I'm going to be committed to. Find out if you're in the mood or not. And find out if you can stay committed even after the mood has left you. And there is a secret to it. Listen to Get Real with the English Sisters. The number one podcast for anxiety relief with smiles. Feel free to share this podcast with your family and friends. And help us grow and help us try and figure out how to help with anxiety. Yeah, and make the world a calmer place. Happier place. Happier place. To be. Right. This week it's about commitment. It's about commitment and how to stay committed even after the mood has left you. I think that's a good point. Yeah. Because it's easy to say I'm going to commit to this when you're feeling great.

SPEAKER_01: 1:04

I never say that because I hate I even hate the idea of just I'm going to commit to something.

SPEAKER_00: 1:10

I mean, like even with the nearest resolutions, you know, people say I'm going to commit to them, and then they the mood leaves. The mood leaves out and it's gone. Yeah. So how do you stay committed? How do you stay committed even after the mood? Like you might think, oh yeah, I'm going to really do this now, but I suppose we have to give some examples. What kind of mood? I think the secret to it is really quite simple. And it's when the mood leaves you, just do it anyway. So it's disappeared. I've made the commitment and I'm going to do it anyway. And I think the the the second secret to success is that even if like you fall off the wagon, like if you don't do it one day, don't think that it's a big deal. It's not the end of the world. You're still on track. You can still get back on. Yeah. You know, you can still ride that wagon again. Yeah, yeah, you can ride. No, I know, I know what you mean. Because you might get like demoralized and think, oh no. So I've committed to doing this, like drinking eight cups of water a day or something. Let's say eight glasses of water. And then you don't get you don't manage that. That's as simplest thing, for goodness sake. But it's not easy for everyone to drink eight glasses of water. So they might forget, they might not commit to it, they might well know, but you mean but if you've committed to it, it means you're gonna do it. Yeah, when you feel in a mood, maybe when you're thirsty and you say, Oh yeah, this is easy, but the next day when you really don't want to drink uh, you know, the eight glasses. Then exactly. Maybe just take sips, or just do I would say instead of thinking about drinking the whole eight glasses, just start by drinking one, maybe. And or or you know, well, what is the secret to stay committed after the long the mood has left you, you know, long gone? Maybe this is too simplistic saying with relationships or marriage. I mean, we've been in a marriage for over 20 years, haven't we? Yeah, 30 years now, yeah. Over 30 years, and we've committed to that, so it's like taking it's like taking daily steps to fulfil that commitment every day, and sometimes you might not be the best partner, yeah, and something might have happened where you're not a good partner at all, yeah. But if you make amends for it the next day and the next, it's always gonna still be okay, you'll still be in that relationship, won't you? Yeah, it's when you forget about it and you don't do anything that it becomes a problem because you've committed to it, you know. So you say I've committed to this, and this is this is my I've chosen this partner to be my life partner, and so I will commit to him or her no matter what you know what what goes on, even if the mood has left me right now and I hate you. But I've committed to it, yeah. That does make sense actually, yeah, because you've committed, you've made a commitment. I think that's what every like uh like rituals like marriage and ceremonies are, you make a commitment, so you think okay, then that's it. Obviously, many marriages end in divorce and that, but I think that's when people you either have differences in opinion or circumstances happen and things happen, don't they? But I mean it doesn't have to be lifelong, it could be a commitment for you know, like Esther Perel says that she says in in relationships things have changed now. You could you might be monogamous and committed to one partner for a certain period of time and then go on to the next one. It doesn't mean that you're not a person that's committed just because it's not for life. No, no, I know that, yeah, obviously, yes, yes. I get that, yeah, and I I can appreciate that because you can change, and sometimes one of you can change so much that you're not really on the same level, are you? And I mean, do you know what I mean? You're on the same page, you know, there's it's just too much change. So it's necessary to to to for your own evolution to to continue to grow, to change that person. But sometimes if you if you want to stay committed, you can help the other person as well see who you have become now and appreciate you if if that's possible. If it's not possible, then you see the person does not want to see who you have become now because you've changed and they really don't appreciate you, then yeah, probably it's time to move on. It's time to let go of that commitment and or say I've fulfilled that commitment up until the very best I could do, and now I have to commit to myself and to to to to to be respectful of who I am as a person, because if you don't commit to yourself, then ultimately what are you doing? You have to commit to yourself, don't you? To to to loving yourself and to respecting yourself. So even when the mood has left, you might be feeling down for something. Yeah, you might be feeling depressed and not wanting to look after yourself, like the simple thing of drinking the eight glasses of water. But if you can, if you do realize that it's important for you to stay hydrated, then even if you just start by drinking one glass a day, just one or two, then normally maybe you might be able to have another one after a couple of hours, then you can be happy and think I've drank two glasses a day of water that's really good for me. I'm being proactive, I'm doing something for myself. A bit like flossing. If you say, No, I don't want to floss every night, how boring, flossing, flossing. Just do one tooth. Start with one tooth, and once you start with one tooth, you'll probably do more because you know it's hard to just floss one tooth.

