I often have trouble defining what clarity actually means in a practical sense. I ask myself, almost daily, what is clarity for me right now and if I’m honest I have trouble pinning it down. I decided to try a bit of deductive thinking to see if I could find myself a bit of clarity about clarity.

My initial idea was that clarity about seeing through the murkiness. This follows the definition of clarity as a quality if seeing or hearing clearly. Applying this definition of clarity to your life focuses on your current circumstances and environment, aspects that surround you but are not a part of you. In this frame clarity is concerned with visibility. In this frame gaining clarity would be a function of changing things that are not actually within your sphere of influence.

The picture story that comes to mind is of a pilot who is flying through fog and cloud. I’ve been on a plane flying through clouds on many an occasion and it always amazed me that it can be done. Being surrounded by cloud reduces visibility to the extent that the pilot can only rely in the instrument panels in the cockpit and communication with ground control to arrive safely at her destination. She can’t change the weather conditions to “gain clarity” because although the cloud is the problem, removing it is beyond her reality.

So clarity, as it applies to life, is not really about seeing the way through the mess and murk because that effectively separates you from holding the responsibility for your own path. The mess and murk will always be there. People will voice their doubts about what you’re trying to achieve, you’ll find yourself low on funds or lacking specific skills, your time will be divided between several priorities and all manner of urgencies will arise and demand your attention. Many of those things are the clouds that you can do nothing about.

Just when you think you have clarity something soon clouds your vision again and it fades away. That can be really frustrating, and if you’re anything like me you get stuck on trying to see clear and get mad at yourself for not being able to do so. Let’s shift that. Let’s stop chasing that kind of clarity and instead reshape our definition of what clarity is. Clarity is not seeing your plan laid out before you in all its glorious detail as if flying on a blue sky day. Clarity is committing to a goal, a destination, a vision. It’s being clear about what you want to achieve while you are equally detached from process. It’s setting the flight computer on the destination port, getting off the ground and making progress, letting go of concerns about the things you can’t change and taking action on the things you can do.

Let’s try a different picture.

Imagine yourself surrounded by a gentle mist. It’s your own mist and it’s a part of you. It allows you to feel insulated, hidden and safe by keeping dangers out of sight. To maintain that sense safety you have to stand still or move so slowly and tenuously that your mist isn’t disturbed. You’re so accustomed to this misty existence that you dare not move in case you trip over something, fall off the earth or encounter some other kind of pain. You can’t see far and you can’t move to quickly but at least you’re safe. You know that you don’t need to see far because where you are is familiar and safe.

With this picture in mind, start to see yourself stepping forward, one step after the other, real strides. What happens to your mist? It trails behind you. Now, you can see what’s ahead and you can fix your eye on your destination, the place you want to reach. If you stop moving your mist will regather around you and the distant view will once again be obscured. It hasn’t disappeared, it’s just obscured.

Clarity, then, isn’t something you get once and have from that point on. Clarity requires you to continue taking bold steps toward your destination so that your mist of comfort trails behind you instead of obscuring your view. As it does so your destination comes into view. Clarity is found in the daily work of focussing on your goals, of lifting your foot and swinging it forward into the next step. Clarity is something that comes from determined action, it allows you to fix your attention on your goal and focus on the essentials.

For me, it’s committing to sitting here at my computer and writing. It’s reminding myself daily that the reason I want to do this is to encourage you, to give you something from my heart to yours, something that will help you to create your own transformation. Lots of what I write is probably crap, most of it is just me thinking on paper… or screen, trying to figure things out as I go. I know that if I’m not willing to write some crap I’m never going to write great things. As I write my own path gets a little clearer, opportunities come into view and my life’s work starts to take shape.