The Superpowers of Clarity: Transformation

We have one rule in our house these days: We don’t talk about Bruno. Sing about Bruno? That’s ok. Just don’t talk about him. 

Unless you live under a rock or, more likely, don’t have kids, you have seen Disney’s recent hit musical, “Encanto.” And if you own an Alexa like us, you have probably heard the soundtrack more times than you’d like to admit. 

If you are one of those who haven’t seen it and plan to do so, stop reading this, go watch it and come back and finish reading. I’ll wait. If you haven’t seen it and don’t care to, please continue reading. 

(Two hours later.)

Encanto tells the story of the Madrigal family who lives in a magically protected village in the mountains of rural Columbia.  Oh, and they live in a sentient house named Casita which takes the smart home concept to a whole new level. Each of the members of this large multi-generational family receives a unique magical power at the age of 5 to be used to serve the village community. That is, everyone but our overlooked protagonist Mirabel. 

The story’s conflict unfolds once Mirabel notices that their magical house, Casita, is falling apart and her siblings’ magical powers are weakening. The realization that the whole family and village are at stake sets Mirabel on a journey to discover why everything is falling apart and prevent the impending doom.

Much to no movie-goers surprise, Mirabel is successful at discovering the root cause of the events, avoiding the destruction of their village, and seeing the her dysfunctional family transformed. 

As in this story, and almost every other story on Disney Plus, transformation is always preceded by discovery. This is true of Mirabel, Neo, Superman, Truman of the Truman Show, a million other protagonists, and last but not least, us. 

Think of a season of your life when you experienced a “growth spurt” in your character, maturity, skill level, etc… If you look hard enough you will be able to identify the preceding discovery (i.e. clarity) that set it in motion. 

Transformation. This is the final and ultimate superpower of clarity. Without clarity, we are unable to experience meaningful, healthy transformation. 

Clarity-Creating Questions:

Here are some clarity-creating questions to think on, journal about, or discuss with a trusted friend: 

1. Where in your life are you most wanting to experience meaningful, healthy transformation?
2. How much clarity do you have regarding what it will take to reach it? 
3. What clarity do you need to reach it? 
4. How can you go about finding that clarity? 

The 10 Superpowers of Clarity: Acceleration

Ready for a refresher on some 5th-grade physics? Yes? Great! I hoped so!

Up until the 1500s, it was commonly believed that heavier objects fell through the air with faster acceleration than lighter objects. Seems to make sense, right? This explained why when a feather and a stone were dropped from equal heights the stone hit the ground first. 

When Galileo broke onto the scene he made a radical proposition. A proposition that led to his inclusion in one of the greatest rock songs of all time. (Extra credit for those who can name the song.)  Back to the radical proposition. Galileo proposed that the weight of an object did not affect the speed with which it fell. But if that were true why did the feather always come in last place behind the stone?

Galileo identified that it wasn’t the weight of the object that affected acceleration but it was the presence of a particular invisible resistance on the falling object: air resistance. By identifying the source of resistance and removing it from the equation (i.e. creating a vacuum) he was able to prove his theory. 

There are times I feel like that feather. Doing everything I can to reach maximum acceleration in the direction of my goal but to no avail. Meanwhile, it seems like a million stones are racing past me at light speed. I have often found that the key to acceleration, as Galileo discovered, is in clarifying the invisible forces pushing against you and how to eliminate them.  

When it comes to accelerating towards particular desired outcomes resistance can take many forms. It can be internal resistance as in a lack of the required knowledge, self-doubt, fear of failure, and other forms of “stinkin’ thinkin’.” Resistance can be external as well as in a lack of finances, lack of team unity, lack of support, etc… 

Regardless of its form, the key is identifying it. Once identified, and only then, can we work on eliminating it from our environment. 

Clarity-Creating Questions. 

Here are some clarity-creating questions to think on, journal about, or discuss with a trusted friend: 

1. What is one area of life, family, work, etc… where you want to see an acceleration towards a particular goal?
2. What would acceleration do for you?
3. What are some of the internal and external forces of resistance? 
4. After answering #3, reach down even deeper and answer it again.
5. What would it take to eliminate the biggest cause of resistance? 
6. What’s 1 step you could take this week towards eliminating it and increasing your acceleration?

