How to Make Progress in Your Holistic Wellness Journey

Introduction

You’ve taken the time to understand your health baseline—now it’s time to turn that knowledge into action. If you’re feeling unsure about where to start or worried about doing things “the right way,” know that this wellness journey isn’t about being perfect. It’s about making steady, realistic progress in a way that supports your body and lifestyle.

Your health isn’t built in a day, and you don’t need to have everything figured out before you begin. Whether you’re working on nutrition, movement, stress management, or sleep, the key is choosing small, meaningful actions that align with your body’s needs.

This post will guide you through practical ways to build on your baseline, helping you create a wellness journey that feels doable, enjoyable, and, most importantly, uniquely yours.

How to Start Your Holistic Wellness Journey 

The most important thing to understand when you embark on a holistic health journey is that no matter your habits, you already have a baseline that you’re starting from. If you haven’t established what that baseline is, hop over to this post first. Now, let’s talk about how to start moving forward from wherever you are right now.

Turning Your Health Baseline into Action: A Simple, Sustainable Process

Once you’ve identified your health baseline, the next step is to make steady, meaningful progress. But lasting change doesn’t come from drastic overhauls; it comes from small, consistent actions that build confidence and momentum. Here’s a simple framework to help you take action in a way that feels doable, flexible, and aligned with your life.

Start Exactly Where You Are

Your baseline is your personal starting point, not something to judge or compare. Use the insights from your tracking to identify one area where you’d like to make a change—whether it’s nutrition, movement, sleep, stress management, or another aspect of your health.

Pick One Change at a Time

Pick one simple, realistic habit that you are at least 90% confident you can maintain for the next 1–2 weeks. If you’re unsure whether you can follow through every day, scale the habit down until you feel certain you can be consistent. (For example, instead of committing to 30 minutes of movement daily, start with a 5-minute walk after lunch.)

Set a Check-in Appointment with Yourself

Progress happens when we pause to reflect. Choose a specific date to check in on how this small change is affecting your health and your goals. Until then, focus on following through with your intention as best as you can—without pressure or perfectionism.

Monitor and Adjust

When your check-in time arrives, use it as a moment of curiosity, not self-judgment. Ask yourself: How did this habit feel? What impact did it have? Based on your experience, decide what comes next:

• If you haven’t had enough time to see meaningful results, keep going and set a new check-in date.
• If you struggled with consistency, make the habit even smaller or adjust it to something you feel more motivated to do.
• If you saw positive progress, keep the habit going! If you feel ready, layer in another small, supportive change.

By taking this step-by-step approach, you’ll avoid the all-or-nothing mindset and build real momentum. It will be inherently sustainable because it is based on one small, manageable habit at a time.

Action-Oriented Goals 

The goals must be progress goals and not outcome goals. For example, you would set a goal to get in bed 8 hours before your morning alarm instead of setting a goal to get 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep. The first one you can take action on and the second would be a result of taking action. It’s a small distinction, but it is often the difference between following through on a behavior and not. When your wellness journey is be based on action rather than results, you can always keep moving forward.

How I Implement This Strategy in My Wellness Journey 

I have been following this method for years and it just takes a few minutes a week. When I make my coffee on Friday mornings, I quickly jot down a few notes on how the week went, troubleshoot difficult things, and set an intention based on what the upcoming week holds. I like doing it on a Friday because having my fresh start going into the weekend keeps me from falling into the give up on the weekend and start over Monday mentality. You’ll find what works best for you, but don’t make it complicated or time-consuming. 

The Three Biggest Pitfalls (From someone who learned the hard way) 

This sounds way too simple to affect lasting change, but it truly is this easy. Here are the most common pitfalls that keep people from moving forward: 

Wellness Journey Pitfall 1: Consistency

if you are struggling with consistency, either your environment isn’t set up for success, it isn’t that appealing, your habit is based on an inconsistent trigger, or your goal is too big for now. Ask how you can make it easier, more obvious, or more enjoyable.  If you have not read the book Atomic Habits by James Clear, make sure to read this article on how to build new Habits. 

Wellness Journey Pitfall 2: Motivation

The hardest truth I had to learn about motivation is this- I don’t have to feel motivated to do something to do it. I established an environment that made it easier to follow through on the things I wanted to do. I started making decisions based on what future me would want me to do, not what I want to do at the moment. For example, when I was training for a marathon, I never asked myself if I wanted to go on a run. I asked myself if, a few hours later, I would want to have gone for a run. 

Wellness Journey Pitfall 3: Giving up or starting over

The heart behind this blog is to help people stop starting over and start moving forward. The only way to build lasting change is to create a life that is so normal and enjoyable and personal to you, that there is nothing to give up on. There is no failure, no shame, and no wagon to fall off. You haven’t cheated or ruined anything at all. This means that there is nothing to start over. When you get to your next check-in, take stock of how your habits are holding up, and adjust your goals or strategies from there. 

The First Day of The Rest of Your Wellness Journey 

Your forever holistic wellness journey starts when you start being on your own team. You start setting tiny intentions and becoming the kind of person who keeps promises to themselves. Instead of starting from scratch every time, you start making adjustments and treating them like a little science project with a hypothesis, an experiment, and an analysis of how it went. You stop trying to start from where someone else is or says you should be. You’re in charge of your journey. You stop starting over and start moving forward. 

Conclusion 

I hope this has been helpful to you as you start making progress in your health journey. When you become empowered to make change, reflect on the results, and make adjustments from these, you get into the driver’s seat of your life. This is the key to stop staring over and start moving forward.

 

I’d Love to Hear From You: What’s your first baby step in your forever health journey? Share your thoughts in the comments, or reach out by email for my personal support and encouragement!

Wishing you well,

Meghan