The First Alignment

In our study of the Alignment Principle, we observe that when one’s Giftings are perfectly aligned with the Needs of those one serves, all outcomes are optimized.

Generally we focus on the optimization of such things as economics, satisfaction, and safety. The professional or entrepreneur becomes well compensated for doing what they enjoy, and the client obtains a maximized outcome at a fair cost. Risk is minimized for both.

This only makes sense. If you’re the best answer for the client’s problem, you’ll thrive, the client will thrive and is happy to pay, and you get paid for, essentially, having fun.

Although this is the core of the Alignment Principle, there is another alignment which must be in place before this all works. This is the internal self-alignment.

Put bluntly, one is of little use to anyone else when you don’t know who you are, what you’re doing, or why you’re doing it. And when you’re of little use to anyone else, you really can’t expect to be well compensated. Nor should you expect to be very satisfied, nor can you live free of the worry you’re going to make a mess and face sanction.

So before one can get into the position of being the best answer for clients’ problems, you need to know who you are, what it is that you can do better than anyone else, and what really matters to you. This is the first alignment.

For lawyers, for example, this doesn’t mean that you simply get a law degree, pass the bar exams, then wait for clients of any sort to come through the door. Draft a will? Sure. Argue at the Court of Appeal? You bet. Patent Application? Coming right up!

The truth is that some lawyers should never darken a courtroom door, while others are tone-deaf when it comes to drafting documents, and some couldn’t understand a medical report if their own life depended on it. But somewhere in the multitude of legal skills and aptitudes is something that you can do better than anyone else in town. And that’s where you will shine like the sun if you zero in on it.

Ditto for doctors and accountants and candlestick makers.

So the question for each of us, really, is, “What is it that I can do better than anyone else, that I love to do, and that solves specific needs of others?” When we can answer that, we can achieve the first alignment, the alignment of our hearts and minds with the purpose for which we were born.

Do we need to talk?