Clarity

Clear Mind, Better Performance, Bigger Results

Jamie Smart

• Publisher: Capstone
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9780857084477
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Mental Health & Wellbeing

LEARN TO CLEAR YOUR MIND AND THINK LIKE A WINNER

We all have so much going on. A million different projects, to-do lists longer than your arm. We all worry about things – money, deadlines.
With all this buzzing around in our heads it's often a nightmare trying to concentrate on one thing. What if someone could show you how to empty your mind of all the noise? If you could be shown how to
de-clutter your mind and concentrate on one important thing? Well Jamie Smart, state-of-mind specialist, can do just that – with Clarity he will show you how to get real clarity of thought. You'll learn how to clear your mind and become less stressed and more productive – and as a result, more confident in your abilities.

Clarity will help you to:

• Greatly improve your concentration and ability to think clearly
• Reduce stress levels and increase productivity
• Grow your confidence and self-belief
• Find innovative solutions to problems and make progress on goals and dreams
• Trust your intuition and improve your decision-making
• Build stronger relationships through better communication Praise for Clarity:

"Thought-provoking, entertaining, and potentially life changing – highly recommended!"
Michael Neill, Radio Show Host and Author of The Inside-Out Revolution: The only thing you need to know to change your life forever

"A powerful, positive book that can help you to achieve more than you ever thought possible, in every area."
Brian Tracy, Author of Goals and Eat That Frog "I highly recommend this book to anyone trying to deal with life stressors and find true wisdom and well-being."
Mark Howard, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist, ThreePrinciplesInstitute.org

"Take your time reading this profound book. Jamie Smart is about to blow apart every circumstantial excuse you ever came up with. He's about to put the steering wheel back in your hands."
Garret Kramer, Founder of Inner Sports and Author of Stillpower

"The insights you'll get whilst reading Clarity will resonant in how you manage day to day but, more importantly, provide a framework for refreshing your priorities, goals and drive."
Peter Lake, Group Business Development Director, JS Group

"The world of leadership, sales and customer engagement has changed radically over the past ten years. People are more savvy, better informed and sick of the same old story. Jamie Smart cuts through the noise of the marketplace and shows you what really works. Profound, practical and instantly applicable; Clarity is essential reading if you want to make your mark in the 21st century."
Paul Charmatz, Former Managing Director, Camelot

"Jamie, you really hit the bullseye with this brilliant book; it's a must-read for everyone who wants clarity of mind."
Joe Stumpf, Founder of By Referral Only and Author of Willing Warrior

"Jamie Smart takes an outdated paradigm of success and turns it on its head. Pull up a chair, get a copy of Clarity and discover how you can experience an exponential increase in clarity and quality of life."
Rich Litvin, co-author of The Prosperous Coach and Founder of The Confident Woman's Salon

"Jamie Smart is brilliant! In his book Clarity, he has unlocked an insight into the real-life matrix. Be ready to have your world turned inside-out because, as Jamie so effortlessly demonstrates, this is how it works."
Richard Enion, Dragon's Den Winner, BassToneSlap.com and RichEats.TV

PART ONE

The Essential Foundations

Chapter 1

Misunderstanding: The Hidden Trap

“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those
who falsely believe they are free.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,
Poet, playwright, novelist
and philosopher

“An addict is someone who’s trying to use a visible solution to solve an invisible problem…”

I was no stranger to addiction when I heard this. I started drinking when I was 12 years old and didn’t stop for good until I was 30. In the process of recovering from alcoholism, I explored a variety of approaches ranging from the spiritual to the material and all points in between.

I found value in much of what I learned, and my life improved in ways that I didn’t even imagine were possible. But, in the process, I discovered an even deeper addiction, one that sits at the very heart of modern culture. This addiction is so subtle, it’s almost invisible; a superstitious and life-eroding trap that has hooked countless millions of people; the trap I call “the hidden hamster wheel.”

The hidden hamster wheel

As you’re going to discover, the hidden hamster wheel is a pervasive example of superstitious thinking, and one of the most common barriers to clarity.

It’s based in a superstition that’s taken to be “obviously true” by most of modern society. It’s so subtle and pervasive that it shows up in everything from children’s books to leadership programmes; from movies to marketing campaigns.

When a person deeply believes in a superstition, it informs everything they believe, everything they do, and how they do it. When a culture believes in a superstition, it gets reinforced from all sides.

The Power of Misunderstanding

In the 1800s, it was widely accepted that illnesses such as cholera and the plague were caused by “bad air” (also known as atmospheres or miasmas). At the time, huge numbers of people were moving to Soho in London, with an associated increase in sewage. The council of the day decided to dump the excess waste into the River Thames, unknowingly contaminating the water supply.

