1. DETAILED GUIDE TO THE PROGRAM
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
In the Phoenix Plan Program set out in this book, you are invited and encouraged
Is the Program suitable for everybody?
Not everyone who works through the Plan's Program will achieve a breakthrough in their personal development. If you are suffering from a serious addiction or serious mental health problem, or have recently experienced severe trauma or relationship breakdown, you may require specialist professional or medical help to bring about effective and lasting change. However, if you are in such a situation, reading through these pages may inspire you to take the necessary steps to seek such help.
In general, the Phoenix Program is aimed at adult individuals, in all age groups, who are in a relatively stable personal environment and who recognise that it is in their long-term interest to work to improve the quality of their lifestyles.
Remember, too, that the Program will only work best for you if you are able and prepared to devote the necessary time and effort to following it. If you lack this opportunity or motivation at the moment, reading through the Program steps may, nevertheless, convince you of the immense value personal change can make in your life at a more appropriate time.
If you find that the Plan's Program is too structured for your personal circumstances, you are free to modify it to suit your purposes.
HOW THE PROGRAM WORKS
THE CHALLENGING MESSAGE OF HOPE WHICH UNDERPINS THIS PROGRAM IS THAT YOU ARE ALWAYS RESPONSIBLE FOR, AND YOU CAN DETERMINE, THE LEVEL OF HAPPINESS IN YOUR LIFE, WHATEVER ITS CIRCUMSTANCES and
THAT MOST PEOPLE HAVE THE POWER TO RE-PLAN OR REFORM THEIR LIFESTYLES SO THAT THEY LIVE AT PEACE WITH THEMSELVES, ARE SELF-ACCEPTING, EXPERIENCING CONTENTMENT, COPING WELL WITH STRESS AND ENJOYING A SENSE OF FULFILMENT.
Program Steps : A Summary and Guide
Firstly, using the Questionnaire provided, you will be asked to make a careful and thorough evaluation of your present lifestyle, noting and prioritising the areas in which positive change is desirable and possible. The Scoring Key provided with the Questionnaire will help you in this task.
You will then consider and work out the practical details of the kinds of changes that could realistically be implemented in some of these areas over the eight week period of the Program. You will select the life areas you consider most important to work on and you will carefully choose and write down specific behavioural goals for each area selected.
This self-searching section of the Program is most important for you as it indicates to a large extent where you want to go in your life and what you want to change in your current lifestyle. For this reason, this part of the Program should not be hurried through, but you should devote as much time as is necessary to work out clearly the priorities for your self-development. It is probably a good idea, at this stage, to equip yourself with a notebook in which you can jot down some of your ideas and aspirations. It should also be recognised that you are likely to progress better in the Program if you select a small but realistic number of goals. Trying to achieve too much in too short a time is likely to be too demanding with the resulting danger that you give up. Rather, aim for a few important goals which, if achieved in the eight week period, will give you a real sense of achievement and personal success. If you attain these goals, your success will become a valuable motivating factor if and when you work on the Program a second time. Do not worry if right now you are somewhat unsure of what these goals should be. You will find that when you start to work through the evaluation Questionnaire you will gain insights into how you perceive what is currently happening in many critical areas of your life.
When you have succeeded in working out the goals that you are going to concentrate on in the eight weeks of the Program, you will then need to break down each specific behavioural goal into a series of weekly targets, starting with an easy version and/or low frequency of the new behaviour and gradually working up to the full target, as originally selected [The Sample Weekly Target Sheet in Appendix A will explain this more clearly]
The links and personal development Resources included on the web site at www.changeyourlifein10weeks.co.uk may additionally assist you in drawing up appropriate goals and target behaviours.
When you have established and written down your goals and targets on the form sheets provided you are asked to then consult with a friend or buddy, explaining to that person what you are setting out to achieve by the end of the eight week program. You do not need to provide your buddy with the full details of how you responded to the lifestyle questionnaire or what your questionnaire score was. The purpose of a buddy is to provide you with a support person who will respect, admire and encourage you in your plan for self-improvement. You will need to discuss with that person your Weekly Target Sheet and invite her/him to support your plans and to assist you in monitoring progress on a weekly basis.
At this stage, do not be put off at the mention of having a support buddy. Much more will be said about this later in the book, including possible options if it is really impossible for you to enlist the help of such a person.
The first week of your Program will begin. When you complete a target behaviour, you will tick it off on the Program Monitoring Sheet. At the end of the week, you will review your progress with your buddy. If you have achieved all of your target behaviours, that’s great! It proves your capacity to bring about desired personal change. If you missed some of your targets, perhaps you will need to redefine the specific target behaviours for Week Two and onwards, being entirely realistic in your thinking. You can enlist your buddy’s help on this.
After the first week, you will work through each subsequent week as in the above step. When you fully achieve your selected targets in any one week, you will allow yourself a small reward. When you reach the end of Week Eight, and you have consistently achieved your target behaviours, you will allow yourself a bigger reward. At least, you will certainly need to congratulate yourself on your worthwhile progress and be proud of the pattern of persistent effort that you will have then built into your life.
And After Week Eight?
You will then review what you have achieved through the Plan's Program over the eight week period. You will be invited to look at your lifestyle and compare it to your position of two months previously. You will ask yourself:
If you can answer positively to all three of these questions, you will know that the Program was entirely worthwhile for you.
You will now consider the future. Hopefully, you will want to continue with the positive changes you have already introduced into your lifestyle. Ideally, you will want to restart the Plan, this time selecting different and, perhaps, more ambitious behavioural targets. You will, hopefully, want to broaden your knowledge and awareness of self-development issues and practices by further reading or by following up further on some of the links and resources accessible on the web site at www.changeyourlifein10weeks.co.uk
THE CHALLENGE FOR YOU
Should I or Shouldn’t I?
You now have a general view of the Phoenix Self-Help Life Plan, how the program is set up and what will be expected of you if you take it up. It remains for you to make the decision as to whether or not to commit yourself to working through it. Of course, it is not a perfect program and it may not be the best way forward for some individuals. However, for many readers, it will represent an unique opportunity to move forward towards the worthwhile goal of self-improvement. Whatever your circumstances, having read this far, you are clearly aware that your present lifestyle is not providing you with the enjoyment, the peace of mind, the sense of fulfilment that you wish for. You acknowledge that change is needed in your life, even if you may feel somewhat unsure as to what direction you should take.
You have the right to live your life in a way that allows you to feel happy and to know where you are going. Your life activities and the dimensions of your lifestyle should not be totally determined by outside sources or other persons. You are your own person and, while you may have many responsibilities towards your family, your workplace, your friends and community, you have a perfect right to tailor your life, within your duty parameters, so that you are happy, relaxed and following your dreams.
It is highly probable that the change you would like to see in your life will not happen of its own accord. It is also unlikely that someone else will make it happen on your behalf. Only YOU are the real architect of your future. If you want to achieve the change that you yearn for, or simply want to make life feel better for you, you must make the commitment to work at making your choice of change happen. Otherwise, the change that does happen by virtue of external events and individuals will be the change of someone else’s choice.
You will then have to tolerate and respond to these uninvited and external influences for change, even though such actions may not necessarily enhance the quality of your personal lifestyle. However, if you work through the Program set out here, you have a real chance to sort out some of the things in your life that are currently causing you distress and spoiling the quality of your day to day existence.
Your life can only improve if you work on
self-improvement.