SPEAKER_01: 7:11

I mean, you might as well just do do your whole mouth by that time. Well, yeah, because it's a waste as well.

SPEAKER_00: 7:17

Once you get Yeah, once you get the little thing out, the string out and everything, the floss out. What you're gonna do? Well, you mean it's a way, so once you put your mind to it, when you actually start doing it, it's a waste of your resources if you don't carry on with it. Do you think maybe so that maybe that is that's also one of the one of the ways to hack it, to sort of hack it committed is to start it. Just do it. Just do it, yeah. But and don't think, oh, this is a big deal. Just do one little thing, like one tooth, just floss one tooth, and then just see how you feel about flossing the others. Drink one glass of water and then see if you can, you know, be progressive about it. On the treadmill and then see how much you can do. Yeah, it's like what we used to say when we first went to gym, oh god, half an hour on that treadfill. No, but we used to say, let's just do five minutes, yeah, and then often after the first initial five minutes, you would want to do a little bit more, and you would stay, you do 10 minutes and then 15 and sort of build it up gradually. Yeah, that's I mean, I know this has been said and done before, but it actually does work, so it is a way to stay committed, even after the mood has left you, because it is so it's so easy for the mood just to leave us so fast as human beings. You know, we're not robots. I think when the mood leaves you when you when it when it's when it's not a habit, once it becomes a habit, it's harder for the mood to leave. That's a really good point. Let's make it a habit. Create a habit of the city. Well done, yeah. Once your brain has the habit, they love habits. Brain, our brains adore habits, they'll stick to them like forever. So if you've got a helper, yeah, you'll want to do it, you'll find yourself. Oh, it's a certain time. You will want to do it because the habit has set in. So get that habit solidified. You have to do it for 21 days, apparently, to get the habit really ingrained into your brain. Like with fitness, I haven't been able to do it because I was under the weather for a few days, and I really missed it because it's become a habit of actually working out, doing the weights. Yeah. And uh, and it's uh it's a self-care thing that I really enjoy. And I and I when I got when I can't do it, it frustrates it, and I miss I miss doing it. So even though the mood is you might not want to go down to your little area. I don't want to go down to my little area where I've grown area because it's cold outside and you have to leave the leave the house. You have to leave your main house and go down there, don't you? Yeah. Yeah, but then I think how lucky I am to have an area where I can work it out. How lucky, yeah, and how privileged I am, and how wonderful it is, and and even like my daughter, she just does it in her tiny, tiny little flat in London. Yeah, just one room, but she still manages it. She manages it, and it's it's a it's a moment of self-care for yourself. And once it becomes a habit, then the mood can leave you, and you might not feel like putting your gym clothes on or whatever, your workout clothes on, but you you you know that you want to do it because it's like an automatic little program that just fires off, doesn't it, in your brain, and it tells you at that certain hour you are going to work out, and it is like hypnosis in a way, because you will work out, you want to work out at that time. You look at and you say, Oh, look, it's six o'clock in the evening, that's when I used to do it. Oh, yeah, oh and all of a sudden you find yourself, yeah, don't do it now, and then you go and you put your training clothes on, and then you go and do it, you know. No, I mean I kind of started again on the treadmill, but it's been on and off, had some health issues, yeah. Isn't it to be even if it's off, don't don't don't beat yourself up about it and just think okay, I haven't been able to do it, then that's it, that's finished. No, no, my commitment's finished. I actually enjoy it. Yeah, just keep going, get back on. Get back on, yeah. I'm doing a bit more slowly now, putting it just walking, yeah. But I've done it again, I've started it again, yeah, definitely. Yeah, because things I think things will slip you up when you make a commitment. There will be that that that thing where you say if you you want to you want to give up drinking or something, there will be that time when you you have a drink and then you think, oh no, I had a drink. Well, just start again the next day. Yeah, yeah. Well, that's what they do in Alcoholic Anonymous, it's just day one again, day by day. You just go on, and the next day it's a fresh start. It's a fresh start, yeah. So it's a like a fresh commitment, yeah, yeah, absolutely. And in the long run, if you do keep recommitting, it's not really a problem because I'm I mean, we're not telling you to not trying to say, you know, mess up and then recommit on purpose. No, no, no. But obviously, if you do mess up and you do have a drink or you do do whatever you're doing that you you don't want to be doing, a habit, say if you're eating fast food and you're trying to eat healthily, whatever it is that you're doing, just think, well, okay, it was one day, never mind, you know, just start again the next day. Yeah, I I really do think the secret to staying committed even long after the mood has left you is to create a habit, like what you said, because I think that is a great hack, and I know that in order to create a habit, you're gonna have to have the patience and do it for a certain amount of days. But once it's a habit, it will be so easy for you to just drink that glass of water or you know, put your gym