We have been speaking so far of setting goals and how important it is to have a plan of action to achieve these goals. But now, you may ask, how exactly do I plan my course of action.  If you are just starting out as a trainee and say your goal is to be a project leader in five years. You know this is a good, specific, measurable and entirely realistic goal. However, you want to be sure that you will make it as a project leader and want to have an action plan so that you can start working towards this definite goal.

Most of us break the main goal into a series of smaller sub-goals and try to understand what we need to do, step by step till we reach the final goal. Each sub-goal is treated as a milestone that is to be reached by a certain deadline. This is one of the simplest and most effective ways of devising an action plan – working on even a small piece of your plan helps you have a sense of satisfaction and helps you stay motivated.

There is however a relatively new approach to working out an action plan, less used but equally effective as the previous approach.

Heading Towards Your Goal…Backwards

Working backwards essentially means that you start with the goal and then see what you need to do just before you can achieve this goal. While the plan you devise with this method may for all outward appearances look just like the one you had worked out using the previous methods, this will help you bring into focus some of the more difficult parts of achieving your goals right away so that you can start working on those aspects from now.

And though you are approaching how to get to a goal backwards, there is nothing backward about the effectiveness of its methods. The main idea is to understand what your end goal is. Now you try to analyze all those ways and means by which you can reach this particular goal in the time you have set for yourself. Out of the various ways, there will be one way that is most realistic and at the same time challenging enough for you to take. This forms the milestone just before your end goal. This way you go back from the end goal all the way till we reach the situation you are in at present.

As we keep doing this, we become aware of the kind of hurdles that you may have to face a year, two years or even five years down the road and being aware of this gives us a head start on being better prepared to face them.

Let us consider the earlier example where your goal is to become a project leader in five years and see how we can work out our action plan should be to attain this.

• The final goal that you would have written down will be ‘I will be a project leader in five years by the year 2013.’ Specific, Realistic and Measurable. Now how do you go about planning to achieve this given that you are just a trainee at your job?
• The first question that you should ask yourself is what you need to achieve just before so that you have a good chance of being make a project leader. If you do not know the correct or complete answer, do some research, speak to a few people and come back knowing what exactly you need to do and by what date, so that you will be made project leader in 2013.
Suppose you find out that the answer to this is ‘I will be a part of at least ten software development projects by 2012, four in a senior capacity’.
• You now go further backwards and try to understand what you need to do to be part of these projects, particularly in the senior position.
Suppose your answer is ‘I would have completed my certification program as software process engineer by 2010’.
•  You will continue in this way till you reach your very first milestone which may be ‘I will work on using new models and new quantitative methods to improve the quality of the software development process thereby reducing the time required for testing and hence total development time.’

When you look on the action plan, you may wonder why going backwards makes such a difference. The difference lies in the approach you take to problem solving while aiming for your goal. If you can anticipate the kind of problems you may face, you are better prepared to handle them. If you take the other approach, you may be working towards a sub-goal when you find yourself facing challenges that you then have to find ways of dealing with. Going backwards can save you not only time since you are at least better prepared but more importantly you will not lose any self-confidence when you face any problem.

Here are some more tips that will help you work out an effective action plan for you to achieve your goals.

1. Make sure that your goals reflect your values and your beliefs. If they do not and you are keen on achieving them either due to the sense of false pride or prestige they bring with them then achieving them probably does not bring you too much satisfaction either. You should understand what kind of consequences achieving that goal may bring you and if that is what you valued most.
2. You can consider discussing some of your goals and how you plan on achieving it with a few of your close friends, family members or your senior colleagues at work. This will help you get their perspective on ways of achieving those goals while at the same time; they may make you aware of some possible pitfalls that you may face on your way. If nothing else, you will find that having the support and encouragement of some positive people is always very helpful in staying motivated.
3. Understand what you need and have it ready on hand before you start working on your goals. If you need to get information about some degree colleges, make sure you have already collected all the relevant information like the contact numbers or emails before you start writing or contacting them. Running around for these things on the day of your deadline can only cause major delays in your plan.
4. The best way to create a complete action plan is to draw up a calendar with a daily to-do list for every goal. This will contain every single step that you need to take to reach your set of goals. Highlight the deadlines so that you are aware of when you need to do things more urgently. Make sure your deadlines are also realistic. You may need to make changes in these as you review your progress and understand where you stand.
5. Once a goal has been achieved, strike it out from your calendar with a sense of great pride. Try to set up your calendar such that there is one task, however small to be completed per day. Doing something consistently and working everyday towards your goal will help you keep clearing things off your to-do list and certainly help you stay motivated.
6. Understand who will be able to help you best if you are feeling discouraged or are faced by challenge. Who will be ready to provide you with some ready advice or feedback and if nothing else just a willing ear and a few words of encouragement?
7. Do not hesitate to reward yourself on completing certain milestones. Just waiting to achieve your main goal before you celebrate may get you down from time to time. On the other hand, simple rewards like a day out at the parlor or a special treat when you finish an important milestone are good ways of keeping yourself energized.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 at 2:48 am and is filed under Management Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.