Welsh Backs

Action planning - this is the setting of very specific short term actions to help you achieve a longer term goal. For example, to reach a goal of being able to walk to the park and back, your first action plan may be: to walk, 20metres, after lunch, three times a week. You can then build on this each week until you achieve your goal. A successful action plan needs to have the following parts:

• It needs to be something that you really want to do, not what your partner, GP or friends think you should do, but something YOU want to do.
• Your plan has to be achievable and not "pie in the sky"
• It needs to be an 'action', so for example, if your goal is to get fitter, then the action might be 'riding my exercise bike', so the action is a stepping stone to reaching your end goal.
• Once you have decided on the action you want to do, you then need to decide on:
  • 'how much', this has to be a measureable amount, so it could be time, distance or quantity.
  • 'when' you are going to do it, again this needs to be as specific as possible, so you may decide 'after breakfast',' between 2pm and 3pm' or when 'Coronation St is on'.
  • 'how often' - this is the number of times in a week that you do it. You shouldn't set an action plan for everyday because life happens! And things get in the way. It is best to plan to do something for 3-5 times during the week.
• When you have set all the parts of your action plan, the final thing to decide is, how confident are you of completing the WHOLE plan. So if 1 = no confidence at all and 10 = total confidence, then you should pitch your plan so that you are at least at a level of 7 out of 10. If you feel that your confidence is not that high, then think about making some changes to the plan such as reducing the 'how much' or the number of times in the week.