AN ACTION PLAN TO GET YOU WHERE YOU WANT TO BE

“You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.”

Jim Rohn

An action plan is a map to get you to where you want to be. Articulating your goals is hugely important, but without a clear plan of how to achieve them they become – as Jay Shetty says – simply talking points. In this blog, we’re going to give you the inside scoop on how to create an action plan and some handy tools we use in coaching sessions to develop a sustainable plan of work.

An action plan covers what you need to achieve your goal, the resources you’re going to need and the timeframe in which you’ll meet key milestones. Creating the plan helps you prioritise so you can put your energy where it matters, to measure your progress and gain clarity around what you really want and how to get there.

STEP 1: DEFINING YOUR GOALS

This is where we get specific. What is it that you want to achieve? The SMART framework is an extremely powerful tool for helping you with this stage, and if you undertake coaching with us your coach will support and facilitate you through this process.

So, what is the SMART framework?

SMART stands for:

Specific: Don’t go too high level. For example, instead of your goal being ‘I want to grow revenue by x amount’, it could be ‘I want to grow my customer base by 20 people this month’.

Measurable: You’ll also notice in the above example we went for a specific number. Setting a measurable goal means you know when you have achieved it, and if you don’t achieve it you will be able to course correct and go again.

Achievable: Rome wasn’t built in a day! Set goals that you can actually achieve in the shorter term. We might be working towards a bigger goal, but we need to take practical steps now to get there.

Relevant: Which brings us to relevance. This means the goals you’re setting now should all contribute to the bigger picture, the destination you’re working towards.

Time-bound: Giving yourself deadlines and milestones helps track progress and motivate you to keep going. Time can easily slip away so self-imposing a level of urgency can be useful (but remember, keep it realistic!).

By applying these five criteria to your goal setting, you’ll come out with tangible goals that you can work towards.

STEP 2: IDENTIFY AND PRIORITISE KEY TASKS

Goals set, it’s time to build out the action plan. This means identifying specific actions that cumulatively will get you to where you need to be. For example, if your goal is to attract more customers through digital marketing, tasks could be research effective social media marketing strategies, develop a one month content calendar, implement the calendar, engage with three social media posts every day. Once you have your list of tasks, prioritise. Lay the foundation of the action plan with the most important jobs which will often enable the following tasks.

STEP THREE: ALLOCATE RESOURCES

‘Resources’ is a broad term; it covers everything from your time and the time of your collaborators to budget and logistics. Once in action, it can be easy to become reactive or focused on what’s in front of you. By pre-planning your resource allocation, you can keep sight of what’s important and be flexible within the parameters you set with a clear head.

STEP FOUR: IDENTIFY DEADLINES AND MILESTONES

Time is important. Working to a timeline will help you keep progress on schedule and maintain momentum. It also gives you the opportunity to celebrate success when you reach your milestone, and if you don’t it offers you the chance to figure out how to get there. There is no shame if you miss your deadline, it is simply another effective tool to get us where we want to go.

Those are the four steps! There are lots of other helpful tools and frameworks for building an action plan, but we have just one more that we want to share with you. The GROW model is a common tool in coaching and it’s something we would develop together with you in a session. It stands for Goal, Reality, Options, and Will.

Goal:

Where are you trying to get to? This is the point at which we’d use the SMART tool!

Reality:

Understand your current context. What is happening already? What have you done already?

Options:

Figure out what’s possible. Here we explore pathways to your goal from all angles, figuring out possible routes, potential obstacles and opportunities to change things.

Will:

This is about commitment. With your coach, take time to identify what you’ll be doing, when, and agree on check-ins. We’re not all goal-achieving terminators – we can’t be motivated and on mission all the time. Figure out strategies to maintain momentum and keep motivated!

Feeling inspired? Great! Get that action plan in place, let’s get to where we want to be. Get in touch with Zohara at info@zoharalifecoach.co.uk to find out more.