Did you wake up this morning with a list of aspirations for the day? Maybe you fully intended to go for a run, finally finish writing that paper, or make it to Genius on the Spelling Bee without hints. If not, there’s always tomorrow.

Whether we acknowledge them or not, our days are filled with goals large and small, said Nate Eckland, AB ’15, a senior scientist in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences. “We all have an ocean of goals that cross our minds in day-to-day life,” he said.

In a new study published in the Journal of Research in Personality, Eckland and Renee Thompson, a professor of psychological and brain sciences, identified a key trait that helps people actually reach their goals. She said, “We found that emotional clarity — the ability to acknowledge and describe emotions in the moment — and goal clarity – having a sharp, explicit understanding of your objectives -- are key to successfully achieving your daily goals.”

Thinking clearly about goals, and what it takes to achieve them, can help anyone be more productive and satisfied in their lives, Eckland said. 

“Goals are mental representations of a desired future,” Eckland said. That future is in reach, he added, but we have to take the right steps to get there.

Eckland and Thompson recruited 179 adults from the St. Louis area for a study that combined questionnaires and repeated mobile phone surveys to get a better sense of how people thought about their long-term and short-term goals. 

To track goal pursuit, participants first visited Thompson’s DYNAMIC Lab to describe their big-picture goals, perhaps getting a promotion at work, becoming healthier, or being more thoughtful and generous. Then over the following two weeks, they responded to multiple smartphone surveys to log their recent emotional state and their main goal over the past hour. Importantly, they rated their emotional clarity, goal clarity, ongoing effort, and overall progress.

The findings were telling. In total, fewer than a quarter of the goals during the smartphone check-ins were fully achieved during the two-week study. However, uncompleted goals didn’t necessarily mean failure. In many cases, they simply reflected goals that were still actively in progress.    

But some people had a goal achievement cheat code. Participants who reported higher than usual levels of goal clarity were about 80% more likely to reach their recent goals. People with higher general emotional clarity were also more likely to reach their goals. “Emotions signal what’s important to us,” Eckland said. “If you have a clear idea about what you’re feeling, your goals seem more real, and you’re more likely to take the steps to achieve them.” 

Emotional clarity can be useful even if a person isn’t chasing a particular goal, Eckland added. “Research shows that being aware of feelings is good for mental health. It helps to pay attention to your emotions and not be afraid of them.”

 “Often people think that emotions are irrational, but emotions provide you with information,” Thompson said. “Being clear about what you are feeling can help you decide what to do. For example, guilt can signal the need to make reparations, whereas fear can signal the need to narrow one’s attention and become more alert to the situation at hand.” 

In his clinical psychology practice, Eckland advises patients to seek emotional clarity as they try to complete tasks and solve problems. Many patients with depression, for example, feel overwhelmed by housework. 

“I encourage them to acknowledge that feeling and break down the problem into concrete steps,” he said. “They don’t have to do everything. But if they set a goal to throw away trash, put the dishes in the dishwasher, and fold the laundry, that’s something they can achieve and feel good about.”

Eckland has applied the research to his own life. 

“Doing this study changed how I implement and understand my goals,” he said. “It has changed my own sense of accomplishment and what I’m doing in my life. It’s important to think about these things.”  

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