Assessing Your Behavior

Before behavior change can happen (successfully), one must assess current
behavior, reasons for behavior, desired behavior, and barriers to success. It is
only after this assessment, can an appropriate action plan be developed.

Please consider the following, being as open and honest as you can. It is also
important to consider the reality of your desired changes and goals. Goals must
be SMART (S=Specific, M=Measurable, A=Attainable, R=Realistic, and T=Timed
appropriately).

What is your desired behavior change?

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What are your reasons for change?

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How do you plan on making this change?

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  Vancouver Island Physical Activity Counseling, 2007

Action Plan For Change

Goal Setting

Planning your behaviourchange is just as important as the change itself. One

must consider such things as; short term and long term plans, social supports to
help with change, barriers to change, and be aware of the “too much too soon”
syndrome. Too much change and/or too many various changes made together
may result in lack of success overtime.

The following are considerations when drafting up your action plan for change.
It is important to invest some time and thought before completing this form.
Your detailed feedback will help you construct a plan that is suited to your needs
and lifestyle.

What is your SPECIFIC goal?

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How will your MEASURE your success?

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Why is your goal ATTAINABLE?

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Why is your goal REALISTIC?

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Over what period of TIME will you achieve your goal?
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 Vancouver Island Physical Activity Counseling, 2007

Assessing Barriers to Change

Occurrencesin everyday life will always throw a wrench into your well-laid
plans. Travel, change in schedule, a non-supportive social network may all be
contributing factors to your ability to change your behavior.

Take some time and consider the following. By identifying your personal
barriers to change, you may be prepared for them when they come. Please check
off the barrier that pertains to you, or record your own in the space provided.

Lack of social support  No time 

Uncomfortable  Lack of funds 
Travel  No ready to make a change 
Old is comfortable  Fear of failure 
Too much work  Shift work 
Not enjoyable  Too tired 
Unorganized  Don’t know what to do 
Family responsibility  Unsupportive spouse 

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 Vancouver Island Physical Activity Counseling, 2007

Are You Ready to Make The Change?

Some behavioral researchers believe that change is fluid. An individual may go

through “stages of change” before a behavior change is successful (DiClemente &
Prochaska, 1982). This personal understanding may positively influence one’s
action plan. Which stage are you in?

Making
Not
Thinking
Preparing
thinking
a to
about amaking
make
change. Stage 1: Pre-Contemplation Maintaining
a change.
change.
At this stage, you are not considering a change. You may seetheyour
change.
friends and family starting to exercise more, but you don’t feel that this would be
a good change for you.
Behavior Change Strategy:
Wait. The only strategy that may be successful at this stage is providing the
individual with information and waiting until they decide it may be time to
change.

Stage 2: Contemplation
Congratulations! You are beginning to think that it may be beneficial to you if
you make a change in your behavior.
Behavior Change Strategy:
Similar to Stage 1, you may need more information and education first before
moving into the next stage. At this point, you are not ready to take action, but to
think about taking action.

Stage 3: Preparation
You are now ready to make some plans around behavior change. This may
include making the necessary purchases. For example, if you are changing your
eating behaviors, this may include ridding the house of “junk food” and filling it
with healthy options.
Behavior Change Strategy:
Creating action plans, assessing barriers to change, and record keeping are all
ways to strategize for successful change during Stage 3.
Stage 4: Action
You are amazing! You are now taking action and making these changes a reality.
You have created goals and action plans and are now putting them into practice.
Behavior Change Strategy:
The hardest part to change may be keeping consistent. Continue to record your
progress and barriers to change. Be sure to make changes to your action plan as
barriers pop up.

Stage 5: Maintenance
Assuming you have successfully stuck with your behavior change for over 5
months, this stage is all about maintaining the changes you have made. Change
is fluid. You may go a year without falling back into old habits when all of a
sudden your life changes and you find yourself back where you started from.
Behavior Change Strategy:
Similar to Stage 4, you must continue to keep an eye on your progress, assessing
it periodically and making changes accordingly. The best part of reaching Stage
5 is that you have learned the various strategies to get you to this point. If you
relapse into old behaviors, do not beat yourself up over it. You know what to do
now. Get back “on the horse” and start again. I promise you that each time you
try, it will get easier.
  Vancouver Island Physical Activity Counseling, 2007

Understanding Planned Behavior

Some behavioral researchers believe that there are certain variables that need
attention before the intention to behave occurs and, ultimately the behavior itself.
This theory is referred to as the theory of planned behavior. It is suggested that
there are three variables to consider; your attitudes about the behavior, your
social support network, and the level of control you feel you have over your
behavior (Azjen & Fishbein, 1980).
Personal
Social
Perceived
Intention
Time Sensitive
to
Attitudes
Support
Behavioral
The
Behave
Behavior
&
Beliefs
Network
Control
It’s all in
the
attitude!
Personal
attitudes or
“attitudinal
beliefs” are
important
to
understand
because
they may be
one of the
reasons
why certain
behaviors
are hard to
change. For
example, if
someone
has
memories
of being the
last picked for soccer in high school PE, they may be intimidated to jump back
into the “gym strip” for fear of the same experiences. Conversely, if an
individual had a successful athletic career as a student, they may be more apt to
join a gym or sports team as an adult.

What is your attitude or belief about the behavior you want to change?
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Everyone needs support.

Social support has been noted as one of the most important aspects to successful
behavior change. Your social support network may be comprised of a spouse,
family member, and/or friends. If an individual has made a commitment to
smoke-free living and hangs around a social network of smokers, the rates of
failure increase. If you are trying to eat healthier and your spouse loves high fat
foods, it will be significantly more challenging to resist the urge to join her / him.

Who makes up your social support network and how will they support / not
support you in your goals to change behavior?
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Do you feel in control?

Finally, the last variable that influences an individual’s intent to behavior is the
perceived control one feels one has over their lifestyle and life choices. For
example, a mother of three young children wants to become more physically
active but can’t commit to a specific schedule due to her responsibilities as a
parent. Whether this is reality or not, it is what the mother perceives as reality
and is true to her.

It is important to note that even if we believe we do not have the time to spare for
physical activity, it may be based upon a belief of what we think physical activity
is supposed to be. With an action plan that takes into account all the personal
reasons for NOT acting, the individual may find they do have the time or the
control over their life choices after all.

In what aspect(s) of your life do you feel out of control? How could you regain a
sense of control?
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From Intention to Behavior

Finally, the last consideration when applying the theory of planned behavior to
“real life” behavior change is the time between intending to change and the
change itself. In other words, if you decide to go to the gym on Monday morning
and it is Tuesday, the intent to go to the gym may not lead to going to the gym on
Monday. However, if you intended to go to the gym on Monday and it is
Saturday, the time in between intention and potential behavior is shorter and
more likely to occur.
  Vancouver Island Physical Activity Counseling, 2007

Plan of Action

Desired Behavior Change

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Potential Barriers to Change

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4. _____________________________________________________________________

5. _____________________________________________________________________

Strategies for Overcoming Barriers

Barrier 1: _______________________________________________________________
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Barrier 2: _______________________________________________________________
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Barrier 3: _______________________________________________________________
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Barrier 4: _______________________________________________________________
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Barrier 5: _______________________________________________________________
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References

Azjen, I., & Fishbein, M. (1980). Understanding attitudes and predicting social
behavior. Englwood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

DiClemente, C.C. & Prochaska, J.O. (1982).Self change and therapy change of
smoking behavior: A comparison of processes of change in cessation and
maintenance. Addictive Behaviors, 7, 133-142.