I spent some time this morning making my way through Jonathan Fields’ 2011 Annual Report. The part that stood out for me (and that links nicely with my recent thinking about strengths) was Jonathan’s comments about the importance of alignment….
One of the core drivers of success in business is also among the most ignored elements: ALIGNMENT.
If you want to own your career, your business, your life, you need to align 4 elements:
- What makes you come alive (people, process, content, culture, mission & setting)
- Your preferred mode of service (live, remote, video, text, audio, interactive or transmission, private, small group,mass audience)
- What you either are good at, or are capable of and interested in becoming good at, and
- What people will line up to pay you enough to live well in the world for.
If there are major gaps in any of the above elements, you will either:
- Fail completely
- Succeed at making money,but hate your business and maybe even your life, or
- Love what you do to earn a living, but hate how it never gives you the money needed to live well in the world or the freedom to do your “art” full-time.
If you don’t work with a high-level of alignment, you’ll very likely never come close to your personal or professional potential, your businesses will continually cap out and you’ll never understand why. It’s also immensely draining, on a personal level, to live a life where your personal and professional “selves” aren’t well aligned. Presenting as different people in different scenarios is, over the long haul, a gutting experience.