How to establish an arthritis take-charge plan

Once you've decided on an arthritis strategy, draw up your weekly take-charge plan, a means of reaching your ultimate goal through a succession of short-term goals.

Think of the plan as a weekly contract that you make with yourself. Each week you assign yourself a series of specific actions, then build on your accomplishments from week to week. Ideally, someone who could climb only five stairs at week one will be climbing three flights after several weeks.

• Invest in a daily planner to help schedule all your activities — and schedule in rest periods, too.
• Buying into the contract. The contracting process may seem burdensome at first, but get into the habit and you will see that it is worth the effort. Weekly successes will help convince you that you can indeed overcome the restrictions that arthritis has imposed.
• In creating your weekly plan, draw upon the actions that are part of your treatment approach. So if you have decided on a weight-loss approach, your plan will include weight-loss actions: eliminating snacks, for example, or walking to burn up calories.
• Success is in the details. The key to a successful plan is to make your actions specific (so they will be easier to repeat) and measurable (so you can easily score your success in completing them). If "walking" is one of your actions, for example, specify when you intend to walk ("before breakfast"), where ("around the block"), how often ("Monday, Wednesday and Friday") and for how long ("10 minutes").
• If your plan is too ambitious, you may become discouraged by failure. On the other hand, you won't make progress if your plan is too modest. Ideally, try to include actions that are doable but that require a little effort. Once you've fulfilled those actions, aim for slightly more ambitious actions for the next week.
• Your weekly take-charge form. In writing up your weekly take-charge plan, be as specific as possible. State what you plan to do, how much you intend to do, when and where you will do those actions and how many days a week you'll do them.