Creating Your Action Plan

0:07 now let's get started with the heart 0:09 of your action plan in this first step 0:13 you'll look deep into your heart to 0:14 consider your values 0:16 what's most meaningful to you how you 0:19 want to contribute to others 0:21 and how you want to spend the limited 0:23 days you have here on earth 0:26 for step 1 you will write down 0:29 at least three parts of your life that 0:31 are most important to you 0:34 you can see on this slide that i drew a 0:36 pie chart 0:37 and then divided the pie into slices 0:39 with each slice focusing on a specific 0:42 part of life 0:43 that's important to you you may decide 0:46 to make a list 0:47 rather than create a pie chart and do 0:49 whatever works best for you 0:52 in this example i focused on work career 0:54 and well-being 0:56 but you will write down whatever areas 0:58 are most important to you 1:00 personally you'll also write down why 1:03 each of these parts of your life matter 1:05 so much to you 1:08 now for step two you'll write down 1:11 at least three goals for each of the 1:13 important parts of your life that you 1:15 identified 1:16 you can see on this slide that i divided 1:19 each part of this pie chart into smaller 1:21 slices 1:22 but you may want to simply create a list 1:25 of your goals 1:26 under each part of your life that you 1:27 identified in step one 1:31 for example in the work part of your 1:33 life 1:34 you might want to become an expert in a 1:36 particular area 1:37 or you might want to develop negotiation 1:39 or communication skills 1:42 if you have a career category you might 1:44 include goals such as getting promotions 1:47 earning salary increases having job 1:49 flexibility 1:50 or retiring at a specific age 1:54 if you have a well-being category you 1:57 might include goals such as becoming or 1:59 staying healthy 2:00 participating in your faith having time 2:03 to engage in social justice activities 2:05 spending time with your friends and 2:07 other people you love or maybe finding 2:09 someone to love 2:12 as tempting as it may be for you to 2:14 strive for work-life balance 2:15 i recommend against using this as a goal 2:18 because balance at least for most people 2:22 is elusive life simply doesn't 2:25 fit into equal size categories that 2:28 demand the same amount of time 2:30 effort and attention at every stage of 2:32 your life 2:33 frankly you may be able to achieve 2:35 balance for a while 2:37 but then something is likely to happen 2:39 that will throw your life out of balance 2:41 and it may not be easy or possible for 2:44 you to get it back 2:45 at least not for a while and if you 2:48 spend 2:48 all of your time trying to balance your 2:50 life you may not be able to appreciate 2:53 the life you have 2:54 as imbalanced as it is so instead of 2:57 striving for balance 2:59 i recommend that you strive for a 3:00 meaningful life 3:02 a life lived and a life for which you 3:04 are grateful 3:06 as imbalanced as it may be 3:09 now once you've completed steps one and 3:11 two of your action plan 3:12 in which you identified what's most 3:14 important to you in your heart of hearts 3:16 you'll move to step three i call this 3:19 next step the head 3:21 part of your action plan because it 3:23 requires thinking carefully about your 3:25 priorities 3:26 what others need from you the 3:28 feasibility of the changes you want to 3:30 make 3:31 for example you have the time and money 3:33 needed to make certain changes 3:35 and the trade-offs that you're willing 3:37 to make in the short term 3:38 in order to achieve your longer term 3:40 goals 3:41 this is where you take personal 3:43 responsibility for your choices as well 3:46 as for the trade-offs involved 3:48 in just about any important choice 3:52 in this step you'll choose only one of 3:55 the goals that you listed to begin 3:57 working on 3:57 immediately for example you may want to 4:00 focus on developing a particular 4:02 expertise 4:03 or getting a promotion or spending more 4:05 time with family 4:06 or taking better care of your health 4:09 you'll also write down 4:11 why you chose to invest in this one goal 4:13 and what you expect to gain if you 4:16 accomplish this goal 4:18 keep in mind that the effort you put 4:21 into one part of your life 4:23 may provide advantages in other parts of 4:25 your life as well 4:27 for example if you decide to become an 4:30 expert in a particular area 4:32 you may be able to do your work with 4:34 higher quality and you may become 4:36 increasingly in demand 4:37 