Elevate with Robert Glazer Caroline Miller On Building Grit And Setting The Right Goals
Nov 11, 2025
Caroline Miller, a bestselling author and expert in goal setting and resilience, shares her journey from overcoming bulimia to cultivating grit. She emphasizes the importance of pursuing intrinsic goals free from societal expectations and critiques the misuse of SMART goals. Caroline introduces the concept of learning goals, highlighting their necessity in our rapidly changing world, and distinguishes between good and bad forms of grit. She also stresses the value of allowing children to experience failure to build resilience.
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Recovery Shaped Lifelong Grit
- Caroline Adams Miller overcame bulimia and credits that struggle as the formative moment that taught her grit.
- She has remained in unbroken recovery for 40 years and says it taught her resilience, generosity, and purpose.
Goal Science Beats SMART Acronyms
- Locke and Latham's goal-setting theory is the top-ranked management theory and distinguishes learning goals from checklist goals.
- Miller argues SMART is sticky jargon without research and misleads organizations into poor goal design.
Classify Goals Before You Plan
- Do classify your goals as learning goals or checklist (performance) goals before planning how to pursue them.
- Treat learning goals as skill-and-knowledge hunts and checklist goals as recipes you can optimize for excellence.
