Why Clarity Is Rare in Intelligent People
(And How to Achieve it Anyway)

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I talk about mental clarity a lot, but what does it actually mean and why is it so sought after or spoken about often in the wellness space?

Mental clarity to me — means a state of decisiveness, void of noise, and what remains is pure signal.

In simpler terms, less chaos, more silence.

But the more intelligent people I speak to or come across, the less I find that this trait exists in them.

A quote I think about often is when Elon Musk said:

This is not exclusive to Elon, I think this actually goes for most people who score above average not only in intelligence, but in ambition too.

So, that's probably you.

Overthinking, pattern overload and the cost of seeing too much too early are the ingredients for metal chaos.

If they are not treated, the storm becomes larger and will snowball until something in you breaks.

But despite this, I will show you how to achieve and prolong your mental states of clarity with proven techniques I’ve used on high performers I work with,

and if you get out of your own way, you’ll change how you see the storm forever.

I. Being too High IQ is hurting you

I made a post recently about the cost of intelligence.

Most people think that being high IQ is what you should aspire to, because that’s what school taught us success looked like.

Straight A’s and Scholarships.

But in reality, the highest IQ people I know, are also the most troubled, because they cripple under the weight of their own mind.

It’s often the case that those who appear ‘dumb’ end up being rich and successful, and the smartest people we know end up depressed, aimless or successful on paper but empty inside.

Why is that?

Optimizing for intelligence and only collecting information can lead to paralysis by analysis (overanalyzing every situation and every move until you have so much decision fatigue you end up doing nothing at all.)

It’s death by a thousand acts of consumption.

Whereas those who just act - like jumping in to the deep end of a new business venture, starting that YouTube channel, talking to that person - often end up with the better result.

Now maintaining those results, that’s a different story, and why you’ll see a lot of people who win fast, lose it just as quick.

So intelligence does matter, but my point is, there is a difference between intelligence (acquiring knowledge) and wisdom (acting on that knowledge).

You should strive for wisdom.

Wisdom = knowledge + action, and that formula creates massive results.

I have a theory that your level of action taking is related to your level of risk tolerance, and that is determined by your level of self-trust.

Something I’ve learnt from top performers is that risk is an essential factor to success, you won’t get anywhere meaningful by playing it safe.

And deeper than that, risk is an essential need for the soul, it yearns to strive for more, otherwise it slowly dies under the blanket of safety and familiarity.

A lot of intelligent people are not wise.

They are book smart, but that position usually comes attached to this idea that they are better than others, they have low risk tolerance, and low self-trust because they constantly look outwards for answers.

And it’s ironic because they’re not smart enough to see that.

And so, step one to mental clarity is to get out of your own way and understand that you can learn something from everyone.

Frankly, intelligent people will resist some of the simple practices I am going to mention because they feel above it.

But complexity is often the ego’s way of avoiding the work. Smart people often build their entire identity around being “the smart one” which makes it terrifying to act, even on the small things, before they have the perfect answer.

Harsh truth: your mind is a storm because you think you know it all (I say this with love, and am mainly speaking to myself) - allowing yourself to entertain the possibility that you may be wrong, is an important step towards clarity.

II. Your unconscious patterns rule your life (and you call it fate)
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There are about 6 primary unconscious patterns I have uncovered with the founders I work with (not an exhaustive list)

Finding out which one you are is step one towards uncovering why you are leaking so much mental energy. Here are the six patterns:

1. The People-Pleaser - Seeks external validation, can’t say no
2. The Self-Saboteur - Unconsciously blocks their own success
3. The Perfectionist - Paralysed by never being “good enough”
4. The Scarcity Mind - Operates from fear and lack
5. The Avoider - Runs from discomfort, numbs emotions
6. The Overachiever - Achieves externally, empty internally

In case you’re interested - I put together a quiz, that allows you to find out which one you are, and gives you micro tasks you can take to break those patterns, because I won’t get into that in this letter. You can access that here.​

The point is, your mind is overcrowded because you’re not aware of the patterns that rule it.

You self-sabotage or fail to commit to the tasks you know will get you to your desired goal,

not because you don’t want to or because you are not disciplined enough, but because your programming will always beat your willpower.

