by Oli Anderson, Transformational Coach for Realness
Creative Status is a podcast about using creativity as a vehicle for improving your life by deconstructing ego, integrating the shadow self, and designing and manifesting a real life through the power of TRUST.
Every episode explores how the creative process can help you GROW REAL by moving towards wholeness in yourself by making the unconscious conscious.
In this solo episode, we delve into the essential theme of clarity versus confusion and how to navigate between the two states to live a more fulfilling and REAL life. We discuss the common struggle for clarity, which many people face and explore where confusion comes from and what to DO about it.
Understanding Clarity and Confusion: We look at the idea that clarity is a state of realness, while confusion stems from fragmentation and disconnection from our true selves. We also examine how societal and personal ‘noise’ contribute to this confusion and how we can return to our natural signal of wholeness.
Three Key Takeaways:
1. Choices Lead to Clarity or Confusion: The choices we make either bring us closer to clarity or deepen our confusion. By consistently choosing wholeness over fragmentation, we can start to align with our true selves.
2. The Turning Point: Recognising that every moment offers a turning point, this episode is a reminder of the importance of making conscious choices now to shape a clearer, more authentic future. The path to clarity involves envisioning the life you want and making choices that align with that vision.
3. Focus on One Thing: To overcome confusion, you can FOCUS on just ONE REAL THING that is emerging in your life. This approach simplifies your path, reduces complexity, and helps you take meaningful actions that lead to clarity.
Creative Status: Clarity vs. Confusion
Join me in this episode as we explore the journey from confusion to clarity. This episode is a must-listen for anyone seeking to navigate life’s complexities and move towards a more unified and authentic existence.
Stay real out there,
Oli Anderson (www.olianderson.co.uk)
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Creative Status Links:
Book a call with Oli and grow more REAL (coaching): olianderson.co.uk/talk
Yoga flow I made (Vinyasa to Yin flow): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNVsITXyy9c
Follow me on Instagram: instagram.com/olijanderson
My YouTube channel: youtube.com/olianderson
Get my books on Amazon: amazon.com/author/oli
7-Day Personality Transplant System Shock for Realness and Life Purpose: olianderson.co.uk/systemshock
Free one hour creative workshop to take your creative brand or project to the next level: olianderson.co.uk/creativeworkshop
Free 90-Day Journal Challenge: olianderson.co.uk/journal
The Law of Attraction for Realness (mini-course): olianderson.co.uk/lawofattraction
The Creative Performance Transformation Lab: olianderson.co.uk/creativeperformance
Show Transcript: From Confusion to Clarity
This podcast is a place where we talk about the human condition
Oh, hi there. Oli Anderson here. You’re listening to Creative Status. If you’re new to the podcast, welcome. If you’re returning, welcome back—thank you so much. This is a place where we talk about the human condition, what it means to be a real human being, how we can move towards wholeness, our relationship with ourselves, the relationships we have with others, and our relationship with life itself. We explore how we can navigate the world while keeping the idea of wholeness in mind, so we can continue evolving, growing, and living the best possible life while creating something real during our time here.
This is another solo episode. If you’re new, this podcast traditionally features interviews, but the last few episodes have all been solo, with just me. I will continue to do interviews, but only when it’s something that genuinely excites me. This isn’t to belittle any of the guests I’ve already interviewed, but rather to ensure I can bring more energy to these conversations and really share the most value possible. I suppose what I’m saying is that it’s going to be about quality, not quantity.
So, anyway, today’s episode is going to be short—hopefully. I want to talk about clarity and confusion, and how we can bring more clarity into our lives. The reason I want to discuss this is because clarity is something I often see people searching for when they come to my coaching practice, especially when they initially reach out for coaching. It’s a very common issue, and clarity is a word that people frequently use.
I believe that so many people are seeking clarity because the world itself is confused, and the people who make up the world are confused. I want to explore how this confusion happens, what we can do about it, and how we can bring more clarity into our lives. This will help us move forward, take meaningful actions, and flow through life instead of forcing things or constantly banging our heads against a brick wall—whether because we’re distracting ourselves, lack direction, don’t know what we’re doing, or are simply running on autopilot according to old conditioning and scripts.
Ultimately, this is going to be a short episode, but we’re going to examine clarity and confusion: where this confusion that holds people back comes from, what you can do about it, and how you can move forward in your own life.
We’ve already set up a dichotomy here between clarity, on the one hand, and confusion, on the other. As you can probably guess if you’ve listened to me before, clarity is something I see as very real, whereas confusion is unreal in the sense that it is unnecessary. We don’t need to be confused. The main takeaway from this episode, right from the start, is that if you are living in a generally confused state—not just grappling with a specific problem but confused about life in general—then there’s a very high chance that, surprise, surprise, as this is a major theme of this podcast and everything I talk about, you’ve become disconnected from yourself at the level of your own realness, your own connection to truth and wholeness.
