Seek Clarity, Gain Clarity...

Imagine a life with confusion and doubt. What should be my next step? What should I be doing? Is this the right approach? Will I be successful?

Can we all choose the course of our lives? Yes!

Have we all had the opportunity to choose the course of our lives? Maybe – Yes. Maybe - No.

Even if we have, do we know what we really want to do?

Knowing what to do is Clarity. Clarity is defined as freedom from indistinctness or ambiguity.

Clarity brings purpose by unveiling expectations. Clarity tells people exactly what you want.

Why is Clarity so important?

Clarity is Power. Clarity is Precious. Clarity is Everything.

For everyone, be it a student stepping into the world out of academics, or to someone who is in the midst of a career choice or wanting to make a career change or someone who is wondering what next or when one needs to make important life decisions.

Lack of clarity will lead to slow progress in achieving goals; poor or deteriorating performance levels; render a mind in a confused state; increase stress levels and frustrate to overwhelm with anxiety.

So, how do we get there?

Some of the steps I recommend to seek & gain Clarity...

1. Write down what you want to do/achieve in your life. There may be many, not an issue, write it down. Go through the list and identify those which you see yourself doing and what really matters to you. These are what you must want to achieve. The one which you identify yourself with. And review these periodically.

2. Understand what matters and what does not matter. Getting to know things that do not matter will help one gain clarity. Get rid of those that does not matter and you will be heading to a space of clarity. Create that space of what does not matter. Clarity will not happen or arrive. You create that for yourself. No one else will create that for you.

3. Ask for help. Help is always available when you want. There is nothing wrong in seeking help and saying, ‘I don’t know, can you help?’. Getting help from an outsider (not friends or family) will mostly be beneficial and you may receive objective inputs based on the source & kind of help.

4. It’s always important the way you go about achieving the goal than the goal itself. Journey is important too, not only the destination. Challenge yourself. If it’s a simple one, it may not help you get out of your bed and push you to do more. Challenge yourself, make it adventurous. Learning will be enormous.

5. Don’t overwhelm yourself. Do one thing at a time. If you have many goals, each one may distract you from the other and drain you out. If the goal is important enough, you will sustain the energy and the momentum to achieve it – be it long term or short term.

6. Try different things. Experiment and explore…Keeps your options open. We don’t know what we don’t know. If we need clarity of what is best for us and that which makes us happy doing what we do, we need to explore and experiment. No two ways to achieve that. Try and understand various aspects of what we want to do. We can learn only through experiments and these explorations will lead us to what we want. And in the process – we learn, learn about ourselves.

7. Purpose vs. Passion - Each of these are unique and there is a clear difference. One cannot be confused with the other, which is what often happens. Passion is about what makes us feel good and bring in those positive emotions of Joy, Gratitude, Inspiration… et all. Purpose is the ‘why’ of what we do. The reason we do things for others – not for ourselves.

8. Avoid thoughts of failure and negative outcomes, these bring in unwanted stress and with it comes fear and self-doubt. You are more likely to achieve your goal if you are passionately tied up to the goal. And if you fail, it’s ok. You will have plenty of opportunities to learn from to be successful and importantly, be richer by experience.

9. Give it your 100%, own up to it. Avoid distractions – many things which will pull your attention away from your goal. Clarity makes everything easier, and it becomes a bigger challenge to gain clarity if you are distracted away from what you want. And when you get that, take complete responsibility, hold yourself accountable, own up to give your 100% and more.

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you” – Mary Angelou

The Cheshire Cat is viewed as the guiding spirit for Alice. The cat eventually leads her to her destination, the Garden. Where’s your Cheshire Cat? Do you have one?