It can be too easy to focus on the confusion in the distance & ignore the clarity in the here & now.

This is the insight my day started with yesterday whilst out personal training, continued during the virtual category management training in the morning, and was reinforced during the face to face retreat I was facilitating at later in the day.

The stillness and clarity of the water, shown in this image, was stunning and yet it was too easy to be distracted by the fog in the distance.

I even said “what clarity” to a dog walker, and it took a moment and some laughter for her to understand how I could possibly be talking about the scene she was looking at.

That is, she needed to change her attention away from the far distance and focus more immediately infront of her.

When developing category strategies it’s certainly easy to buy into the confusion and lack of clarity as we notice and start to gather all the wealth of data available.

Forgetting that clarity arises when we focus and make sense of that data one element at a time.

During a landscaping your life walk in nature during the retreat later in the day this pattern emerged again.

A desire to know every step of the journey can be immobilising.

We noticed that focussing on the clarity of direction in front of us helped set up the momentum with, as my poem Paths & Destinations says

“One step at a time - a decision only needed when we get to that first crossroads. “

As was also demonstrated in all these instances, it wasn’t many hours after PT that the fog lifted providing clarity in the longer distance too.

How can you focus on what’s in front of you rather than worry about the perceived confusion in the future?

If you'd like to understand how I might help you personally to get unstuck and back on track; help your team to see situations from different perspectives do get in touch alison@alisonsmith.co +44(0)7770 538159.

A post on How you can work with me and another about the coaching offered might also help with your decision making.

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