When that disconnection happens, we end up creating a false version of ourselves, which I often refer to as the ego. When we identify with the ego, we send all the very real parts of ourselves that need to be expressed in order to gain clarity in life into the shadow self, where they are exiled. When this happens, we end up filtering everything we do through this fragmented, ego-driven version of ourselves. Over time, if we continue to make choices from this fragmented place, our lives become increasingly fragmented. The goals we pursue, for example, often reflect the disconnection within ourselves, which is frequently one of the core motivations driving us to chase these goals in the first place. But because those goals are motivated by fragmentation, they only end up exacerbating the problem and adding more confusion.
If we are fragmented in the way I’m describing, our emotional relationship with ourselves doesn’t allow us to feel what we need to feel, leading to confusion about what’s really going on inside us and who we really are. When everything we do is filtered through this fragmentation, we ultimately become more confused because we add more unnecessary complexity to our lives, creating more noise that distorts the pure signal of wholeness already within us.
So, ultimately, moving from confusion to clarity is about breaking away from all that noise and returning to the natural signal already within us—in this metaphor, that signal is simply our realness, our connection to the wholeness that we already possess.
That’s the context within which I’m framing this dichotomy of clarity and confusion. Confusion arises when we live in a way that brings more noise into our lives because of our fragmentation. This noise includes self-limiting beliefs, emotional stagnation, and all the things we do to distract ourselves from our inner split and disconnection in the first place. It’s the time-wasting activities like binge-watching Netflix when we don’t really want to, but don’t know what else to do because we’ve become detached from our purpose. It’s engaging in empty relationships with people because we’ve forgotten that it’s better to be alone than in bad company, and we’re trying to distract ourselves.
We can spend our whole lives bringing unnecessary noise into the equation, which only blocks the signal. Going from confusion to clarity is really about listening and tuning back into the signal that’s already there—and that signal is wholeness.
Confusion or clarity is a product of the choices you’ve made
With all of these solo episodes, there are three key takeaways I want you to focus on. I’m going to go through them now in relation to the topic of confusion versus clarity.
The first takeaway is this: It ultimately comes down to choice. Confusion or clarity is a product of the choices you’ve been making. It boils down to whether or not—surprise, surprise—you’re choosing either wholeness or fragmentation in each moment. If you continually choose fragmentation, driven by a core motivation to run away from yourself because of the inner split between the ego and the shadow (and the shame that often fuels the dance between them), then over time, you’re going to end up confused. The reason is that the gap between who you think you are and your real self will widen. Additionally, you’ll choose coping mechanisms to deal with that disconnection—like distracting yourself with Netflix, empty relationships, food, or whatever else. These distractions are merely coping mechanisms for being fragmented in the first place, but they add unnecessary complexity that only worsens the confusion.
If you do this long enough, you’ll reach a point where your life no longer feels like yours. You’ll feel the need to change things but won’t know where to start because of all the layers of confusion, complexity, and distraction. You’ll feel overwhelmed and lost. So, the first takeaway is that if you find yourself needing clarity, understand that you got there because you were choosing a fragmented relationship with yourself. This fragmentation extended to your relationships with others and with life itself. When you add all of that together, you end up with a hodgepodge of coping mechanisms and goals that aren’t aligned with your real values and intentions, leaving you confused. It all stems from choosing the ego over the shadow self. If you’re generally confused about life, not just about a specific problem, it’s because you’ve been habitually choosing fragmentation. To find your way back to clarity, you need to start changing those habitual choices.
In my coaching, we usually start by figuring out a vision, breaking it down into goals, and then into habits. The last episode of this podcast was about creating a morning routine that aligns you with your real self. Doing things like this helps you rewire and reconfigure your unconscious relationship with yourself. If you’re confused in the way we’re discussing, it means your unconscious mind—your unconscious habits—are driving you to choose fragmentation instead of wholeness. So, the first point is this: The choices you’ve made have led to either clarity or confusion. If you want to find clarity, you need to start choosing wholeness and undo the damage caused by acting on autopilot, driven by the ego-shadow dance, and consistently choosing fragmentation over time, which inevitably leads to confusion.
The second takeaway is about what happens if you keep making these choices. This is really to remind you that we’re all constantly at a sort of turning point. The choices we make today, moving forward, will ultimately affect our future. If you’re currently in a place of confusion and continue making the same choices for fragmentation, then five or ten years down the line, things will either stay the same, with you still being confused, or they’ll get worse as you add more layers of complexity, confusion, limitation, and fear to your experience of life.
This takeaway is short and sweet: If you want to change your life and feel confused, you need to think seriously about how things will be if you don’t start making choices for wholeness and realness instead of the fragmentary patterns that have confused and held you back. If you’re in this situation, it’s crucial to consider the kind of life you want to live, the person you want to be, and the path you see yourself on as you move forward. If you project forward and imagine continuing to do what you’re doing now—thinking the way you think, behaving as you do—will you be happy, or will you be even more confused? If the latter, it’s time to start choosing wholeness over fragmentation. If you can see some light, a potential for improvement, it’s likely because you’re either introducing some wholeness into the equation or are preparing to do so. This means you’re getting ready to act on the real things within you that are starting to emerge.