clothes on or do that, because then it's automatic and your brain, you don't even have to worry about it, you'll want to do it. And behind creating a habit, what is there? There's there's discipline, I think. You have discipline kind of like stay committed to creating the habit that you so you have to be tough on yourself, so it's a bit of tough love as well. Tough love, yeah. And just think, yes, I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it, yeah, and build it up slowly and do it. Because it's so easy to get lethargic and say, ah, I can't wait. It's cold today, it's cold, it's raining, or whatever. I know I want to have fun. Yeah, I can't. Life is hard, who cares? Let's have some fun, let's go partying, let's go and do this, let's go and do that. And then, yeah, if you feel great after it, but when you find it's not it's not what you want anymore, it's it's not doing you any any service, not doing any any it's not being helpful to you, and you find you feel you feel bad the next day, you know. Well, I guess it's like you got you you're committed to going to work, aren't you? Because you know you need the money, you know you need to get a job. And so in this go back to work No, because go back to work. Because it's because how how do you get yourself out of bed every morning to go to work? You're committed to it. Well, it's a habit, isn't it? It's a habit, but it's also a necessity. And so if you're gonna commit to something, you want to make it something important enough for you to to for it almost to be a necessity. Like if you're gonna commit to your health, you know that you really need to commit to your health because with if you've got a healthy body, then you're gonna be able to function for longer and this and stay. Well, a healthy body equals a healthy mind, a healthy mind, yeah. So you want to stay around long enough, don't you, as well? You want to live long. Most people want to live a really long life. I do. And I think the other way around as well, healthy mind creates a healthy body because we're all interconnected, aren't we? Nothing works as a as just by itself. No. That your arm won't just work on its own without your brain. No. So you need a you need everything. You need all of you. You need all of you, and sometimes it can be overwhelming. Definitely because they say, Oh god, you know, like uh you've got to eat brain food, you've got to nurture your neurons. What is brain food? Like some green leafy stuff, you know. It's just a Mediterranean diet, really. No, it's not. Apparently, you're supposed to eat a lot more of those greens. It's not just the med because we live we're in Italy, we know what the Mediterranean diet here is. It's just a little tiny portion of greens that they they not enough protein. Not enough protein, come on. Let's say, like what you know. So you've got to it can it can be overwhelming if you take it too seriously. You've got to take it like with that pinch of uh canus a qua bit of all right, let's just let's just go for it. I'll do what I can, sort of thing, without getting overwhelmed by that. Without being too perfectionist, I think. Yeah, I try and eat a bit of green in my diet every day. Just add a few colours. Yeah, add a few colours, but not just add instead of taking it away, you know. Like that could be that's what I'm trying to do now for January. That's why I'm speaking about it. You know, trying to eat a bit less sugar because I know sugar, you know, refined stuff, so the cakes and stuff, no good. Like what I was making before in the oven. I made those oatmeal don't even know what that was, really. What is that? That's your invention, isn't it? It's my invention. I just put some uh some oatmeal and some of that that cruel scale, what's that called? That oatmeal oatmeal fibre flat put some eggs in there and just put it in the oven. Just rolled it out. What else did I put in there? Yog Greek yogurt. Made like a flatbread. And I could yeah, with oats. So that I could eat that in the morning instead of having the sweets, because here in Italy you have a lot of sweets in the morning, like cakes and stuff. Cornetti. Brioche things. Yeah, brioche and that. So I don't want to eat that in the morning, so I've done that. Yeah, but you haven't eaten that for years. Nah, that's that's not really a new commitment. It's not really a commitment. Like you know, you have oats, don't you? Yeah, I got a bit bored of them just on their own. That's what happens, you get bored of them. Yeah, so you've made a different version of it. Put the I put some peanut butter on them for the protein. The the the unsalted kind, because now it's all right. I mean, there's a lot to deal with, but yeah, generally how to take a happy. You have to just keep it simple, I think. Yeah, don't overthink it. Just do it and just kind of be happy doing it. And who cares in the end? I mean, I you you who cares if the mood leaves you because you know once you create a habit, you don't have to think about the mood so much. No, once it's a habit, I think that's the same with everything in a relationship as well. With everything, if you create a healthy habit around something, you're gonna be doing it in the end, you'll just find yourself doing it. Yeah, yeah. And it's the same with unhealthy habits, so maybe it's a habit too. Yeah, it's you know that even like moaning all the time, that that's a habit. Yeah, I know, yeah. And you have to, you know, if you break it, you won't moan, so you find yourself like even moaning to yourself, like when you're just moaning about stuff and grumbling, like being discontent with yourself, that's also a habit. I know, and I was also thinking about this uh Harry and Megan thing that but moaning about them or about what they're doing, that's a habit as well. Moaning about what other people