Hey!

With my coffee and a water bottle on my right and my feather pen on my left, I’ve just started this beautiful day of Sunday. We are a couple of hours before the last F1 race of the season and I want to finish my work that I have to do for today before. I love to work and like you know, I’m a medical doctor, GP and MD, and I am in my early years of specialist career.

Every day I have contact with people and trying to better understand how the human is working. The body, the mind, the soul. And how all of that contributes to create a high performer and his daily achievements.

I exposed you today to one of our characteristics that we must have to become a master of it to better succeed in daily life, job or business, and this is CLARITY.

Don’t think about it? OK, I know, it’s not so vital, but it’s a genius element of success itself.

CLARITY–What it is?

It’s so simple, like its definition: the quality of being clear and easy to understand.

What we understood by clarity for a top performer?

More than that.

It’s the ability to think clearly and not to be confused.

Attention, don’t merge it with vision (of things).

What we need for?

Like a high performer in your job, own business or like freelance, clarity is the element that gives you the power to create THE MAP. Your roadway to succeed your project.

Could be used for short- or long-term targets. Or a mix. It’s up to you. And you’ll learn it to juggle with.

Clarity is the brother of Strategy. HOW TO do the map you need.

A coherent strategy it means to have: mission, purpose, stages, steps, hierarchy, risks, resources, the 1 step to do and flow strategy.

The Mission–is the reason we are doing everything that we want to do, where we want to go and in what parts of our work, we don’t want to do compromises. It’s a mix of motivational fact and personal identity.

The Purpose–practical, specific, measurable, and BIG one. REAL BIG one! A big purpose helps you to accede at you needed creativity to push beyond the limits of the reality you’re living.

Stages – or Milestones. Chapters of the journey. It’s important to have it. If you touch each milestone, you’re on the right way.

Steps–Practical and Actual actions that you will do to succeed. Establish first the FIRST steps, don’t exaggerate to go through all long this process until the end. You need flexibility as well.

Hierarchy–If you have multiple persons involved, you need a system of roles and responsibilities to serve the integrity of the project.

Risks–you need to define and assume risks. Take into consideration negative scenarios and eventual solutions.

Resources–what you have and how can serve you grow your chances of success.

Allies–make a list (mental or physic one) with your allies: different persons, specialists, mentors, facilitators who can help you go further, to repair and avoid blocking. Helping you to have Bigger Results.

FIRST STEP–the most important: What is the first practical action that I have to do.

Flow strategy–it’s about revisiting your strategy from time to time. It means to reconnect to your initial mission, review and remake the strategy if needed.

DISCLAIMER: Not offer more time to the strategy than the ACTION itself.

Strategy and Clarity. Suitable terms and nice concepts, BUT…

Don’t act without Clarity and Strategy.

BUT

Action is the most important thing. More important than all the rest.

Some people use the notions of strategy, or clarity plans to procrastinate and avoid action. Sometimes, acting unidirectional, violent, with full forces it’s preferred to strategy.

Fight like you have to escape from a dangerous place. Action. Remake a plan. Blow some clarity. Remake your strategy. Advance!

How to start a clarity map?

For some it can be very easy and playful, for some it’s a hell to do it.

Do not despair. A clarity map needs to calm you down. Understand the importance of it and start with a pen and paper.

Do some drafts.

Feel the joy or the pain. Face it. Be grateful to feel it.

Redo your drafts.

Establish the first step.

Ask for help. Ask for feedback.

If you have the luck to have somebody in your network that you know he loves to offer clarity, ask for help. The natural clarity lovers will feel full of delight in stepping inside next to you.

To have more CLARITY in your map of your own CLARITY I will show you one of the path that you can use. So, you have just to follow these steps.

PRACTICAL Steps

First, the best it is to make it by writing, yes with pen and paper. It’s really a good way. If not, on your computer it is ok also, but I really prefer pen and paper.

1.  How much time do you want to allow to do your new project?
2. 1 month, 3 or 6 or maybe an entire year. Write it down.
3. What it is the importance of this project?
4. Project of your life, a normal one in a series of project or you just give a try to your new idea.
5. What it is the moment of the day when you are the most productive?
6. In the morning, half day of late evening.
7. By the importance you accord to your project, what place in your “best performance time” does it will need?
8. Let me explain to you, if it is the project of your life, maybe it will need the moment of the day when you are the most productive. If it is just a simple idea which you would like to see if it works or not, maybe it can have its place at that moment of the day when you have a little less energy. It’s up to you!
9. Now that you see a bit how to prioritize your “efficiency time” let’s go back on the length of the project. Do you set a duration of 6 months for your project? OK. Let’s take 6 months. Establish the period you think you need for your goal.
10. Cut it in 6 different months and write THE STEPS to do and ACCOMPLISH every month. Like milestones. Like that for every single month you’ll have already an aim. You’ll have the big idea project for the period of 6 months and 1 milestone to pass through.
11. And take the first month. Only the first one for the moment. Break it in weeks. The first 4 weeks to touch your first milestone. So, you got to fix another 4 actions, 1 per week, to complete this first month path. YES, could seem a little bit difficult but just think about it. For example, you want to learn to play at piano. The first milestone for the first month will be just studying the musical notes. So, after, cut this action in 4 weeks, 1 action by week. Like that the first week you have to look only on the first notes, not all the music theory.
12. 1 week = 1 action. But if this action also seems you so big that you have not the mood to start with? Break it in days! It could be 7 days with 7 little actions like it could be only 5 days when you’ll do something for your project and you offer you the other 2 days just for rest.

Having a clarity map helps you to have the path also to discover the littlest action that will help you start the way to construct the “big one”, your enormous project.

And the most important do what you have to do. Do it! Do that thing, do that project!

Maybe you’ll be not motivated today. I understand and it’s legit to have days when you feel low on energy. These are not so often, anyway. So, you have the choice on all the other days to do your work, even if you’re not so motivated. Motivation comes when you are working.

Think about this, if only you’ll work on your project when you’re motivated, how many days per month you’ll be working? And if you only use these days, how much does your project advance?

At the same time, if you already have a clarity map, you have the path; you have just to follow it starting with a little action. And go on. Like that, you’ll push further every day (or closer) and I’m sure it will be much more than if you’re using the days when you’re motivated.

And another aspect that I want to bring you on the lights. You’ll say: today I will not do my “expected action” on my calendar because I have “only” 45 minutes. Ok, Ok, will be not enough, but will be much better that nothing. 1 is more than 0. Do you remember?

Ok, so to have some clarity to clarity.

First, DO your clarity map according to your project and its importance. Maybe it’s not the perfect one, but you have already an idea. A start. A first step or steps.

Do the action. Start. Just do it.

Some comments? Feel free! We are here to help you.