March Week 5: When Momentum Returns
By the end of March, the light is noticeably different.
Mornings feel less reluctant. Evenings stretch. There is often a subtle lift in mood and, with it, a temptation to accelerate.
This is the point at which many people overcorrect, often with impressive enthusiasm.
After weeks of negotiation and adjustment, momentum begins to build. You have shaped a few habits. Introduced friction. Softened self-criticism. And suddenly drive clears its throat and suggests that now would be an excellent time to optimise everything. From a behavioural perspective, this makes sense. Early success increases self-efficacy, a concept developed by Albert Bandura to describe our belief in our ability to influence outcomes. As confidence rises, so does willingness to act. The difficulty is not momentum itself. It is unmanaged momentum.
Research on behaviour change maintenance consistently shows that sustainable change depends less on intensity and more on consistency. High initial effort followed by burnout predicts relapse more reliably than moderate, repeatable effort. In exercise science, for example, adherence is strongly linked to perceived enjoyment and realism rather than ambition. In other words, April does not need a grand unveiling or a personality overhaul.
Compassion Focused Therapy offers a helpful lens here. When momentum builds, drive becomes energised. This is not a problem. Drive is necessary for growth. But if drive detaches from soothing, it can slip into pressure. Threat may reappear quietly in the background, whispering that this improvement must be maintained at all costs. So as March turns towards April, the question shifts slightly.
Not how far can I push this? But how can I stabilise what is already working?
Behavioural research on habit maintenance suggests that protecting context is crucial. The same cues, times and environments that supported early change need to be preserved long enough for automaticity to deepen. Disrupting structure too quickly weakens consolidation. This is also true psychologically. If reduced screen use improved sleep, protect the evening boundary. If one small morning routine helped steadiness, keep it modest rather than expanding it into a productivity regime.
Momentum is safest when it is scaffolded, not sprinted.
There is also room here to consider values more explicitly again. March has been about shaping habits. April can become about aligning them. Which of these adjustments genuinely support the person you want to be? Which were reactive? Which feel nourishing rather than merely impressive? Seasonally, this is a threshold moment. The negotiation of March begins to lean towards the outward movement of spring. But nature does not leap. It layers.
You might notice all three systems active again. Threat: do not lose this progress. Drive: build on this, add more, go further. Soothing: steady now, let this settle. The art is not to silence drive or threat, but to let soothing set the pace.
Just One More Thing
Choose one habit that has improved this month and resist the urge to expand it. Instead, write down what supports it. Time of day. Environment. Emotional state. Keep those supports stable for the next two weeks. Keep the scaffolding up for now. Research on maintenance and consolidation suggests that repetition in stable contexts strengthens automaticity. So think in terms of protection rather than escalation. Let April arrive without demanding transformation.
You are not building a new self from scratch. You are allowing a pattern to stabilise in the light, which is far less dramatic and far more sustainable.
About the Author
Dr. Richard Pomfret is a HCPC-registered Counselling Psychologist and founder of Therapy On The Hill. He works with adults experiencing a range of emotional and psychological difficulties, offering evidence-based therapy in a compassionate and collaborative way.
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