How to Stick to Long-Term Changes

September 28, 2025

Welcome to The Productivity Blueprint newsletter 🗞️

Last week, we discussed what to do when you feel like giving up and shared with you 5 messages to think about that could help you get back on track!

If you missed last week, you can catch up here 🙂

Today, we will dive into how to really achieve results when setting long term goals.

“Lasting change happens when people see for themselves that a different way of life is more fulfilling than their present one.”

Leo Babauta dives into why sustaining long-term changes feels difficult, especially when progress seems invisible. He points out that huge goals—losing weight, mastering a skill, building a business—often don’t produce fast, visible wins, and that makes many people give up too early.

Here are his insights and suggestions, laid out to help you stick with change over months or years:

Mindset & Awareness

  • Recognize fragility: that tendency to think “if I don’t see progress right away, I give up.” Seeing that mindset for what it is helps you catch yourself.

  • Cultivate a resilient mindset: reminders to yourself that you’re doing this long-term, because you care; that you enjoy the process; that pauses or setbacks are part of growth.

Ways to Find Encouragement (Even Without Visible Results Yet)

  • Enjoy the doing: try to focus on what you can like about the process now, not just what the future will bring.

  • Use small rewards: checkboxes, stickers, calendar marks, logging successes in an app. These help mark progress.

  • Accountability groups or partners: having people to share with, report to, or who cheer you on can help when motivation wanes.

  • Self-encouragement: noticing when you’re being self-critical, and swapping that with kind, supportive statements.

  • Reminders of possibility: daily reflection on why you started, what it will mean once you reach that long-term goal.

  • Gamify small wins: break bigger tasks into little targets, sprinkle in enjoyment, let yourself feel pride in tiny steps.

Leo stresses you don’t need to try all these at once. Pick a few that feel doable, ones you can integrate without exhausting yourself. Over time, these habits build up, making the long haul feel more doable.

TL/DR: Long-term change is tough because early results are often invisible. To stick with it, shift your mindset toward resilience, find micro-rewards, build accountability, and remind yourself daily of why you care. Small wins + encouragement = sustained progress.

Habitica is a goal/habit tracker app that allows you to set long term goals and stick to them.

How to use it? Use it to log small, daily steps. Even if outcome is far off, seeing a chain of “days done” builds momentum.

Tangerine is also an app for daily self-care and goal-setting.

What we love? The layout of the app is very unique and even has a mood tracking section, so you can jot down how you’re feeling.

💡 Challenge of the week

Over the next 7 days:

Choose one long-term change you’ve been struggling to maintain.

Pick two of Leo’s encouragement techniques that feel doable (for instance, “small rewards” + “reminders of possibility”).

Every day, apply those. Log the small wins, note when you used your encouraging self-statements or enjoyed the process.

At week’s end, reflect: which techniques felt natural? Which felt forced? How did they shift your motivation or mindset?

Sticking with change is like tending a garden: growth may be slow, but with patience, attention, and little acts of encouragement, the harvest comes. Keep choosing what matters, celebrate every small step, and remember that consistency, not speed, does the long work.

Until next week,

The Productivity Blueprint Team

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