This fourth general criterion asks you to dig into your client s feelings, emotions, values, and beliefs. We want our action plans to be emotionally satisfying to us. We want to do the right thing, and we want to feel good about it. This criterion raises the question as to whether it is better to do something, effective or not , rather than to do nothing. Some feel it is more important to be doing something, even something nonproductive, than to do nothing at all.
Time is consumed, energy is consumed, perhaps even money.
Unless they are unlimited, then resources for other alternatives are no longer available or at least diminished. Second and potentially more destructive, when nonproductive ends are pursued, the activity itself lulls us into thinking that we are making progress. We want our action plans to be effective. Finally, we must determine whether an action plan is likely to bring about closure or to continue over a period of time. We want to place our action plan in a time frame that determines whether the plan is likely to be one time or long ranged.