Practice: A Resilience Action Plan

Let’s develop a practical, personalized plan to enhance your resilience and help you maintain a more balanced life. This activity should take about 45-60 minutes.

Instructions

1. Review Your Worksheet: Begin by reviewing your completed "Resilience Worksheet." Take note of the lists you've created for positive actions, supportive people, positive self-talk, and things to avoid.
2. Set Your Resilience Goals: In a new document, record 3-5 resilience goals you want to achieve in the next month. These goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).
   *Example: "I will engage in 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise at least four times a week for the next month."
3. Identify Triggers and Challenges: List out potential triggers or challenges that might hinder your resilience. Be as specific as possible.
   *Example: "Late-night work might affect my sleep routine."
4. Map Actions to Goals: For each resilience goal, identify which items from your "Resilience Worksheet" can help you achieve it.
   *Example: If your goal is about improving sleep, your action might be "Stick to a bedtime routine and avoid caffeine after 6 PM."
5. Assign Support Roles: From your list of supportive people, assign one or more persons to each resilience goal. This person will serve as your accountability partner for that particular goal.
   *Example: "I will ask my spouse to remind me about our no-caffeine-after-6 rule."
6. Develop a Timeline: Create a simple timeline or schedule for when you will check in on your goals. Include what metrics you'll use to measure progress. *Example: "Every Sunday, I will track the number of days I managed to exercise for 30 minutes."
7. Plan for Contingencies: Based on the triggers and challenges you've identified, write down contingency plans for each. *Example: "If work runs late, I will do a 15-minute home workout session before bed."
8. Finalize Your Plan: Review your plan to make sure it's realistic and achievable. Make any necessary adjustments.
9. Share the Plan: Optionally, share your resilience action plan with your designated supportive people. Seek their input and adjust your plan as needed.
10. Reflect and submit:
1. After completing the activity, take a few moments to reflect on the process.
1. How do you feel about your Resilience Action Plan?
2. What were the most challenging and easiest parts of this activity?
3. How committed are you to implementing this plan?
2. Submit both your action plan and reflections using the option below.

Need more help? See an Example Action Plan

Caution!

The most important part of this activity is the implementation. There is little value in working the steps above if you do not intend to put your plan into action. Regularly review your plan and adjust as necessary to stay on track with your resilience goals.