Clarity of Thought

Its amazing how learnings of life are revealed in simple conversations...

I was having a conversation with a friend when he asked me a question. A question which all of us get at some point in life... Depending on where you are in life you will get this question.
You could be in the middle of a huge project, or with your family on a holiday, or in the most difficult stage of life... When your mind is absolutely focused or amazingly confused...
A craving is sparked in your mind and you ask ---

"What is Clarity of Thought"

Sitting for a chat one of these days, one of my friend asked me the same question...

Now... I take pride in my ability to answer any kind of questions... But, this one stumped me...

For a change, I was quite and trying to figure out the answer...

After toying with different answers... I found it...

But before I share it with you, I'll make you read the rest of this sharing... Best part is that this blog is not about inspiring achievements and brilliant strokes of genius... This is just plain old Gullugiri...

I went for a movie a few days ago. During the interval, I, like all other mortals ran to the men's room... As I got there, I saw there was a long queue for the Urinals, on the other end, there were cubicles most of which were empty. I simply went into one of those cubicles, finished my work and came out. That's when others realised and started using the cubicles...

Once I went for a friend's wedding and as we finished greeting, I headed for the buffet (that's typically the main agenda whenever I'm attending weddings). Here too there was a long queue of people standing in the queue with plates in their hands.
The buffet was arranged in a typical Indian style with appetizers, breads, curries, rice, lentils and sweets in the same order. I noticed that most of the crowd was on the starters counters because  most of the people were starting from there and waiting for starters to be served. I simply took my plate and headed down to the other end of the counters. Filled up most of my plate with whatever I wanted and enjoyed the meal. Some of my friends were amazed to see that I was eating food in the wrong order... I just cared about eating...

Recently, I had an opportunity to help someone in a medical emergency. Normally, I leave the office late in the evening with some work still in backlog. But, that day, I left the office at 5.30 in the evening after allocating everything effectively to my team and they made sure all goes well for rest of the day... I was able to do it because I had only my friend's emergency in my mind at that time...

You would have been in a situation where someone's life is in danger and you know you can help by getting that person to the hospital... Do you really think you'll care about what people think about your driving skills or will you really care about the red lights you are blowing past???

I remember how I failed only once in my academic life, that too in my strongest subject. This set back my career by atleast 6 months. I remember how I had become absolutely detached from everything else for the next 6 months... I used to spend 14-16 hours at my teacher's place... personal life down the drain... sleep deprived... completely focused only on the studies... I used to go home only for eating and sleeping... I knew that I had to clear the next attempt of my exams...

I've seen for myself how most of the dudes in my team suddenly become super efficient on Friday evenings. Somehow, they complete all their tasks, with great quality and in half the time compared to normal days. I used to appreciate that a lot assuming that they are really committed to their work... Someone told me that apparently Friday evenings are filled with a different kind of plannings for bachelor dudes...

This is where I found the answer to my friend's question...
I found the key to "Clarity of Thought"...

Amazingly... its a one word answer --- "GOAL"

Yep... that's right...

Whether it was the men's room, the buffet counter, a friend's life, a movie you are late for, that girl you want to marry, the project, the exam or any other aspect of one's life... there's only one thing that can give you the clarity of thought... A Goal.

Look back into your own life and remember every time when you were focused on a singular goal... That was the time when your thoughts were absolutely clear... When you did not care about what happens around you... When you didn't care what people around will think or say...

All you cared about was that Goal you had in sight and how to get there...


I'm not sharing some philosophy... I'm not trying to motivate you... No amount of motivational articles can give you the clarity of thought which you have already experienced in glimpses...

We already have all the answers we will ever need... Infact we have even implemented them in our own lives... its just that we can't see them...

Goal... A Singular goal... A positive goal... That is what will give you all the Clarity of Thought you'll ever need...

Think about it...