You don't need to put the yolk in the egg.
The yolk is already in the egg.

Valda Monroe
Educator, single-paradigm pioneer

‘These principles are to psychology what the discovery of germs was to medicine…’

The realization hit me the moment I woke up. It was the spring of 2009, and I'd been exploring the principles behind clarity for six months. I'd seen some big changes in my own life and in the lives of my clients. But until that morning, I'd been relating to these principles as an approach, intervention or methodology; as yet another tool for my (already crowded) toolbox. The realization that these were actually principles – fundamental laws of reality – changed everything, and it took my breath away…

The principles behind clarity represent the future of psychology…
These principles are to psychology what the discovery of germs was to medicine.

The moment I saw this, I knew I was going to be exploring and sharing these principles for the next 20 years. Just as the acceptance of germ theory had a massive impact on the physical health of humanity, the widespread realization of these principles would have a massive impact on the psychological health of humanity. I felt inspired, with a sense of clarity and motivation. Purpose had found me and given me a glimpse of the future. My priorities changed in a heartbeat; it was clear what I had to do… ‘You have to get a deeper understanding of these principles, and start sharing them with people’.

And that's when I started feeling insecure. An explosion of thoughts crowded into my mind…

• Who did I think I was, claiming to know the future of psychology? I'd dropped out of university and didn't even have a degree.
• Why just 20 years? If I was serious about it, surely I would be committed to doing this for the rest of my life.
• Who was I to be telling people they had the source of security, wisdom and wellbeing already within them? I was a habitual worrier, with a variety of personal issues.

Fortunately, I'd caught ‘the leadership bug’ many years earlier, so I was no stranger to the feelings of insecurity that often follow on the heels of inspiration (sometimes referred to as ‘impostor syndrome’). By the time you've finished this chapter, you'll have caught the leadership bug too, as you get more in touch with your inner source of leadership; the key to courage, confidence and certainty.

You are already a leader

Whether you're the CEO of a Fortune 500 company… or you're currently on welfare… or (like most people reading this book) you're somewhere else along that spectrum…

You have the innate capacities of leadership within you…
You are already a leader…

You are already connected to your inner source of leadership, and (whether you're aware of it or not) you've already had times in your life when you've demonstrated this fact.

When you've got nothing on your mind, you're a natural leader.
When you're hanging out in reality, leadership is common sense.

When are you a leader?

‘What are some of the times and situations in your life when you’ve shown up as a leader?' I've asked this question to countless participants on my workshops and programmes. At first, people sometimes protest that they don't have any examples. But as they relax and listen to other people recount their experiences, their own leadership stories emerge…

• The teenage boy who saved his brother from choking while their mother watched helplessly.
• The intern whose stroke of insight saved their company tens of thousands of pounds.
• The young girl who stepped in when another child was being picked on and stared the bullies down.

They often say ‘I didn't think of that as being a leader; it just seemed obvious’. These examples may seem like anomalies – too rare or too small to ‘qualify’ as leadership – but they reveal its essence…

When we're caught up in contaminated thinking, we look to others, trying to figure out what to do.
When you've got nothing on your mind, your innate leadership qualities emerge effortlessly.

Leadership is something you catch In my first book, CLARITY, I explained the difference between symptoms and causes as follows:

The deep drivers are your innate leadership qualities

So what's the cause that gives rise to the symptoms of leadership? The formless principles of MIND, CONSCIOUSNESS and THOUGHT. These principles create 100% of your moment-to-moment experience. When contaminated thinking is subtracted, they show up as your entrepreneurial superpowers; the eight deep drivers we mentioned in Chapter 1. These innate qualities are the source of emotional intelligence and authentic leadership…

Direction: A sense of direction, purpose and motivation, free from urgency and undue pressure. Setting out to create a result requires a sense of direction, especially if you want to involve other people in that result.

Resilience: A strong sense of inner resilience, security and trust in yourself in life. Resilience is essential for dealing with the ups and downs of life, allowing you to navigate change and thrive through uncertainty. It's the deep driver behind why some people and organizations bounce back in the face of setbacks, while others struggle to recover.

Creativity: A reliable source of creativity, insight and inspired ideas. Creativity is the driver behind all problem-solving and an essential power source when it comes to creating results.

Authenticity: The freedom to be yourself, speak your truth and do what you know to be right. As well as being fundamental to discerning your authentic desires, ‘knowing yourself’ and walking your talk is also one of the keys to drawing other people to your cause if you want to involve others in the results you're creating.

Intuition: Alignment with your intuition and inner wisdom, your internal guidance system. Whether you call it intuition, wisdom or ‘gut feel’, extraordinary results-creators from Thomas Edison and Richard Branson to Oprah Winfrey and Steve Jobs have acknowledged it as one of the key drivers in creating results.

Presence: Present, aware and available to the moment, connected with your mind, your body and the world around you. Presence is a rare quality, but when someone has it, other people sit up and take notice. As well as being a key to influence, presence brings with it playful curiosity, charisma and enhanced awareness, making it particularly useful when it comes to creating results.

Connection: Warm, genuine connections with other people, leading to stronger relationships with clients, colleagues, friends, family members and lovers. Strong relationships are important, particularly when your results involve other people.

Clarity: A clear mind, free from contaminated thinking, fully present and in the moment, with the levels of performance, satisfaction and enjoyment that brings. We live in a world of increasing volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. Clarity is the ability to discern the factors that make a difference and act on them productively, without being distracted by the ‘noise’ in the system.

We started this chapter talking about the realization that the principles behind clarity represent the future of psychology. That one realization captivated me and has been guiding me ever since. It had me sell the business I'd spent so much time and energy developing, turn my back on the field I'd become a leader in and move in an entirely new direction. The fact that the book you're reading even exists is a result of that realization. So when you have a realization, how do you know what to do next?