Is Confusion A Bad Thing?

Are you confused? Congratulations! You can find your way to clarity, but not before you work your way through the confusion. This sounds paradoxical but it’s true. In fact, when Socrates was asked how he had found the light he answered, "through darkness".

As a real estate mentor and personal coach, I get to meet many people every week and talk to some at a profound level about all types of challenges they face. Here is what I find to be true across the board.

You are not the only one having problems.
Everyone has their fair share of adversity.
Often, other people’s problems are much larger than yours.
The only way to overcome problems is by facing them.
You’re better off keeping your own problems rather than trading them.
Confusion is not bad; it’s the starting point to clarity.

One of the most important universal laws is the law of duality. Many great masters throughout history have pointed out that life is a constant battle between dichotomies. In fact, this so called "battle" is why life is so mysterious and what makes it so exciting. Our job seems to be one of a self examiner, trying to figure out where we are and how we can keep our balance between the opposite poles. Going to the extremes of “pain and pleasure”, “success and failure”, "light and dark”, “abundance and scarcity”, “happiness and sadness”, “love and hate” and so on, will deprive you of the real taste of life. You see, life only makes sense when one pole is compared with the other, or when you have profoundly experienced both ends of the spectrum. For someone who knows only pain, it’ll take a long time before they can feel pleasure.

Now, do you know why I congratulated you on your state of confusion? To me, it means that you are ready to experience clarity, to see things as they appear to be because you saw the depth of confusion and didn’t like it. You’re through with confusion! Clearly, living in total clarity is a great thing when you know confusion and if you happen to forget how it felt or what it looked like, you’ll fall into confusion again!

How do you make sure we do not fall into confusion again? You do it by living a balanced life, never going to extremes on anything no matter how good it might feel to you at the moment. To me, balance is divine. Balance is what keeps things in order and gives meaning to your purpose in life. So, next time you hear a loved one say, I’m confused. What’s your answer? Definitely not sympathy. A simple congratulation would do the trick!