Feeling Uncertain? How to Create Clarity and Move Forward

This is the third post in my series, Creativity in Real Life — exploring creativity not as performance or talent, but as a practical skill for everyday living.

In the first post, we explored creativity as a durable life skill — especially when trying harder isn’t working. Last week, we looked at how creativity can help when we feel stuck and need a new way forward.

This week, we’re talking about another common real-life experience: wanting clarity in the middle of uncertainty.

Because many of life’s most important questions don’t come with neat answers or obvious next steps.

Sometimes creativity is exactly what helps us move forward wisely… even before everything feels clear.

Some seasons of life come with clear instructions.

Others do not.

Sometimes uncertainty looks big and obvious:

Should I change jobs?Should I move?Should I start something new?

Sometimes it looks professional:

How do I lead a team with different personalities?How do I navigate shrinking budgets and organizational change?How do I make wise decisions when expectations keep shifting?

And sometimes it looks far more ordinary:

Why does what used to work no longer work?How do I care for myself in this season?Where do I even begin?Why do I feel stuck when I know something needs to change?

Different questions. Same experience.

We’re trying to move forward… and there isn’t one obvious right answer.

One desire I hear from my clients more than any other (and if I’m being honest, it’s probably what I say most often to my coach):  “I just want clarity.”

That’s where creativity becomes deeply practical.

Not creativity as paintbrushes and glitter.Not creativity as being “the ideas person.”

Creativity as the ability to find a wise way forward when life gets messy.

Why Creativity Matters in Leadership and Real Life

When I talk about leadership, I mean both/and.

Yes—titles, teams, organizations, budgets, strategy, people dynamics. Those matter.

And also: self-leadership

Leading yourself through change.Leading your energy and priorities.Leading your household through shifting demands.Leading your next season with intention instead of drifting into it.

Many women I know are doing both kinds of leadership every day.

They’re guiding teams at work… while also guiding families, schedules, transitions, aging parents, growing children, and their own inner lives.

That kind of leadership rarely comes with perfect clarity.

Often it requires decisions in motion. Adjustments in real time. Wisdom before certainty.

Which is why creativity matters more than many people realize.

Creativity isn’t a detour from responsibility.

It’s one of the ways we meet it well.

I Thought I Knew the Problem

Over the past year or so, I had grown increasingly discouraged about my health.

Really… about my weight.

Perimenopause had entered the chat. Weight gain had followed. Then a foot injury sidelined exercise for a while. As the foot improved, knee pain from arthritis showed up to keep things interesting.

My clothes weren’t fitting the way they used to.

And beneath all of that was another frustration many women know well:

What used to work didn’t seem to work anymore.

My first question was simple:

How might I lose weight?

Reasonable question.

But it turned out not to be the most helpful one.

A Simple Creativity Tool for Finding Clarity

One of the things I’ve learned through years of coaching, facilitation, and my connection to communities like the Creative Problem Solving Institute is that clarity often comes through better questions.

One tool I especially love is called:

Why? What’s Stopping You?

It’s simple. Powerful. Surprisingly revealing.

You begin by turning your complaint or challenge into a question.

Then you ask:

Why is this important to me?(And keep asking.)

Then you ask:

What’s stopping me?(And keep asking.)

The goal is not to interrogate yourself into exhaustion.

The goal is to get underneath the surface problem and discover what actually matters… and what actually needs attention.

Because sometimes we stay stuck trying to solve the wrong problem.

What I Really Wanted (Hint: It Wasn’t Weight Loss)

So I started with:

How might I lose weight?

Then I asked:

Why is that important to me?

At first, the answers were predictable.

I wanted to feel healthier.I wanted less pain.I wanted easier movement.I wanted my clothes to fit better.

All true.

But as I kept going, something deeper emerged.

I wanted an active life.

I wanted to travel with my husband in the years ahead. I wanted to walk through cities in Europe, hike scenic places, explore, learn, and enjoy what this next chapter of life might hold.

I wanted energy for experiences.Mobility for adventure.Vitality for joy.

Now we were getting somewhere.

That was a very different kind of motivation.

Not shame.Not punishment.Not “fixing myself.”

A future worth moving toward.

Sometimes we think we need more discipline, when what we really need is a clearer why.

What Was Standing in the Way

Then came the second half of the tool.

What’s stopping me?

That question surfaced some honest answers.

I wasn’t sure what works now in midlife.

I wasn’t sure meaningful change was really possible. There’s no shortage of messages telling women a certain age to lower expectations.

I felt overwhelmed by conflicting advice.

I knew I needed guidance I could trust—someone credible who could cut through the noise.

And I needed a process that felt sustainable, not punishing. Something I could actually commit to.

So the real question changed.

It was no longer:

How might I lose weight?

It became:

How might I find trustworthy support and take one sustainable next step?

That question changed everything.

Because once I could see the real need, the next step became obvious.

And as life would have it, not long after that, an opportunity landed in my inbox that matched exactly what I had uncovered: trusted guide, manageable commitment, supportive structure.

Easy yes.

I don’t need to tell you all the results today.

The point is this:

Clarity didn’t arrive first.

It emerged through better questions.

Same Tool. Different Problems.

I’ve seen this happen with clients too.

One leader I worked with felt frustrated with the lack of a shared vision or roadmap in her organization. Everything felt tangled, broad, and unclear.

But as we worked through better questions, she realized communication breakdowns were a major part of the problem.

Then, one practical focus emerged:

How might I help two key people communicate more effectively?

Her leadership team.  My weight.  Different challenges. Same tool.

We often feel stuck because the problem feels too big, too vague, or too layered.

Progress begins when we stop trying to solve everything and name the real issue for right now.

Creativity Is More Than Making Things

This is why I keep saying creativity matters in real life.

Creativity is not just making art or inventing products.

It is also:

Reframing problems.Seeing patterns.Uncovering what matters most.Generating options.Asking wiser questions.Finding movement before certainty arrives.

That matters in boardrooms and break rooms.

In ministries and marriages.

In budgets and bodies.

In teams and transitions.

In everyday life.

When You’re Too Close to the Problem

Of course, we can ask ourselves powerful questions.

And sometimes we’re too close to the problem to hear our own answers clearly.

We all have blind spots. Emotional fog. Familiar patterns. Internal noise.

That’s where an outside guide can be so valuable.

Someone to listen carefully.Someone to notice what you’re missing.Someone to ask the next wise question.

What might it be like to work through Why? What’s Stopping You? with me—having someone guide the process and help you hear what’s already trying to emerge?

Sometimes support is the next step.

Questions to Help You Find Clarity

If you’re waiting for perfect clarity before moving forward, consider this:

Maybe you don’t need the whole answer yet.

Maybe you need the next honest question.

What challenge am I trying to solve at the surface level?Why does this matter to me… really?What’s actually stopping me right now?What kind of support would help?What might be the real next step for this season?

If You Need a Place to Begin

When decisions feel complex, very often the clearest next step comes when we know what matters most. 

That’s exactly why I created my Free Needs & Values Assessment—a simple tool to help you name what matters most in this season, so your next steps can come from alignment instead of confusion.

Next week in Creativity in Real Life, I’ll explore another place creativity matters deeply: experimentation — the willingness to try, test, adjust, and learn as we go.

Because often, clarity doesn’t come before movement.

It comes because we moved.

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