The impact was felt in 1854 when the Broad Street cholera outbreak claimed the lives of 618 Soho residents in just a few weeks. The physician, John Snow, was sceptical of the miasma theory, and managed to trace the epidemic to a water pump in Broad Street. His analysis of the outbreak pattern was compelling enough that the council removed the pump handle and the epidemic ended.

The miasma theory was a misunderstanding that was seen as fact. As a result, the decision to pump sewage into the water supply was taken from within that misunderstanding. While you and I know it’s crazy to let human waste anywhere near your water supply, that’s because we have a better understanding of how the world works; an understanding that just wasn’t available to the people trapped within the miasma misunderstanding.

Misunderstanding can lead to needless misery, suffering and even death. But as soon as people get a clearer understanding of the nature of reality as it already is, there can be a massive and widespread improvement in quality of life.

John Snow, Joseph Lister, Ignatz Semmelweis and others had insights that allowed them to see through the misunderstandings of the time, leading to the creation of germ theory and modern medicine. As a result, millions of people are alive today who wouldn’t be if we were still living in the miasma-theory superstition.

Thought Experiment

Imagine this: It’s 1853, you live in Soho, London. It’s crowded and smelly, so you’re in the habit of carrying a small bunch of flowers to protect you from illness; a posy. Everyone you know does the same thing, and the posy industry is big business.

Then, one day, you meet a scientist who’s convinced that diseases aren’t caused by bad smells; that they’re transmitted by tiny invisible creatures he calls “germs” and “bacteria.” Would you believe it? Maybe, maybe not. Most people would probably say, “Don’t be silly – it’s not as simple as that. Everybody knows that illness is caused by bad smells. It’s obvious…”

An essential question

If you were to be presented with the evidence that one of the most widely-held beliefs of modern society was in fact a misunderstanding about how life works, would you be able to listen with an open mind? The fact that you’re reading this means that the answer is probably “Yes,” so here goes…

The life-damaging misunderstanding that I call the hidden hamster wheel is the mistaken idea that our “core states” such as security, confidence, peace, love, happiness and success can be provided or threatened by our circumstances; by something “visible.”

We have it because we’ve been conditioned to believe that there’s somewhere to get to, and that “there” is better than “here.” And “there” comes in a variety of tantalizing flavours that look something like this:

I’ll be [happy/secure/fulfilled/peaceful/better/successful/ok] when I…

• Get the money/the car/the yacht/the house – the “there” of stuff.
• Find the right work/hobby/exercise/pastime – the “there” of doing.
• Have the right partner/friends/children – the “there” of people and relationships.
• Write the book/start the business/learn the language – the “there” of accomplishment.
• Can take a year off/travel the world/eat at the best restaurants – the “there” of lifestyle.
• Achieve time freedom/financial freedom/social freedom – the “there” of freedom.
• Lose the weight/stop smoking/start going to the gym – the “there” of self-improvement.
• Change my thinking/my limiting beliefs/do my affirmations – the “there” of mindset.
• Meditate properly/find the right practice/get enlightened – the “there” of spirituality.
• Accept myself/love myself/just let go – the “there” of surrender.

You may have experimented with none, some or all of the above. You may have made big changes and improved your life in a variety of ways. Or maybe not. At times, you may have felt like you’re nearly there, like you’re very close, like the pot of gold’s just around the corner. And yet…

No matter how close you get, doesn’t it always seem like there’s a little more you need to do? A little further to go? Just a little bit more to fix, change or improve? Or a lot more?

I know, because I’ve done it – virtually everything on this list and more. I got value from many of my efforts but, sooner or later, after a week or a month or a year, I’d find myself feeling in some ways like I was back where I started, feeling like there was something missing, something wrong, something I couldn’t quite put my finger on…

As it turns out, the story behind that sense of “something missing” doesn’t just stop people from enjoying their lives to the full – it often stands in the way of having the life you really want. You see, as strange as it may sound, we’ve fallen into a trap. And it’s a trap that’s so subtle, most of us have never even noticed it. Subtle, powerful and all-pervasive.

The “I’ll be happy when…” trap is an example most people can identify with. The core states and circumstances vary, but the basic structure of the superstition is the same:

I’ll be [core state] when I have [circumstance]

It’s based on an even simpler structure:

[circumstance] causes [core state]

And like pieces of Lego, this simple structure can be used to assemble all kinds of larger structures:

I couldn’t be [core state] if I lost [circumstance]

I’m [core state] because of [circumstance]

I can’t be [core state] because I don’t have [circumstance]

I was [core state] until I lost [circumstance]

I’m convinced that [core state] comes from [circumstance]

They can take a variety of shapes but, at heart, they’re all based on the idea that our felt experience of life comes from our circumstances, from something relatively visible.

You may have seen studies showing that feelings of well-being and high self-esteem come from accomplishments, or from doing vocational work, or from meditating. But that’s all an example of the superstition in action. When I use the word “circumstance,” I’m using it in the widest possible way, to refer to pretty much anything you can imagine, incl...