Introduction

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At The Oasis Townsville, we will help you be prepared for the day you transition out of the ADF. Too many serving veterans pay too little regard to preparing and when the imperative to transition arrives, they find themselves ill-prepared to gain meaningful employment and to integrate into the civilian community. This can easily be remedied by speaking with our team who have experience of transitions and have helped many transition. 

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The planning could be as simple as identifying what are the likely scenarios in 3, 5 and 10 years. The average length of service in the ADF is less than 10 years, and in Townsville it is even less. Many will be required to transition for medical reasons before they anticipated. Beginning to consider the implications of transition early is generally a strong incentive to remain in the ADF. And Defence has several schemes that support education and skilling that can better prepare individuals for transition when the time is right. To take advantage of the support provided by Defence, serving veterans need to have considered their future and, if they have a family, to ensure the family is engaged also in the preparations and decision making. 

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Our aim is to support any serving ADF veteran with their family to feel confident and in charge of their future and positive about the prospects of transition - well before they reach the point of deciding to transition or being required to transition - for example for medical reasons - by the end of the first year of their first assignment in Townsville.

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Any veteran who is keen to begin the process of considering their future beyond ADF service, before that decision point arrives or is forced on them, is encouraged to come out to our Homebase in Oonoonba to discuss their options. We will help you develop your plan, with your family.

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This process commences with the completion of our Intake Application. As part of that, if you are chasing 'appropriate compensation', this information will be important for your first meeting with a compensation advocate. 

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To support this effort, Defence is funding The Oasis Townsville to conduct a pilot (titled Operation NAVIGATOR)

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Goal Setting with Purpose

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Having a purpose is essential for a meaningful life and equates to having intentional goals. While mindfulness teaches us to live in the present moment, envisaging the future we want to live in is good for our mental health because it gives us focus and something to look forward to.

Intentional goals are identifiable goals that you intend to pursue and attain by acting now – not tomorrow. They also need to be clear and specific. Saying that you want to lose weight, for example, is too vague. A more specific goal would be that you intend to lose a kilo by a set date.

Fear of failure can sometimes stop us from working towards intentional goals. However, failure is part and parcel of success; success is the destination, while failure is the pathway along which we travel. Unfortunately, we’ve been trained from an early age to think of failure as an indication that we’re not good enough or will never succeed. But that’s simply not the case – failure is a necessary stepping-stone to success, and we need to view it as such. Below are steps to how we can work towards achieving our intentional goals:

Plan and act

Some people know exactly what they want in life and set out to achieve it. Others have good intentions but never quite get around to doing anything about them. Perhaps you plan things in your head and promise to start properly once Christmas / Easter/ New Year is over. Or maybe you discuss your idea endlessly with a friend or partner. While discussion and thinking are useful, achieving your goal requires planning and action, so determine what steps are necessary to achieve your goal and start working on them.

Commit it to paper

It’s funny how writing something down can make it almost tangible, so write your goal out and place it somewhere prominent where you will see it every day, such as the fridge door. A word of warning – do not file it in a drawer or it will inevitably get forgotten.

Create a timeline

A visual marker, with completion dates for the tasks which form the steps towards your goal, will motivate you and keep you on schedule. Breaking your goal down into short term objectives will also make it seem less overwhelming. For example, one of your steps might be to save $50.00 each month. Once you’ve determined this, it’s time to start working on making it happen.

Monitor your progress

You might place a tick on the calendar every time you walk a certain number of steps in a day or set up a spreadsheet to show how much you’ve saved each month. Recording your interim goals as you achieve them enables you to see the progress you’re making, thereby keeping you motivated.

Be flexible

Keep sight of the bigger picture Intentional goals are a good thing, but they can have drawbacks. Sometimes we can be so focused on our goal that we fail to take advantage of opportunities that would help us to achieve it, simply because they weren’t part of our original plan.
 
For many of us, our daily routines changed as we worked remotely from home, attended meetings via Teams and schooled our children at the kitchen table. It wasn’t the way we had planned to do things, but by being flexible we still managed to achieve what we set out to do. And in some instances, being flexible in the face of adversity enabled people to achieve more than they planned. While many businesses struggled during the lockdown, some adapted to become even more successful. So, while it’s important to remain focused on our goals, it’s vital that we don’t lose sight of the bigger picture.

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Source: EAP Assist