The clarity paradox
Clarity is often treated like a reward. Work hard, become skilled, gain options, and clarity should follow. But many high performers experience something different. The more capable they become, the harder it is to feel sure. The more successful they are, the more ambiguous their next step can feel. It’s disorientating because it contradicts the story we’re told about progress. If you’re smart, experienced, and outwardly successful, why would you feel uncertain? The answer is rarely a lack of discipline or confidence. More often, it’s the side-effect of having too many viable paths. Beginners get the gift of a narrow path There’s a simplicity that comes with being new. Not always an easy simplicity. Beginners still feel anxious, exposed, and out of their depth. But it is a structural simplicity. The choices are limited. The goals are obvious. The next step is usually “more of the basics”. Beginners don’t have to spend much time deciding who they are in relation to the work. They’re allowed to be in motion without a fully formed identity. They can be unfinished without it being read as a problem. Their world is constrained, and constraint has a strange benefit: it reduces cognitive load. It offers a sense of direction even when confidence is low. Capability expands choice. Choice expands noise. High performers live in a different reality. Competence creates options. Options create comparison. Comparison creates mental friction. You’re not choosing between a good option and a bad one. You’re choosing between several good options, each with credible arguments. That is a more complex problem than most people acknowledge. And it’s why capable people can feel stuck in ways that don’t make sense from the outside. You can do many things, which means: • you can imagine many futures • you can see the downsides of each • you can anticipate regret in advance • you can justify staying where you are because it still “works” This isn’t overthinking as a personality flaw. It’s the mind doing what it’s designed to do: trying to reduce uncertainty when the stakes feel high. Except now the stakes don’t just feel practical. They feel personal. The quiet identity question underneath “What should I do?” When you’re highly capable, career decisions rarely stay purely career decisions. They become identity decisions. If you choose one direction, you’re not only choosing a role. You’re choosing a version of yourself. You’re also, implicitly, not choosing the other versions you could have been. That’s the hidden weight high performers carry: the awareness that their choices have consequences not only for outcomes, but for identity. This is why frameworks like Ikigai can be both helpful and frustrating for capable people. A common element in purpose discussions is “what you are good at”. That can be clarifying if your strengths are narrow. If your strengths are broad, it can be the opposite. You look at your own list and think: yes. And yes. And yes. Now what? Being good at something does not automatically tell you what is yours to build next. Capability is not the same as direction. Choice overload isn’t a moral failing We tend to talk about indecision as if it’s a character issue. But there’s a well-established idea in psychology that too much choice can be demotivating. When the number of options expands, people can find it harder to choose and harder to commit. The mind becomes busier, not clearer. This matters for high performers because their option set is genuinely larger: • more transferable skills • more credibility to pivot • more networks willing to open doors • more evidence that they’ll “land on their feet” On paper, this looks like freedom. Internally, it can feel like pressure. Because with more freedom comes more responsibility for the outcome. If you can succeed in multiple directions, you can also feel as though you should be able to decide easily. When you can’t, it’s easy to conclude something is wrong with you. Nothing may be wrong. You may simply be experiencing choice overload. Why your mind keeps looping High performers often describe a particular kind of mental looping. Revisiting the same questions repeatedly. Researching, reflecting, talking it through, then coming back to the same uncertainty. This is often labelled “analysis paralysis”, but that phrase can be dismissive. It implies you’re stuck because you’re thinking too much. A kinder, more accurate interpretation is that your mind is trying to compensate for a missing internal anchor. When the decision is identity-relevant, logic alone rarely resolves it. You can build a spreadsheet, map pros and cons, create scenarios, and still feel unclear. Not because you’re irrational, but because the question isn’t only “Which option is best?” It’s “Which option is aligned with who I am now?” That’s a different category of decision. And it’s why overthinking can be information rather than a flaw. It may be signalling that the decision can’t be solved purely at the level of optimisation. The success trap: being rewarded for adaptation Another reason high performers struggle with clarity is that they are often rewarded for being adaptable. They learn quickly. They can play different roles. They can work with different personalities. They can translate between stakeholders. They can hold ambiguity for others. This is a genuine strength. But it can create a subtle trap: when you can adapt to almost anything, you can lose touch with what you actually want. Not in an abstract “dream life” sense, but in a grounded sense of preference, pace, values, and what you want your days to feel like. If you’ve spent years meeting expectations, achieving outcomes, and being the person who can handle it, you may not have had much reason to ask: “Do I want this?” The system rewards your capability either way. Until one day the internal question becomes hard to ignore. Clarity isn’t always something you “find”. Sometimes it’s something you stop outsourcing. High performers are often surrounded by external signals: metrics, promotions, feedback, market value, reputation. These can
Career Alignment & Reinvention
Writing on this theme is in progress. It will appear here shortly.