Alignment is True Success
Don’t chase what doesn’t matter in the end
Efficiency.
We don’t even know the water we’re swimming in as Americans. Our whole system is built do doing things faster, better, with less work…or people apparently (why you gotta be so mean AI?)
We’ve been this way for a loooong time.
And then sometime around the ‘80s, efficiency merged with greed. The “bottom line” became an economic virtue, akin to honesty or integrity. The “almighty dollar” is now sacrosanct. Whatever gets your bag of money ASAP…
American’s treat billionaires like Europe used to treat saints. We don’t just respect them, we worship them. They’re closest to the light we long to behold for ourselves…
But life is more. There are things beyond accumulation, beyond the status.
What would really happen if you were a billionaire now? Would you only then start living?
Newsflash, you only have so much time left on this earth…you do NOT have to be the billionaire to live.
It’s absurd to focus exclusively on the material things. We aren’t taking them with us when we leave this world.
I’m still shocked at studies that show just how little the average person needs to reach maximum happiness. “The difference between $75,000 and $75 million was hardly significant.” Beyond basic needs, it’s about the non-material things of life.
We come to earth, for a time and a reason. We don’t control the time, not fully anyway (put down that Oreo Kevin!), but we do have some say in the reason.
We have gifts that are meant to be expressed. Desires meant to be explored. And visions meant to be realized. To walk in this life is to see your soul in motion.
Yet so many of us are stuck in a mindset from our conditioning that says we have to do more, be more, have more, in order to be fully alive.
We think we have to adorn ourselves with accomplishments, successes, status…because we’re not enough. We need more.
But your life is more than the things you do or have — life is about living (redundant, but true).
It’s about the human being, fully alive.1
To truly live is to be ignited. Such joy can’t help but overflow into natural action. Action flows from alignment, our whole being in-sync.
And the flow of alignment can feel like play, because it is, and we miss that because we associate play with the unserious — but that is a grave mistake.
Accomplishments, if they come, flow out of real alignment…at least the ones we can sustainably do. Don’t believe me? Look at Italy’s queen of the ice…
She’s been speed skating for twenty years for her country, and when journalists asked her about all her wins and awards, her response was “I did that?”
She wasn’t skating for the acclaim…she skated because she wanted to skate.
It’s the difference between love and acclaim. One does it for the pure love of it, the other the rewards.
True success is not found in what the culture teaches us, but in finding ourselves fully engaged in this life. To be about something that matters.
Do you have a yearning you’ve always wondered about? Is there a business you should be starting? Are you curious what the life of an artist looks like? Is there a book somewhere inside of you, waiting to come out?
Don’t die before you live. Live before you die.
If you feel a check in your spirit, a yearning but also an obstacle to realize it, can I offer you some medicine? Get you a copy of The War of Art. Resistance is a gatekeeper, waiting for you to take that act of faith and step out, and start living out who you really are. Let the good doctor teach you about resistance and what it really means.
True success is found in being who you were made to be in this life — alignment. Like kinks in the water hose, when it’s knotted up, it won’t flow.
But when you are living from your core, you can’t help but live fully. It’s not about the rewards or the money (they’re bonus).
And if fear is whispering in your ear “you can’t do that! You will FAIL.” Remember…
(Read you some Dune…or watch the movies because they’re a modern classic)
What will you really lose by trying and failing, than by not trying at all? Taking a shot is far less painful than not taking one at all. Just ask about the most common deathbed confessions.
Fear stops you now, but regret will haunt you.
True safety comes from doing what is most in alignment with who we are: we do what feels right, it’s fun, so we do it more and get better, creating a virtuous cycle. And it’s not about the money, though money can often follow. It’s about the meaningfulness of the act.
But the money isn’t the point. The point is to live.
It doesn’t matter how you pay your bills, the point is…are you living?
Get in alignment. Your life depends on it.
“The glory God is the human being fully alive.” Irenaeus.