The SNU Adult Education Blog

Follow your dreams. It’s advice we’ve all heard—and something adult students are trying to put into action every day. Without a specific plan, though, it’s easy for your dreams for the future to feel too far away or too difficult to achieve. Setting clear, actionable goals can help you more effectively develop a plan to get from where you are today to where you want to be tomorrow. It also helps you benchmark progress on a daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis, so you always have complete insight into how far you’ve come and what needs to happen next.

Eighty percent of college students report ongoing stress. For adult students, the pressure can be both chronic and intense. You may be juggling many roles—parent, worker, spouse, child, and now, student. The daily grind can be tough, but what may be even tougher are the high stakes. You know that your future success is closely tied to your performance in school. So when you’re trying to manage a toddler having a tantrum, a spouse who’s also stressed with everything that’s going on, and a paper deadline, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed.