We often assume that clarity about ourselves and our world is something people either have or don’t have, a gift distributed unevenly at birth. Some people seem naturally perceptive while others stumble through life in a fog. Camus challenges this assumption directly. Clear-sightedness, he insists, is not an inheritance but an achievement.

The key word is patience. Lucidity doesn’t arrive in a sudden flash of insight that permanently illuminates everything. It develops gradually, through repeated effort and honest self-examination. Each time we resist a comforting illusion, each time we face an uncomfortable truth about ourselves or our situation, we strengthen our capacity for clarity. The process resembles building muscle or learning a language. Progress comes slowly, sometimes imperceptibly, but it comes.

This perspective offers real hope. If you feel confused about your life’s direction or uncertain about your values, you’re not trapped by some deficiency of character. You’re simply at an earlier stage of development. The person who sees clearly today once saw through a fog. They developed their vision through practice, through choosing honesty over self-deception, through the patient work of paying attention.

You can cultivate the same clarity. Not through wishing or waiting, but through the daily discipline of looking directly at your life, questioning your assumptions, and refusing to hide from what you find. Lucidity is learned.