Goal and Emotional Clarity: Associations with Goal Effort, Progress, and Attainment in Daily Life

Emotions and goals vary in daily life. Theories posit clearer mental representations of emotions and goals could facilitate goal pursuit. We tested whether emotional and goal clarity were associated with greater goal effort, progress, and attainment. Participants (n = 179; Mage = 35.3, SDage = 12.3) repeatedly rated (five times daily for 14 days) levels of emotional clarity and the clarity, effort, and progress of their main goal from the past hour. Multilevel models indicated emotional and goal clarity were significant within- and between-person predictors of goal effort, progress, and attainment. Variability in within-person effects was examined to characterize individual differences. Most results were robust when accounting for concurrent affect. Results illustrate links between clear mental representations of psychological activity and reports of real-world goal behavior.