Goal setting

Guide to goal setting

OK, so you have an NDIS plan and in it you will have identified some goals and received funding to help you achieve those goals. What now?

Well, you have already made the first step, you’ve connected with Suitsme and hopefully you’ve already booked in with one of our awesome workers!

Your worker’s job is to support you to achieve your goals, but to do that they are going to need some guidance from you. We have this resource which gives tips on Guiding your workers which we encourage you to look at, but the most important way you can guide your worker is by having clear steps to achieving your goals.

Where in the app do I add goals?

In the “My account” tab.

Check out this quick video for more details.

Why can’t we just use the goals in the NDIS plan?

The goals in your NDIS plan are the starting point, but they tend to be big goals like:

“Connect to my community” or “Live somewhere that I feel safe”.

When you’re looking at a big goal like that, it can be hard to know where to start and easy to lose motivation when you don’t feel like any progress is being made. It can also take more than one year (or one plan) to achieve these goals. That’s why it helps to break the goal down into steps.

How do I break my goal down into steps?

It’s easiest to explain this with an example. Let’s use “Connect to my community”.

There are lots of ways that you can connect to your community, so we need to work out where to start. These are some questions you can ask yourself to help you work it out:

What will I see when I have achieved this goal?
What strengths and talents do I have that can help me achieve this goal?
What progress have I already made towards this goal?
What resources will I need to achieve this goal?

For example:

“I’d see myself attending a group/club each week, I’d feel at home and welcome and I’d get along with the other people there. I’m good at painting and I enjoy doing it. I have some paints and brushes.

To achieve this goal, I’ll need to find a group, I may need to pay membership fees and pay for supplies. I’ll need to be feeling well to be able to attend and interact with people. I’d also like to have someone to come to support me at the group, so I don’t have to go alone.”

OK, so now you have a pretty good idea of how you will achieve this goal. From this you can make a list of activities that you can do in the next three months and you can enter these into the app:

Within 2 weeks, I’ll have researched some art groups and have a list of 3 groups I could try. I’ll know how much they cost and what equipment I’ll need to participate.

Within 3 weeks I’ll have made a budget and know which of the art groups I can afford to attend.

Within 10 weeks, I’ll have attended each of the three groups at least once with my support worker and I’ll know which one I like best.

For three months I’ll maintain my mental health by taking my medication and seeing my psychologist and GP regularly.”

How does my worker support me with my goals?

Your worker supports you in a few ways:

They help keep you focused and accountable by checking in with you regularly and asking about your goals.
They provide emotional support; celebrating your successes with you and being there for you when things don’t work out.
They provide practical support such as researching with you, providing transport and walking alongside you on your journey.
Supporting you to set and review your goals; staff can brainstorm goals with you and support you to get the information into the app if you want them to.

What if I change my mind?

It’s fine to change your mind. It’s fine to try something and then decide that it’s not for you. Thinking about our “Connect to my community” example, “I might try a couple of art groups and decide that painting is a self-reflection activity for me, and I don’t want to be in an art group. I still want to want to connect to my community, but I think a better way to do that would be to find some people I can go for regular walks with.”

“I’ll mark this goal as “I’m not working on this any more” and put in a new goal, “Join a walking group”, and then add some steps outlining how I plan to do this.”

How often can I update my goals?

You can update them as often as you want. We recommend you review your goals at least every 3 months or whenever you achieve a goal.

What if I haven’t done the activity but I still want to?

That’s fine, just set a new timeframe for yourself and you can work towards it in the next three months.