Collaborative | Limited | Emotional | Appreciable | Refinable

So what are CLEAR Goals?

CLEAR goals stand for Collaborative, Limited, Emotional, Appreciable, and Refinable. They were designed by Olympic gold medalist and author of a great book called the responsibility ethic, Adam Kreek,

Goals play an interesting role in life, they are important to both the business and personal aspects of it, and are linked to our motivation, focus, and development. Most important perhaps is the influence they have on our sense of purpose.

In this goal-setting series, we are looking into the most efficient models, and CLEAR goals are definitely a major contender!

Let’s explore the CLEAR goal-setting strategy

CLEAR stands for :

Collaborative: defined as two or more parties working together, the same way we need to get our goals to work together to form a bigger picture.
Limited: There are only so many hours in a day, our time is precious and limited. Consider this when making goals.
Emotional: Characterized by intense feelings. We shouldn’t let them dominate, however connecting your passions to your targets is a great way to increase the likelihood of hitting them.
Appreciable: Make them big enough to notice! If you’re not setting the types of goals that make a difference, you’re not doing it right
Refinable: Purify and concentrate our efforts to ensure that we get the very best results!

These all tie together to create a CLEAR path to structuring a great system for goal-setting!

There are two books worth checking out to broaden your knowledge on the topic. Firstly the Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg. It takes a deep dive into the mechanics of habits and how they work and will provide you with great foundational knowledge, and secondly The Elephant in the Brain by Kevin Simler that looks into the nature of our behaviors, and what causes them.

Both of these will broaden your understanding of our motivations and help you provide you with the right tools you need to set goals that match your individual lifestyle and personality.

CLEAR goals help us take aim at the right targets — Hit the targets you’re aiming for

CLEAR goals – Collaboration

CLEAR goals start with Collaboration as the important first step. We need to ensure that we consider how our goals tie into our lives. There needs to be a sustainable balance between what we are aiming at and our daily efforts.

Ask yourself:

How do my goals tie up with my life?
How am I going to blend them into my other goals?
Does it realistically match my other obligations?

Goals working together in synchronicity is the ideal solution, that way we are continuously heading toward our goals!

CLEAR goals when it comes to winning the prize

Make your CLEAR goals Limited

There is always a price to pay for achieving something great, usually it time, but it can also be energy, money, effort, and other resources. When planning our goals using the CLEAR model

Ask yourself:

What is the timeline for this goal?
What is the payoff against the required investment cost?
Is the juice worth the squeeze?

If we do not consider the scarcity of things and keep in mind that everything in our life is Limited. We will quickly find out just how easy it is to set inefficient and unattainable goals.

CLEAR goals help us win the game — Don’t let emotions stop you from scoring your goal!

What role do Emotions play in CLEAR goals?

So without Emotions, we would not get very far as a species, it drives us and motivates us to reach greater heights. However, the strong impulse we feel can be both positive and negative. When it comes to goal setting it’s crucial to know how to control and apply them for your benefit.

Ask yourself:

Why do you want to achieve this goal?
Are you passionate about it?
Can that passion be used to create perseverance?

Use your passions and emotions to create higher-quality goals that will make it more likely for you to succeed at goal setting!

Realistic Smart goals are ones you can achieve — Plan out your palette to paint the big picture you want

How to make our goals Appreciable

To make something Appreciable is to make it worth your while. Simply put this is about ensuring that the goals you set are not only beneficial to your bigger picture but also scalable.

Ask yourself:

Does it tie in with my other goals to make that ideal bigger picture
Can I make adjustments to make it bigger?
What will be the benefits of scaling it up?

Remember that even if you feel a dream is too big to be realistic that it can always be compartmentalized into smaller more attainable goals that collaborate to form the big one!

CLEAR goals hit the target — Know what you’re aiming for

How to refine your CLEAR goals

We have already been working on the foundation for this final step. Here we take the most important lessons we have learned from our other calls to action and combine them to create a foundry to purify and Refine our goals into the type of metal that can be used to change lives.

When considering making your goals Refinable, Ask yourself:

Does it add to the bigger picture?
How can I improve the vision?
What can I do to make achieving it more realistic?
How can I refine it to get better results from my efforts?

By bringing these steps together we are left with an incredible framework that will help us in setting realistic, achievable, and CLEAR goals!

The 5 Specific W’s of CLEAR goals

The 5 W’s are not part of the CLEAR model, however, they are such a great tool, that we included them as an extra to every one of the goal-setting models we cover on Things Learned After Thirty. By using them as a checklist to qualify your goals for the CLEAR model, you will be able to get twice the results, with half the effort.

The 5 W’s of goals setting are:

Who: Who is involved in this goal?
What: What do I want to accomplish?
Where: Where is this goal to be achieved?
When: When do I want to achieve this goal?
Why: Why do I want to achieve this goal?

Instead of saying “I want to lose weight“, rather set the goal of cleaning up your diet and cutting out specific unhealthy foods while implementing a weekly walking routine. The first creates a vague outline, while the second provides a specific solution.

Small successes spiral us to reaching our central goal

The Importance of CLEAR Goal Setting

Without a well-defined goal and specific plan on how to get there and by when you are really just stumbling around in the general direction of what you were planning

If you are looking for great examples of the type of goals to set, then check out our article on the 13 different types of goals, and be sure to visit our library, where you will find some good and relevant recommended reads to help with building a great life, filled with worthwhile goals!

Our favorite goal-setting techniques: