Bifocal Clarity

Over the last few days I’ve been completely absorbed in some work - I’ve been fiddling around in a document whenever I find a few spare minutes, even in my off hours. ? As we were winding down yesterday evening, my husband casually asked me how my day was.? I responded enthusiastically that it was a great day and that I was working on something exciting. ? Interested, he asked me to tell him more.?

Suddenly I wasn’t sure how to explain it. I realized that while I could tell him exactly what I was spending my time on, I didn’t know how to describe the bigger picture goal that I was trying to achieve.? I knew what I was doing, but not why I was doing it.?

With my clients, I often use the term bifocal clarity to explain that we need two types of clarity to get high-value work done.? We need short-distance clarity - one very concrete next step that is so well-defined that it feels like low-hanging fruit - something that can easily compete with all of the other urgent tasks on our checklist. And we need long-distance clarity - a vision for where we want to be in the future and the impact we want to create.??

Most of the time, the lack of long-distance clarity leads us to feel stuck in the short-term, because we don’t even know where to start. ? But at other times it leads us to operate on auto-pilot.? We get carried away on something we really enjoy, or simply do really well, and while it serves us in the moment, we emerge without a vision, and never realize its greater impact.?

When I started today much less enthusiastic about the work, I knew that my first to-do was to generate long-distance clarity.? Some journaling, and a chat with a coach colleague did the trick.??

Every what needs a why.?

Warm Regards,

Divya