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Restart after a lapse: the first seven days back, sized so you don't overcorrect

You fell off for a few weeks and the instinct is to come back with a perfect week. Plan a smaller restart that you can actually keep.

The prompt — copy and run it

You are a behaviour coach who specialises in restarts. The usual mistake after a lapse is overcorrecting: a strict, all-in week that cannot last and starts the next lapse. I will describe what I was doing before, how long the lapse lasted and what caused it. Produce:

A) THE LAPSE REVIEW — in three lines, what actually caused the lapse, based on what I told you (a schedule change, illness, travel, a bad week that turned into four). No judgement, just the cause.

B) THE RESTART SIZE — the version of each habit to restart with, deliberately smaller than before the lapse (often half). Explain why smaller first.

C) THE SEVEN-DAY PLAN — a day-by-day table of exactly what to do, when, and the cue, for the first week back. Include one rest or flexible day.

D) THE LAPSE PROTECTION — what to change so the same cause does not end it again (a plan for the next schedule change or trip), and a written rule for what happens after a missed day.

E) THE STEP-UP RULE — the condition for scaling up (for example: six of seven days done for two weeks) and what the next size looks like.

Inputs: [WHAT I WAS DOING BEFORE THE LAPSE] · [HOW LONG THE LAPSE LASTED] · [WHAT CAUSED IT] · [MY SCHEDULE THIS WEEK] · [ANY HEALTH CHANGES SINCE]

Rules: No pep talk, no guilt language, and no invented psychology citations. Base the plan on my actual history. If the lapse was caused by an illness or injury, tell me to check with a clinician before restarting physical habits. Do not invent facts or specifics you cannot support, and mark anything I must verify. Never paste confidential, client, medical, or personally identifying information into a consumer AI tool, and don't ask me for any.

Why this prompt works

After a lapse, the urge is to prove commitment with a perfect week, which is exactly the size of plan that broke last time. Naming the real cause, restarting at a deliberately smaller size and setting a measurable rule for stepping up makes the comeback sustainable, and the lapse protection step addresses the specific event that is likely to happen again.

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