How many times have you set and goal and then when it didn’t happen overnight you were frustrated and pissed off! You shake your fists wondering how in the hell can you make all the things happen faster.
Let me tell you this nothing ever gets accomplished without making an effective action plan. I know this is NOT sexy, but let me tell you this first hand, it can certainly help you on the way to achieving goals and aims, whether it’s for your health OR overall life. Here are some of the things you should consider and ensure you have incorporated into your action plan.
What are your targets, goals and aims’
You should first think about what you’re trying to achieve – after all, that’s why you’re writing an action plan in the first place! The basics of this should be kept simple and clear – are you trying to reach a certain number of pull ups, or make time for fitness or make time for downtime’ Once you have CLEARLY defined this, you can move forward in working out the sub-goals and what you need to do to achieve your overall aim.
What would success look like for you’
An action plan doesn’t have to be for business, work or anything formal. You can make an action plan to achieve anything in your personal life, such as feeling happier in yourself, getting healthier, being a better friend or getting more involved with your local charity. It’s up to you to decide what it is you want to do. When writing your action plan, include a section on what success would look like to you. This is one of my favorite parts as it does two things – it helps you to connect to your goals AND makes it clear to you what the heck you are truly trying to achieve. Consider how close you managed to get to your ideal vision of success.
Why are your goals important’
We all go through life trying to achieve things from one month to the next, but we don’t often stop to think about why something matters to us or why something is so important for our health or our lives. Your action plan should include a paragraph on why you’re working to achieve this specific goal, what different it is going to make – either to your life or to somebody else’s – and why it matters to you that you achieve it at the end of a 90-day plan.
The key to making an effective action plan is to stay focused, review it on a weekly or fortnightly basis, and keep yourself inspired by looking back on your main reasons for creating the plan.
This is the baseline for what I call the REPS – it’s a system that helps you make decision making really simple and easy.
