Confidence and clarity

Let us say I cannot see clearly, and I need to walk through a group of people, but I am very confident. What will happen if I walk through? A lot of people are walking through their life like this. They cannot see a damn thing, but it does not matter, they are confident. This is disastrous for you and for everyone around you. If there is no clarity in my vision but I have confidence, I am a disaster.

Sometime ago, I visited a friend of mine who was a doctor – not as a client, but just to see him. The clinic is in the Malabar region – the land of the king cobra – snake bites are common. Outside the clinic there was an advertisement which said, "A common antidote for all types of snakes."

Essentially in India, there are two basic varieties of snake venoms. These are two completely different kinds of chemicals, so there cannot be a common antidote. Today, because people cannot identify what snake is what, doctors are administering an antidote for both together, which is very damaging for the system.

I went in and was in conversation with the doctor, and casually I said, "How did you allow this board to come up in your clinic? This is not right. Someone is claiming there is a common antidote."

He is a very wise doctor. He said, "See, almost ninety percent of the Indian snakes are non-poisonous, and this antidote works ninety percent of the time."

Ninety is a good percentage for anything. Confidence is like that. If a snake bites you, just look up at the sky and say "Dam-doom-dis-dis-dis!" the venom will go away… ninety percent of the time. And people will get more confident because it works ninety percent of the time. That is a fool's way to exist, isn't it? What you need is clarity, not confidence.

Everywhere, people are being taught to be confident. We think confidence is a kind of a substitute for clarity – it is not. If we want life to happen the way we want it, the first and foremost requirement is to be clear about what it is that we really want. Even simple practices can go a long way in creating this.

Every day when you wake up in the morning, sit up on your bed cross-legged, sit with your hands open, eyes closed and just look at everything you are not. Appreciate all that you have gathered – your home, your family, your relationships, your qualifications, your body, your clothes – everything. Be thankful for that.

At the same time, identify everything that is not you as "This is what I have gathered" and mentally keep it aside. What you gather can be yours, but it can never be you. Spend ten minutes in the morning and ten minutes in the night every day. It will definitely have a big impact upon your clarity.