The 10 Superpowers of Clarity: Movement

Apologies to my spontaneous friends, but I am a planner. During the work week, I plan every single hour of the day. On weekends and vacations, I let up a bit but the more planned out things are the happier a camper I am. I pretty much plan out everything in my life. That is, except for date night. 

The typical date night goes like this: 15 minutes before Natalie and I leave the house she asks, “So, where are we going tonight?” My usual reply is, “I have no idea. Let’s just get our bodies in the car, start driving, and then figure it out.” Why this shift in personality this one night of the week? 

Children. That’s why. My four wonderful children. 

The biggest challenge of date night, the Mt. Everest, is not figuring out where we’re going but successfully getting out of the house! Getting kids fed, giving final instructions and reminders, putting out the situation that inevitably combusts soon as we head for the door requires a Herculean amount of focus and energy. My primary goal on date night is to make it out of the house, into the car, far enough away from the house (so we can’t hear the screams), and then figure out where we are going. To sum it up, my goal is to get moving.

I find that simply “getting moving” can be incredibly difficult when it comes to things like getting out of bed, creating new routines, starting new projects, etc… Whether it’s because inertia has set in, fear of failure, or the paralysis of analysis, going from 0 to anything can be a challenge.   

0 to Anything. That could be the title of a Vin Diesel movie.

Where was I? Oh yeah…

The wonderful thing is that, just like on date night, if we can just start moving we can easily tweak our direction to make sure we get to where we are wanting to go. A modern proverb I often think of is “you can’t steer a parked car.” Put another way, the car driving in the wrong direction is oftentimes better than the car parked in the right one.  

Sometimes, when we feel stuck, the best solution is to simply get moving. Or, sometimes the best solution is to act on the little clarity we do have instead of waiting for the clarity we don’t have. 

In the case of my date night, I may not know where I’m taking my wife but I do know one thing: we’re not staying at the house. That’s enough clarity to head to the car and get moving. 

Clarity leads to movement. But a little bit can go a long way. 

Clarity-Creating Questions.

Here are some clarity-creating questions to think on, journal about, or discuss with a trusted friend: 

1. Where are you stuck?
2. What’s keeping you from getting moving?
3. What clarity do you have?
4. What’s one way you can leverage that clarity to get moving this week?

The 10 Superpowers of Clarity: Control

Get this. In the 1920s, only two of the 20 comic strips in the funny pages stressed the main character’s power. The two powerful protagonists at that time were Tarzan and Buck Rogers. In the 1930s, however, the number rose to 12 out of 21. Among the 10 new mighty leads of the 30s were the Lone Ranger, Dick Tracy, and…wait for it…Superman.  

What explanation do we have for this jump in powerful lead characters? 

The late Stephen Sales, a psychology professor at Carnegie-Mellon University, concluded in the 1970s that the reason was directly linked to the Great Depression. More specifically, he deduced that this trend was a reflection of the fact that during times of uncertainty (i.e. the Great Depression) people grasp for a sense of control. A person might not have known how they were to feed their family that month. But reading about a hero who was “faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!” vicariously gave them something they were lacking: a sense of power and control. 

Having a sense of control is essential to our human experience. Feeling out of control is, at the least, an unsettling feeling. At its worst, a lack of control makes us feel vulnerable, stuck, helpless, angry, sad, victimized, and a bunch of other unpleasant things. When we do have a sense of control we feel powerful, hopeful, safe. 

Much of life is out of our control and we are tricking ourselves if we believe otherwise. However, despite the huge amount of things we can’t control in life there is also a huge amount of things we can control. When we are only most aware of the things we can’t control, life becomes a lot less fun. This is why clarifying the areas where we do have control is so essential to thriving in life, work, and our relationships. 

Clarity-Creating Questions.

Here are some clarity-creating questions to think on, journal about, or discuss with a trusted friend: 

1. What area of your life would you like to have a greater sense of control in?
2. What are the specific things that make you feel out of control?
3. What would a greater sense of control do for you?
4. Force yourself to list 10 areas within this larger area where you do have control. 

The 10 Superpowers of Clarity: Options

With the skill of a surgeon, my 5-year-old leaned a rake in one of the vertical tracks of our garage door one summer.  After bringing his bike into the garage, one of my other sons dutifully tried to close said garage door.  A game of chicken between the rake and the door ensued. Unfortunately for my wallet, the final score was: Rake – 1, Garage Door – 0.  

