Find a sense of achievement.

When you’re at school, tests track your progress. When you’re at work, often one-to-ones with your manager record how you are getting on. When you are an athlete or do some form of sport there are personal bests or step counts to measure your activities. However, when none of those feature in your daily life, different challenges need to be found.

I don’t know whether any of you are struggling with a lack of purpose, or an inability to physically do much. Every time I see groups of runners I feel a wee bit envious of them. (A nice cup of coffee and a chocolate biscuit on my sofa soon sort that one out!)

In these days of minimal activity, I still make lists in my head. They’re shorter than before but still help me through the day. It might be writing for a couple of hours or doing an extra round of my physio exercises but still it’s something.

I’m sure if you feel stuck in a job you hate, you could make a list of tiny tasks that you can sneakily do or look forward to doing when you get home. Again, it might involve a chocolate biscuit or two!

We live in a world where obvious things mark success: awards, promotions, pay rises, A’s in school exams, firsts at university, publishing deals and lots more. There are cards for most things these days. But what about the times you overcame your fear, the first occasion when you felt well enough to go out, the time when you got through a whole day by yourself or succeeded in making your own dinner. For some, these are huge challenges that deserve to be called an achievement too.

So if you have made yourself proud in an unseen way, congratulate yourself. Not all battles are acknowledged or even seen but they are won nonetheless and I salute you for that!