My SMART Goals for the Semester: How I’m Structuring Success as a Business Student

 My SMART Goals for the Semester: How I’m Structuring Success as a Business Student

Introduction:

    As a college student, it can be very easy to get overwhelmed with balancing classes, extracurricular activities, and personal hobbies. I have experienced my fair share of situations where I felt like there was no way I would be able to accomplish all of the tasks that I needed to complete in a day or week. Over the first two years of my college experience, I felt like I was always working extremely hard to live up to expectations from my family and friends, but I had no goals of my own. So, I ended up burning out and becoming extremely overwhelmed with not only the homework load, but the pressure to succeed in academics and in my social life. However, that all started to change at the beginning of this fall semester. I am currently taking a marketing class, and in one of the lectures, my professor brought up this topic about setting up SMART goals for approaching a sales call objective. The letters stand for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. I realized that this strategy could be used for my own goal setting, and now I have begun to use SMART goals this semester to improve my academic and personal growth while limiting burnout.

My SMART Goals for The Semester:

Here are some of my academic goals that help me visualize what I am working towards. I can then plan out for each week what my priorities are and determine what tasks I need to complete.

• Specific: Work towards an A in every class by studying diligently throughout the week and not leaving studying or homework to the last second. The lowest grade I will allow myself is a B.
• Measurable: I will always track weekly progress and determine if any classes will require more or less of my time to prioritize the grades that need the most of my effort.
• Achievable: Goal is realistic, although I may need to sacrifice some of my free time to meet it.
• Relevant: Working hard in classes while expertly managing my time to decrease burnout will help me in workplace situations. By actively listening and learning, I will be able to build my skills in finance, marketing, entrepreneurship, and sales.
• Time-bound: This goal is set to be completed at the end of the semester, and then I will re-evaluate and make a new goal for next semester based on the outcome of this goal.

Networking is also extremely important in college. You never know what opportunities may arise in your future because of the connections you make with people today. Here is my networking goal for this semester.

• Specific: I will build professional connections by attending at least three social events at NDSU. This can be either through career fairs, speed interviews, employer social events, discussion panels with Q/A's, etc.
• Measurable: Document takeaways and follow up on meetings by connecting on LinkedIn. 
• Achievable: Goal is realistic, and I actually have already been to three social events at NDSU, but I plan on going to more as the semester continues.
• Relevant: This goal to network with business professionals improves my own professionalism and skills in leadership, communication, and awareness.
• Time-bound: I will complete all events before finals week this fall.

Lastly are some personal development goals that I have set, like getting to an N3 level of proficiency in Japanese before I study abroad in Japan next year. For this, I have made daily goals to help me reach my overall goal. For example, at least 40 minutes of grammar study a day, and then flashcards in the morning, at lunch, and before I go to sleep to increase vocab count and retention. Another personal goal I have made is to always make time for piano and the gym, they are two things that really make me happy and are skills I want to improve on. 

Conclusion:

    Setting SMART goals is not just for achieving good academic standing; they're part of developing professional and personal habits that can translate to future career success. I still have had some points this semester where I felt slightly overwhelmed by the amount of homework assigned, or an exam that is right around the corner, but I know that I will be able to confidently try my best because of the system I have integrated into my life. I am truly enjoying this semester of college, even though it is my heaviest semester in terms of credit load (19 Credits). I can work through this semester with motivation and determination because I have the overall goal of studying abroad and graduating with great academic standing at the forefront of my progress. Each semester of college is different, and I look forward to how the rest of this semester and the following years will shape my professional habits and personality.