Action Planning: Your Key to Healthy Living Success

Four steps to make a plan and move towards your goals

“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”: this statement has never been truer than for healthy living goals. It’s easy to set ourselves a weight loss target or decide we’ll run 5k in 3 months, but working out how we’re going to get there is the key to reaching that goal.

A vital first step is making sure your goal itself is a good one.

If you haven’t already, check out our guide on setting SMART Goals to set yourself in the right direction.

Once you know what you want to achieve, it’s time to figure out the how. To make a good action plan, you’ll have to ask yourself lots of questions to work out exactly what you need to do to head towards your goal. It can be helpful to anticipate what setbacks you may encounter and how you’ll deal with them.

You’ll want a paper and pen handy to answer the following questions.

Why is this goal or change important to me?
- Imagine what might life be like in 6 months or a year if you reach it (and if you don’t)
- Reflect on your reasons for making a change to keep motivated over time

What steps do I need to take? Write these down in your My LiveWell Profile. Think about…
- what you need to do
- how much of it you need to do
- when and/or how often you need to do it
- where or in what situation(s) you’ll need to do it
- how long you’ll need to do it for

What support could you draw on?
- Who might help you to reach this goal? [link to social support article)
- What services are available to help you? [call us / Activity Finder]
- What items or resources might you need?

How will I handle setbacks? Lapses and setbacks are normal; it’s how we overcome them that’s important
- Is there anything getting in the way of achieving my goal?
- What can I do to overcome this?
- What are the things that could go wrong later?
- How will I manage these?

Moving forward

Making a plan will really boost your chances of achieving a goal. If you could do with a bit of extra support, register today or contact us to find out how Wellness Coaching could help you to overcome your obstacles to move forward.

How does this work?

The tailored approach LiveWell Dorset uses to come up with solutions to the things that are stopping us achieving our goals, is based upon work done by University College London developing the COM-B model of behaviour change. In this model, all behaviour is influenced by understanding a person’s capability to change, their opportunity to change and their motivation to change. By understanding which of these is the biggest barrier to change, we can tailor support accordingly. This model of behaviour change is at the centre of the support we offer, online and in person.

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