Our world is complicated enough as it is.
Especially in modern times, where there are just so many choices of where to spend your time, what to do, and where to put your attention on.
Or rather, what pulls for your attention.
It’s gotten so bad that I’ve experienced a day where I spent all my waking hours on Facebook.
What did I get out of that? Nothing, albeit a now lopsided view of the world and my current surroundings thanks to whatever sentiments people appearing on my feed have.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. How do you make sense of your world, despite all the overload of information and data?
What is clear?
This question, I learned from one of my mentors, Coach Pia, who has created The Clarity Framework to help people precisely in these situations.
To be able to begin to make sense, you have to first identify what footing you have.
If you don’t know where you stand, how can you hope to realistically get to where you want to go?
Making sense of confusion and getting clear begins with this – to recognize and realize all the observations and surety that you have in the moment.
How I do it is when I’m faced with a situation, and I recognize the triggers that would cause me to freak out, I keep calm, and I recount what is clear to me.
Even the smallest of things is a start. It doesn’t have to be big.
Start small, and keep on going.
Venturing into a freelance world, post-corporate, I wasn’t entirely sure that I would survive, or where my next paycheck would be coming from.
But what was clear to me was that I had skills that I could market, to pay the bills.
Even just the first realization, that it was clear to me that there were things that weren’t clear, already was big clarity.
Because it meant I could make the choice to find out, or to ignore entirely, instead of worrying and wasting time, energy, and resources.
Even at the most simplest level, what is clear?
How do I feel about this?
Because we try to wrestle everything with logic, but when the emotional push and pull comes, we lose control.
I regret the many times I’ve lost my cool, causing physical and emotional damage to my most important things, and my most important relationships.
By asking this question, I was trying to make sense of what I was feeling, and by doing that, showing me that I am not my feelings, and that I can make a conscious choice of what to do, despite what feelings I may have.
We are not our feelings. We are not our perceptions, nor our observations. What we currently see, feel, believe, are reflections of our perceptions, and our experiences.
I can always make a choice, different from everything else.
But we usually don’t because we feel we don’t have a choice. That our decisions are based on our feelings, our perceptions of the moment.
Never knowing that there could have been a better way, if we had calmed down, and separated ourselves from what we’ve been feeling.
This isn’t to say that we should be robots.
This is about making a choice if the feeling we have would hinder us from achieving what we want – such as fear, anger, laziness, cowardice, stubbornness, amongst many others.
How do I feel about my life right now?
What do I do to move forward?
I ask myself this question, and surprisingly, I always end up with an answer. I may not like what I get, but it’s something that answers the question at hand.
And here lies the truth of this question.
I can think up of many different ways to move me forward, but at this moment, what single thing do I need to do to move me forward?
And why aren’t I doing anything about it?
It’s easy to come up with answers and thoughts. The real challenge is taking action and implementing those answers.
Because if everything stays in our head, in our imagination, then our real life would not progress.
It is action that will make things happen in our life, and by taking action, we dispel the confusion.
Because we’re trying new things and learning what works and doesn’t work.
Because we’re learning what things are and are not.
Because I’m finding out if I like this, and is this something that I want to commit to?
What makes sense to me?
Right now, what’s clear for you, in your life? Please share in the comments below!
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