Whatever you’re trying to accomplish in life, clarity is paramount. Vague is the enemy of productivity. Ambiguous is the enemy of achievement. Lack of clarity is the enemy of success.
What’s the difference between these two desires?
- “I want to lose weight…”
- “I want to decrease my weight from 190 lbs. to 170 lbs. by December 1st. Right now, that gives me 29 weeks. If I lose a pound a week, I can reach 170 lbs. in 20 weeks with several weeks left in order to work at maintaining my new weight. In order to achieve a loss of one pound a week, I’ll…”
What’s the difference? Both 1 and 2 want the same outcome—however 1 is vague, and 2 is specific. Think about it—which are you more likely to succeed at?
Being consistent and staying on track is largely a result of being unambiguous about your life and purpose. Fortunately, getting clarity in your life is easy with a little daily effort.
“I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific.” —Lily Tomlin
Having clear goals is critical.
Your brain is capable of finding solutions if the objective is obvious. Staying on track is easy if the result is clear to you. Having a specific endpoint in mind will prevent you from ending up anywhere. And even if you do land in the right place by sheer luck, how would you ever be able to recreate that result?
Here’s how to set SMART goals. Clarity is vital for the achievement of success and for making dreams come true. Your dream or goal must be specific and clear, and should not be vague.
In general terms, the process of setting goals helps you choose where you want to go. By knowing precisely what you want to achieve directionally, you know where you have to concentrate your efforts and hopefully you will also quickly spot the distractions that would otherwise lure you from your course.
Lack of clarity, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.
Those who know what they want typically outperform those who don’t.
While it’s fun to daydream about being rich and successful, you have to know and define clearly what you want to get or to achieve. Clarity of goals and the purpose of your goals is important for every kind of success, for losing weight, getting a new car or travelling abroad. If you don’t know exactly what you want, how can you get it?
“In a world deluged by irrelevant information, clarity is power.” —Yuval Noah Harari
When there is clarity, you know what steps to take.
With clarity you focus on the goal, without wasting time or energy. Clarity is like focusing a strong source of light on your goal, so that you see it clearly.
When you have clarity of intention, the universe conspires to make it happen.
Clarity accounts for probably 80% of success and happiness.
Lack of clarity is probably more responsible for frustration and underachievement than any other single factor. People with clear, written goals, accomplish far more in a shorter period of time than people without them could ever imagine. This is true everywhere and under all circumstances.
“Any fool can make things bigger and more complex. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the direction of clarity.” —Albert Einstein
Begin with The End in Mind
Mental visualization is extremely important. Stephen Covey says that all things are created twice: first, the mental conceptualization and specific visualization and a second physical, actual creation.
Becoming your own creator means creating personal clarity in order to plan and visualize what you’re going to do and what you’re setting out to accomplish and then go out and creating it.
This is clearly evident in the process of building a home. You envision what your ideal home will be and you take that vision to the architect. Together you work through each specific, minute detail of the house until you have the perfect blueprint. That’s creation number one. Now you simply need to hand that blueprint over to a competent contractor, and your home will be created again with wood, brick, and mortar.
The world is too unpredictable these days to permit assumptions about outcomes: we need to take responsibility for moving things to clarity. If you don’t have clarity about where you’re going, you’ll probably end up somewhere else.
