Align: to be in line with or in correct position.
The key benefit of aligning yourself to your business is that your life will be easier and simpler. So you may ask are all business owners not aligned to their businesses when they themselves set the businesses up? The short answer is “no”.
To ‘be in line with’ does not mean rigidity but is to be where you want to be, in a cooking pot with all the things that are important to you, your personal reality and your future focus. It does not mean you live your business, but that you take all these matters, relationships, issues into consideration, naturally in making decisions and taking actions. It is going for the long view and not the short term ‘grab of takings’.
(By “naturally” I mean …) It is often tough to achieve except if you align yourself around a simple skeleton or framework around which everything then flows and against which you measure yourself and check your direction. So for a business owner this would mean putting yourself in your business as your authentic self. Who is this? Well it is the real person with values, ambitions, fears, passions and weaknesses, not the one you present to the outside world. When you discover this person and there is alignment, conflicts between your end purpose and your efforts are minimised so that you can devote maximum positive energies to achieving your goals. Even when conflicts arise it is more straightforward to find a reference point from which to take stock.
The answers to the following questions form the pillars of such a reference point
- What is really important to you? What values do you hold dear to your heart so that when you uphold them, you feel a sense of contentment and peace that goes beyond simple satisfaction? You feel you are where you are supposed to be. Now this feeling may be short-lived because of other pressures but you recognise its presence.
- What future do you want for yourself and for your business?
When you act in ways that are in line with moving towards the things that you really want, you tend not to get in your own way and those around you feel this and assist your progress. It even feels as if the universe is conspiring to bring you opportunities.
So, for you, entrepreneur or business person, what does this mean when your aim is to run a successful enterprise? A crucial ingredient of lasting success in business is that you enjoy what you do and value its outcomes, not just its immediate outputs like cash or new customers but also impact on people. When you see value in your actions and those of your colleagues, your energy levels, relationships, attention, standards will be raised so you can be your “best” self. This state of mind breeds confidence, which in turn translates to an honest assessment of what next and where you need resources to make even more progress. For those who choose, this could be the start of a personal development plan.