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Action Plan |
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Many goal-setters are familiar with the concept of an "action plan." For those who are not, an action plan is a roadmap or blueprint to accomplishing a goal. Action plans can range from simple to elaborate, depending on the nature and complexity of the goal. Fundamentally, an action plan is a good action plan if, when followed, it provides a reasonable chance of success given the available timeframe and resources.
myGoals.com has taken the basic concept of an "action plan" and applied a unique goal-setting methodology to it in order to offer goal-setters powerful, yet easy-to-use, goal-setting software. Our methodology consists of a simple five-step process for creating a good plan. When you use myGoals.com's software to create such a plan, you end up with what we call a GoalPlan®.
Here is a summary of the five steps for creating a good plan:
Step #1: Identify Your Goal
Clearly determine what the goal is. Be specific.
- Bad: “To lose weight”
- Good: “To lose 10 pounds in a healthy way”
Step #2: Identify Your Obstacles
List all the obstacles standing between you (or your team) and the goal. Identify resources, assistance, information or anything else that might be needed to reach the goal. As your writing, don’t get discouraged by the obstacles– they’re absolutely necessary to help you with the next step in completing your plan.
Step #3: List Tasks to Overcome Each Obstacle
Taking each obstacle one at a time, write one or more ways the obstacle could be overcome. These are tasks (or action items) that will comprise your to-do list. Expect to have several tasks per obstacle.
Step #4: Assign Task Deadlines
Assign a start and completion date to each task in the plan. It’s ok to be working on several different tasks at the same time, but don’t overdo it. Be realistic.
Step #5: Set Up Task Reminders or Other Alerts
Assign a reminder or alert to each task in the plan to keep you on track. If you're using myGoals.com, you can specify how often you want to be reminded via email of every task you've listed in your plan. You can choose to be reminded daily, weekly, monthly, at random, etc.
Follow Your Plan
If you use myGoals.com, by the time to you've completed the five steps above, you will have defined a GoalPlan. Complete each task in succession. Revisit your GoalPlan often and make sure to use your reminder system to keep you on track.
Additional Suggestions:
- If your plan is too long or complicated, try breaking it into several smaller, more manageable plans.
- Don’t rely on luck or things outside your control as part of your plan.
- Be flexible–expect your plan to change before you complete it. Circumstances change, unexpected events occur, and your plan should be updated to adapt to changes. Use planning software such as myGoals.com to help construct your plan and modify it regularly.
- Seek the input of others who have expertise in the area or who have completed a similar goal.
- Reward yourself for partial success as significant milestones are accomplished.
Tools for Creating and Following an Action Plan
myGoals.com (this Web site) was designed to help people create and manage goals. Having a viable plan helps keep you on track, avoid procrastination, and greatly increases the likelihood of success. myGoals.com walks you through an easy, step-by-step process to create your plan online. myGoals.com also provides a library of pre-made GoalPlans® that users can view, adopt, and customize for individual circumstances. Whether you adopt a pre-made GoalPlan or use our goal-setting wizard to build your own, we send you email reminders to keep you on track. This serves as an automatic source of motivation, reminding you when it's time to get to work on the next tasks in your plan. With the service, you are always in complete control of when and how many email reminders you receive; they are completely optional.
myGoals.com's GoalPlans and email reminders are extremely effective in creating a viable plan and keeping you on track. The ability to access your GoalPlans online makes it easy to check off tasks as you complete them and to modify your plan as you progress. We encourage people to revise their GoalPlan and deadlines whenever they determine their obstacles or priorities have changed.
To learn more or sign up for a free trial, visit our goal-setting homepage.
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