Having an Action Plan
OK, so once you’ve set yourself a realistic goal, how will you achieve it?
The best way to do this is to design an action plan. In the action plan you will have a list of smaller goals that you tick off on the way to achieving your end goal. The easiest way to explain this is to use some examples.
Action Plan
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Reasonable
- Time-frame
Specific:
Rather than saying ‘ just going swimming’, we’ll say that the end goal is to swim 5 lengths of the local swimming pool. Now the goal is specific.
Kate’s Action Plan
1
We’re going to help Kate get used to wearing a swimming costume. She will have to go to her local sports shop and try on a swimming costume, first on her own and then with a friend or relative. This’ll help her get used to showing her legs. As you can see, we’ve actually set 2 smaller goals on our action plan. It doesn’t matter how many you set as long as you’re making progress towards the end goal.
2
We’re going to make the smaller goals more difficult, but they’ll still be easier than achieving the end goal. We’re going to ask Kate to do 10 minutes of jogging around the area near her house every night after work for 4 weeks. We’ll ask Kate to wear knee-length shorts. This means she’ll have to show her legs in public, but won’t reveal as much as she would be if she were wearing a swimming costume.
3
Kate should now be ready to try and achieve the end goal of swimming for 5 lengths
4
Let’s set Kate a Time frame for achieving this goal so that she doesn’t keep putting things off. The end goal is quite challenging for Kate so we’re going to give her 3 months to achieve it.
2 weeks to try on a swimming costume alone.
2 weeks to try on a swimming costume with a friend or relative. In this time she may find just wandering around clothes stores and looking at swimming costumes will help to prepare her for this task.
4 weeks to go jogging in her shorts. Again she may feel that going running in track suit bottoms to begin with helps her get used to it, or she could try going out in shorts just for a couple of minutes until she feels comfortable.
4 weeks to get into the pool and swim her 5 lengths. She could build up to this by going to the pool to watch, or just try getting changed in the changing rooms. Being in the place where she’ll be swimming will prepare her for the end goal.
We can see from this example that there will be lots of small goals that Kate will have to achieve to get to her end goal. This will prepare her and help with any anxiety. This is how action planning works, and it’s important, especially if the task is a difficult one to achieve.
Example 2: Getting back to work
A common problem for many people, especially with illnesses or accidents is getting back to work again.
The end goal in this example will be starting work again. This goal has to be specific and measurable, so rather than saying just going back to work we’ll say that the end goal is to go back to work full time for 1 month. This isn’t to say that the work will end after 1 month, but that the aim is to stay in the job for at least a month to demonstrate capability. Now the goal is specific – it’s obvious when it’s completed and we can measure when it has been completed.
Now we need to decide whether the goal is achievable and reasonable. The person who wants to go back to work is called Malcolm. Malcolm has been passed as fit to work by his GP, so the goal is achievable. Malcolm has been experiencing severe social anxiety due to his vitiligo for 2 years and has been unable to leave the house let alone go back to work. From this we can see that asking him to go straight back into a full-time job is unreasonable.
This is where the action plan comes in. We’re going to set him 1 overall short-term goal and 1 medium term goal to help him to reach the long-term goal of returning to full time work for 1 month.
The short-term goal should relate to the end goal, but be much easier to achieve. Therefore, we’re going to help Malcolm get used to being in a routine of employment by asking him to start working as a volunteer for 3 or 4 hours a day, 2 days a week. This’ll help him to start getting used to a routine and will build his confidence about returning to work.
The medium term goal should make things more difficult, but still be easier than achieving the end goal. As part of the medium term goal we’re going to ask Malcolm to start working part time for about 20 hours a week across 5 days. This’ll help to increase his confidence about his ability to work and will get him out of the house on a regular basis.
So we’ve laid out a series of measurable and specific staged goals for Malcolm to work towards. Now we have to set him a time frame for achieving this goal so that he doesn’t just keep putting things off. The end goal is quite challenging for Malcolm so we’re going to give him 6 months to achieve it. Therefore, we’ll give him 2 months to achieve each intermediate stage.
This example was a real problem that Malcolm was helped to address by his therapist:
“I wanted to get a new job and I wanted to possibly move out. What I did with her advice was do some voluntary work with the Citizens Advice Bureau in the office. I worked there on Monday and Wednesday from 9-12 and I was trying to get back into work and in a way it helped because sometimes at 1 or 2 in the afternoon, I would just go home and lie on the bed. You know I just knew I wasn’t ready to go back to work, but it helped me because I did that for 2 months as voluntary work and in the meantime I started to feel a bit more positive and started looking for a job and actually found paid work, part time work, which again, I was pleased that I, you know, did a part time job, because I knew full time wouldn’t work. Yeah it took a long time, sort of 6 or 7 months to really get back on my feet, but in terms of the advice she gave me and the way she was helping me, I thought it was excellent, I really was impressed.”
Daisy’s experience
I wouldn’t even show my arms, not even in hot weather. My arms were all psoriasis and I’d wear a jacket or something and people would say to me, “How can you wear a jacket in this weather?” but I had to, I couldn’t do anything else. I was in the park and this guy walked past me who was wearing shorts and his legs were thick with psoriasis and the nurse at the hospital keeps saying to me, you know, you should wear shorts and I keep saying well I’m not ready yet, because I still have psoriasis on my legs. But I saw that guy and hopefully one day I will be able to do the same, I would like to do it, but i don’t feel comfortable about it yet.