which can lead to higher pay and 4:39 promotions 4:40 if you decide to develop your 4:42 negotiation skills 4:44 you will be in a better position to 4:45 negotiate a higher salary or more job 4:48 flexibility 4:49 that will enable you to spend more time 4:50 with your family 4:53 once you've identified the one thing you 4:55 want to work on 4:56 you're ready for step four of your 4:58 action plan 5:01 this is the hands part of your action 5:03 plan where you'll write down the 5:05 specific action steps you will take 5:07 when you will start each one when you 5:10 expect to finish each one 5:12 who you will tell about your plan and 5:14 how you will measure your success 5:17 it's important to tell someone about 5:19 your plan because researchers have found 5:22 that people are more likely to keep a 5:24 commitment 5:25 if they make it public it's also 5:28 important to put your action plan into 5:30 writing because 5:31 as social psychologist robert cialdini 5:33 found 5:34 people are more likely to live up to 5:36 what they write down 5:39 here's an example of an action plan that 5:41 focuses on improving communication 5:43 skills 5:44 you'll see that it's organized into a 5:46 table with one column for what you will 5:48 do 5:49 the next column for how you will do it 5:51 the third column for when you will do it 5:53 the fourth column for who you will tell 5:55 and the last column for how you will 5:57 measure your success 5:59 you may choose to use a different format 6:01 for your action plan 6:02 but if you like this format you can find 6:05 a template for creating this part of 6:06 your action plan 6:07 in the coursera assignment section of 6:10 this session 6:12 you'll notice that each of the steps in 6:14 this table are what are considered 6:16 small wins for example taking a course 6:19 on public speaking 6:21 speaking up more at meetings giving at 6:23 least three presentations in the next 6:25 month 6:26 and joining a toastmasters club and for 6:28 those of you who aren't familiar with 6:30 toastmasters clubs 6:31 this is a highly respected club in which 6:34 peers help each other develop 6:35 communication skills 6:37 and toastmaster clubs are available in 6:39 most major cities 6:41 as well as many organizations and 6:43 universities 6:45 as you create this part of your action 6:47 plan i recommend that you too 6:50 focus on achieving small wins because 6:52 researchers have found that small wins 6:54 are very 6:55 powerful and i'll tell you why they're 6:57 so powerful 6:58 later in the session now that you have 7:01 your action plan 7:03 ideally built on this power of small 7:05 wins let's move to step five 7:08 in this step you'll write down at least 7:11 one thing you will do 7:12 less of or stop doing so that you'll 7:15 have more time 7:16 and energy to focus on your action plan 7:18 for example about 10 years ago i wanted 7:21 to get healthier 7:22 which meant i needed to lose some weight 7:24 and start exercising 7:25 i wanted to find about an hour each day 7:28 for exercise 7:29 in my already busy schedule so i changed 7:32 my morning routine from spending an hour 7:34 drinking coffee and reading the 7:35 newspaper 7:36 to going to a gym to work out instead or 7:39 working out in my basement 7:41 today i motivate myself and find time to 7:43 exercise 7:44 by allowing myself to read facebook on 7:46 my ipad 7:47 only when i'm walking on the treadmill 7:50 my point here is that what you stop 7:52 doing can be as important to the success 7:54 of your action plan 7:56 as what you start doing a clever manager 7:59 who was taking one of my mba classes 8:02 told me that she uses the famous fashion 8:04 designer coco chanel's rule for 8:06 accessorizing 8:07 as a metaphor for managing her life coco 8:10 chanel encouraged restraint in fashion 8:12 and famously recommended that women 8:15 remove one accessory 8:17 whenever adding another 8:20 now that you're just minutes away from 8:21 completing this course you have just one 8:24 more 8:24 step to take in step six 8:27 you will write down the two most 8:29 important lessons you learn from 8:30 creating your action plan 8:32 or from taking this course frankly 8:35 you're going to forget a lot of details 8:36 about this course 8:38 or any course you take that's simply how 8:41 our minds work 8:42 but you're much more likely to remember 8:44 the lessons from this course 8:46 that are most relevant to you if you 8:48 write them down 8:50 so there you have it those are the six 8:53 steps you need to take to complete your 8:54 action plan