Pathway to Clarity

Most of us, at points in our lives, fight mental chaos. In my life, as is the case with most of us, I have experienced many life transitions. My challenges were initiated by a variety of life transitions. Career choice, marital partner, becoming a father, loss of my chosen profession, reorientation toward a new career, again facing a career choice, spiritual transitions caused by increased life experiences, loss of loved ones, going to war, reentering  civilian life, physical constraints caused by age and life choices, financial obstacles,  and the inevitable effects of aging were life transitions for which I had little or no experience when they were encountered. Mental and emotional lack of firm clarity were always present and, in each case, I had to process the unknown pathway. What did I need to do in order to resolve these life transitions?

Creating clarity became the foundation for moving forward with each life transition though which success is met. I discovered, somewhat late in life, that clarity was the common denominator for solutions for each of the challenges that I confronted in life. Emotional reactions are inevitable when confronting a life transition. Very often, we see a “closed door” without having the experience to know where to look for an “open door”. My emotional response in each transition created levels of confusion and indecision in terms of defining how to proceed on the life transition pathway. I realized that I must recognize that my emotions were an obstacle that had to be overcome. Feeling out of control and overwhelmed is normal and expected. I learned to allow time for my emotions to be recognized and placed “in a box in my mental attic”.

Chaotic emotional responses to life transitions can be categorized. Are they fed by fear? Is uncertainty adding to the emotional chaos? Am I looking for a reason to have hope without having clarity for what hope may be based upon? In order to process these emotional variants, I realized that, in order to create clarity for forward movement through the life transition, I must list and weigh my options for entering and moving along the pathway for understanding and resolving this life transition.

When we take pen in hand and actually list the options that we think exist for moving forward, we often do not list options that are not apparent when making our options list. Before we settle on a list of options, we need to “brainstorm” with friends, read pertinent articles, conduct research through online resources, and take time to consider if we have actually considered all of our options. Clarity begins to occur when we create our options list. As we refine our options list, clarity is improved when we evaluate our options by listing the pros and cons for each option. When we select our best option, with the caveat that it may change when we implement it, we can make a plan for implementation that will provide more clarity about our journey down our life transition pathway.

Articulation is an expedient to attaining clarity. If we can articulate the problem, articulate the options, articulate why we chose an option and articulate our progress toward success, we create clarity through the process of turning thoughts into spoken words. The process of speaking requires the brain to focus on a set of words to verbally convey a thought. This focus adds depth to our ability to create clarity.

By recognizing the importance of clarity and by creating a process for creating clarity, we form brain “clarity muscle memory” that will serve us well as me progress through the life transitions that we will inevitably encounter. Please let us know how clarity creation works for you by posting your experiences on safeharborpathways.com.