I think if I had known about the SMART system i would have been able to achieve my
goals. The R in SMART really stands out to me. If I just had thought to myself and asked
myself “am I being realistic” never crossed my mind. My current stressors are my health and
my daughter. My health is not at its best and I take a lot of medicine to cope with the pain
and to hell me get through the day. Also, my daughter suffers with Autism, ADHD, and
Bipolar. So she some good days and some bad ones. I never know what the day holds, I just
have to be prepared. I learned that sometimes I just need to sit down, take a deep breath,
pray and ask for guidance. Patience is the key to everything. I have learned that somethings
are just out of my control. Taking a couple of deep breaths and re-accessing the situation.
That has helped me out along the way. SMART Goals are very beneficial for achieving our
ambitions. By making specific long term and short-term goals, we can ensure that we do no
try to progress aimlessly. Measurable goals allow us to track our progress. Achievable and
Realistic goals keep us grounded and away from flights of fancy. Time related goals stop
procrastination and hold us accountable. I would go over all this with a high school student
to illustrate the obvious advantages of SMART goals. One goal I have had is weight loss. I
have a specific goal weight, and I can easily measure it with a scale. My goal weight is a
realistic and achievable one. However, I have not specified any time frame to achieve that
goal weight. I feel this needs to be evaluated. I can probably break by goal weight into
multiple smaller, easier to achieve ones, and set specific dates to hit each one. This would
ensure my success.One of my biggest stressors is the financial one. I'm constantly keeping a
very close eye on my spending habits, retirement savings, and investment performance. And
of course, making rent. The best way I cope when the financial stress becomes too much is
to step away and speak to my dad. It is an escape response, but the support keeps my
emotions satisfied. He also used to work as a mutual fund manager, so he can help with the
actual cause of the stress too. I would describe the benefits of creating SMART goals to a
high school graduate about to start college as a must do. SMART goals will allow you to
focus on what needs to be done right now to help you achieve your goal of graduating
college. I believe SMART goals help to make you responsible because they hold you
accountable for the outcome of the goals you set now and in the future. A personal goal that
I need to revisit is my weight loss goal. I have set a goal for myself to lose 25 pounds in a
six-month period. This is where it gets to be tricky for me because I feel this is a measurable
and achievable element of my SMART goals. Because I weigh in weekly, I can see
measurable progress especially when I have lost weight, however if I gain weight then that
is when I start to wonder if I can actually achieve my goal of 25 pounds. I say I need to
revisit this goal because I have put on 5 pounds in the past month, so I need to take a look at
some of the things I am doing wrong and pick back up on my good habits. I do feel today
that stress if a big factor in me not meeting my weight loss goal. At my job right now, Open
Enrolment has begun and the daily stress of that carries over to home and eating late and not
finding the time for exercise. Admittedly eating unfortunately is a coping mechanism as
Chocolate is my go-to when I am at work. But as I am writing this response, I hear how
ridiculous that sounds. So, as I am new to my position at work my coping strategy starting
today is going to be to go for a ten-minute walk. Not only will this temporarily take my
mind off of my current task, it will also give a a few minutes of the exercise I so desperately
need to meet my weight loss goal. The benefits of setting a SMART goal to a recent high-
school graduate who is about to start college is being able to achieve what you set out to do.
It is important to manage goals and set yourself up to succeed and to meet those goals.
SMART goals help you set reasonable and specific goals that you can obtain. College is a
big step, and it is different from high school, everyone wants to succeed and graduate from
college so using SMART goals you can achieve being a successful college student while
also learning responsibility by making adult decisions for yourself. A personal goal of mine
is to be healthy by eating right so I can lose weight. This SMART goal is not specific or
time sensitive so this goal will never be met because not a specific time frame or what needs
to be done to be healthy and to lose weight was set. My current stress right now is finances
and constant responsibilities of balancing school, work, and my family. The way I manage
the stress when it gets overwhelming is to just take a break from it all and take some time
out for me. The things that stress me out can be put on the back burning sometimes and I use
this me time to just relax and refocus. I would tell a recent high-school graduate that
SMART goals will help you prepare and do well in college. SMART goals clearly describe
the goal you are working toward and makes it easier to track your progress. One of my short-
term personal goals is to get more exercise. However, that is not a SMART goal, because it
lacks nearly all of the SMART components. It is not specific, measurable, or time sensitive.
