Create an Action Plan for Your Goals
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In Module 1, Assignment 3, you identified your goals and assessed their reality. Now it’s time to create an action plan to help you successfully achieve your goals. Think of a minimum of three intermediate goals to serve as milestones on the way to reaching each of your goals. Then, for each intermediate goal, identify at least two action items (changes that you can make) to help you achieve them.
Example:Tom just received his yearly performance review. His manager mentioned that he consistently seems put off in meetings, and others feel that he has a bad attitude—he is not a team player. Tom is completely surprised because he enjoys his job, but he is more of an introvert than his coworkers are and does not express his emotions outwardly. As he reflects, he can recall many personal situations in which people have misunderstood his intentions or motives. He realizes that he needs to work on his nonverbal communication so that others will better understand him and stop seeing him as a person with a bad attitude or who is not a team player.
Tom develops his professional goal, identifies intermediate goals that will bring him closer to achieving his main goal, and includes the actions he must take to make it happen:
- Professional Goal: Work on nonverbal communication so my words match my nonverbal cues.
- Intermediate Goal 1: Take a course on interpersonal effectiveness.
- Action Item 1: Review the course catalog to learn about the available courses about interpersonal effectiveness.
- Action Item 2: Speak to academic advisor about when I can enroll.
- Intermediate Goal 2: Practice conversations with myself—either talking to myself in the mirror or video recording conversations so I can see what others are seeing.
- Learn to use the video record function my smart phone by asking a tech-savvy friend.
- Action Item 2: Set aside ten minutes three times a week to practice using a positive tone of voice and facial expression when I speak.
- Intermediate Goal 3: In each team meeting, remember to smile and offer positive feedback.
- Action Item 1: At the very next team meeting, draw a smiley face on the top of my notebook to remind me to smile and make eye contact during the meeting.
- Action Item 2: Plan to say one brief supportive statement to each co-worker as they present their weekly reports.
- Intermediate Goal 1: Take a course on interpersonal effectiveness.
Each of these intermediate goals, along with their action items, will help Tom get one step closer to his overall professional goal—to improve hisnonverbal communication.
You will create a similar action plan for your personal, academic, and professional goals. For each of your goals, come up with a minimum of three intermediate goals, Then, describe at least two action items for each intermediate goal. Each step should lead you toward achieving your goal. You can use this worksheet as a template for the assignment. This is your action plan.
