What do I need to do to achieve my goal?

So there might be something that you would like to be different. It could be, for eample, that you want your blood glucose to be steadier, or you want to be able to exercise without risking severe hypos. With DAFNE we know that there are a set of things you need to do to achieve these goals.

We call these DAFNE behaviours or competencies - things you will need to learn and do. These include:

• Taking your BGs at the right time.
• Recording BGs in your diary.
• Counting the carbohydrate in your food/drinks.
• Spending time to look at and reflect on your diary in order to notice the patterns over time.
• Working out your insulin dose for each meal/snack.
• Taking your insulin.
• Making adjustments to your dose of insulin using the DAFNE principles.
• Experimenting a little and learning the impact of exercise, alcohol, food and travel.
• Getting used to your BGs being lower.
• Managing mild hypos.
• Getting used to not having bed time snacks to manage your BGs.
• Getting support to help you develop your DAFNE skills or when you are finding things difficult.

Fitting these DAFNE actions into your life are almost like the steps along the way to achieving your long-term goal.

So how do I make an Action Plan?
When it comes to making an action plan there are some things that we know from the research that it is useful to include or think about:

1. Be exact about what you are going to do. Try to describe as accurately as you can what it is you are going to do. For example rather than 'I will do more BG monitoring' you can be more exact and say 'I am going to do my BG tests before my breakfast, lunch, evening meal and bedtime'. This is an important strategy as you will know whether you have been able to put your plan in place.
2. Set plans that are realistic and that you can actually do. Make sure your plan is realistic and achievable for you. It helps people to grow in confidence if they have a success and then build on that rather than set their expectations too high and not get started. This does not mean that your targets can't be challenging, it can help if they are, but they need to be something you can achieve.
3. Think about the timing. It can also help to think about 'time' when making a plan. When will you start, when will you do what you are planning and when will you review how things are going. How often have you thought that you would really like to do something but months go by without actually having started? Or you start to make a change but over time find that you have not kept up your good intentions. Setting a review date or day to check how things are going can help with this.
4. Consider how confident you are? Confidence is most important when making changes. People are less likely to go away and do something if they feel that they will not be able to succeed. In DAFNE when you are making a plan we ask you to score your levels of confidence. A score of 1 means that you are not at all confident that you can make the change, 10 means you are very confident. It seems that people who score over 7 are more likely to go away and put their plan into place. If your confidence score is lower than 7 we may ask you to think about what might help you become more confident. Sometimes we might ask you to think about whether you have chosen to do something that is important enough for you and review whether it may help to start with a different goal.
5. Think about what will stop you? Finally looking at the barriers, the things that might get in the way and possibly thinking about how you may overcome these difficulties if they arise is also important.
6. Getting support. Getting the support you need when trying to achieve your goal is essential. Getting skilled and confident in DAFNE takes time and effort. People who get the support they need seem to fare better especially in the first year or so. You will be given some time to think about support when you are making your action plan. Some examples of support include: Ringing or visiting the DAFNE educator, talking to other DAFNE graduates, reading the support material provided by DAFNE, talking with family or friends, attending follow up sessions.

Keeping DAFNE going.
There is no rule as to how frequently you set yourself new goals and develop action plans. You might find that it is helpful to review 'where you are at' every now and again as some people find that they gradually move away from the DAFNE principles. This may be because other things in life have got in the way or that like most of us their good intentions fade over time. At times like this revisiting your long term goals and the steps you have taken to get there might be a good idea. Sometimes it is difficult to get back on track and it couls be that at times like these contacting your DAFNE educator for extra support may help.