Make a Personal Action Plan

Posted November 29, 2007 by Megan Bailey

     A great way to stay on track with your nutritional and fitness goals is to create a personal action plan for yourself. A personal action plan starts with a goal. A goal is something you want to accomplish for yourself but may take a while to achieve.
     Action plans are short term plans that will help you to reach your goal. They must include a specific action or behavior that you want to do and know that you will be able to accomplish. Your plan should include what you are going to do, when you are going to do it, how much you are going to do, and how many days a week that you are going to do it. An example would be I will walk for 20 minutes before meals every day.
     Another important aspect of your personal action plan is to include a scale that will measure your confidence level. Your confidence level is an indicator of how certain you are that you will succeed with the action plan that you have created. Create a scale numbered from 0 to 10 where 0 represents having no confidence at all and 10 represents the highest level of confidence. The more confident that you are, the more likely you are to succeed. If your confidence level is low you may want to consider changing your action plan.
     At the top of your personal action plan plainly state your intentions. State what, how much, when, and how many things that you intend to do this week. Next rate your confidence level on your scale from 0 to 10. Have a section where you can write down things that you feel could make it difficult to fulfill your action plan. Next state how you will overcome those challenges. Write down what resources you will turn to that week for support in fulfilling your action plan. This could be something as simple as talking to a friend or family member.
     At the bottom of your action plan include a spot to write in how you are going to reward yourself when you achieve what you set out to do. This should be something self nurturing to yourself. Often times we are so busy nurturing those around us that we forget to do anything nice for ourselves. We all deserve a special reward, something to look forward to for working hard to achieve our goals. Be sure to sign your plan and date it.
     At the end of the week, come back and access your progress. Did you accomplish what you set out to do? Record your progress in a journal or notebook. Don't forget to pat yourself on the back for your accomplishments that week. By making your action plan every week you will continue to make progress towards achieving your long term goal. The small steps that you take every week will eventually turn into larger steps, and before you know it you will have achieved the success of meeting your long term goal.