If we want to our lives to reflect more of what we want, we also want to consider how well we are aligning our thoughts with the objectives and desires that are most important to us.
For real gains to happen, we need to eliminate conflicts between how we think and feel, and what we want.
A somewhat oversimplified example: a manager desires more productivity in her department, yet believes (quite intensely) that most employees reporting to her are incompetent. This conflict of thinking vs. desire will generate stress.
In turn, the stress may cause miscues and subtle messages of failure from the manager to her team, increasing the probability of her team suffering further productivity drops—not to mention the adverse effect on mood and overall well-being of the manager herself.
The solution? The choice is a highly personal one, but if the overarching desire is to reduce stress, enjoy a greater level of inner harmony, and enhance results, then our manager must either choose a new team or begin to look for and nurture competency in her existing one.
Regardless, in this case, a choice of beliefs and thoughts more aligned with her desire for a high-performing team are her best course. If the manager were to hire a new team, and yet stick to her original negative beliefs about an incompetent staff, she would continue to filter her experience through that negative lens and this approach would manifest in everything from her hiring practices, to her treatment of a new team.
The Life Alignment approach is covered in detail in all Success Waypoint workshops, and in Mark Petruzzi's individual coaching sessions. Coaching clients are encouraged to take the
Via Character Strengths assessment and obtain a Character Strengths Profile as part of their coaching experience, since a knowledge of character strengths is useful in Life Alignment practice.
