Everyone experiences stress; in fact, a certain amount of stress in your life is helpful to be productive, motivated and to accomplish tasks. There are times, however, when stress becomes an obstacle and you are not able to be who you want to be. Although everyone experiences stress, the American Psychological Association explains that it feels differently for different people. Stress can mean anxiety, excitement, pressure, worry, fear and/or conflict. Regardless of how you feel and deal with stress, there are helpful goals to set to find relief.
Assess Your Stress
To set goals for addressing stress, you must first understand what stress means to you. Different circumstances present different degrees of stress. You may call it stress when you are rushing to the airport, excited to pick up a loved one. You may also call it stress when you are evicted from your apartment. Consider your different experiences and degrees of stress by rating them on a scale from 1-10. This will help you to set appropriate goals depending on the severity.
The Benefits of Setting Goals for Stress
Setting goals for stress is helpful because it can provide a structure and framework in a situation where you may feel weak, vulnerable or unable. Psychologists at University of New Hampshire report that setting goals also helps you concentrate exactly what is in the way; providing greater awareness to short-term or situational stress as well as over-arching stress. Setting goals enforces a sense of empowerment because you are able to get a hold of this conflict or burden that is keeping you from feeling at your optimum.
Difficulties in Setting Goals For Stress
Setting goals for stress can be difficult because you feel overwhelmed. You may feel you have no idea where to begin. As much as you visualize accomplishing a task, that stress has you too burdened to put a plan into action. This is often because you are not aware of the specific or underlying stressors. Assessing your stress will lessen the difficulty in setting goals. However, acknowledge when you may need the help of a psychologist to assist with managing your stress.
Successful Goal Setting For Stress
Assessing your stress and understanding difficulties and benefits of goal setting prepares you to set goals. One helpful model for setting an attainable goal is the SMART model. SMART is an acronym which represents: Specific, Measurable, Action-oriented, Realistic and Time-oriented goals. This model is useful because it assists in keeping your goal manageable. Creating an unrealistic goal will set you up for an unhealthy cycle of more stress because of the failure.
Example of Setting Goals for Stress
Always feeling behind can cause stress. Set SMART goals to resolve this. Consider: Specific: Pace my day better. Measurable: Go from being late five days a week to being late two days a week. Action-oriented: Monitor time throughout the day and set an alarm to notify when I have to move on with a task. Realistic: Some days, I will still feel behind, Time-oriented: One month. Be sure to monitor SMART goals to provide the evidence of stress relief.
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