Patterns and biases are interesting because they pull the strings like a ventriloquist and you’re the doll behaving just as they please.

You will think it’s you making your decisions because you feel like you’re sitting in the cockpit of the plane, with the controls in your hand, but little do you know, the autopilot flick is switched and the second pilot behind you (your programming) is actually driving.

If you let them, they will continue running your life. Intelligent people are just smarter dolls, still living in this unawareness and looking for the answer somewhere outside of them.

So, the second step to clarity is awareness.

Awareness happens through observation and self-examination. When you honestly put yourself up for review, detached from emotion, you sit yourself in the position of the observer.

The observer sits in the theater of the mind, watching thoughts perform and emotions dance across the stage. They applaud, they take note, but they never mistake themselves for the actors.

Your lack of clarity, and let’s face it, purpose - stems from the idea that you are your thoughts. You are not, you are the one that hears them.

When you learn to dissociate (in a healthy way) you will finally create some space between you and your thoughts.

This gives you enough of a gap to look at them rationally instead of jumping to conclusions and allowing them to spiral.

It allows you to interrupt negative ones and replace them with better ones.

The takeaway here is, the more you notice, the less you unconsciously loop.

Training your awareness is just the art of noticing, and coincidentally that is one of the techniques I will show you, but I couldn’t give you the techniques without you first understanding why you are practicing them…

So now that’s out the way, let me give you the 3 ways you can re-centre when you begin to spiral and hear the signal again when its being muffled by the noise.

III. Mental Training

I like to think of the following techniques as mental training. When you think about it logically - you train your body in the gym, why would you neglect your mind and spirit?

I think it’s important to remember that clarity is not a destination you arrive to, it’s something you restore, it’s something you have always known,

but as you began to loosen the grip of control on what enters your mind, you began to pedestalise this feeling and thought it was a feat reserved for sages and gurus.

That’s the trick this inner resistance and programming plays on you, it makes what you want feel unattainable, when in reality it’s your true nature.

It’s all a return back to what you already knew.

Enough philosophizing - here are the techniques:

1. Writing.

Writing is like a special form of meditation. You don’t have to write like I do, it doesn’t have to be shared, it doesn’t even have to make sense. It just serves as an outlet. Most people stop writing after school finishes, and it shows…

Writing not only improves your articulation skills, but also your ability to connect thoughts and ideas.

Whether it’s journaling, or creative writing, the medium is up to you - but whenever you are in a mental rut, write one word, then one sentence, then another, and watch as your thoughts will move from the storm in your head, down through your shoulders, into your hands, and finally onto the page where they can rest.

It’s like disarming a firearm, it goes from dangerous to stable in seconds when handled correctly.

I always say “Read for ideas and write for clarity - if you do both, you become superhuman.”

Writing for me serves as a way to close any open loops in my mind. That is the number one mental hack I tell to anyone that asks - the surest path to clarity, is writing down all of your open loops and closing them.

For example, an open loop could be a conversation left unfinished, a task half-complete, or the mess in the corner of your room.

These things subtly drain your mental bandwidth and hold weight. Energy that could be allocated into something productive.

So closing an open loop could mean ending the conversation, or completing the task - but even acknowledging that these things must be done.

That subtle shift makes all the difference. I urge you to do this tonight: list all of your current open loops on paper, and see what you can close before bed, you will wake up with newfound clarity.

Suggestion: Journaling practice called “The Morning Pages” by Julia Cameron. I give this to all my clients because it’s just so effective in clearing mental clutter. As soon as you rise, pick up a pen and write for 3 continuous pages without lifting the pen from the paper. It’s supposed to literally be a stream of consciousness direct to paper, and help eliminate the weight of your thoughts. It’s not meant to be legible or read back, so keep that in mind.

2. Noticing.

I mentioned it a couple of paragraphs ago but the one of the greatest ways to clear mental clutter is to refine your “noticing” skill.

This blade of awareness, when sharp enough, cuts through chaos by bringing your attention to what’s in front of you.

It’s present moment awareness on steroids. The best thing about this is, the more you sharpen this blade, the less you will spiral in the future, because you’ll be able to draw on this skill whenever you need it.

It’s kind of like tapping into your mental peripheral vision.

I practice the art of noticing daily, almost all day.