Not only did the rake win, but it also dominated the garage door. The door became unhinged from its tracks, and due to the force of the motor, the door arm ripped itself from the door. Oh, and several of the panels ended up being completely bent out of shape. The result was an opening big enough for the average-sized human or a large beast to enter our garage. Did I mention money was tight those days because I had no income? I was a bit stressed. To say the least. 

It only took a few minutes of attempting to fix it before realizing I was out of my league. So, I did the responsible, yet painful, thing of calling the professionals. I was expecting to drop somewhere in the neighborhood of $1500 for a new garage door. Boy was I thankful for Will and his garage door padawan. 

Will and his apprentice promptly arrived. He explained to me that, due to the shortage of every single thing in our COVID-19 world, it would cost twice as much as normal to replace the garage door. Then he offered me something I was not expecting: options. 

He said for $100 he and his young assistant could reattach the garage door arm (i.e. the “hockey stick”) to the garage door, hammer out the dents in the panels, and put it back on track. Or, for several thousands of dollars, I could overpay him for a brand new garage door. For obvious reasons, I went the cheaper route. When they completed the job, I couldn’t believe that it functioned just as well and looked almost as good as it did before my son’s modification. And for just $100!

Will gave me something valuable that day that I didn’t know I had: options. Before he arrived I was convinced that there was only one way forward: buying a new door. 

When it comes to finding solutions to our problems or discovering new opportunities to capitalize on, options are aplenty. The only problem is we don’t always know what they are. This not-knowing can lead us to make subpar decisions. Had Will chosen not to divulge my options I would either still have a massive opening in my garage door or be a few thousand dollars poorer.

Clarity, in the form of new knowledge or a broader perspective, can help us discover what some of the unknown options are and make better, and less costly, decisions.

Clarity-Creating Questions.

1. What’s one area in your life or leadership where you feel low on options? 
2. What would having multiple options do for you?
3. Who could you discuss your situation with this week to help you gain some new insights and, possibly, some new options?

The 10 Superpowers of Clarity: Unity

A few years ago while living in Watertown, MA, my twelve-year-old son hatched a brilliant plan to profit from the massive amounts of snow falling from the sky. He asked my wife and me if he and his 10-year-old brother could go around the neighborhood and offer to clear people’s driveways for $20. We gave him permission under one condition. I told him that before he went and offered his services to the whole neighborhood he had to prove to himself and to us that he actually had a product to offer.  I don’t think I had ever seen him clear a driveway in his life. So, we required them to first clear our driveway.

Hours later I came downstairs and peeked out the window to see how they were doing. It was comical. They looked like the three stooges: pushing each other into the snow, hitting each other with their shovels out of frustration, etc… Natalie and I got some good laughs out of it. They were spending more of their precious energy arguing and pushing each other around than they were shoveling snow. I knew I had a teachable moment on my hands. 

After they came inside from exhaustion I led them in a debrief of their experience. All while doing my best to keep from breaking out into laughter. Their conflict, it turns out, was in huge part the result of a lack of clarity.

There was no clarity on who was going to use which shovel or who was going to be responsible for what part of the project. They had no idea of what the best strategy would be to complete the job. No clarity of what each of their roles was: were they coequal partners in this new business or was the youngest brother the oldest brother’s employee? They didn’t have clarity on how to efficiently use their shovels. All of the unknown factors created a clarity vacuum and it became every man for himself. It was only a matter of time before they collided with each other. And they did.

When there isn’t clarity in an organization, whether a family or a business, disunity is an inevitable result. Disunity expresses itself through low morale, complaining, arguing, disgruntlement, passive aggression, etc… Wherever there is clarity, however, individuals know their lanes and they can run without bumping into each other. They know what they are aiming for, what’s expected of them, what resources they can use to accomplish their work, etc… Unity allows people to focus their energy and resources on advancing towards a common goal. 

Let’s get some unity, y’all. 

Clarity-Creating Questions. 

Here are some clarity-creating questions to think on, journal about, or discuss with a trusted friend: 

1. What is an area on your team where there is disunity? 
2. How would more unity help the team reach its goals? 
3. What clarity is needed to bring unity to the team?
4. What’s one step you can take this week towards unity-creating clarity?

