The Difficulty of Alignment

We tend to think about the things we do in life on a difficulty scale, from "easy" to "hard". I started thinking about them as "aligned" and "unaligned" instead. "Aligned" means true to who I am, grows me as a person, or takes me a step further on a path I want to walk. Unaligned is the opposite.

Knowing whether something is aligned is laughably easy—as soon as I ask myself the question I intuitively know the answer. The key is to remember to ask. 

Realizing something is "aligned" reminds me to take the drama out of the task and just get on with it. It's amazing how much easier things become when I take away the story that they're hard and think of them as true to me or beneficial for my growth in some way.

When I see things as easy, I'm likely to keep doing them. They don't require much effort, so why think about them? But then things that are moving me in the wrong direction or are a waste of time sneak in: Taking a meeting I don't want to because it's short, staying in a relationship or a job because it's easier than the alternative, etc. If I ask myself whether these things are aligned, those that aren't become a lot harder to do, since I feel like I'm abandoning myself in the process.

What in your own life could use some reframing?

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