For example as I drive to the gym, I turn off the music, roll down the windows and just let my awareness bathe in the environment that is drifting by. I’ll notice billboards, catch certain words from passerby’s conversations, number plates, road signs, the bird flying by… I am not looking for it, but I am intentionally inviting synchronicity into my life every time I do this.

But let me tell you the real reason beneath why I do this…

The more you notice, the more you become hyper-present, and in that hyper-presence you cannot help but feel that there’s more to this than meets the eye.

When I say “this” I mean life itself. I personally experience what you would call God, in those small pockets of time where I let my awareness soak in the living texture of the environment.

And that feeling, that deep sincere sense of gratitude that is created is the ultimate weapon and armor against mental chaos.

Suggestion: Try walking without your phone. Let your mind breathe, notice what catches your attention, but don’t pay it attention, keep moving. Do this daily, and keep a log of what you notice. There’s likely a pattern in there that you would have missed before.

Or try this, micro-dosing boredom: set a 15 minute timer, and just stare at the wall, sounds strange, but watch what happens as your mind tries to fight the withdrawal from dopamine. Once you beat that initial resistance, you have set the foundations for ideas to arrive.

3. Movement

Did you think I was going to say meditation?

I could have. But the truth is, everything we have already covered are forms of inactive mediation, movement is medicine because it’s active mediation.

You see, when you enter mental loops, you are like a hamster on a wheel. You run faster and faster, hoping to get a new result, but with each go around you’re just making it harder to get off. You are the hamster, not the wheel…

Only when you step outside of the loops you’ve created will you regain control and equilibrium. How do you step off the wheel?

You don’t jump off; you slow down, until the wheel comes to a stop naturally.

Slowing down the mind is intentional, it’s a practice, it must be carried out daily. And the best way to do that? It’s not more thinking.

You cannot kill thinking with thinking - walk, sprint, sauna, stretch, move, create - active meditation is oil that greases your mind so you can get un-stuck and out of a rut.

A 20 Minute walk has proven to drastically alter your state of consciousness. Your pre-frontal cortex improves, meaning your levels of focus and decision making. You regulate your dopamine levels. You increase your DMN usage - this is basically the part of your brain responsible for Meaning, purpose and creativity but it is usually numbed because of overstimulation.

I’m not claiming to be a scientist or even a psychologist; I have just spoken to a lot of experts and high achievers who have shown me the data that backs this up.

And I know this works because of my own lived experience. There’s this old Latin saying, “Solvitur Ambulando” which translates to - it is solved by walking.

The few that get this, will go very far in life.

The only real remedy to mental chaos and clutter is actively and intentionally trying to reach flow states. I spoke about this at length with Dan Koe in our conversation which you can check out here.​

Athletes often describe flow as spiritual; it's where time bends, and the self dissolves. In that pocket of time, the true you is back in the driver's seat, but the paradox is, it will feel like autopilot.

The storm in your mind isn’t going anywhere for long, you will have periods where the waters are calm, but then again a new storm can brew at any moment.

What actively changes is your relationship to it.

Stop trying to think your way out, stop waiting for the perfect state of clarity before you move, recognize that the very act of seeking “enough” clarity is often just another loop.

Instead write, notice, move and act despite the noise. Acknowledge where you are, and that it’s part of the journey.

If you had a radio, and it was only receiving interference, would you keep it on the same station hoping it resolves itself? Of course not - so why do you do the same with your mind?

I wrote recently “Logically, clarity can only come after confusion.”

When you understand this, you begin to appreciate that a certain sequence must unfold in order for things to make sense. So you act anyway, knowing that before clarity will always come confusion.

The only missing ingredient from this whole thread is one thing - time.

With enough time, effort and practice, you learn to navigate the storm. The mental chaos that once paralyzed you becomes the raw material for your work.

You learn to appreciate it because stars are not born in balanced solar systems and often times our best ideas are not birthed in regulated nervous systems.

Most intelligent people spend their whole lives waiting for their mind to quiet down before they make a move and they die waiting.

But elite operators, learn the storm is a feature of life and not a bug.

The techniques aren’t about achieving some zen state.

They’re about building enough space between stimulus and response that you can actually choose.

Hope it helps.

— Milan

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