Defining Alignment
I had a brand built on alignment and no definition for it, until physics handed me one
A few weeks ago, in my Integrated Wealth Advisor class, the question was presented to the group: What does alignment mean, and how do we know when we are aligned?
I knew I was going to be called on. It felt like a compliment, honestly. The writing, the podcast, and the videos had been seen. When the subject was alignment, my name came to mind.
Then I opened my mouth and realized I didn't have the words.
Well, not any words that would actually help anyone. I knew what I meant when I said alignment. For me, it starts with spirit, mind, body, and money — all four in harmony. Broaden it out, and alignment is different parts of your life fitting together, usually around your values.
But sitting in class, I felt the gap between what I knew and what I could say. I told my cohort, somewhat embarrassed, that the guy with the podcast, the blog, and the brand called AlignedLife didn't have a definition sharp enough to make anyone feel the power of alignment.
As for how you know when you're aligned, the best I had was a feeling and a run of synchronicities, or winks from the Divine. Again, not anything useful to anyone trying to find their way there.
I knew what alignment was, but I just couldn't communicate it.
So I sat with the question for a few weeks. One word kept surfacing—a word I'd picked up from Dr. Joe Dispenza, one of those words that carries its own charge.
Coherence.
Merriam-Webster calls it the integration of diverse elements, relationships, or values. But, physics gets closer to what I mean: coherence is what happens when waves—light, sound—fall into step with each other. When matched up, they stop canceling each other out and start building something stronger.
A laser is just light that agrees with itself.
That's alignment.
When you are aligned, parts of your life move in the same direction, amplifying rather than competing or tolerating one another.
Coherence was the word I'd been missing.
For the Authentic Life, alignment is coherence among spirit, mind, body, and money. How you find that coherence—what it looks like, what it asks of you—is yours to discover. No one can hand you the formula.
What I have instead is a question, and it turned out to be more useful than any definition I could give you: Where in my life are things technically fine on their own, but not building anything together?
This is where I see my role. Not as the guy with the answer—I don't have your answer, and I'm suspicious of anyone who claims to have it for you. What I can do is hold up the mirror. Ask the question you haven't asked yourself yet. Sometimes that's a question. Sometimes it's an exercise. Sometimes it's just telling you what I see when I look at where you are right now. Every once in a while, it's sharing where I got stuck as proof that the question is worth sitting with, not a map for you to follow.
You already have what you need to find your coherence.
But you'll know it when the waves stop fighting each other and start building something larger than any one of them alone.
Keep pursuing,
JC
