How can alignment in your intentions and values simplify your actions?

Most often, people confuse happiness with more - more success, more money, more stuff, more vacations. But happiness is not a race for more. It's more often than not a product of congruence. This may look counterintuitive, especially in this age of consumerism, but you can try it. The most content and joyful you'll feel is when you have created a sense of balance in your life that is aligned. When your actions are aligned with your values, you create a life that is congruent with your deepest beliefs, aspirations, and desires. This congruence creates a sense of authenticity and purpose, thus leading to greater satisfaction and meaning in life. Not just this, aligning with your values can simplify your decision-making process and help you prioritize your time and energy.

As a life coach in Australia, I've found that aligning your values and action brings greater ease and flow into your life. It has helped my clients find the strength to heal from past trauma, let go of self-sabotaging coping mechanisms and bring change where they thought it would be impossible.

Finding your 'why' is the single most important gift you can give yourself to create this balance and sense of alignment in your life. In this blog post, let's take a deep dive into how to find this alignment of values and simplify your actions :

Finding Your "Why"

Understanding your why is critical to achieving your goals and having fun along the way. Most people suffer because the goals they set for themselves come from a misplaced 'why'. They, then, can't seem to give it their energy and love. When you know your purpose, your decisions have greater clarity and focus. So it's important to dig deep and identify the core values that drive you so your goals don't stray away from what drives your inner core.

For e.g., If one of your core values is honesty, you may find it challenging to work in an industry that is known for being dishonest. If you are not in alignment with this value, you may feel unhappy, unfulfilled, or conflicted in your work. However, if you align your actions with your value of honesty, you may choose to work in an industry that aligns with this value, which can lead to greater fulfilment and satisfaction in your career.

Cultivating Self-Awareness

The first step towards personal development is self-awareness. But I'd like to go a step further and encourage you to infuse compassion into the concept of self-awareness. Unless you learn how to develop non-judgemental awareness, even self-awareness can become an avenue for your inner critic to be harsh on you and further bully you. It's important to do regular check-ins with yourself to ensure you're staying true to your values. This can help you avoid distractions and stay focused on what's important.

Working with a life coach can really help you identify your values and make decisions accordingly.

Confronting and revealing your blind spots

Everyone has blind spots, patterns and traits emanating from their subconscious self that they may not be aware of, but everyone else experiences them on a daily basis. Our values can sometimes be hidden as blind spots. Think of it in terms of triggers. Things that may throw us off, boundaries breached that may turn us into our no-so-nice selves. A life coach in Australia can help you identify these blind spots and bring your values to the surface. This is an important step in creating alignment between your intentions and actions.

Building Resilience

Resilience is a human's ability to manage their own emotions in the face of difficulty and hardship. It doesn't mean you are not affected by adversity. It just means that you have more tolerance towards it. Finding that much-needed resilience within you helps you bounce back from setbacks and challenges. When you're aligned with your values, you'll be better equipped to handle the ups and downs of life. When we have an increased ability to adapt to change, overcome obstacles, and bounce back from adversity, we are more likely to stay focussed on our values and goals. This means that when we encounter challenges or setbacks that might otherwise distract or discourage us, we are better able to stay focused on our values and goals.  Building resilience takes time, but a life coach can help you find the ways and means to do it.

Cultivating an "I Am OK" Mindset.

It's important to cultivate an "I am OK" mindset, which means accepting yourself for who you are and embracing your strengths and weaknesses. The "I'm OK" mindset is a concept from Transactional Analysis, formulated by Eric Berne in 1950, that refers to a sense of self-acceptance and self-worth. It is based on the idea that everyone has value and worth, regardless of their accomplishments or failures. When we have an "I'm OK" mindset, we accept ourselves as we are and believe that we are capable of growth and change. This mindset helps us build resilience and cope with challenges and setbacks in a healthy way without letting them define our sense of self-worth. In TA, the "I'm OK" mindset is considered a healthy and desirable state of being. When you have this mindset, you'll be more confident and less prone to stress and anxiety. You are much more likely to respect your values, your boundaries and work towards your goals in alignment.

Incorporating Psychological Principles.

Finally, it's important to incorporate psychological principles into your approach under the guidance of a professional life coach in Australia. For example, positive psychology can help you cultivate a more positive mindset, while cognitive behavioural therapy can help you identify and overcome negative thought patterns. By incorporating these principles into your approach, you can create lasting change and achieve your goals with greater ease and flow.

But it makes much more sense to let a life coach help you navigate these modalities and apply them to your unique situation.

Finding ease and flow in our actions.

Inviting ease and flow into our actions requires a mindset shift towards approaching tasks with a sense of curiosity, openness, and non-judgment. This can involve techniques such as mindfulness, focusing on the present moment, and letting go of perfectionism.

Other strategies that can help cultivate ease and flow include breaking down tasks into smaller, manageable steps, minimizing distractions, and taking breaks when needed to avoid burnout. It's also important to identify and work with your strengths rather than constantly striving to improve your weaknesses.

Intentionally making efforts to create this ease and flow will ultimately lead to simplification of your actions and a sense of overall balance and well-being in your life.

Considering the above techniques, I want you to remember that it's not a quick fix. More than actionable insights, these are guiding principles and meant to be practised and reiterated again and again till they become an indispensable part of your mindset and personality. As a life coach in Melbourne, I help my clients and work with them to help them find their values, build resilience and invite more ease and simplicity to their actions. If you'd like to consider working with me on something similar, I'd like to invite you to a free coaching session with me so we can explore your unique challenges.

Step into your aligned life now!