ALIGN, don't HUSTLE

H̶U̶S̶T̶L̶E̶

ALIGN

Hustle. huSTL. Sweat. Grind. Wake up early. Bed late. Get the job at 15. Roll top of the class. Wash cars for money. 3 jobs in a row. All summer. All fall. Do better do more than anyone around you. Same results. Maybe not, maybe not. Try again / sweat, blood, sweat, miss this, do that. Further fly. Spend nights on flights. Search for something. Find nothing. Go back to the beginning.

No one taught me differently

H U S T L E HUSTL H u s t l e h---stl h.u.s.t.l. hs a l i g n

Hustle is doing all that you can to catch one thing as it flies by. A desperate, energy-depleting spell, an attempt to try from all angles to click just one thing right. Then it’ll change, then it’ll be better. Thing is, you can’t give 200% to 10 things. The math doesn’t work out. You get spent. You get tired. You get blurred.

You run around in circles and circles and -- either -- you end up at the beginning, or when you get to a place, you realize you can’t enjoy it. You don’t have your whole self. You left it 9 blocks down the street.

Alignment is centering that energy. It is getting one-step ahead, maybe 3. What do YOU want (long term, medium, short term)? And how can you, instead of clawing at all angles and whatever comes your way, set up your own game plan, be intentional? That sometimes means short term sacrifices for long-term gains. Example: Skipping the party to work on a draft of your business plan. The night may kinda suck, but tomorrow will be amazing because you’ll feel beaming. -or- Going to the party because you need that energy to roll through the night with ideas about connecting people and happenstance, come what may in the morning

Align guides us in being proactive and clear in our decisions

Align also calls us to ask what ‘productivity’ means on our own terms

Align blesses us with a higher sense of happiness even when one small thing goes awry

Align invites us to value rest, what it means to us, and as it aligns us

Align also includes our whole selves and the parts of ourselves that are wrapped around our alignment, even if not within its arrow

Align means centering self with full mind, body and spirit. It isn’t just an intellectual exercise. It isn’t only about career goals. It is about pathways, attitudes. Where are you going and who do you want to be along the way, and when you get there? Who do you want to be when you are operating from that place and what is even next after the next?

Align also means centering on flexibility, spontaneity, intuition and circuitousness. The arrow isn’t so straight that is doesn’t see the curves in the road or the gusts of wind that are worth catching, the smells that are work dipping for.

Align is a harder lesson but a lesson worth working for.