Planning to Make Healthy Changes

WHAT IS ACTION PLANNING?

An action plan can help anybody take steps toward reaching a goal. It can help to think of specific things to do over the next week or two to meet a longer term goal. Action plans can help a person with diabetes reach goals that will lower their risk of diabetes complications.

An action plan is an experiment you try. It is good if these steps are SMART:

  • Specific

  • Measurable

  • Achievable

  • Relevant, and

  • Time-bound 

Once an action plan is successfully completed, create a new action plan with additional steps to take.

If one of your action plans doesn't work out, take what you learned to make a new action plan for the next week.

CREATING AN ACTION PLAN

1. Choose a health goal that is important to YOU.

If you haven’t identified a health goal, here are some examples:

2. HOW IMPORTANT IS THIS GOAL TO YOU?

Ask yourself: On a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 is “not at all important” and 10 is “very important”, how important is it for me to make changes towards this goal?

  • If you rated this issue as a 7 or higher, it's time to make a SMART plan.

  • If you did not rate this issue at least a 7, you may want to choose a different issue that is more important and more motivating for you to work on.