There are moments when we don’t know what to do anymore. We get stuck and there seems no be no way out of our situation. In those moments, knowing how to generate more clarity is vital.
The clarity you have over your situation is deeply connected to your thoughts, feelings, and actions.
To be able to generate more clarity, you need to learn how to calm down your feelings, create new thoughts, and start some practical actions. When you do this, your mind becomes focused and you become capable of seeing things that, at first (when the clarity is lacking), seemed to be hidden from you.
Therefore, here are three methods to help you generate more clarity.
1. Introspection
What is introspection and how is it beneficial when we need to generate more clarity?
Introspection is an internal process that helps you reach a new perspective. It can be done alone or it can be guided by something external.
When it comes to introspection, it can be done in many ways. Here are some of them:
Ask yourself questions
In order to reach new perspectives and have access to new and fresh information, you need to ask yourself questions that are not comfortable.
The more challenging the questions are, the better.
For example, simply asking yourself ‘Why am not feeling good?’ may help you better understand your current situation. But if you want to truly dig deep inside your core, maybe try to find for challenging questions, like ‘What makes me usually feel good and why is that currently missing from my life?’.
If you need a list of powerful questions, click here. You’ll find a list of 120 questions that will help you better understand yourself.
Meditate
When it comes to meditation, my process is a bit different than what society recommends.
When I meditate, I deliberately choose a thought, and then I ask questions around that thought – as many questions as I can.
The better I understand my thinking, the more clarity I can generate.
Check this article on meditation: Your morning meditation should include thoughts and thinking.
Get external help
While the above-suggested list of questions can be really helpful, there are moments when someone else can help you better than you can help yourself.
The truth is, when it comes to limiting beliefs, those that are really powerful are really hard to spot and that’s what makes it hard to ask questions related to them.
If you believe something should be in a certain way and that way is the only way, then it will be so difficult (almost impossible) for you to become aware of it on your own and challenge your belief.
In those moments, getting external help is needed.
In case you get into such a situation and need external help, there are three directions you can choose from:
- Getting a therapist: it will focus on your past and present problems and help you understand the roots of your problems;
- Getting a mentor: it will focus on your present situation and future goals and help you achieve your goals through the experience and skills the mentor already has;
- Getting a coach: it will focus on your present situation and future goals and help you unlock your potential by asking questions that generate awareness and responsibility.
2. Create a plan
The problem is not lacking clarity but not having a visual point in the near future that you want to go to.
Creating yourself a plan provides you exactly that: a visual point in the near future that can guide you towards it. The more specific the visual point is, the more clarity you’ll have.
Therefore, how do you create a plan?
- First, you start by setting a deadline
When you set yourself a deadline, you generate more clarity over the time you have available.
This is one of the most important parts of what we call clarity. If we don’t know for how long we’ll have to do something, we’ll probably stop doing it along the way.
It can be for three weeks, six months, or two years. The length should be directly connected to what you want to do, as it wouldn’t be realistic to set a two-week goal for writing a 500-page book or a two-year goal for training for a half-marathon.
- Second, divide the remaining time into smaller units
Let’s say you set yourself a deadline that’s going to be 2 months from now.
If that’s the case, just divide the available time into smaller units. So, instead of saying you’ll have available 2 months, say that you’ll have available 8 weeks.
In case you have one year left, then divide the year into 12 months.
- Third, set one specific action for each unit
After you know how many units you have left until your deadline, it’s important to set one specific action for each unit.
If you have 8 weeks left, then you have to set 8 action steps.
To do this, take a step back, close your eyes, and visualize the moment of your deadline. Visualize that you’ve successfully achieved your goal and your plan is accomplished. Then, try to understand the required actions for you to get there and split them into 8 specific action steps.
- Fourth, put into practice
In order to generate more clarity, practice is needed and is really valuable.
When you put into practice, you end up discovering new information that will enhance your clarity and help you generate even more clarity.
Whatever your plan is, make sure you put into practice your action steps.
3. Share your situation
Sharing your situation with someone should be simple.
But in order to generate more clarity, there are two things you need to keep in mind. Otherwise, you’ll just share your situation and get nowhere.
- First, focus on what you feel
While you speak and after you speak, try to understand your feelings about your situation. What is actually happening behind your words? What are the things that are beyond your words that you can’t really describe?
- Second, don’t ask for advice
In order to be able to generate more clarity from sharing your situation, make sure the person who’s listening is just listening.
Before sharing your situation, just make sure you say something like ‘I’m going to share something with you and I’d appreciate it if you could listen and nothing more. I don’t want any advice; I just want you to listen. And after I’m done talking, I’d appreciate it even more if we can have 30 seconds of silence.’
The silence at the end of your moment of sharing is important because it helps you better understand what’s going on beyond words.
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Share the optimism
Hello! ♥ This is David The Optimist
David believes that reaching dreams has a lot to do with the way we set goals and how well they are connected to our lifestyles, no matter how big the obstacles may be.
Interested in the human potential and its capacity of changing its perspectives, David can help you make a change in your life, or transform your passion into a business.
