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How to Create an Action Plan to Achieve Your Goals

by Roveen

Goals are the key to living a fulfilling life but many of us struggle with achieving them.

Coming up with and setting goals might be simple, but the real work begins when it comes to planning how you are going to achieve it. One of the major reason why many people fail to get going towards their goals is because they often fail to create a plan on how they will achieve that goal. Creating a plan is like putting all ingredients you need on the table before you start cooking. Here is how to create that action plan.

First focus on your goal

To create an action plan that you will follow through to completion, you first need to focus on one single goal. Review your list of goals then choose to focus on at a time. You could even focus on achieving short-term goals at first if they inch you towards your long-term goals. For example, if your goal is to become an author, you can focus on reading a lot at first before trying to write your own book.

Conduct research

You need to understand what it takes to achieve your goals. Thus, before laying down any steps to achieving it, conduct research. Listen to people who have done what you want to do, read blogs on the topic, listen to educational podcasts and watch videos, talk to people who have done what you seek to do. This way, you understand just what it takes to achieve your desired goal and prepare yourself accordingly.

Lay out your steps

Once your research is done, now begin to lay down the steps of action you should take. This is the part where you break down the goal into smaller parts so that your actions build up to the whole goal. So, for example, you want to begin to work-out, the steps process will be something like this:

·       Taking walks for 1 hour a day (for about three weeks)

·       Jogging for 20 minutes

·       Scouting for a suitable gym

·       Finding the right trainer

·       Getting started with light exercises

This is a simple action plan which will slowly move you towards your goal in steps, rather than you forcing yourself to the gym right away and then giving up because you weren’t adequately prepared.

Monitor, evaluate and update the plan

Things change, circumstance change and you evolve. So, in your action plan, include some time which you will use to evaluate and track your progress. Through evaluating your progress, you can then make some changes on plans that aren’t working and updating your plan accordingly.

There you have it! The key to achieving your goals isn’t just in setting them; it is also in how you plan to achieve them.

 

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