SMART Planning

Specific / Stress

Planning specific goals to reduce stress; this is where you ensure that you do not overwhelm yourself with too many projects to manage at once and getting confused, losing your sense of direction.

Goal planning can be very exciting and with this determination you often think you can take on the world, although this is true, Rome was not built in a day. Therefore, having clear, specific goals, that will not be too overwhelming; always remember, even with the best intentions you can set yourself up to fail, hence the importance safeguarding yourself against that, by ensuring you plan according to your means and capacity.

Measurable

It’s important to ensure that you have a clear timeline in place, with specific dates. Always start with an end goal, for example: I want to be a chef! Think about what this entails, culinary school, internships etc, and write out (what I like to call), the mini goals in between. Make sure you do your research and lay out the necessary steps, every goal should lead to the next and have specific deadlines, ensuring they are specific and reduce stress.

Achievable

It’s important to ensure that your goals are realistic, for example taking the aforementioned example of the chef. An unrealistic goal would be to be a chef in 1 year, when a professional culinary course is between 2-4 years.

Relevant

It’s important to ensure that all your goals are set with intention, and are relevant to the ultimate goal. Please ensure that you research your goals, to minimize risk of oversight, but even if there are, it just means you readjust accordingly and press on!

Timebound

It’s important to have an end date, without this, it will be difficult to maintain focus and momentum. The end goal should be set at the end of your planning, after you have laid out all of the steps, and now know how much time to devote to each task/goal.