The 10 Superpowers of Clarity: Focus

I am currently in the process of repairing and refinishing our back deck. I have really awesome friends so I borrowed a pressure washer from one of them to strip the old paint from the boards. The pressure washer came with several interchangeable nozzles to choose from. The different nozzles affect the angle at which the 3600 pounds per square inch of water sprays out. 

The 15-degree nozzle is just right for the job of stripping old paint off of decks. My friend warned me not to use the 0-degree nozzle as it would concentrate the stream of water into a single point powerful enough to drill a hole through a deck board. It’s amazing to think that the same water spigot and hose my children use to spray each other with has the power to bore a hole through a 1″ thick piece of wood when delivered through a pressure washer. This, my friend, is the power of focus. 

Wiktionary.com defines the verb form of “focus” this way:  “To direct attention, effort, or energy to a particular audience or task.” When we access our inner pressure washers and focus our energy, attention, and resources on a particular point, whether it’s an obstacle, opportunity, or goal, it is unbelievable what we can accomplish. 

So many days I’ve left work feeling exhausted and, yet, unsure of what I accomplished. Energy was spent but in a million different directions. More than likely, on days like that, focus is what I lacked. Like you, I’m sure, I don’t work in a vacuum where I have absolute control over what I spend my energy on. Emergencies arise and fires need stomping out. But if I’m honest with myself, I have much more control over my day than I am prone to think. 

Where does focus come from? How do we harness it to spend our energy and resources on the things that are most important to us? Clarity. There are at least two things we must clarify: our desired destination and the best route to get there.

Once we have these two things clarified, all we need to do is focus on the first step: continue straight for 100ft and turn left on Westminster St. Check. I can do that. Next, focus on step 2 and so on and so on. Before you know it we’ve reached our desired destination. All because of focus.  

Clarity-Creating Questions.

Here are some clarity-creating questions to think on, journal about, or discuss with a trusted friend: 

1. How focused do you feel these days? 
2. What is one area of life where you’d like more focus?
3. What would being more focused in this area do for you?
4. What is one way you can focus your energy and resources this week to gain ground in the area?

The 10 Superpowers of Clarity: Plan of Action

Imagine I hand you a boxed deck of playing cards. I then ask you to arrange the shuffled cards in order of suit and rank. Chances are the first step you would take would be to remove them from the box. Next, you would probably spread them out on a flat surface and begin the process of organizing them one by one into the correct order. Easy peasy. Lemon squeezy. 

Say I ask 100 more people to perform the same task. I am fairly confident that not a single person would attempt to arrange them without first removing them from the box. How can I be so confident? Because I know that people know what I know about the process of organization: it is much easier to organize in the light with ample space where all of the components can be seen clearly. 

Often leaders have a good sense of what steps need to be taken to get from point A to point B. Where they get stuck is in figuring out how to place the steps in the proper sequence to form a plan. For most, trying to organize them while keeping them “in the box” between their ears is an exercise of futility. Similar to playing cards, ideas often need light and space if they are to get organized. 

I’ve sat across from and asked many a leader, “So, what needs to be done?” I’ve then listened as they poured their “deck of ideas” out on the table, into the light, and gradually moved them into their correct order. The simple act of processing our thoughts out loud in the presence of an attentive listener works wonders at bringing the needed clarity into our situation.  

Do you feel like a shuffled deck of cards? Do you have ideas of what needs to be done to move forward but aren’t sure where to start? Have you been trying to organize your cards while keeping them inside the box? If so, here are some things to consider.

Clarity-Creating Questions.

1. Who is a good listener at work or in your life that could create some space for you to dump your cards on the table, in the light of day, to get them organized and create a plan? 
2. Or, who in your life could you help get unstuck by being a good listener, offering the space and light needed to get organized and moving? 

The 10 Superpowers of Clarity: Confidence

The leader sitting across from me was overwhelmed. Keeping track of all of the responsibilities on his plate was just too much. He had attempted using some of the tools several of his colleagues had found success with but they were no help. “Recount a time in your life when you were successful at tracking many responsibilities at once.” After a brief silence, his face lights up he begins to share about his experience waiting tables. 

