Get smart this 2017 with NewCampus

We’re halfway through January and hopefully we are all still working hard on our New Year’s resolution of #fitnessgoals. On a more serious and thoughtful note, it’s amazing to look back at all our accomplishments in 2016. We’ve partnered with new universities, strengthened relationships with ongoing universities and startups, onboarded inspiring mentors from startups around the world, and reached almost 17,000 signups. The most rewarding part of it all for our team is seeing projects through from start to finish, and listening to how the project has made a difference for people.

Coming into 2017, our main goal is to expand and reach even more people. Providing alternative career opportunities, remote digital experiences and building a global startup network will always be our focus.

We know it can be daunting, starting a new year and not knowing exactly whether you can achieve all your New Year’s resolutions. But it’s never too late to start something new, change direction or make a move on something that you’ve been keeping at the back of your mind. Who says we need to do things year by year? What matters is that you are working towards something you care about.

To help you stay on track with your life goals, we came up with our very own take on the SMART acronym for 2017. You might be familiar with this acronym which has been proven and used for in management or business. But we reckon it can be easily applied to personal goals. Get SMART, the NewCampus way:

S — SPECIFIC

Of course it’s good to know the general jist of what you want but if it’s not specific enough, the picture of what you really want will be unclear. Take for example if you want to develop your skills in business development, what skills are you referring to? What type of business or startup do you want to learn from? Will you dedicate time each week to read up on it, apply for a remote project or take a short online course? Many of us will find that there are so many ways to reach your end goal. By being specific, the ways of getting there will be much clearer.

M — MEASUREABLE

You won’t be motivated to take action to achieve the goal if you don’t know what indicators prove that you’re succeeding along the way. The question is how can I tell I’m on my way to acheiving my goal? It should be something you can measure such as time and specific amounts of something. Concrete numbers will be able to show you progression and how much closer you may be to your end goal. Even if you don’t succeed straight away or fail at some specific goals, making a goal measureable will still drive your future aspirations.

A — ACHIEVABLE

Sometimes we may need to ask ourselves if becoming a billionaire or an Olympic champion is achievable or realistic. It’s great to aim high, but some things just aren’t going to happen straight away without significant time and a lot of hard work. So it’s important that we aren’t too hard on ourselves and that the goal is attainable. Maybe if you want to reach a professional level in a sport you need to receive proper training and aim for local competitions first. Instead of making impossible expectations, knowing what you’re capable of on a daily basis and working around that will get you accomplishing things sooner than you think.

R — RELEVANT

Where does this goal fit into your life and your other long-term goals? Does it add value to your personal life, career and overall happiness? Your goals should be aligned to who you are and what you believe in. People are often not driven to accomplish goals that they don’t feel in tune with. The goals you set should align with your core values. Sometimes figuring this out may take some time or failure along the way. Just don’t forget to trust your gut feelings, and trust that you will figure everything out in time.

T — TIME-BOUND

You’ve got to set dates for when you want to achieve certain milestones by. Breaking it down into months, weeks and days will make your goal immediately actionable. You should be able to measure your progress once you’ve set realistic dates for your short-term goals. Ask yourself: when will you start working on it? What do you need to do by what date? Don’t forget to give yourself a realistic time-frame to achieve your goal. As soon as your start working on it and begin pacing yourself, you’ll learn more about how much you can achieve.

We hope you find some inspiration in goal-setting the SMART way. Good luck this new year and we hope everyone is off to a fresh start. We’ve got so much in store for you this year, so stay tuned.

Best wishes, Team NewCampus