
We all know this saying, without a plan we should plan to fail and there is quite a bit of truth to it, especially when embarking on a change. The reason for this, and something that SMART goalsetting seems to forget, is that we don't exist in a vacuum - our thoughts, actions and intentions impact others around us and they also impact us. So whilst we might decide to make a change, unless we have all the areas lined up around us - it is more than likely that we will fail at what we set out to achieve.
What does a "good" plan look like?
There are a few components of what I consider to be a good plan:
Flexibility - you set a plan with the best of intentions and what you know about at the time, but guess what? Things change, constantly. If we set a plan that is too rigid and then hold ourselves to it, what we often find is that you deliver the plan, but the plan no longer aligns to your goal. Take for example a goal of healthy eating - your biggest area is takeaway lunches, so you decide to meal prep and make those but then you change jobs and start working from home full time, yes you can keep making your lunches but is this still the biggest area of opportunity? Does snacking become more of a challenge? This is a really simple example, but sometimes we can hold too tight to plans and not adapt them as we grow.
Less is more - A good plan should have no more than a few actions on it. Ideally they should be things which you can do really easily and that will have a big impact on your overall outcomes. More actions does not equal better. Our brains are not designed to 'context shift' or multitask well. Indeed, too many actions can lead to a sense of overwhelm and make achieving our goals feel harder. Taking one action, achieving it and moving on is fantastic for movement momentum and gaining confidence and all the happy brain chemicals that go along with achievement. Sometimes people can have a tendency to commit to a lot of actions as this makes them feel busier and like they are doing more towards their goal, but chances are the actions which will have the biggest impact get lost among what I call "filler actions" which might be easy to do, but don't really take you closer to the outcome you want. Using the same example you might plan to cook all meals at home, buy organic, have smoothies for breakfast, reduce your caffeine and pack healthy snacks everywhere you go to avoid temptation. If your biggest area is unhealthy takeaway dinners the above plan would create a lot of noise and things 'to do' but chances are you would be toast by the end of the day and fail to do what really mattered.
Strengths focused - Often when making a plan, we get focused on what we need to 'fix', 'improve' or 'change' this happens all the time at work when we do so called, 'development planning'. This habit seems to follow us into our personal lives when we then start planning for our goals - we look at all the areas we are deficient, rather than looking at where we have strengths to build on. This can be a big de-railer as it makes the change feel much bigger than it needs to be. It can make you feel like you are starting at zero and that you are alone, when in reality that is not the case. Take the healthy eating example, if you have a veggie garden you and your family love looking after with fresh produce - build your meals around this and get the family involved. If you are great at batch cooking, can you make up big batches of family favourites and have a "takeaway in the freezer" to remove the midweek cooking burden?
It's not just about you - A good plan will look at your relationships and provide space and time to bring others on board with your goals. So often we get so focused on what we need to do and change, we don't stop to talk about our goals with others, the why behind them and ask for help or establish boundaries. What often happens here is other people (without even realising) end up being a blocker for you or you lose the opportunity to gain an ally who can help share the load. The amount of times clients have spoken to others and discovered they aren't the only ones struggling and that there are people wanting to help and get on board, still catches me by surprise. A good plan will allow you to look at the people around you and set actions to either reduce resistance or gain support. Looking at the healthy eating example say your team at work takes turns bringing in cake on a Monday, you share that you are trying to eat healthier and ask if everyone would be Ok with you bringing a fruit platter on your turn, turns out the whole team feels the same way and does it out of a sense of obligation - you all decide to use it as a "healthy habits Monday" and set the tone for a healthier week every week. What a huge difference this would make.
So How do I set a good plan?
See the whole board: Last weeks free tool took you through a way to mind map out your goal and see how the different aspects of your life might come into to contact with it. Once you can see the whole board, you then break it down into parts to set your plan but it is essential to look at the whole map first - what seems like a big deal (or what makes a lot of noise) might actually turn out to not be the biggest thing for you to focus on.
Group your map into actionable chunks: When you have the map put it into broad categories or zones:
Helping or supportive factors - actions for this should focus on maximising these
Motivational factors - actions should focus on bringing these to life
Downsides - actions should focus on how you can accept these
Barriers - actions should focus on how you can reduce or remove these.
Brainstorm: Set aside a time to look at each group and come up with as many crazy ideas as possible, rarely is the first idea the best. Maybe set a goal to come up with 10 ideas in 3 minutes. No idea is a bad idea at this time, be creative and bold.
Choose One: Finally choose one idea per category. You should first look for which actions will have the biggest impact and pick a top 2 or 3 and then choose the one of those that is the easiest. Then put a timeframe on it, put it up where you can see it and just get it done. When you have done all of them, you can choose the next biggest and so on. This allows you to build momentum and build your progress with every step making it easier.
Our free tool, out Thursday will add these steps into the mind mapping tool from last week so you can map and plan in the one easy template.
Hope you enjoyed reading and if you want help smashing through your goals, please reach out for a chat to see how I can help you to change a lifetime of habits and achieve what you want. Freya is an accredited counsellor and life coach servicing clients in person in Kingsley, WA and online from around the world.
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