are doing all the time and and focusing putting your your your energy into that your energy or your your nose into other people's business. I mean that's But you really don't know enough about you don't know anything about them, really. No, as therapists we just know what what you see in the media, what other people portray, or what they write themselves, but they're the whole picture you don't really know. No, you don't so I think you're wasting your energy and putting putting your thoughts into things like that, no, and to other people's business that's got nothing to do with you, really, and that can cause a great deal of anxiety in you as well. Yes, I hear a lot of anxiety and stress about you know about their lives going on, yeah. People getting really irate and stressed about their lives when it's got nothing to do with you. No, no, yeah. I mean, really, I don't know enough about it, so I wouldn't, yeah, but it's about it's like with any celebrity or anything when people focus too much on someone else's business, yeah, it can be harmful, and that can stop you from doing what you're supposed to be doing for corrupted life, to your own healthy habits for yourself, and it wastes so much energy, and and you've only got a certain amount of energy in the day. So, if you're gonna be committed to somebody else's story, you'll forget about what your story is for today, and your life in your story. Are really important. So think about your story a little bit more and what how you're gonna make your story a happier one or a nicer one. I think you fit it on the nail, but concentrating on other people's story can also be a distraction to your own story, your life. Yeah, for your from your own story. So in the end, it's like um it's like a way of not having to deal with your own stories. Maybe it's a bit like a coping mechanism. It's like a dummy, isn't it? Like well, babies have the dummies, you're sticking a dummy in the mouth, you're thinking about somebody else's stories, or you're like pacified, and you don't have to think about your own story, your own issues, your own uh getting angry about other people's stuff. It's like uh you vent about that, and so you're not really looking at your own stuff and what what you really could be doing. You're you're essentially you're wasting time, I think so. You're wasting your own story time. You've only got a certain amount of years in this life and moments to tell your own story and elaborate on what kind of story you want to have. So, yeah, definitely. Don't get lost in other people's stories or too obsessed about them because they're not your story. It's not, it's really not. You're gonna have your own story to tell. It'll be a beautiful one, hopefully. I think your story is a story of committing to yourself that you want to be like a nice person, a healthy person, a kind person. Well, that's my story. That's my story. I don't know what your story is, the ones that are listening. Normally, yes, most people really do want that. They want to be kind and and and they want to be loving towards their family and have a nice story by the end of the day. Yeah, even with with people that are close to you. And if you haven't got anyone with clothes, it's creating a commitment maybe to to this year that you will, you know, you will foster a close relationship with someone. Yeah, I mean, like the other day I went, we it's a sales on now, like so. We w I went shopping with my husband, which he doesn't really like much. He did all his men's shops, which isn't really fair. And by the time it was time to go into the lady shops for women, he was like, Oh god, this is boring. And I was going, all right, just wait outside for me. And at first I was disgruntled, and I was thinking, I caught myself thinking, God, look at him, it's not fair. When he I've done all his shops, the ones he likes for the men, and I've helped him buy his shirts and everything he wanted. Now it's my turn, he's not bothered to help me, and he's acting as if he wants to go. And I thought, God, that's selfish. I caught myself thinking that, and I thought, that's not it's not really helpful to me now to think that. And so all of a sudden, I just I stopped myself thinking that, and I went and I did my business, I bought the stuff I wanted to, then I came about outside, and then I went in another shop, which is like a bad a habadashery, like stuff that I know he hates as well. And then I just, while I was paying at the till, I just saw him outside. And he was just holding the bags and everything, and I just thought, gosh, how lucky I am that he is there outside waiting for me. I have somebody who loves me who's waiting for me out there. And I got so emotional when I just saw him there just waiting, and I thought, I just hope that for the rest of my life I will be able to see him out there waiting for me. I'm almost crying because I was so emotional because I just saw him and I I thought, wow, there I have the man of my life who's who I've always loved, and and he is just thank god he's there waiting for me, you know. Uh because that was a complete reframe from thinking you were hard done to to thinking how lucky you were. Yeah, and then every store I went into and I saw and I would look at him and I got a chance to see him from quite far, and he was there waiting for me. Sometimes I couldn't find him, and I would turn around, you know. I felt like God, where is he? And then there he was, there, and and it was like this, and I thought that's what he's been in my life, this constant solid presence, and how lucky have I been to have had him for so many years that even though he may not be that seem seem as if he's not really helping me, but he sure is there, he's there, you know, and and that's what I appreciate. You know, that's how I turned it around.

