The Dynamic Duo – Achievement and Alignment
The goal becomes the point. I see it all the time. If I just get HERE, then I’ll be o.k. Well, what happens when the HERE is actually HERE, present, in front of you? You’ve chunked off THE GOAL and now – guess what – there’s another goal. Another shift. Another chasing of an additional dream, desire, and plan.
This is good, in some ways. To reach a goal is exponentially captivating, motivating, and forward advancing. To reach a goal is a contagious wind to take you to the next place.
But, if the process is only about the goal, then the journey becomes clouded, foggy, mudded-up, and the layers of representative meaning are lost as the next goal becomes the point. I see the anxious eyes, the longing for something more (fulfilling), and the shame-filled bodies that have “ground it out” to advance, but still feel stuck in their life.
So, why isn’t achievement enough?
Because, the work of life – including financial work – is really about the human process of alignment. When the spine is out, the whole body hurts. When finances or the expectations linked to finances are out of whack, a life ecosystem feels the pain. It is not just achieving the financial plan that must be considered. Financial integration work is about the concert between the two.
Alignment and Achievement are a dynamic duo.
Achievement is what I battle with all the time – personally and professionally. I love to get-sh*% done! I really do. In many ways, I lean toward tasks, but I’ve grown a deeper, more holistic existence as I’ve learned about symbols, patterns, cycles of nature, representation, and integrated meaning. I also feel a bit (a hint) of pressure to accomplish something for my clients. We need to traverse ground that feels like we’re getting somewhere. Right? Yes. And No. Because, if the getting somewhere doesn’t lead into something that invites deeper meaning for the next goal, then I don’t care. I really don’t. Unsustainable, cyclical stuckness is a rampant disease within achievement oriented thinking. In other words, the short term achievement is worth sacrificing the long term destination. Why is this reality true? Frankly it’s just damn hard to take space, to slow down, to grind into and look at the details. It is also really hard to answer concrete questions, in the midst of alignment work. So living – day to day – in an achievement oriented world becomes awkward.
Question: What is your goal next year?
Person seeking alignment: Uhhh, well, I’m thinking about finding myself again, because I’ve lost my way.
Answer: What?
Question: What strategic, next move do you think we should make as a company?
Person seeking alignment: I think we should take the next six months to consider all the ways we’ve hung ourselves the last few years because we seem to repeat predictable patterns of destruction that will sink this ship without systemic thinking.
Answer: You’re fired!
Question: What’s your plan?
Person seeking alignment: To work on hearing myself. The world is loud and I’m wondering if silence will help me hear myself again so I can see the path beneath my feet.
Answer: So, you’re becoming a monk?
It is counter-cultural to take space. Dig deep. & Stare into those eyes that don’t get what the hell you’re doing. I’ve had a bit of this experience, just a bit.
But, it is good work. I believe in blending achievement and alignment.
Alignment cares about digging into desires, to align the trajectory of one’s existence with a course that feels integrated and emanating out of who someone really is, deep within.
Alignment cares about the patterns of one’s existence. Alignment says these patterns serve to create a larger tapestry that is worth noting so that the picture created in this iteration of my, your, our existence is something desired, wanted, and beautiful.
I will a
lways link money conversations with clues, treasures, and repeated ways of being that I hear, see, and observe as I work with clients – across time. The Blending of the Dynamic Duo – achievement and alignment- must not be separated in financial conversations. This dynamic duo needs to walk hand-in-hand to inform the larger, integrated journey of life.
Want financial alignment?
Let’s talk. Sign up for Classes. Email me: hillary@hillaryaugustine.com
