In last week’s blog post, Charlie introduced our summer blog series, entitled “Generosity and Wealth,” by discussing the joy and fulfillment that people can experience by living a life of generosity instead of a life of purely personal consumption.
In fact, judging by the daily deluge of marketing and advertising we all experience living in the twenty-first century, you would be forgiven for believing that personal consumption and instant gratification are the keys to lasting happiness.
While there is certainly nothing wrong with treating ourselves, we believe that true joy and contentment comes from intentionally and proactively “living in alignment.”
Today, we will take a step back and explore a reason why that can be true, as it can seem counterintuitive to some people in today’s culture. Let’s dive in!
The Alignment Model
What is living in alignment? It is best described as thinking through your deeply held values and intentionally aligning your life goals and your actions with those values.
Let’s dive into each of these components to understand this process:
Values
Your values are foundational principles that are most important to you.
These principles are deeply personal and, whether you realize it or not, will subtly guide decision-making and impact one’s perception of their life. For example, they often include things such as family, friendship, generosity, faith, or security (just to name a few).
It is easy to allow life’s distractions to pull us away from what is truly important, so it is vital to think through your own values and revisit them periodically to ensure that you do not drift from them in pursuit of something else.
Goals
Think of goals like ideas or desires.
They can be concrete and easily measurable or more abstract in nature. Whatever form they take, they should be an accurate reflection of your life’s values.
One of the reasons we strongly recommend revisiting your values regularly is to ensure that your goals are accurately reflective of your values and are moving you closer to a life that clearly reflects your values to the world around you.
Actions
Your actions are the regular steps you are taking to achieve your goals.
Life is full of distractions and constant clamoring for your attention. As a result, it is very easy for us to get distracted and engage in actions that prevent us from achieving our goals.
Having a well-defined set of values and a list of goals that reflect them will enable you to have a better way to filter what actions you should take to achieve your goals and what actions you should avoid.
Living in Alignment: Personal and Attainable
As you can see, the process of putting definition to your deeply held values, setting goals that clearly reflect those values, and engaging in actions that will get you closer to achieving those goals is a very proactive process that requires diligence and intentionality.
It is also quite personal, as one person’s values are not going to be the same as someone else’s.
The Master’s team is honored with the privilege to come alongside our clients to both aid them in defining their values and assist them in the best strategies to employ towards achieving their goals. If we can help you, or someone you know, please reach out!
