The Emotional Clarity Of Contribution Unleashes our True Potential

Note: This post is the second in a series. In last week’s post, we looked at the role fear plays in preventing us from getting things done and its impact on self-discipline. This week, we continue with the topic by moving beyond the exploration of our fears to finding a more powerful place of emotional clarity. Once you’ve answered the question “What are my fears about this (project, task, conversation)?” you have achieved a certain degree of emotional clarity about why you are not disciplined.

Clarity, Not Willpower, Generates Self-Discipline

Procrastinate? Can’t get yourself to exercise regularly? Or not eat that greasy food that is so bad it’s good? You know that you need to have a difficult conversation about performance with your direct report, but keep putting it off? Many of our clients, even those who are highly accomplished and productive, complain that they lack discipline in key areas of their life. Contrary to conventional wisdom, I find that ‘willpower’ (“I just need to do it”) is a largely useless strategy to overcoming internal resistance. Over the next four posts, I’ll explore the role that emotional clarity has in creating discipline and offer some practical ways you can get unstuck from any project, goal or to-do you have been blocked from taking action on. When I first