Whatever you set out to accomplish in life, clarity is fundamental to your success. Being consistent and staying on track are two of many positive results you’ll enjoy by getting crystal clear about your life and purpose. Thankfully, with a little daily effort, developing a clarity mindset is easy.
Clarity is critical to setting clear goals. I can’t emphasis enough that the more inner work you do, the easier it is for your brain to make clear decisions, because your objectives become obvious. You'll also stay on track more easily because the end result is clear to you. With an ambiguous endpoint in mind, who knows where you’ll end up! And even if by sheer luck you did somehow land in the right place, how would you know you were there? And even though everyone knows that goals are critical, few people actually establish them...or know the right way to set them. Unfortunately in our society and educational system, people aren’t taught effective goal-setting techniques. Most often, when people are introduced to goal-setting, they’re shown a system that focuses on external achievements without first prioritizing core values.
As a coach, all too often I have people connect and work with me who’ve spent decades on goals they thought would bring them fulfillment, only to create misery and dissatisfaction. It’s hard to hear the stories of regret and disappointment for years of life lost chasing the wrong goals.
Another issue I see with how people learn to set goals is the fear of making a mistake...which also comes from a lack of CLARITY. But the truth is that doing the wrong thing is almost always better than doing nothing. At least if you choose the wrong path, you can still find clarity and end up with something. You can always do something new. If you do nothing, you end up with nothing.
As Teddy Roosevelt put it, "In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing."
Here are a few examples of what I’m talking about when it comes to setting goals:
"I want to make more money" is not a goal, nor is there clarity.
"I want to make an extra $50,000 in the next 365 days" is an external goal. You might do it, but you might hate the process or realize the sacrifices you made to get it have created tremendous regret.
“Adventure is one of my top core values, and I LOVE to drink tea. When I honor this value, I flourish. I am going to save an extra $500 from my salary each month for the next 12 months so I can take a trip to India and explore several tea estates in the Darjeeling region.”
So how can you be sure you have clarity?
1. You’re focused on what you want ALL the time. Clarity is so powerful and important because when you get clear about what you want, it’s always on your mind. You’re planning, taking action, and then readjusting based on the outcome of your choices. This kind of focus is the cornerstone of your manifested future.
2. You’re inspired and creative, working from a state of Flow. Have you ever been completely immersed in a task, oblivious to the time and what’s going on around you...focused only on your progress in the present moment? If so, you know what it is to be in a state of Flow.
Being in Flow is a joyful state of clarity where your creativity feeds your inspiration, and your inspiration feeds your creativity. And that synergy transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary. Not only do you seem to transcend time, you often tap into and channel a collective energy bigger than you normally produce in an unaltered state.
Being in Flow isn’t a random coincidence. With a little practice, you can learn to enter flow at any moment. When you’re clear about your purpose and intentions, you can use this synergy to manifest amazing results. If you’d like to learn how, practice this guided meditation I’ve created to help you tap into your playful, creative, and inspired state of consciousness.
3. You know your strengths, your values, what you like, and what makes you happy. Clarity is the ability to think and understand without ambiguity. When you’re at a place in your self-awareness where you’re clear about the energies that move you to action, then the choices you make and the goals you set become simplified. You build confidence in yourself and your ability to dive beneath the surface static of emotions, knowing what energies in a situation will resonate with your value frequencies.
Here’s a personal example: A few of my core values are creativity, simplicity, and joy. Before I became aware of this, I used to put myself into unhappy career situations because I made choices based on status, financial opportunities, or what would look good on my resume. But I often ended up hating the choice one I committed to it. Over time, I’d become unhappy, stressed, unproductive, and grumpy...and it would affect my happiness in all the other areas of my life. I’d go on searching time and time again trying to find the “perfect” corporate fit using the wrong strategy.
When I got clear about my values, strengths, and what I needed to live a happy life, I looked back and realized that not one of those previous career choices were in alignment with my core values. No wonder I was miserable! Because I found inner clarity, I was able to map out a vision, set goals, and take action to create a career completely in line with my values. And even though the challenges have been great, my sense of fulfillment and purpose has never been greater. I use my self-understanding every day to be creative, keep things simple, and thrive...and that’s the power of CLARITY.
Clarity really is a choice. The default condition is to live your life without clarity, to simply wake up and see what the day brings, and to constantly react to situations and decisions forced on you by others...or by your own lack of self-awareness. To have clarity means that, to a large extent, you've already decided what you're going to do each day. When you know where you want to end up, you'll easily figure out which direction to go.
The simple truth is, if you want to avoid getting clear and believe keeping all your options open is the best way to succeed, you'll never choose any direction in your life. You'll merely be part of everyone else's goals.
Clarity is critical to living your life on purpose, and it requires a daily decision. Implement the ideas above and see how much clarity you can get. With each day, you'll get closer to the life of your dreams.
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