This week I’ve been reflecting on the importance of getting clear. About your expectations, what you want from life and business and what’s really important to you. Without clarity, we can feel stuck and dissatisfied. We procrastinate and look for distractions. We know we want things to change but we don’t know where to start or what to do. We stay in relationships that don’t serve us, tolerate situations we know are unhealthy and give ourselves a hard time about everything. What does it mean to get clear? How do you provide clarity for others if you’re struggling to get clear yourself?
“Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.” Alan Watts
How do you get clear?
When we don’t have clarity we feel lost. When we don’t know what we want or need to do it affects everything. How we feel about ourselves, how others feel about us. It affects our relationships, our businesses and our health. As business owners, lack of clarity can have devastating consequences. If you lose your mojo, your passion for what you do, then your business will suffer. If it’s just you then things will stall. If you have a team, they will feel confused and demotivated.
Finding clarity brings calm, focus and motivation. But what’s interesting about clarity is that you don’t need it yourself in order to give it to others. As a leader in your business, focus on helping others get clear and you may even find that it helps you too! There are many areas where clarity can help – your health goals, your financial plan, your morning and evening routines, how to improve your relationships, how to approach a particular meeting, how your business is run, what boundaries you need and what your mission is in life… How do you help others to achieve clarity, and how do you get clear yourself?
Here are my Top 10 Tips:-
🌟 Create space. When we’re struggling to get clear about something we tend to avoid thinking about it. We procrastinate and allow ourselves to get distracted. Set aside some time to focus on the steps below.
🌟 Clear your head. Instead of feeling stuck, with the same thoughts going round and round in your head, get out in nature, go for a walk, do some exercise. Get yourself prepared for the clarity to come.
🌟 Reduce the pressure. Meditate, enjoy some quiet time. Stop giving yourself a hard time and putting yourself under pressure to fix things and instead let the clarity come easily and naturally.
🌟 Reflect. Hold the question ‘What do I want’ lightly and gently inside of you and let it percolate around your thoughts and emotions. Notice what comes up for you and how you feel.
🌟 Write. You may believe the issue or conflict is clear in your head, but writing down your thoughts and emotions will help you get them out of your head. Nothing needs to be structured or organised, just let everything pour out.
🌟 Ask ‘who’. Often we get very stuck on the HOW. Asking WHO instead can be powerful. Who do you know that might have a piece of information you need, who might have an interesting perspective?
🌟 Talk. Sharing your thoughts with others often helps. Hearing yourself explain how you’re feeling is different than having it circulating in your head and may provide some new perspectives and options.
🌟 Connect. As things start making sense, write them down. Connect the dots. Keep it simple. Look for patterns. Make lists and think about what actions you could take and who could help.
🌟 Take action. Most people think you need to be clear in order to take action but actually the reverse is just as true. Take the first step and then ask yourself how that feels. Learn from taking steps.
🌟 Repeat. Getting clear is not binary. It’s an evolution. Take action, reflect, decide. Repeat. Focus on helping others get clear. Delegate. That feeling that others are progressing on things creates a space for you to breathe.
It’s completely unrealistic to expect yourself to know everything or be able to do everything. Please be kind to yourself and if you’d like to talk through the choices you’re facing or any blockers in your business, let me know.
Lisa Zevi – April 2021