Is Your Beautiful Life Out of Alignment?

Your beautiful life…could it be out of alignment? Has life been a little bumpy lately?

When your car is out of alignment, driving is exhausting! Extra energy is needed to compensate for the pull in one direction or the other. The annoying vibrations in the steering wheel is enough to drive you crazy, not to mention the incessant shaking of the car. By the time you arrive at your destination, you are worn out and frazzled.

Using up your personal energy isn’t the only way your car being out of alignment is costing you. Being out of alignment wears your tires unevenly and it uses more gas.

All cars eventually need to be realigned – even if you are an excellent driver. Potholes, bumps, and curbs that sneak up on you and take a toll on your car’s alignment. And even if you skillfully dodge the potholes and all, an aging suspension will sooner or later cause your wheels to stray from being properly aligned.

Regularly getting your tires rotated and wheels aligned not only saves you time and money in the long run, it also makes your driving experience much more delightful!

True Confession…

I leave the car maintenance up to my husband. I am blessed to be married to a car lover who happily maintains my car for me.

Why am I taking the time to talk about car maintenance here? Well, the “potholes, bumps, and curbs of life” often take a significant toll on our lives too. If ignored, being out of alignment can be quite costly. It may cost you your health, relationships, impede your progress towards your goals, leave you feeling out of sorts, and more!

And unlike maintaining my car, maintaining my life is something that only I can do!

If you want to make a difference, achieve goals, have vitality, and THRIVE in life, you must have a systematic way of maintaining your life.

In the past, I have ignored the out of alignment warning signs in my life. It took a serious toll on my health, which in turn impacted my relationships and my goals. All in all, it left me frustrated and far from thriving!

What I learned from having to suffer those consequences is that it’s absolutely essential to maintain my life and keep it in alignment. I want you to learn from my experience and not have to experience what I’ve been through! Here’s what I’ve learned:

1. Park!

It’s impossible to check the alignment on your car while it’s in motion! In order to check the alignment of your tires, you have to jack the car up and have someone skilled take a look at the wear and tear on the tires.

Just like you might make an appointment to get your tires rotated, you must schedule time to align your life. You have to slow down, park, and put life on pause for a minute. OK a little more than a minute!

For me, it works best to take time to re-align my life on the first day of every month. I take a look at all aspects of my life, evaluate my progress towards my goals, and ponder what’s working, what’s not working, and what needs to change. More on that ahead.

2. Measure

In order to realign your car’s wheels there are two things that are needed: what the measurements should be for your make and model and what the measurements actually are. Once you have that information, the needed adjustments are clear.

The same is true for your life. Assume the ideal is 10 in each area of life for you – whatever 10 means to you. Then let God show you how to score yourself using a scale of 1-10 with 1 being very out of alignment, and 10 being perfect alignment in the following areas:

• • • Relationally
    • Financially
    • Physically
    • Work/Career/Purpose
    • Emotionally
    • Intellectually
    • Leisure & Fun
    • Spiritually

I also track key metrics that if accomplished will bring me closer to my goals. And just as important, I track how often I journal and how frequently I engaged in activities that fuel me – I call those my “Y thing”. If I’m going to have a balanced life, it’s critical that I am doing activities like reading, painting, crafting, spending time with family or friends, gardening – activities that bring me joy! Don’t skip life giving activities!

The other benefit to measuring and tracking is that sometimes your metrics tell a more positive story than how you feel!

3. Adjust

Based on the scores you gave yourself when you measured the various areas in your life under #2, it’s time to determine what adjustments you need to make to bring your life into better alignment. What would raise your scores in the lower scored areas? Do you need to stop doing something? Start doing something? What one change would have the most significant impact on re-balancing your life?

If you took your car in to have the wheels aligned and they knew what needed to change but didn’t make the adjustments, your ride home wouldn’t be any better. And you would probably be a little irritated with the mechanic and feel like you wasted your time.

The same is true for your life. Knowing what needs to change yet not taking steps to make the changes sounds silly, but so often that’s what we do. Without a clear action plan, accountability, and support, odds are your life will continue to be stressful, exhausting, and out of balance.

4. Take a Spin

The best way to see if your wheels have been properly aligned is to take your car for a spin. Is the pull gone? Is the ride smooth and effortless?

When it comes to aligning your life, the adjustments aren’t as cut and dried. It’s more trial and error. You have to figure out what works best for you and sometimes that’s a process.

5. Hire a Professional

When it comes to getting your car aligned, a few of you might be qualified to tackle the job on your own, but for most of us, it makes more sense to hire a qualified professional to do the job. Plus, who wants to invest the time or experience the hassle?

If you are serious about getting your life in balance, don’t be afraid to get help from an expert! You’re worth it! No sense in spinning your wheels – getting the help, support, encouragement, and the experience of a coach can help you get back on track fast. Wouldn’t it be amazing to experience less stress and more peace in your life? I promise it won’t just happen!

Be aware, maybe your life has been out of alignment for so long you’ve gotten used to the funky shaking and strong pulls in the wrong direction in your life. What if you are oblivious to the ways you’ve been compensating for being out of alignment? It seems normal!

You weren’t designed to live your beautiful life in an unbalanced way! Feeling stressed and drained is a sure sign that some realigning is needed. Lacking zest for life, experiencing health problems, or people problems – those are tip offs too! Has work become your life? Yet another clue!

Perhaps you think life is too crazy right now. There are just too many pulls to pause. In reality, the opposite is true. The more pulls in your life the more important it is to pause and get yourself back in alignment. Everything suffers if you don’t.

When was the last time you aligned your life? What areas do you tend to let get out of control? What’s one change you are going to make right now?

Assess Your Life Now!