The Clarity Field Guide: The Answers No One Else Can Give You

“If I was to sum up the single biggest mistake of senior leadership in the Information Age, it’s a lack of reflection. Solitude allows you to reflect while others are reacting. We need solitude to refocus on prospective decision-making, rather than just reacting to problems as they arise.”

—James Mattis, 4-star Marine Corps General and Former Secretary of Defense

Our bodies are wired for rest, it's baked into our DNA. Rest means taking a break from the daily grind to replenish your mind, body, and spirit. So why do we continue to burn the candle at both ends? How come we don’t give ourselves permission to rest? Why do we look down on people for resting? These questions will elicit many varied responses that would lead to a healthy debate. But there is no debating that rest is required for a healthy, happy, productive, and fulfilling life. 

In my research on elite performers across business, sports, religion, science, art, and politics, I found a common practice they all perform with consistency: journaling. Marcus Aurelius, the last great Roman Emperor, spent hours in reflection and solitude and his works are collected in his journal called Meditations. Albert Einstein kept a travel diary, Madam Curie’s notebooks are so radioactive they have to be stored in lead-lined boxes, Mark Twain, Lewis and Clark, Charles Darwin, Anne Frank, Frida Kahlo, Michael Phelps, Serena Williams, Oprah, Ryan Holiday, Thomas Jefferson, Dr. Benjamin Hardy, Aristotle Onassis, Sir Richard Branson and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. They all made time to rest their bodies and minds in order to reflect, recharge, and recommit.

Getting started can be intimidating. I recently attended 3 days of intense, powerful leadership training with Rooftop Leadership and one of the guest speakers was author Steven Pressfield who wrote The Legend of Bagger Vance (became a movie with Will Smith and Matt Damon), Turning Pro and The War of Art. He shared with us that even as a successful author and writer, he still gets nervous when he starts a new project. In his book the War of Art, he calls it resistance, the negative energy that seeps into your mind and causes self-doubt. When you grab a pen and legal pad or open a new document on your computer, the pages are blank. Their staring back at you telling you now’s not a good time to write; go walk the dog, cut the grass, or get groceries, do anything but write. 

To overcome resistance, you have to shift your mindset from Amateur to Professional. Amateurs only work when they want to, they consider it a hobby. Professionals on the other hand do the work regardless if there inspired or not. Pressfield says the main thing to do, to overcome resistance, is to sit down and do the work. Give yourself permission to let go and let the world's natural forces intercede. I’ve personally struggled with the discipline of writing for many years. I’d have a flash of inspiration that would yield a few paragraphs but then I’d let myself get distracted and months would go by before I returned to the work if I returned at all (total amateur). How I’m able to overcome resistance now is to simply follow his advice: sit down and do the work, be a Pro! I have a daily morning routine that I call my “battle rhythm” and it includes quiet reflection in solitude, reading, exercise, and then 1hr for writing. Some days I don’t have much to write, others I can’t stop. Since I don’t really have article deadlines to meet, I don’t put any unnecessary pressure on myself to write so many words each time I sit down to do the work. I simply take 3 deep belly-to-spine breaths, which lowers my Cortisol (resistance) and open my mind up to the world's natural forces and begin to type. 

As an EOS Implementer, one of the tools I teach senior leadership teams is called “The Clarity Break?”. The tools are a blank legal pad and pen and the purpose is to schedule time on your calendar for reflection. A simple but extremely powerful tool. Some of my clients struggle with taking clarity breaks while others are disciplined and dedicated to them. What I found was that those clients who struggle with Clarity Breaks? have the same struggles I had as I mentioned previously. You make a few attempts to sit quietly, gather your thoughts, and begin to write but ultimately you get distracted and move on to other things. Resistance is always going to be there. So, together with my Tractionville Co-host and fellow EOS Implementer Benj Miller, we set out to build a tool to help people like ourselves who want to take Clarity Breaks? but don’t know how to begin or how to stick to the discipline.

The Clarity Field Guide? is designed to help owners, executives, leaders, and managers build a consistent Clarity Break? into their schedules and spend time reflecting on their business. The guide breaks the entrepreneur’s journey into 4 categories we call the Creator’s Cycle?:

• Spring: Planning
• Summer: Executing
• Autumn: The Doldrums
• Winter: Cocooning

To begin your Clarity Break?, simply ask yourself “How do I feel?” then open the Clarity Field Guide? and read the descriptions in the Creators Cycle? to identify which season you’re in. Once you know the season, you open that chapter and read the list of questions that are directly related to how your feeling. Pick 1 or 2 questions that challenge, inspire, or maybe even scare you and begin to write your answers on the page. That’s it, now your journaling! I encourage you to start using the Clarity Field Guide? once per week for 60 minutes. Find a place, preferably off-site and away from work so that you’re not distracted. Whether it's 60 minutes once per week, bi-weekly, or once a month, find whatever cadence works for you and put it on your calendar, and hit repeat so that it posts for eternity. Make sure you protect your time for Clarity Breaks?, schedule calls, emails, meetings around your scheduled break. 

 Here are 5 benefits of spending time in quiet reflection:

1. Keeps your brain in great shape
2. Boosts memory and comprehension
3. Improved cognitive processing
4. Relieves stress and anxiety
5. Enhances your sense of well-being

And remember, to be a Pro like Steven Pressfield and the others, it starts with doing the work. So grab a pen and a blank legal pad or pick up The Clarity Field Guide? and begin your journey to clarity in your life and business!