Clarity Grows As You Go

In any area of growth, we often don't know what we don't know when we start to grow. We have a vague notion of what it might mean to learn a skill or develop endurance or begin to heal a relationship, but we often are groping in the dark for an outcome that is hazy or beyond our current imaginative grasp.

That's okay. In some of the most important areas of life (relationships, health, spirituality), knowing where we'll end up, or what it will mean to be more mature, is an experienced reality that sharpens only as we grow.

Clarity really only comes as you go.

When I started training my body and mind through intermittent fasting and daily exercise, I couldn't even imagine where I was going. I couldn't define my ideal weight. I wouldn't even think about how far to run, or even my weekly kilometer running goals. Frankly, any "clarity" at that point would have just been a pin on a random donkey, with no sense of whether or not it was accurate or achievable. In fact, it could have even been counter-productive, as it may have discouraged me.

But as I went, as I got stronger, as I lost weight, what was possible grew. What I began to achieve (more pushups, more weight loss, more miles) was then redefined, slowly, as what I could imagine slowly unfolded. It took me a few years to set distance goals for my running, and that only because I knew I could because...I already had. Yes, I did eventually set myself a bigger goal (to run an 54 kilometer mountain ultramarathon) but even that I did because I had already run something similar, achieving a personal goal to run 50km late in the previous year.  I ran it with less elevation, all on roads, true, but running that distance gave me a sense that, yes, I could maybe pull off an ultra. Because...I had literally just ran one myself.

What does all this mean? Don't get stalled out defining exactly what you'll be able to do or where you'll be at.  Let clarity grow as you go. Just get out there, forming daily habits that will carry you beyond what you would have thought you were able to do. Focus on the day or the week, the fulfilling of daily practices, and in a few years what you will discover is clarity has come.