Clarity drives performance, direction, happiness, and stillness. The best starting point as one thinks about life is becoming clear on what one wants, and why one wants it.
Most people in their 20s lack exactly that. They're doing things for loose, superficial reasons. They are not intentional about why they do things. Typically, it goes back to domestication from parents, society, the people around them. And this is not bad; it's an inevitable phase that everyone lives through as they mature in their character. James Hollis puts it best: this unintentional first half of life is an inevitable mistake.
So why does clarity matter? I believe one can achieve pretty much anything if you have clarity. And clarity touches upon many areas in one's life: clarity on why you want the thing you want, clarity on how you get there, clarity on your self-awareness, clarity on the thing you are working on. Clarity is what allows us to move from ambiguity and chaos to order and ease. And clarity is what drives outcomes, not just for one individually, but also for teams and organizations. So the pursuit of clarity is the most useful thing to spend time on.
But how to gain clarity? Unfortunately, it's not a one-size-fits-all answer (surprise). As we become more aware of the unique potential we want to bring into the world, the prepackaged models and ideas no longer work. We shouldn't reason by analogy, but by first principles. Luckily, there are methods that are proven to facilitate that process of gaining clarity in a useful way. To me, it's really only two things: meditation and journaling.
Daily meditation allows your thoughts, emotions, reactions, memories, experiences, and ideas to settle. It's like dust settling in a room slowly so things become visible. There's no right or wrong way to meditate. All that matters is practicing sitting with yourself—without distraction, in silence, and making room to notice what is going on. It can start with just 10 minutes a day, ideally in the morning and evening. By meditating regularly, you open yourself up to noticing and feeling yourself more, which ultimately allows you to learn about your unique potential and how you work. It's the absolute cornerstone for an intentional life with clarity. But it's important to approach it with the right intention; it's not a quick fix to get clarity, but a more subtle, long-term way to incrementally get closer to a clear, peaceful, meaningful life.
Journaling is what allows you to accelerate your conscious development alongside meditation. What worked best for me was reserving a couple of minutes after every morning and evening meditation to write. What applies to meditation applies to journaling: there's no right or wrong way. What matters is that you just sit down and put your thoughts, the things that are conscious, into words. This way, you make your awareness visible. Written word is a powerful lever in our world and life. Conscious journaling helps you slowly gain clarity and make deep, substantial progress.
The difficult piece is that all of this takes time. It's not something where you see tangible rewards after the first few days, so most people quit these habits shortly after starting. And this is proof of how poorly wired our brains have become. With those two practices, it's not an immediate reward loop that triggers dopamine and serotonin and makes you feel good, but rather a practice that shows results if you do it for many months, even years. And pursuing something without a clear reward is psychologically difficult. So the way I like to frame it is that it is an exercise. Just like you don't see immediate results the next day after you hit the gym, it's an exercise to prove to yourself what kind of person you are. And the same applies to meditation and journaling. It's exercise for your consciousness—an exercise that allows you to reach clarity to create the life you want.
The question of what you want out of life is not trivial. Perhaps it's the most important question every human should answer throughout their lifetime. Most never do it. Some do in their later adulthood, some very early. There's no way to force it. But acknowledging that there is this implicit question life puts in front of you is already the first step to finding an answer. And the practices of meditation and journaling are tools that help you find that answer.
To summarize:
- Clarity is what allows you to create the life you want.
- To gain clarity, you need to work on the question of what you want in life.
- To facilitate finding that answer (over many months and years), the daily practice of meditation and journaling are the best tools.
Start small. Just one minute of meditation, or one word journaled. What matters is that you show up every day, no matter how little. And this way, over time, everything will fall into place, and you will be living your best life fueled by your uniqueness.