Have you ever felt like you are working really hard, but not getting where you want to go?

I have.

Have you ever felt like you are saying prayers, setting intentions, giving offerings and dedicating rituals, but what you are trying to manifest in your life is still not coming?

I have, many times. So many times, that I decided to sit myself down and get to the bottom of the issue.

What I found was that often the problem was with my alignment. I was doing well with the big leaps but falling off track with the little steps in the process.

As I’m sure I’m not alone in this I want to offer up the path I took to find that conclusion.

The first step was making tea, grabbing a Sharpie pen and sitting myself down with my notebook.

I asked myself:

What is the most important thing? 

Leaving the question rather open ended allowed the answer to come from a deeper place than the part of my mind that is usually focused on my to-do list, personal goals, and professional goals. I could have created a massive list with that part of mind, but connecting primarily with that part of myself was what I had been doing. I needed to do something different.

Once I had my list I asked myself:

What have I been spending my time, money, energy, and bandwidth on?

It would have been easy to answer this question off the cuff. Instead I wanted to be sure of my answers so I looked back through my planner, Post-it notes, bank statements, and notebooks. I made a list so that I could really see where my resources were being spent most often.

It was not the list I would have made off the cuff. Looking at the list and comparing it to my “most important” list felt pretty crappy. The lists didn’t match up. It was really uncomfortable, but a huge wake up call. Instead of falling in to a self-judgment spiral I asked myself:

How do I want to feel? (This I learned from Danielle Laporte…check her out if you haven’t.)

I made a list of my core desired feelings.

Once I was clear on what the most important things were, how I wanted to feel, and where I had truly been going off course I had a powerful stack of information.

Instead of making lofty promises to do everything differently I decided to get practical and ask myself:

What actions can I realistically start taking to be more in line with what’s most important and how I want to feel? 

The resulting list was simple and short. Right away I started rescheduling my week.

Next I asked myself:

Who do I need to request support from or communicate with? 

I made a final list and then started making calls, sending texts, and scheduling appointments.

Writing the lists would not have been enough.

Taking well informed inspired action is key. 

It is extra important to remember this key in the little moments, the day to day choices and actions. Of course it’s important in the big leaps, but the little moments amount to a huge part of our life.

I hope that you find this exercise useful. If you do, I would be so grateful if you could share it with a friend and spread the love. We all benefit from lifting each other up.

Much love,

Katie