There’s something many of us do when we are trying to listen out for something. We reduce the volume of the TV or put it off altogether; we pause the microwave, we draw closer to the source of our interest, and sometimes lean in.
That’s the posture of someone who’s really keen to listen.
To gain clarity and move with precision armed with the information received, we must have the right posture.
Freeze
I remember a game we used to play when we were younger. We’d be running or walking or whatever, and someone was supposed to shout “freeze”; then we had to stop mid-motion.
If you had one hand up in the air, you stayed like that. In mid-run? Run no more. Whatever action you were taking, you had to stop. The leader’s fun was stopping everyone mid-action and seeing how long people could hold the freeze.
This game comes to mind because the first thing you must do to gain clarity is to stop everything else momentarily and just pay attention.
Pay attention to your thoughts and your environment. Getting quiet or slowing down activities can help you spot sources of unwanted sounds that you may not have known existed.
If you’re working on a project where you feel like you have hit a wall or you just can’t seem to make your way out of the spiderweb of charts and sticky notes, taking a pause can often help you regroup and come back with a clearer mind.
The same applies to other aspects of life. In making decisions, sometimes we want to make a decision quickly even without the background work. The truth is, the more you fixate on something and every minutia of it, the more it overwhelms you and the more clouded your judgment gets.
Press pause. Take a knee. Freeze. Whichever term you want to give it, halt the motion.
Eliminate
Once you take a break and get quiet, you will easily note the sources of noise and distractions around you.
Even the “good things” that we do, or our loved ones, can become distractions if the clarity we seek does not directly flow from them.
After identifying the unwanted sounds, objects, and people, it’s time to block or eliminate them. For instance, if I’m trying to hear from God concerning a matter and gain clarity, the last thing that will help me is to constantly be hopping from one entertainment device to the other.
Once I take a break from them, I instantly unplug, deactivate, or remove these things from my immediate reach.
Sometimes elimination can be gradual. Withdraw slowly from that group where people constantly get on your nerves; reduce time spent on things, people, and places that are contrary to what you’re trying to achieve.
The key is clarity, not clutter. Anything that adds to the mental jam must be limited or removed.
Observe
You’ve taken a pause. Removed distractions. There’s peace, quiet, and space. It’s now time to observe, create, reflect, refresh, take stock, and recollect.
The very thing you are looking for may be within grasp. You might need to learn or relearn; you might realize the clarity you need will come from getting wise counsel, or you may ultimately need to recall some lessons you learnt in a previous season of life.
You do need to remove distractions, but clarity does not come in a vacuum. It comes from leaning into the right activities. Praying, journaling, reading, or getting out of a routine that’s just draining you.
In the period of observation, you will know what to do. It’s like they say, even if you don’t find the answer to your problem, you will know how, where, or with whom you can find it.
A quieted soul will gain clarity, move with precision, and achieve all that it’s meant to.
Is your soul quiet or is it in turmoil?
“Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul, Like a weaned child with his mother; Like a weaned child is my soul within me.”
Psalms 131:2