SPEAKER_01: 24:43

Did a good job.

SPEAKER_00: 24:44

I did a good job, yeah. So there you go. I mean, that was my story, and I thought now today at the end, I didn't even tell him at the end of the day when we were having dinner. I told him, and he got he said, What are you trying to do? Still trying to make me cry now because he was doing his business accounting.

SPEAKER_01: 25:01

He said, It's not the right moment. I said, Stop it.

SPEAKER_00: 25:06

But I I thought, I'm gonna share this with you, and I told him, you know, but it was sweet to share. At the end of the day, I thought that was my story for today. The best moment that I got was when I saw him standing waiting for me, you know, and I thought, God, I'm honored. Yes, when I did the reframe, yeah, when I changed my thoughts around. Um, don't know what that's got. Well, I think that's a good thing to think about because I think we can reframe so many things in our lives, and when we uh when we do come from a position of of gratitude and of love, things do turn around really quickly. Really quickly, yeah. And we put ourselves in other people's shoes as well. Yeah, absolutely. So it well, let us know what you think. What are you gonna commit to in 2023? We're definitely gonna commit to staying with you and continuing our weekly episodes on Get Real with English sisters and many more things, many more things commit to health and fitness and yes, getting traveling a bit more than traveling, definitely, yes, yes. Let's let's let's let's travel more. Let's get moving again. Let's get moving, definitely. Definitely. Thank you, bye bye, bye, bye bye.