This worksheet is to help guide you in developing reactive action plans. There are many ways to go about creating an action plan... this is only one. Currently, these plans are sent directly to CoachCheryl, but they will soon go to the e-mail address entered into the form. This way, you can use this form to build your own personalized recovery manual.

Remember, action plans are most effective when they are created PRIOR to an urge, and when they are:

• based on your existing values
• based on the priority of those values
• actively used
• realistic

Creating an Action Plan

Step 1: Describe the Situation

Be as specific as you can — recognizing that the more comprehensive your awareness, the more opportunities to manage the situation you will have.

Example: An attractive woman is flirting with me at the playground that our children are playing at. She sits next to me on the bench and engages me in pleasant conversation. She hints that she will be here next Thursday. Several days later, we meet at a school function and again, we engage in very pleasant, stimulating conversation. After several hints, she invites me to come to her house while the kids are at school so that she can show me a project that she is working on.

Describe the situation you are preparing to manage:

Step 2: Evaluate Your Options

Evaluate all of the realistic options available to you. Just like in the decision-making process, you will need to look at all possible actions that you would have available to you in such a situation. This does not mean to evaluate only the healthy options, but to consider all of the most realistic options you might engage in — given your current place in recovery. Your goal in such an exercise is not to avoid and/or deny that you have compulsive urges, it is to become aware of them and their role in your life. Hopefully, if a healthy option does not already exist, you will have created one by the end of the plan.

Step 3: Evaluate Potential Consequences

Evaluate the potential consequences of the option(s) that you choose. In decision making, you need only to evaluate the consequences of those options which fall within your established boundaries. Here, when working within the constructs of your own mind, you are free to remove those boundaries and explore all of the emotions associated with an absolutely unlimited number of behaviors. Also, in life, you often can make only one decision — you either engage in the affair, or you don't. Here, you have the ability of playing out any number of options — but it is essential that you always play out the options to their value-based end.

Step 4: Make a Decision

Make a decision as to which value-based option you would choose. Once you have selected an option, role-play the situation over and over again in your mind — seeing yourself choosing this option every time.

Step 5: Additional Observations/Comments

Add any additional thoughts, comments related to this action plan here: