Clarity: Clear Your Mind, Have More Time, Make Better Decisions and Achieve Bigger Results

by Jamie Smart

LEARN TO CLEAR YOUR MIND AND THINK LIKE A WINNER

We all have so much going on. A million different projects, to-do lists longer than your arm. We all worry about things - money, deadlines. With all this buzzing around in our heads it's often a nightmare trying to concentrate on one thing. What if someone could show you how to empty your mind of all the noise? If you could be shown how to de-clutter your mind and concentrate on one important thing? Well Jamie Smart, state-of-mind specialist, can do just that - with Clarity he will show you how to get real clarity of thought. You'll learn how to clear your mind and become less stressed and more productive - and as a result, more confident in your abilities.

Clarity will help you to:

- Greatly improve your concentration and ability to think clearly
- Reduce stress levels and increase productivity
- Grow your confidence and self-belief
- Find innovative solutions to problems and make progress on goals and dreams
- Trust your intuition and improve your decision-making
- Build stronger relationships through better communication

Genres: Self Help, Psychology, Nonfiction, Personal Development, Business, Spirituality, Productivity

280 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2013

About the author

Jamie Smart is an internationally renowned writer, speaker, coach and consultant. He shows individuals and organizations the unexpected keys to clarity; the ultimate leverage point for creating more time, better decisions and meaningful results.

Jamie is a gifted speaker, equally engaging in front of large audiences and more intimate groups. He’s passionate about helping individuals and businesses to deepen their understanding of CLARITY® and to create the results that matter to them. In addition to working with a handful of coaching clients and leading selected corporate programmes, Jamie runs professional development workshops for business leaders, trainers, coaches and consultants. He has appeared on Sky TV and on the BBC, as well as in numerous publications including The Daily Telegraph.

In 2003, Jamie started the company Salad, quickly growing a tribe of over 80,000 people who devoured his articles and personal development products. Salad soon became the world’s leading NLP product business, and he was acknowledged by his peers as one of the world’s finest trainers. Then, in 2008, Jamie shifted his focus to a new paradigm, the principles of CLARITY®. He stopped teaching NLP and in 2012, sold Salad. Prior to starting his own business, Jamie led multi-million pound organizational change programmes and was also brought in as a troubleshooter to rescue struggling projects. His client list includes the Guardian newspaper, Sweet & Maxwell, Payzone and Dun & Bradstreet.

Jamie lives in London. When he’s not working, he loves travelling, walking, drinking coffee and exploring. For more details about Jamie’s corporate and professional development services, as well as full contact details, see the previous CLARITY® section.

Reviews

[Will Once · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is weird. It is called "Clarity", but it is one of the most muddled and difficult to read books that I have ever come across.

The layout of the book is incredibly distracting, with a bewildering array of different fonts, shouting in CAPITALS, text-boxes, italics. Each chapter ends with a URL and QR code to go for further information, although I am not quite sure why you would want to.

The book starts reasonably well. We need clarity in our lives because we are distracted by things we don't need and superstitious thinking. And I thought ... yup, that sounds sensible. On that basis I bought the book.

But about a quarter of the way in, it started to dawn on me. It is yet another of those "it's all in your mind" books that promises much but delivers very little.

And that means ...

... lots of cod-scientific analogies that don't actually make much sense. Everything from the discovery of germs, the realisation that the world is round and the film Inception. It all gets thrown in to "prove" the main theory.

... three column lists

... always a promise of the answer being on the next page, and the next and the next

... words like "paradigm" being thrown around.

... repetition, repetition, repetition.

... meaningless diagrams with arrows pointing from one vague word to another

... MIND, THOUGHT, CONSCIOUSNESS

After a while, the book began to be spookily familiar. I had read much of the same stuff in a book called "Instant Motivation" by Chantal Burns. Very similar lists and terminology. And similarly lacking in any scientific evidence.

There is the germ of a good idea in here. That is what elevates it from a one star to two. That is what got me to read the book in the first place.

But it is so poorly presented and repetitive and opaque that it can't get beyond two stars.

Not recommended.

[Lindsay Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my pet peeves is Life coachy 'self help' books or shows. I avoid them like the plague. I really liked 'Clarity' from the beginning because it is NOT steeped in dime store mysticism, or great yet to be revealed 'Secret' knowledge. It is simply an exploration of your thinking and the patterns that result as a consequence of reactionary and superstitious thought. The clarity lies in the fact that everything you need to 'connect' is already within you. You don't require self help, just simple self knowledge. It is a further exploration of innate thinking and intuition. For those that require the sciency approach (like me) The writer provides plenty of 'data' to back up his assertions. The simplicity of the approach is what appeals most to me, and the fact that it is neither new agey or religious in its approach. A good and thoughtful read.

[Robert Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The middle chapters lost my interest because they talked about how we perceive our mental images of reality instead of reality itself, which should be familiar to anyone with a moderate background in philosophy. However, I liked the beginning and end of the book because they really got me thinking about how we so often buy into the myth of what Smart calls "superstitious" thinking--not in the sense of ghosts and the paranormal but rather in the sense of getting caught up in the outside world and not seeing the forest for the trees. I'm not sure whether his goal is to just help people see the world more clearly to solve problems or to help people reduce their anxiety/depression/etc. by realizing that it is not reality that is making them feel bad but rather their own thoughts about reality. Either way, clarity will presumably set us free. Examples that Smart gives include a dog realizing that he is chasing his own tail and doctors learning about germ theory for the first time. If I understood the book correctly, my own example would be a situation at work where everyone in the office kept complaining about how we never got the extra computer we needed and always were told to put in a request with the secretary. While everyone went up in arms about being deferred to someone else again, I simply put in the request to the secretary, and we ended up getting the computer.

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gave me many insights into the power of thought, and what thought really is. With each insight, a feeling of liberation and lightness ensued. Some might say that what this author describes is impossible....well, I'm proof that it opened up my "old" way of looking at thought and has only made my life's experience better! Highly recommend.

[Iman Bhia]

One of the best books I have ever read.

[Dawn Peers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clarity by Jamie Smart brings together a lot of "modern thinking" ideas on the arrangement of your inner personal space (thoughts, oh, I'm sorry, THOUGHTS in your mind... whoops, MIND).

It's a well-laid out, well edited and well written book. Smart clearly believes in what he's pounding out on the pages and doesn't hold back in what he's trying to communicate to us, the reader. To be honest, from a book that exonerates clear thinking and bigger results, I would expect a well-delivered tome.

I'll be taking away some good messages and decent tidbits from this, but...

Jamie Smart feels compelled to write IMPORTANT words repeatedly in CAPS. I don't appreciate being SHOUTED at when I'm reading. It jolts the brain. And trade-marking small phrases? Oh please, give it a rest.

Couple with the lack of practical exercises to give real-world context and practice to what Smart is trying to construct, and you're left with barebones ideas. Because these ideas aren't a pile of shash, he gets three stars instead of two.

[Conrad Toft · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good simple premise: don't mistake your thoughts for reality. Continue for way too many pages of psycho-babble. Having finished the book, though, I must admit that it has changed by outlook on life.

[Iamsaud · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has cleared my vision towards everything from inside to outside !! must re-read it again

[Leo · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a mind shifting book!!! After reading Jamie's book, i have been able to apply Clarity to my life and relationships. Thank you for putting your wisdom in writing Jamie.

[Maaz Talha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book to give a general understanding of thought and the reliance on outward stimulus to dictate inner feeling. However failed to make a larger impact than that point and did not give much in terms of action points but would recommend still!

[Jared · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clarity is another self-actualization book that I picked up. Typically, these 'new you' books dont make much of an impression on me but this one actually made me think and I caught myself contemplating its concepts during the day.

The first few pages talk about a 'hidden hamster wheel' that many of us find ourselves on. I had no idea what such a term meant but the author went on to describe how many of us tell ourselves things like "I'll be happy when.., ". Its a conditional phrase, the author says, the keeps us from becoming happy and fulfilled.

"Okay, let's see where he goes with this", I thought.

The author goes on to describe how our thoughts is what determines our reality and provides the lens through which we experience life. As a result, our daily lives are impacted tremendously by our thoughts which are based on how our mind sees the world around us.

To get the full concept you will need to read the book.

At any rate, I really was caught by the message - which is definitely some New Age malarkey in case you are wondering.

If you want to change your outlook and try to be more positive and let go of prejudicial, erroneous thoughts then give this book a read.

[Walter Adamson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book incredibly useful in clarifying the role of accepted beliefs and thinking, feeling, and perceiving. It's essentially about techniques to recreating your perception of the world by escaping your fears, anxieties and limiting beliefs. A key part of the technique is to be able to develop your sense of seeing your "thought-generated experiential realities" from outside, or from above. To me this all made sense and I found the book very helpful at a particular time in my life. Perhaps that's the key to how people would rate the book. If the time is right and it helps you then its a good rating. If you're just browsing these concepts it might seem like many other books on this topic? The author's claim that the book presents a "genuinely new paradigm, in the Kuhnian sense" created an immediate scepticism among a few of my friends, who then half-heartedly read the book. I wasn't perturbed by the claim. I'm not sure that the book delivered on the claim, but I am fine with that because it delivered to me a useful way of thinking which helped my understanding of the Present, and how to be in it.

[Monwar Hussain · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book I happened to had on my phone. This was, well, mostly for toilet reading. And as it so often happens, it then became breakfast reading, then work break reading, then meeting reading, then lunch reading... you know it!

The author does one thing very well: illustrating the simulatory nature of our 100-trillion-neuron machine. This biological phenomena and its philosophical implications are alluded to in other books, but Dimon develops it into very clear business practises. He uses repeatation and structure; did he knew readers would only read this book during short breaks? The structure is almost perfect for the kind of reading I did.

On the negative side, Jamie Smart doesn't provide a sense of completion. Some of the ideas are almost half developed. This is somtimes good, sometimes confusing. Perhaps later in the book we will see a grand synthesis, but for now, parts of the book are still disjointed to me.

I take this book as very good practical neurobiological philosophy. :P

[Luca Nicoletti · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t like the book at all, boring and the author kept repeating the same concept over and over. I know what many will think by reading this review: “I didn’t understand the clarity, I was not clear, I was contaminated by contaminated thinking, I was not thinking clearly”. I was not. I am in clarity, I understand and am clear of contaminations, and that’s exactly why I didn’t need ~260 pages to understand and read the same concept over and over and over and over and over again. This was the main reason it took me so long to finish the book, I was not looking to read, and I was not inspired nor kept on the pages by the author’s writing technique. It’s a shame since the concept and the ideas that the author tells us in this book are interesting and could help many people get better in many aspects of their lives.

[Gökhan Bozkurt · Rating 2 out of 5]

This clarity book is not clear at all. Honestly it does not offer nor provide with any original knowledge/info to intellectual readers. I mean if you re a good reader of books in this field, you already heard same things 100times.. a typical self-help/motivation book that I often come across: authors read some books, watch some videos and analyze some articles, and then they stuff all cool infos into their books... and re-sell.. pff.

[Enda Hackett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clarity is a book that skims over many self help issues and advice. It repeats many points I have previously read in other books. The author at some stages seems to be writing just for the sake of it and those url and smartphone reminders at the end of each chapter are just page fillers and annoying.

[Tariq Mahmood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jamie's differentiation of thoughts into categories, inside-out and outside-in is definitely a new concept to savour. Most of the other concepts are already covered by any book or resource on Mindfullness. The narration of this book was subdued and sounded artificial otherwise for a self help book, this was a great listen.

[Nujud Alaql · Rating 4 out of 5]

