A few months ago I wrote an article on how to make your goals SMART. The article is available here. SMART goals are nothing new, they have been around for pretty long and they do work very well, but within a specific context. Let me clarify. SMART goals are often used in professional settings, organizational objectives, product goals, individual performance goals and in those areas they are very valuable.
There is however, one scenario (and there could be more) where SMART goals do not always yield desired results. And that is the personal goal setting area. Typically, as a Coach when working with individuals focused on their personal improvement, I observed that after an initial high of creating objectives and actions, the enthusiasm was not sustained for long. As I tried to explore the reasons behind it and improved my learning around goals and objectives, I came across another interesting acronym CLEAR.
Once I understood the power of CLEAR goals, there was no going back. It has become an essential model in my coaching toolkit. Every time I am working with a coachee who is more interested in personal goals, creative projects, habit development or something similar, I prefer to use CLEAR over SMART. SMART I often reserve for business and professional coaching.
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What makes CLEAR goals better in personal development?
There has been a lot of research about human motivation. All the research points that the typical ‘carrots and sticks’ motivation becomes irrelevant after a certain threshold. Also, it often works better with people doing repetitive, physical tasks or activities. The moment the activities get even slightly into the realm of cognitive, brain-intensive work those same motivation mechanisms become a challenge.
Creative people engaged in cognitive work or focused on self improvement are usually not motivated by external factors. They need internal motivation. One of the important intrinsic driving factors is Purpose. Do we know the reason or need of doing what we are doing?
In the book, Start with WHY, author Simon Sinek who also is a thought leader in business leadership establishes the importance of knowing our – WHY. He states, most successful people have one thing in common and that is the clarity of their purpose, the WHY behind their work. The WHY, the Purpose generates an emotional pull that drives people towards it and helps them succeed.
Unlike the SMART goals which are metrics and specificity oriented, CLEAR goals build upon the emotional pull and like human life they can be refined as the person evolves themselves.
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CLEAR Goals
In personal development or creative projects one has to understand that the person evolves over time. Which means that personal goals are not written in stone, they are allowed to change over a period of time. Secondly, most humans do not live in isolation. For them to be successful they are dependent on others or others might be impacted by one’s objectives, so there needs to be an ecology check.
Objectives or goals that are defined using the CLEAR model helps to upgrade the mind and body to work in tandem to be effective.
Here is a quick rundown of the model:
C – Collaborative
Work with someone. Like I mentioned earlier, most humans do not live in isolation. Our objectives will be impacted by others or others will be impacted by the actions we take to achieve our objectives. Being collaborative means that we don’t have to take the onus of achieving our objectives completely on ourselves. We need to tap into our ecology, friends, family, colleagues, teachers, mentors, who can cheer for us or support us when needed.
This creates a safe environment for us and drives motivation.
Example: If you want to build a new habit, let’s say read a book. Doing alone can become boring or exhausting after a while. But if you join a book club, where you collectively with other people read the same book and share perspectives that same habit becomes interesting.
L – Limited
Small, Clear, Consistent.
More often than not, people digress from their goals because there isn’t enough clarity of what they are trying to achieve. The objectives seem distant and with no immediate rewards the brain does not get the right signals for a follow through.
Limited goals either by time or size create clear focus and provide an easy path to sustain the journey for a longer time.
Example: For your book reading habit, if you start with a goal like I will finish 10 books in a month, you might not even get started. Instead, you create a limited goal – read a book for 15 minutes everyday before sleeping, and suddenly it becomes more doable.
E – Emotional
SMART goals essentially lack one thing and that is an emotional quotient. If I do not care about my goals, I will not be invested in them. If I am not invested, I would not follow-on or strive to achieve them.
Create a goal that connects with an emotion, something that excites you, makes you feel inspired, proud or curious. The dopamine release from these emotions gives you more energy to focus.
Example: To continue on the reading habit example, if you pick business-management books that are dry in storytelling, you would soon lose the focus. Instead pick a fantasy book like LOTR or something more easier to comprehend like Love Story or may be suspense novel from Sidney Sheldon or Robert Ludlum that keeps your emotions charged and in no time you will find yourself finishing the books.
A – Appreciable
How do you eat an elephant? A bite at a time.
Big initiatives often are overwhelming. If there is no time limit set a project keeps running endlessly. We have all experienced it. And this usually means that sooner or later we are going to lose focus and probably leave the goal mid way.
Breaking bigger objectives into smaller, clear action oriented plans creates the momentum. And as we complete each small activity, celebrating it, appreciating it regulates the brain’s reward mechanism that keeps it on track to achieve the objective.
Example: Instead of reading a whole chapter in the book, I will focus on reading two pages every day.
R – Refinable
Be Adaptable.
I read it somewhere, if your Plan B doesn’t work do not worry there are 24 more alphabets.
And it is an interesting thought. We as humans do not remain the same over our years on this beautiful planet, so why should our goals be stringent?
With CLEAR as our model, we can always steer our way in a different direction if the plans do not work out the way we expected. We can refine our goals and work with them to make us better in a way that suits us.
Example: I was too tired yesterday so didn’t read the book for 15 minutes before sleeping. Let me pick it up with my morning coffee.
To Conclude:
CLEAR goals bring the emotional and ecology aspect to objectives which the SMART goals lacked. This emotional connection is very essential when focused on personal development. CLEAR also enables individuals to reconnect with the fact that they don’t have to do everything on their own to achieve their objectives. By teaming up with others, keeping focus on small, immediate aspects, working on things that emotionally recharge you, taking tiny deliberate actions and being flexible, you can achieve any goal or objective that you decide.
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