In a former life, he was a waiter who prided himself on his ability to keep track of all of the orders, requests, and needs of the multiple tables he was serving. The secret to this success? Pen and paper. There was something about writing things down on physical paper that simplified the whole process for him and made it easier to track everything. At that moment he realized that he was indeed capable of keeping track of multiple responsibilities at once. He just needed to rely on a system that actually worked for him, not one that should have worked for him. I smiled internally as I watched my friend leave our session with newfound confidence. 

Confidence is hope’s cousin. When we believe that some desired outcome is within reach, we have hope. When we believe that we have the ability within ourselves to reach out and take hold of it, we have confidence. 

Confidence is essential to great leadership. A lack of it will hamstring your leadership as few other things will. 

Healthy self-confidence inspires trust in those being led. It broadcasts the message to the whole organization that we can do what we’ve set out to do. This builds morale among our teams and generally, makes life more enjoyable. 

Within a leader, confidence is the ground cover filling the space that the weeds of fear and doubt would otherwise fill. Confidence protects us from the energy-draining, paralyzing effects of fear and doubt. 

Often we get stuck because we simply lack the confidence that we have what it takes to get where we’re wanting to go. More often than not the thing we need is clarity.

Clarifying where we want to “go” and the steps needed to get there often gives us all the confidence we need to get unstuck and start moving. Even more, confidence can be gained when we stop and consider what steps others like us have taken to get to where we want to go. Better yet, as in the case of my friend mentioned above, what steps have we taken in the past to find success in similar situations? 

Where do you feel stuck in your life? In your leadership? Is it possible that you’re lacking the confidence you need to move forward? 

Clarity-Creating Questions.

Here are some clarity-creating questions to think on, journal about, or discuss with a trusted friend: 

1. What is an area of your life or leadership where you’d like to experience some forward movement? 
2. What does success look like in this area? Specifically? 
3. What are the steps needed to get you there? If you’re not sure, how could you go about identifying them?
4. When have you experienced success in the past in a similar area? What were the steps you took?

The 10 Superpowers of Clarity: Hope

In the words of the 20th-century poet Skee-Lo, “I wish I was a little bit taller.”

Hope can be defined in many ways. Merriam-Webster puts it this way, “to desire with expectation of obtainment or fulfillment.”  

The word “expectation” is the linchpin of that definition. Removing it would leave us with, “to desire obtainment or fulfillment” which would be nothing more than wishful thinking. Wishful thinking is pleasant, but it lacks the white-hot, energizing power of hope. 

Our lives are full of wishful thinking:  “I’d love to run a marathon one day,” “Wouldn’t it be great if my children fought less?” “Doubling the size of my organization in the next 5 years would be awesome…”

A problem with wishful thinking is that it doesn’t produce significant movement. The years come and go and there is just as much distance between us and the fulfillment of our desires as there was before. 

So how do we add expectation to our wishful thinking in order to transform it into energizing, traction-producing hope? 

Expectation is derived from another “e” word: evidence. Regardless of which of its various forms it takes, evidence creates expectation. Evidence can take the form of experience, what’s been communicated to us, observable data, etc…  Take the 1916 New York Giants baseball team as an example. That season they had a winning streak of 26 games which was sufficient evidence to create an expectation among the fans that they were going to win game 27. Evidence creates expectation.

Evidence is something you can “see.” It comes from the Latin word evidentia meaning “clearness.” Therefore, clarity has the power to transform wishful thinking into white-hot, forward-moving hope.

This kind of hope is what gets us out of bed in the morning. It’s what gets those we lead out of their beds in the morning. Without hope we simply pull ourselves along through work and life or at worst, we don’t move at all. 

Hope is essential to leadership in all of its forms: self-leadership, family leadership, organizational leadership… 

If you were to scan the horizon of your life, where would you say you need hope? Are there areas where you see yourself slogging along? Maybe even stuck? Where do you need an injection of expectation to transform your wishful thinking into hope? What you might need is clarity.

Clarity-Creating Questions.

Here are some clarity-creating questions to think on, journal about, or discuss with a trusted friend: 

1. Who is someone you know who’s accomplished what you’d like to accomplish? Would a coffee or phone call with them be possible? 
2. What’s an area where you feel stuck? What would it look like to be unstuck?
3. When was the last time you had real hope for this area of your life? What’s changed?