Alignment Check

The Happiful program begins with your Vision and your Values, and then walks you through a Planning System designed to make sure that your daily activities and habits are those that will help you achieve your Vision and are true to your Values.

But we have many competing priorities and demands on our time and attention that can pull us in different directions and most people find that over time, they may end up spending much of their time in ways that are no longer in alignment with their Values and Vision.

This lack of alignment between our Values, our Vision, and our daily activities can lead to stress, confusion, and a sense of drifting through life without purpose. Creating more alignment is key to living with integrity and feeling fulfilled and focused.

As an example, most people would say that their family is what is most important to them – that family is one of their Values. Yet if you examined their schedule, you would see that the reality is that they spend very little time with their family, instead prioritizing work or entertainment over family, so they are not living in alignment with their Values.

An Alignment Check is part of our Quarterly Planning process. It only takes a few minutes, 4 times a year, to ensure that you are living in alignment with your Vision and Values.

By following the Be Happiful system, you have already defined your Values and written a detailed and exciting Vision of your ideal future life. You have also identified your 5 Year Goals and your 1 Year Goals, and your Daily Key Activities, Morning Routine and Evening Routine. You should also have written and be practicing your Affirmations. And you should be establishing new good habits and eliminating bad habits.

The Alignment Check is simply making sure that all of these are in alignment. The best way to do this is to start with one of your Values. For example, if one of your Values is Health and Fitness, first look to make sure that Health and Fitness is reflected in your Vision. Then make sure that you have one or more 5 Year Goals and 1 Year Goals that include Health and Fitness. Then make sure that Health and Fitness is reflected in your Daily Key Activities, and likely in your Morning Routine and Evening Routine as well. Next, check to see if you are supporting your goals in Health and Fitness with one or more Affirmations. Now consider your Habits – do you need to add or eliminate any Habits to achieve your Vision with regard to your Health and Fitness? Finally, look at your Time-Block Calendar to see if you have dedicated time on your calendar for this Value.

Then repeat with your next Value.

And if there are elements of your Vision that are not tied to one of your Values, you’ll need to run an Alignment Check on that as well. The first step in this case is to decide whether that part of your Vision should have a Value related to it. Either way, proceed through the rest of the Alignment Check with that element of your Vision.

Of course, if you change one of your Values or modify your Vision, you should work through the Alignment Check process at that point, without having to wait for the end of the calendar quarter.

Action Step:

Make sure that Quarterly Planning is in your calendar as a recurring event at the end of each calendar quarter. Since the Alignment Check is part of Quarterly Planning, as long as you go through that process, you’ll perform an Alignment Check once a quarter.