What are SMAART Skills?
So what are SMAART skills? I’m glad you asked!
SMAART skills include:
- Self-Awareness: Knowing your strengths, weaknesses, challenges, and barriers to success.
- Metacognition: Thinking about thinking; understanding your own thought processes.
- Adaptation: Your ability to respond appropriately and effectively to life’s changes and challenges.
- Affirmation: Choosing activities that suit your values, goals, and desires.
- Relational Functioning: Choosing healthy relationships and dealing with conflict effectively.
- Thought Modification: Replacing negative, dysfunctional thought patterns with healthier, more productive thought processes.
College is a time of transition and newfound independence. Some students face unique challenges in addition to their regular academic stress. I designed the SMAART Skills program for today’s generation of college students – those who want to succeed academically and relationally yet lack the tools they need to do so.
Students who go to college with zero preparation often flounder, struggle with depression or anxiety, and search for acceptance and identity in unhealthy ways. Students who go through the SMAART Skills program, however, learn specific skills that empower them to achieve academic success as well as maximize their full college experience.
Can you relate to any of the following?
- My grades in college are lower than I expected.
- It’s difficult for me to find time for friendships, social activities, school, sleep, and studying. I just can’t juggle everything.
- I often feel so stressed or distracted that it’s difficult to finish my schoolwork.
- I feel sad, worried, and homesick most of the time.
- I feel lost in college like I haven’t found my place.
If these problems sound familiar, you are not alone! From kindergarten through 12th grade, your teachers spent most of their time teaching you academic skills, which is great. Unfortunately, they did little to prepare you for overall success in college.
Even students who have a high IQ, earned a high GPA in high school, or scored high on the SAT might still earn poor grades in college because they lack SMAART skills. Sound familiar?
Don’t panic! I’m here to personally teach you the SMAART skills you need to deal with the challenges of college, manage your stress effectively, succeed academically, and make the most of your time in school.
College Success Articles
Want more information on how you can succeed in college? Need helpful advice and resources to navigate college classes, relationships, independence, stress, and overall health and wellness in this new phase of life?
Check out some of my articles—for both parents and students—on college life, academics, and the SMAART Skills program.
Driven to Distraction
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Failure is often thought of as something that should not happen. When failure does occur, it is surprising, upsetting and sometimes derailing. What if failure was discussed as a necessary part of life? The way we discuss failure with kids impacts how they cope with it.
School has started, and focus is a concern for many students. Is ADHD the cause?
While we would all like to focus a bit better, sometimes focus problems interfere with important life goals, including academic and career goals. ADHD is often suspected as soon as difficulties with focus arise. Some of the inattentive symptoms of ADHD include...