In order to make this a SMART goal, I would need to add in these components. I could
amend this goal, in order to make it a SMART goal, to: I will go to the gym to exercise for
at least 30 minutes three days a week for the next three months. This goal is specific,
measurable (30 minutes three times per week), achievable (using my gym membership),
realistic, and time sensitive (three months).My two biggest sources of stress are a lack of
time and my health. To cope with the lack of time, I can effectively utilize the time
management skills we learned in week one: keeping a schedule, to-do lists, etc. I can use my
schedule to see smaller blocks of wasted time and try to utilize that by adjusting other events
around to free up larger blocks of time. To help with my health, I can set goals related to
healthy living, including exercising more often, eating healthier, and lowering my A1C
(long-term blood glucose level). I believe that SMART goals would be best explained to a
young adult just coming out of high school as a critical tool in your path to success. I would
tell them that these goals can define your success and be a constant guide and reminder to
the goals that they set forth to achieve. After reading and reviewing this section, I believe
that I need to revisit the "Measurable" and the "Time-Based" aspects of my goals. I have the
basics of my plan in place, where I want to be and how to get there; I just do not have a solid
set of milestones. I think that if I put in place measurable events with a time-based goal, I
could reward myself along the way to the larger goals and keep myself motivated. Some of
my current stressors are my work and family life and juggling a healthy balance in between.
At this point, I am not doing anything to cope with my stress. I find myself stuck in a place
where I feel I do not have the time to have my own hobby or stress relief, but the reality is
that I do have the time, I just need to make it a priority. I believe that I could use reading a
book as a good coping mechanism to stress. The benefits of creating SMART goals for a
recent high school graduate would enable the individual to set goals for themselves after
thinking about their next move. For instance, maybe this individual would like to start a part-
time job and take one year off from school, before starting college. Utilizing the SMART
goals would enable the individual to set specific goal that would be measurable by setting
himself a goal on his/ hers GPA. Achievable by keeping yourself accountable to your
commitments and is going to college going to be realistic a year later after graduating high
school. Lastly, is working part-time and going to college going to be completed at a specific
time? Will this individual need to adjust their schedule to meet their goals? These would be
great examples of why an individual that just graduated may want to set a SMART goal. I
am very familiar with the SMART goal setting, as we tend to use this system with our own
employees in our sales teams. We are often setting expectations and goals in order to
achieve our sales goals and objectives at Pepsi Co. I think the smart goal strategy is
definitely one that high school graduates could use because a lot of them have issues finding
out which way to go. I think that it’s important to find a way to strategize your goals and not
just set them because most people that set them don’t ever reach them. I think I’ve done well
at reaching my goals throughout my life, But I had also changed a lot of goals that I don’t
think I necessarily needed to. I think the biggest thing to take away from that smart strategy
is that if you are not good at prioritizing and setting up a plan to reach your goals it helps
you. With that said though I do believe it can do some good to the people who are even
confident at setting and reaching goals because it can help organize and make a little bit
simpler the issues you may have if you are confident . Some changes happening in my life
would be I just moved and started a new job this year. I also received custody of my child
this month. The best thing I do to help reduce stress is to look at how far I have come in
such a short period of time. I also like to write in my journal 1 sentence a day about why I
am happy with my life. if we feel good about different things going on in our life that our
overall health should be a reflection of that. However, finding that balance is sometimes
difficult because everything else seems so important or urgent. I feel the basic human
instinct is to take our health for granted especially if we do not have any outlying symptoms.
So for me time management and SMART goals are going to be big for me moving forward.
SMART goals helps get from "I" to "A" in in the word "IDEA". "I" am being defined as idea
and the "A" defined as action. This is a saying I read and obviously stuck with me as a
reminder to put action to my "one day" ideas. Ensuring that all areas of the SMART goal
process is utilized can help with progress monitoring and reassessment of goals if necessary.
It's important to remember that initial goals can change as circumstances change, and that's
ok, just as long as the goal is still making phase progress.