1- إن ما تستهلكه المعلومات شديدة الوضوح إنها تستهلك انتباه متلقيها <هيربرت سيمون > .
2- الصفاء هو الحالة الطبيعية لذهنك .
3- عندما نتمتع برأس صاف يكون لدينا كل شيء نحتاجه لاداء العمل المطروح .
4- الوضوح هو خاصية تفكير فطري تنشأ بشكل طبيعي ؛ إنها ليست شيء تقوم به ؛ بل إنها شيء تمتلكه بالفعل .
5- الازدحام الذهني باهظ الثمن .
6- ليس هناك أشخاص مستعبدون إلى حد ميئوس منه أكثر من أولئك الذين يعتقدون خطأ أنهم أحرار.
7- عندما يؤمن شخص إيمانا عميقا بخرافة فإنها تتجلى في كل شيء يؤمن به وكل شيء يفعله وطريقه قيامه به .
8- لا يمكننا تعليم الناس اي شيء ؛ بل يمكننا فقط مساعدتهم على اكتشافه داخل أنفسهم <جاليليو جاليلي> .
9- القراءة بحثا عن بصيرة هي القراءة بدون وجود شيء في ذهنك .
10-الفكر يخلق العالم ثم يقول لم افعلها <ديفيد بوم> .
11- شعورنا بالواقع ينتج بكل معنى الكلمة من الأشياء التي تتألف منها الأحلام .
12- نسيج واقعك التجريبي ينتج عن ذهنك .
13- الفكر هو مبدأ الواقع .
14- التضليل هو فن تلقين سلسلة من الأفكار في ذهن المشاهد < الان الان >.
15- الامان والرفاهية والسعادة والرضى لا تنشأ من شيء خارجك ومن ثم فإنها لا تتأثر بأي شيء خارجك ، جميع المشاعر تنشأ من الداخل إلى الخارج .
16- نحن نخطئ عندما نسند تجاربنا المشبعة والممتعة إلى شيء ما غير التفكير ؛ إلى ظروفنا و آمالنا المستقبلية و أحداثنا السابقة والى أشخاص آخرين .
17- نحن نخطئ عندما نسند تجاربنا المضطربة والكريهة والجياشة إلى شيء التفكير ؛ إنها تنشأ من داخلنا فقط .
18- الفكر مبدأ الواقع ، الوعي مبدأ التجربة ، العقل مبدأ القوة .
19- وضوح الفهم يؤدي إلى وضوح الذهن .
20- المشكلات الرئيسية في العالم هي حصيلة الاختلاف بين طريقة سير الطبيعة وطريقة تفكير الناس <جريجوري بيتسون> .
21- الخوف إشارة قوية على البقاء على قيد الحياة .
22- ما يفكر فيه المفكر يبرهن عليه المبرهن < ليونارد أور >.
23- نحن جميعا نعرف بديهيا أن أفكارنا عابرة وسريعة الزوال .
24- عندما نكون محصورين داخل سجن أفكار اعتيادية من وحي العقل يبدو من المضحك اعتقاد أن الحرية قد تكون وشيكة على الاقل حتى تعرف من يملك المفتاح .
25- أنت دوما ما تعيش في شعور تفكيرك .
26- نحن لا نتجول في ظروفنا بل نتجول في تجربتنا .
27- أكثر ثلاثة أسباب وراء التوتر هو العمل ، مقابلات التوظيف وزحمة المرور .
28- الوضوح المتزايد هو نتيجة حتمية لتحول يحدث في فهمك لطريقة سير الحياة وكونك أكثر مواءمة مع الواقع .
29- الفكر ينشئ العالم ثم يقول أنا لم أفعل هذا .
30- نحن لا نعرف من اكتشف الماء ولكننا نعرف أنه لم يكن السمك < مارشال ماكلوهان> .
31- الحالات الذهنية العاطفية هي شيء اختاره الشخص ودخل فيه و أداره .
32- الوضوح ليس إنجازا إنه حاله موجودة مسبقا .
33- المادة تتدفق من مكان لآخر وتتحد بشكل مستمر لتصبح أنت ، أيا كان ما أنت عليه إذن فإنك لست الشيء الذي خلقت منه <ريتشارد دوكنز > .
34- أنت لست أفكارك حيال نفسك ؛ أنت لست محتوى تفكيرك أو هيكله ؛ ومن أنت في الحقيقة يفوق بكثير جدا ما تعتقد أنك أنت .
35-لا تجعل ضجيج آراء الآخرين يطغي على صوتك الداخلي والأهم من ذلك تحل بالشجاعة لاتباع قلبك و حدسك .
36- جميع الأشياء العظيمة يتم انجازها لذاتها < روبيرت فروست > .
37- أعظم امجادنا ليس ألا نسقط أبدا بل أن ننهض في كل مرة نسقط فيها < كونفوشيوس >.
38- إن الحياة ليست مشكلة تتطلب حلاً ؛ بل هي لغز يتطلب أن نعيشه ونجربه .
39- لا يمكن حل أي مشكلة من نفس مستوى الوعي الذي أوجدها .
40- السيد لا يحاول أن يكون قويا ؛ لذلك هو قوي بحق ، الشخص العادي يستمر في البحث عن القوة ؛ لذلك لا يحصل على ما يكفيه ، السيد لا يفعل شيئا ؛ لكنه لا يترك شيئا غير منجز ، الشخص العادي دائنا يفعل أشياء لكن يتبقى الكثير لفعله <لاوتسي > .
41- القادة لا يخلقون تابعين إنهم يخلقون مزيدا من القادة <رالف نادر > .
42- التفكر الخرافي يشبه السراب .
43-عندما يكون ذهنك غير مشغول بشيء تكون حرا لتقديم أفضل ما عندك .
44- يجب أن نكون مستعدين للتخلص من الحياة التي خططنا لها ، لكي نحظى بالحياة التي تنتظرنا ؛ يجب إزالة القشرة القديمة قبل أن تظهر القشرة الجديدة < جوزيف كامبل > .
45- بينما تدرك أن سعادتك وأمنك ورخاء لا يعتمدون على ظروفك ، يصبح تغيير ظروفك أكثر سهولة .
46- الحياة أهم من أن تؤخذ بجدية .
47- المستقبل ينتمي لأولئك المستعدين للتقدم خطوة أبعد من ذلك ، والبدء في التأثير على فهم عملائهم لكيفية عمل الحياة .
48- جميعنا بشر جميعنا لديه تقلبات خاصة به .

