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You have set your goal, mapped out your path and started along your life changing journey. But what happens when your resolve begins to crumble? How do you cope with setbacks and sometimes, how do you just keep going when you feel as though you have made minimal progress?

Here are three R's to keep you on track.

R number 1 is for Review. We are often told to keep our eyes focused on our goal and not look back, but this is one time when looking back can be positively beneficial. This is not the kind of looking back that takes your emotions back to the things you don't like to remember, though. This is looking back at what you have achieved, since you began working towards your goal.

A few years ago, when I realized that I could no longer rely on my body's natural metabolism to keep me slim and when I noticed the effects of age making me short of breath and when my clothes didn't fit so well, I set a goal to get healthy, become a regular gym-goer and be able to run 5 miles without dying prematurely.

I set to work with great enthusiasm and pushed myself hard for the first few weeks. Then I began to find it more difficult to motivate myself to hit the road in the mornings and I was finding excuses to not go to the gym.

But then a conversation with a friend prompted me to look back over what I had achieved so far. I realized that not only could I now run nearly two miles without requiring an ambulance but that I had also already upped my weights twice at the gym and my resting pulse had dropped 5 beats per minute. I began to appreciate that my efforts were paying off.

R number 2 is for Rejoice. As well as reviewing it is important to congratulate yourself for a job well done. As George Adams once said, "We all hunger for applause". And it is just as valid, even if you have to applaud yourself.

Suddenly, after my review, I felt a whole lot better about what I had achieved by my own efforts. I could see what benefits I had already accrued and I was eager to keep going.

Ceremoniously, I crossed off the goal steps on my progress chart, smiled at myself in the mirror and, that night with friends, I felt perfectly justified in indulging in some mild bragging. It felt good.

R number 3 is for Reward. Finally as part of your goal plan it is a great idea to build in certain larger milestones which will trigger a reward.

After reaching the 2 and a half mile mark and a certain level of weights and repetitions in the gym, I had told myself that I would buy myself a home rowing machine, so that when winter came and I couldn't go running so often, I could still keep up the regimen.

Well I got there and it was a great feeling when I went to the store and ordered my machine. Sure, I could have afforded to buy one when I started, but this way, I really felt as though I had earned it and it made me appreciate it all the more.

So whatever goal you have set yourself, don't forget to keep yourself going with these three motivational R's. Review, Rejoice and Reward.