How to See Reality Clearly
I happen to be coaching a hedge fund manager who runs a billion-dollar fund and just experienced his worst quarter ever.
As he spiraled through scenarios of client withdrawals and market catastrophes, I asked him one simple question:
"Q1 is done. It is what it is. Are you going to waste your precious creative energy ruminating over what's already happened, or channel it toward creating your desired future?"
The tension in his shoulders visibly released.
Most founders – even those running massively successful companies – operate like my hedge fund client.
They believe their stress comes from external circumstances: the chaotic market, demanding investors, aggressive competitors.
But the real source of your struggles isn't the chaos itself, but your inability to see reality clearly through the fog of your own worries and interpretations.
Because founders with identical market challenges can experience radically different outcomes based on this one factor alone:
The ability to perceive reality exactly as it is – not as your fears paint it.
Here’s What Seeing Clearly Looks Like
Being in a state of threat distorts your perception of reality.
When you don’t feel safe, you interpret what’s happening in the most negative way possible and fear the worst case scenario happening in the future.
However, seeing reality clearly is about dramatically expanding the areas in life which you remain feeling safe.
It’s expanding your presence “surface area” - the set of conditions under which you can remain in a state of presence.
As I mentioned in Wednesday's email, our feelings are created by our interpretations of reality. Not from reality itself.
Our brains perceive ‘what is’ and then it deletes, distorts, and generalizes based on our interpretations / stories, which then creates our inner experience that is separate from reality itself.
So you could think of seeing reality clearly similar to being like a newborn child – free from conditioned interpretations, defenses and projections. Free to observe reality from curiosity instead of from the layers of resistance and emotional baggage that we create within ourselves.
Which means the process of seeing clearly is largely a process of ‘undoing’ or ‘unlearning.’
It allows for opportunities to be spotted that would have otherwise been missed.
It allows for the necessary decisions to be made at the right time.
And It will allow you to fully focus on your Desired Future State instead of getting caught up in the emotional rollercoaster.
So here are some of the primary ways your mind blocks your ability to perceive clearly for you to unlearn:
1. Collapsing Stories into Facts
Treating your interpretations as objective truth.
We constantly create stories about what's happening and then treat those interpretations as objective truth.
When an investor doesn't respond to your email, the fact is simply: they haven't replied. The story might be: "They hate our pitch" or "They've already decided to pass."
These stories feel like facts, but they're just interpretations – and they dramatically affect your decisions and emotional state.
2. Creating Problems That Don't Exist
Believing something is "wrong" when it simply "is."
Your startup's growth slowed this quarter. That's a fact. But the interpretation that "this is a problem" or "this shouldn't be happening" is a story.
When you resist what is, you create what I call "unnecessary suffering" – the gap between reality and your expectation of reality.
3. Living in Imagined Negative Futures
Treating potential negative futures as current reality.
Your mind constantly projects into the future, imagining scenarios that might happen, then reacts as if they're already happening.
You haven't even pitched the investor yet, but you're already feeling the rejection. You haven't launched the product, but you're already experiencing the criticism.
It’s not preparation when you’re preemptively suffering.
How to Shortcut the Process
I’ve spent years coaching many of the world’s most successful founders on clearing these lenses/filters that prevent them from seeing clearly.
Many who have gone on to create multi-billion dollar companies with relative ease, creativity and lightness.
Some founders take years to make this shift on their own with a great amount of reflection and self awareness. Some founders shortcut the process through coaching.
But the founders I’ve seen that have made the biggest breakthroughs in the fastest amount of time have been through in person workshops and retreats, where we can spend consecutive hours together and really get vulnerable.
Because the opportunity for a founder to get radically vulnerable and open up is what creates the greatest and most capable founders. It’s where we can spot the biggest breakthrough opportunities.
Which is why I’ll be in San Francisco for something I’ve never done before…
I'll be hosting a one-day intensive workshop from 9am to 9pm on Wednesday, May 21st.
We will be going over everything for you to develop this presence and clarity that transcends chaos. Everything for you to lead from inspiration, build an amazing team culture, and scale without all the stress as a world-class leader.
This is the foundation that will set you up to thrive no matter what challenges come your way.
So if you're in SF and might be interested, hit reply and let me know! Or if you’re ready to sign up, you can register here.
Tomorrow, I'll be sharing more about it so keep an eye on your email inbox!
With love,
