Bad Things Happen
It easy to be productive and make work done when everything goes right in your life. You finish task after task and feel powerful and motivated. But life is hard, and shit always happens. And when it happens, your self-esteem, motivation, and productivity may go down. You may start feeling like it is too hard to keep good habits going and second doubt your process and goals.
Do Not Lose Momentum
When you are in a down period, the most important thing is to be aware of what you are doing and how it relates to your good habits and activities you build so far. It is hard to build momentum for them, but easy to lose.
Let's imagine the situation. Ten days ago, Joe decided to start training each day and stop eating bad foods. He wakes up early in the morning, hit the gym or run, then he prepare healthy food for the day and goes to work. But one day Joe wakes up and sees that there is rain. He lies in bed and remembers how hard was the last run. So Joe decides to stay in bed for a few more minutes and skips the workout. Anyway, one day isn't a big deal, he thinks. When Joe finally wakes up, he sees that instead of a few minutes, he slept for two hours. Joe doesn't have time to cook healthy food and rushes to his job. At the office, Joe eats cookies instead of breakfast. That day, he is not only made a step back but killed the momentum. The next day it will be much harder for him to follow the routine. And if Joe will be too weak and lost the battle in the next following day, he will return to the same couch potato he was before.
Start Winning Small
But what if Joe pushed himself to wake up early that day and prepared healthy food for the day even if he skipped the training. It would be two wins and only one loss. The next day he would make a complete routine and more probably will stick to it for the long run.
When down period heats you, don't let him bring you down. Start winning, even if they are small wins like going to the gym it will help you to recover your confidence and set you up in the right direction. No matter how bad your problems, strive to be present and aware so that you won't lose to mental traps that down period set up for you. Shit always happens, and if you adapt to go through it with as little damage as possible, you will make yourself more resistant, and in the long term, accomplish much more.