When it comes to your business and your life, are you clear on where you're going?
You may read all the time about the importance of clarity when it comes to achieving goals in your business and life. After all, if you're on a road trip, having a map certainly comes in handy. While our lives are certainly unpredictable and even the best-laid plans can easily be derailed by the universe, it is still helpful to have a clear road-map for our businesses and lives. Otherwise, we're wandering aimless, and we may never really get to where it is we most want to go.
It is one thing to acknowledge the need for clarity, and quite another to actually get clear on what we want for our lives and our businesses. This is why in this article I am going to teach you how to create clarity through two of the most powerful techniques in the change-your-life toolbox: Visualization and verbalizing.
1) Visualization
Visualization is a very transformative way to create clarity for yourself. If you were raised to believe daydreaming is bad, think again. Visualization is powerful. Ask any successful athlete; chances are they include a strong visualization practice in the days leading up to a big race or game.
Most of the time, we stay at surface level, distracted by our every day thoughts, our to-dos, our Facebooks, our families, our bodies, our lunches and more. We exist separate and disconnected from our core self - our heart, values, and joy. When we live in a perpetual state of distraction, it is difficult for us to create clarity at all.
When we stay separate from our heart, we are separate from the universal wisdom or higher power that we have access to within. We lose touch with who we are and our soul's purpose. Accessing our internal guidance through visualization is essential to reconnecting to ourselves, and to create the clarity we need to live a fulfilling life.
What will you visualize for yourself? Start with the idea of a possible future you could build for yourself. What does it look like? What does it smell like? What does it feel like? Who is with you? What takes place here? Press yourself into the details. Follow them and see where they lead.
Walk yourself down this path of visualization as it would look over the span of three months. Then six months. Then a year. Then two years. Then five years. Try to imagine how it would all play out and then use those discoveries to create the clarity you have been seeking. There are no right and wrong revelations in visualization; it's all about how it feels to you. Create clarity for yourself now through visualization and allow it all to reveal itself to you.
2) Verbalizing
I love meditation. It is my favorite tool for staying in touch with a higher power. It gives me time and clarity to know what I want and what I should do. And guess what? It also prepares me to do the next best thing - verbalizing my thoughts to someone close to me.
There is something refreshing and nurturing about talking to someone. We all want to feel connected. You have already recognized your own feelings and ideas. But it just feels good to say them out loud. It can also be scary. If you have come to realize through visualization that your purpose is actually to quit your job and start your own business as a life coach, it can be frightening the first time you share this with someone out loud. The act of saying it will allow you to feel the words resonate in your body, to clarify the rightness of your decision. Stepping into the fear of sharing what's most true to your heart is a vulnerable act, and when we are vulnerable, we are our most pure selves.
Sharing your thoughts with someone lets you hear yourself and see things more clearly. Oftentimes, the person with whom you've shared then sheds even more light on your thoughts and ideas. Don't hesitate to ask others for advice. This is something my father taught me at an early age. People love it when you come to them. They feel flattered and special when you talk about even your tiniest or most candid idea.
When you want to find clarity, sit with a buddy over tea or green juice. Lay everything out on the table. Don't spare even the most absurd idea of yours. Talk. Connect. Collaborate. Listen.
There are some who find it difficult to talk. Don't be afraid to bare it all when you talk your way to clarity. No judgment! Just throw everything out in the open. We have to know what our priorities are in order to be in their flow. Sometimes, it takes talking these through with someone for the priorities and ideas to come out.
You also need to listen to your own thoughts. This will allow you to see a new point of view. Sometimes, the answers are just there all along. When we start talking, we can discover the direction we need to take.
It won't always be easy. Sometimes it's scary to share our thoughts and ideas.
Sometimes you can get overwhelmed with a lot of ideas when you talk. But verbalizing your thoughts is another valuable way of achieving clarity. Work it out. If it fails, keep on going. It doesn't have to be perfect! You just have to keep moving forward.
Whether it is visualizing or verbalizing, or using both techniques, I encourage you to find clarity and mark out the signposts on the path. When we know where we're going, we're much more able to recognize when we're there. Be open to the ways of the universe and hold your plans loosely, but keep your eye on your clear vision and you are sure to reach it.
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