In this third part of the course, you will build an action plan: one that will allow you to develop your soft skills to achieve an important objective.
To support you in this process, you can use the guided journal. Don't hesitate to download it now and complete it as you go along.
Step 1 – Formulate Your Goal
Many people don't achieve their goals because they have not articulated them enough.
This step aims to help you formulate an important goal and develop the soft skills to achieve it.
It's important here to work on one goal at a time to avoid having several soft skills within the same plan. But, of course, as all soft skills are related to each other: when you work on developing one (such as organization), you naturally develop others (such as discipline or concentration).
It's Your Turn
Set your own goal, following the steps below:
1) Identify a desire, project, dream, or goal that is close to your heart.
2) Choose which soft skill you can develop to achieve this goal.
3) State your goal clearly and precisely, including the soft skill that can help you achieve it.
Here's an example:
"I want to learn Spanish" is not a SMART goal because I haven't defined what "learn Spanish" really means. I would need to specify the level that I want to reach and the time frame.
"I want to participate in a conversation with Spaniards without difficulty within a year and a half" is a SMART goal. It includes a deadline and a requirement level.
Step 2 – Check the Sincerity of Your Statement
This step verifies that you are genuinely ready to get started on your goal.
It requires making a contract with yourself to confirm the following idea: "I'm not lying to myself when I set this goal."
The validation ensures that the goal comes from you, not just from external demand and that you want to work on this improvement right now. It's essential that the objective makes sense and motivates you.
In this step, you can make the objective more or less ambitious. For example, you might want to reduce or increase the deadlines you have set for yourself or set a higher or lower requirement.
It's Your Turn
Do you feel ready to make a real leap to achieve your goal?
If the answer is "Yes," write a mini-contract with yourself.
This type of contract may seem trivial, but it allows your brain to set an intention that will keep you more committed and effective.
Keep this mini-contract visible (on a sticky note, for example).
Let's Recap!
In this chapter, you started to build your action plan to develop your soft skills by following these two steps:
Define a SMART goal (specific, measurable, ambitious, realistic, and time-bound).
Create a contract with yourself to make sure you're sincere.
Now let's get started on this skill-building.
