The Clarity Map

A 5-minute reflection for a decision stuck in the fog - turning one blocked path into several.

When a decision feels stuck, it's rarely the goal that's missing. It's the sense that there's only one way through - and it's blocked. Clarity isn't the absence of obstacles; it's seeing more than one route. Bring to mind a decision or goal that's sitting in the fog right now.

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Map your routes

One stuck decision - and more than one way through it.

1 · What's stuck - the decision or goal sitting in the fog right now

2 · The direct route - if nothing were in the way, the most obvious next step

3 · The learning route - what you'd need to find out, test, or learn to open a way

4 · The ‘who’ route - who has faced this, or could open a door you can't

5 · Your move - the one route you'll start, and its first concrete step

Your map

Three ways through, not none

You came in with one path, and it was blocked. You leave with three - which is the whole point. Clarity isn't certainty about the right answer; it's having enough visible routes that you're no longer stuck. The fog lifts the moment there's more than one way to move.

Your first step this week

A goal, a few routes, and the will to take one - that isn't optimism. It's how clarity actually works.

The evidence behind this map

The idea underneath: hope, in the research sense, is a thinking skill - the routes you can see, plus the will to take them. A few well-established ideas sit underneath the map:

Hope is a method, not a mood. Hope theory (Snyder) defines it precisely: a goal, plus visible pathways to it, plus the agency to walk one. Stuckness is usually a pathways problem - you can see only one route, and it's blocked.
More routes, less fog. Generating several pathways - not the single perfect one - is what restores the sense of forward motion. Options lower the felt cost of any one obstacle.
You move on the map, not the terrain. Sensemaking research (Weick) shows we act on the picture we've built of a situation. Redraw the map with more routes on it, and movement returns.
It compounds. Hope, like self-efficacy, is a buildable state rather than a fixed trait (psychological capital) - which is why this gets easier each time.

Drawn from hope theory and coaching psychology. Nothing you write here is collected or stored - it stays in your browser.

Go deeper - reading

Making Hope Happen - Shane J. Lopez (2013)

Thinking in Bets - Annie Duke (2018)

The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More - Michael Bungay Stanier (2016)

References (APA 7)

Snyder, C. R. (2002). Hope theory: Rainbows in the mind. Psychological Inquiry, 13(4), 249–275.

Weick, K. E., Sutcliffe, K. M., & Obstfeld, D. (2005). Organizing and the process of sensemaking. Organization Science, 16(4), 409–421.

Luthans, F., Youssef, C. M., & Avolio, B. J. (2007). Psychological capital: Developing the human competitive edge. Oxford University Press.

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A Flourishing Spark · From alexandra-riha.com · Published June 2026
© 2026 Alexandra Riha Coaching · coaching@alexandra-riha.com