So, that was a short and sweet takeaway, but it underscores the point that the choices you make now will determine where you end up in the future—whether you remain confused or find clarity. The first takeaway was that the choices you’ve made led you to where you are, and the second takeaway is that the choices you make moving forward will determine where you go. This all comes down to choosing either fragmentation and the same old nonsense or wholeness and something real.
The third and final takeaway is that if you want to move towards clarity and overcome confusion, you need to change the way you’ve been thinking and acting—obviously. As I’ve already mentioned, this is about choosing wholeness over fragmentation. But the third takeaway is that the best way to do this, in relation to clarity, is to be single-minded in your approach. This means you need to focus on just one thing. Often, when we’re confused in this fragmented way, it’s because we’re trying to choose a million different things at once. We don’t have a clear vision for ourselves, so we’re not directing everything towards it. We often lack goals and habits and are just moving through life aimlessly, hoping things will work out. While it’s great to do your best, without a fundamental structure and while running away from yourself through fragmentation, distraction, and nonsense, you end up doing too many things at once. This only deepens the confusion, pulling you further into the void and making you more fragmented because there’s no unity in the choices you’re making.
The third takeaway is simple: Just find one thing. That’s all you need to start moving towards clarity. You don’t need a million different things to fix your life; you just need one. The good news is that if you stop, reflect, and look at yourself and your life, this one thing is already emerging on some level. It might be a broad or nebulous concept, but something is trying to surface in your life. If you act on it, it will bring more clarity, because whatever this one thing is, it’s real. It’s coming from your unconscious and trying to make itself conscious. If you stop blocking it with fragmentation, distraction, and confusion, or by believing that you’re confused, you’ll allow it to surface and take action based on it. Then, once you do that, the next one thing will emerge, and then the next, and the next.
When you focus on just one thing and concentrate on it, the problems of duality, complexity, and fragmentation start to fade away. They dissolve because your mind is given something to focus on. The reason we end up confused and choose fragmentation instead of wholeness is because our minds aren’t under our control.
Our minds, when not mastered, tend to lead us wherever they want to go. You’ve probably heard the expression “monkey mind,” which describes how our thoughts hop from one place to another, much like a monkey jumping from branch to branch. Without mastery over your mind, this is exactly what happens with the choices you make. You end up choosing one unreal thing after another, based on whatever is happening inside you at the moment.
If you can focus on just one thing—whether it’s a creative project, a necessary conversation, something you want to express through music, or even a new hobby like yoga—then you’ll start to bring more clarity into your life. Focusing on one real thing does two important things: First, it gives your mind something to focus on, which helps eliminate a lot of the confusion. Second, by acting on something real, you begin taking steps towards wholeness, which starts to remedy the effects of the fragmentation that caused the confusion in the first place.
So, to recap, this episode was a quick dive into the themes of confusion and clarity. The three key takeaways are:
- Confusion Stems from Fragmentation: If you find yourself confused about life, directionless, or unsure of who you are, it’s likely because you’ve been choosing fragmentation over wholeness. This means you’ve been filtering everything through your ego, blocking the expression of your real self—often due to unresolved shame, guilt, and trauma, as well as a fear of discovering who you truly are.
- You’re at a Turning Point: Now that you’re aware of this, you’re at a critical juncture. If you project forward and imagine how life will unfold based on your current thoughts, feelings, and choices, you’ll be able to tell whether you’re headed towards more fragmentation or towards wholeness.
- Start with One Real Thing: The path to clarity doesn’t have to be complicated. It’s about finding one thing that is real to you and acting on it. This focus will help you master your mind, give you direction, and allow you to take actions that align with wholeness rather than fragmentation.
To make this practical, the next step is clear: Sit down and figure out what that one thing is for you.
What is one thing that is calling out to you right now?
What is the one thing that is calling out to you right now? What is emerging from your shadow self, trying to surface so that your real life can emerge? For most of us, our real life is hiding in the shadows. That’s why it always comes down to awareness, acceptance, and action. If you can identify that one thing and start acting on it, life will become a little less confusing, as that one thing will inevitably bring more clarity.
That’s the podcast. I hope it helped you and made sense. I hope you find that one thing. If you want to learn more about transformation and realness, I’ve got a free PDF available for download on my website. Just go to olianderson.co.uk and search for “Ego Shadow Trust.” The PDF walks you through the process of awareness, acceptance, and action.
If you’d like to book a call with me to figure out what that one thing might be for you, you can do that on my website as well. The initial call is free. Just go to olianderson.co.uk/talk.
In any case, stay real out there. Find peace by walking the real path. I hope this helped you. Peace.