Alignment Check
“Your values and vision drive every decision.” - Craig Ballantyne
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. (If you haven’t yet taken our life-changing Design Your Ideal Life course, please do so – it’s free!)
But we all have competing priorities and demands on our time and attention that can pull us in different directions. Over time, many people find that they end up spending much of their time in ways that do not align with their Values and Vision.
This lack of alignment between our Values and Vision and our actual 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 examine their schedule, you would see that the reality is that they spend very little time with their family, instead prioritizing work and 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.
“Peace of mind comes when your life is in harmony with true principles and values and in no other way.” - Stephen Covey
Once you have implemented the full Happiful system, you will have defined your Values and have written a detailed and exciting Vision of your ideal future life. You will have identified your 5-Year Goals and 1-Year Goals, and your Daily Key Activities, Morning Routine and Evening Routine. You will also have written and be practicing your Affirmations. And you will be establishing new good habits and eliminating bad habits.
The Alignment Check is simply making sure that your Goals, Daily Key Activities, Morning and Evening Routine, Affirmations and Habits are all in alignment with your Vision and Values. 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 Annual 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 connected 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 waiting for the end of the calendar quarter.
“Does your calendar reflect your values? To be the person you want to be, you have to make time to live your values.” - Nir Eyal
How to implement this into your life:
Take the free Design Your Ideal Life and create your written Vision of your Ideal Future Life and your written Values
Enter “Quarterly Planning/Alignment Check” on your calendar as a recurring event on the 30th of March, June, September and December
Each Quarter, for each of your Values:
Is it reflected in your Vision?
Is it reflected in your 5-Year SMART Goals?
Is it reflected in your Annual Goals?
Is it reflected in your Morning Routine, Key Activities, and/or Evening Routine?
Do you have one or more Affirmations for it?
Need to add any Habits to be in alignment with this Value?
Need to stop any bad Habits to be in alignment with this Value?
Does your Time-Block Calendar support this Value?
Repeat this for any part of your Vision that is not reflected in your Values.
One last thing: If you have not yet taken the Be Happiful course, please consider it.
“To live a life of virtue, match up your thoughts, words, and deeds.” - Epictetus
