It’s another one of those words that we say and hear all the time but how often do we take a moment to get clarity about clarity and understand what it really means?
The dictionary definition of clarity is:
- the quality of being coherent and intelligible
- the quality of transparency or purity
It also says: If you bring clarity to a situation, you help people see what really happened by clearing up misunderstandings or giving explanations.
With a lack of clarity about where you are headed, what you want to do or what decision you want to make, you’re likely to feel unmotivated or even frustrated because you just don’t know where to start, things feel foggy because you can’t see clearly.
Clarity for me, in Enrichment Coaching, is helping the client to think through things like challenges, situations and issues that they are struggling to make sense of themselves. Maybe they are stuck at a crossroads in their personal or professional life, maybe they just can’t see a solution to a problem they are facing and that’s stopping them from making a decision or taking the next step, maybe their confidence is low they are stuck in their comfort zone, and they can’t see a way through.
DIFFERENT TYPES OF CLARITY
Emotional clarity refers to the extent to which you know, understand and are clear about which emotions you are feeling and why you are feeling them.
Poor emotional clarity results in feeling overwhelmed or upset rather than feeling more specific emotions such as frustration or sadness
Ways to manage your emotional clarity could include:
- Acknowledge what emotions you are feeling (emotions wheel) by acknowledging it you immediately take away some of it’s power over you
- Take a deep breath and accept those emotions are all ok
- Give yourself some time to process them and work through them
Mental clarity means having a focused and clear state of mind. When you have mental clarity, your mind isn’t clouded with indecision, what-ifs, overwhelm or worry. You have a sense of purpose; you know where you are heading.
GETTING CLARITY
Whatever it is, the unbiased, non-judgemental approach of coaching means that through questioning I am able to help the client see things differently, from a different perspective or with clarity – things become much clearer about the action they need to take. It plays an important part in setting and being intentional about what you want to achieve.
Of course, clarity doesn’t always come instantly. Together we might need do a bit of exploring and understanding to help us move towards clarity for you. Understanding what you don’t want can drive out what you do and by being clear about what’s important and what matters to you, you can leave everything else behind.
When working with clients to get clarity I often hear them say “I don’t know” and I have a simple rule about that. It’s banned! You can’t say it, because once you’ve told your unconscious brain that you don’t know you won’t know. Ask yourself ‘what do you know about what you say you don’t know?’ You might just surprise yourself.
I’m also a big believer in ‘control the controllables’, don’t waste valuable time and energy on things that you can’t control, it only adds to the confusion and the lack of clarity you are feeling. Instead spend your time in the space where you can have influence over what happens.
CLARITY & IT’S LINK WITH CONFIDENCE
Get clarity about your own confidence by understanding what confidence means to you because it means different things to different people. Take a moment to determine what your confidence is – when were you most confident, where were you, how did you feel, what was happening and what can you take from that situation into situations where you feel less confident.
If we are to enrich our confidence, (building on the levels of confidence we already have), then having clarity can really help with how confident you feel. This is b
ecause confidence comes with having a plan, making decisions and feeling in control, being knowledgeable about what’s happening where you are heading & then taking action to make it happen.
My ‘Confidence is like a muscle’ blog explains more about getting clarity in relation to confidence.
MY 5 TOP TIPS FOR GETTING CLARITY
- Make a list of what’s important to you
This is not the things that are ‘maybe’s’ or a little bit important but ‘absolute must’s’ what are the things you feel really passionate about, what are you really good at, where do you strengths lie, what do you love doing and why?
- Do one thing at a time
Don’t try and multi-task it only adds to confusion and the feeling of brain fog. Focus your attention on the task that is in front of you, complete it and move on to the next action.
- Write it down
If you have lots going on in your head, clear it out, write everything down. You can then prioritise and make a start.
- Get rid of distractions
Go somewhere quiet, turn of those notifications, they are distractions you don’t need. For every distraction you need 23 minutes to get back to where you were, so it’s going to take you longer to get to clarity if you keep being distracted
- Challenge your what if’s
What if’s stop us from having clarity because we listen to them and they stop us from taking action, challenge yourself with what is instead
AND FINALLY…
If you feel that you can’t reach the clarity you need or want then get in touch and let’s chat about how coaching would work for you. Book a free 30 min chat with me.
Finally, if you want to experience coaching without commitment to get a small piece of clarity on your way forward then I offer a clarity power hour for £125, get in touch if you’d like more details.