[Debhs · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars actually but Goodreads doesn’t show that as an option. (Audible version )
I agreed with the general idea of the book and found the first 6 chapters interesting and pleasant to follow. I appreciated the reflection points at the end of each chapters. Made it feel like a ‘work in progress book’
However, the overused ‘it’s all in your thoughts’ type of thinking doesn’t exactly resonate with me and, in all honesty, I was expecting something slightly different. I admit this is my fault for perhaps not having a look at more reviews.

A point in favour of the book is that it gives a very general idea of the philosophical background behind the concept of perception, although it oversimplifies in the middle chapters and the point in favour gets lost on the way.

One other thing that I found distracting were the continuous promotions at the end of each and every single chapter. They made me feel like the book I was listening to was a commercial and not something to get my brain working while walking back home.

For the reason above, I’ve started this book one and a million times and have come to the simple realisation that maybe it is just not for me.

[Vita · Rating 4 out of 5]

After being so consumed by all the mind altering books and changing negative thinking to positive, or completely getting rid of all the negative emotions, this book came to me as some fresh air. Finally it said that we don’t need to “do nothing” to change our thinking, it stated that our mind can “self-correct” as long as we truly understand that our thoughts create our life and our reality. I think that all the other books as much as they helped me at the same time those books are responsible for me avoiding any negativity and leaning toward “toxic positivity”. On the other hand I can’t give this book 5 starts, because I did understand and believe in his words but I didn’t really understand how to proceed with implementing this change and becoming “wiser” as he put it. I didn’t notice much change in myself, maybe inspired some days and excited to learn more about following my intuition. But not much of touchable benefits so far.

[Paul M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best book on the 3 Principles.
(Check out 'The Inside-Out Revolution' or 'One Thought Changes Everything' or Banks' 'The Missing Link'.) It has some good passages but it is desperately repetitive and most of the examples from life lack detail and are not particularly enlightening. I give the book a positive rating because any book that shares this understanding is a worthy enterprise. I see the author then wrote a shorter version of the book ('The Little Book of Clarity'). Maybe that's the one I should have read!

[Zenbean · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find all the trademarked phrases very irritating.

The author does have a knack for giving great examples to explain complicated ideas.

I am surprised no one seems to be mentioning the biggies for the three principles . . . if these concepts (Mind, Consciousness and Thought) interest you, look up Sydney Banks and George Pransky.

[Donald Lovett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worth taking notes. Very easy to read

I had to check this book out at least three times to complete reading and studying this material. Each time more appeared as if the book was updated while I waited for it on hold. Each chapter is complete in itself yet keeps true to the title. Clarity.

[Simon Limpus · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book makes a lot sense in terms of the principles but I found them hard to understand on how to apply them in my daily life. I found it even harder to keep implementing them. I also found the book hard work to get to the understanding in the first place, having to re read pages and read it slowly. Some of the wisdom in it and realizations are powerful.

[Sapna A · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superb book


A superb book. You will have to read a couple of times to get the best out. I hope it gets into the hands of many. I am sure many will get benefitted by this book.

[Evita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jamie's writing is brilliant, comforting and led me to peace of mind from the very beginning. His words resonated with me, because I already know them to be true. It feels like our wisdom on paper.

[Mohammed Rider · Rating 4 out of 5]

keep exploring ✣ connect with others ✣ share your discoveries ✣ deepen your understanding

[Nicky Massey · Rating 5 out of 5]

All I can say is...Absolutely amazing!! A must read!!

[Nick Prowse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Important message but the delivery I felt was too confusing. Perhaps more a reflection of where my awareness is at present

[Bob Ruscitto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful

Offers considerable information for reframing self-talk.

Effective for improving athletic performance by relying on instinct. Helps to quiet a hurtful dialogue.