Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas partners with Lucet to make sure our members and employees have access to the behavioral health resources they need.
Prepared Through Planning
Being successful often requires goal setting and achievement. However, in order to be successful in your career as well as your personal life, you have to do more than simply create goals. You have to have a plan that drives you from one goal to the next and challenges you to continuously improve your skill set.
There are two ways to plan for success. First are the long-term plans which look at what you want to accomplish every quarter and over the course of the full year. And second are the short-term plans which cover what you expect to accomplish from one week to the next and month to month.
Long-Term Plans
Create Goals
What do you want to accomplish? Before you can make a plan of action, you need to look internally and identify what it is you want to make happen for yourself. This should be something of high priority and something you have a passion to achieve.
What Do You Need for Success?
You can’t achieve your goals if you don’t have the tools and resources in place to support your efforts. These resources include additional help, emotional support, schooling, transportation, and other elements. Be sure you have the proper support systems in place before you begin.
Assign Responsibilities
If you have others helping you reach your goals, what are their responsibilities? Who’s going to be doing what? Take the time to clearly define everyone’s roles so they know what’s expected of them and how you want them to support you.
Action Steps
What needs to happen to put your plan into action? Outline a process for each step and decide which steps should be part of your short-term plans.
Create a Schedule
When you know what it will take to accomplish your goals, you need to set up a schedule, so those action steps are taken care of on-time. Look at yearly, monthly, and weekly calendars.
Select Start Dates
Create a timeline that gives you control over your goals and puts your project into perspective. Be sure to be realistic and leave yourself some flexibility in case something interrupts your plan. Life events can often get in the way of our ideal process, however, if you leave some time to account for these interruptions you will be more likely to stick with it.
Short-Term Plans
Weekly Goals
A weekly plan is developed to help you recognize what you need to do from one day to the next. A weekly plan should support your monthly goals and should be developed all at once for each month.
Daily Plans
In order to meet your weekly goals, you have to consider what it’s going to take from one day to the next to stay on track. Your daily responsibilities are your “to do” list. They should be prioritized so that you’re focused on taking care of the most important action items first. However, you should also look for flexibility in your daily schedule, as some needs might suddenly arise that require you to reorganize your priorities.