Alignment to Purpose

Recalibrate

You are not on fire- your car light just came on

In all contexts of our lives, we can feel people operating in a sense of heightened emotion or constant crisis, moving from one fire to put out directly to the next. When we're in this state, we can feel trapped or stuck. We can begin to feel like there is no forward progress, just a constant wheel on our way to burnout. We need to reflect on our boundaries and imbalance we feel. Ensuring the people surrounding us and the ways we are spending our time is aligned to our values is like a check-up for your car. Sometimes we need to pull over for a minute and make sure everything is in alignment.

How does it work?

Know Your Non-negotiatiables

Integrated between our in-person and digital lives, the people we are following and surrounding ourselves with have strong influence. We need to ensure we have boundaries that keep us in alignment with our priorities and values. Just because there's a fire nearby doesn't mean it's your's to extinguish.

Pause When Its Tense

If we are to live in alignment with our values, we must be willing to experience conflict and discomfort. There's no way to be with other human beings and not have some conflict. However, when those feelings keep us sitting on the floor, instead of moving forward, we need to ask ourselves which part is out of alignment (work/school, relationships, health, or fun).

When we have the people in our closest circle, they may notice an imbalance in our behaviors or tone and be able to ask us the same question.

Realign with a Plan

When we think about the parts out of alignment, there will be things we can't control (gravity problems), things we need to reframe from a new perspective (anchor problems), and things we know right away that we can change. No matter what category our "stuckness" falls into, in order to get unstuck, we need to determine what the minimal, actionable next steps we can do are.

"Your no makes way for your yes; being able to say no makes a yes choice" -Olatunde Sobomehin & Sam Seidel

What does it look like?

Students

Students are able to reframe after things did not turn out the way they expected.
Students are engaged meaningfully in class with an ability to advocate for their needs and wants.
Students connecting with the people in their lives pursuing similar experiences and sharing common values.
Students experience less negative interactions on social media because they have limited what they share to the people who are aligned with their goals and values.

Families

Families participate in school-wide informational meetings led by the leadership team to learn the values and mission of the school.
Families have more contentment at home with greater understanding of each other.
Families are given opportunities to share concerns with the administrative team and work collaboratively to understand and define the problem, and generate ideas to try out for solutions. The families develop a sense of belonging with the school, and continue conversations with their students about their engagement at school and online.

Staff

Teachers advocate for their needs and associated changes needed for themselves and for their students.
Staff reflect on the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations of their jobs to find a balance between meaningful impact, self-expression through work, and extrinsic recognition to meet their physical needs.
Teachers and counselors are sharing the highlights of their instruction with their colleagues and the community, and the sharing leads to opportunities for collaboration and cross-pollination of ideas with educators throughout the school.

Schools

Schools feel like communities instead of solely workplaces.

What are the potential benefits?

Students

Increase in intrinsic motivation, resiliency, and coping skills
Decrease in absences due to mental health days
Increased ability to advocate for oneself

Families

Lower levels of conflict and stress at home, in regard to school
Increased understanding of child's purpose in choice of tasks & behaviors

Staff

Increase in intrinsic motivation
Higher results on satisfaction surveys
Decrease in social media venting & complaining

Schools

Increase in positive feelings surrounding school climate & culture
Increase in support, empathy, & understanding between colleagues & students

"Learning and growth start with self-awareness, only then can you begin to do something about it" -Andrea Small & Kelly Schmutte

Hacks

Reflect on your Dashboard
On a scale of 1 to 10, figure out where you are in each of the four categories- work/school, fun, relationships, & health. Determine minimal actionable steps to move forward.

Reframe failure as a learning opportunity
See any stumbles as a chance to learn and grow. Facilitate these conversations with students and coach colleagues to reframe themselves.

Check-in with colleague or student
If noticing changes in colleague or student behavior, or one of them having a down day, ask them to reflect on their dashboard and be available to help them process.

Redefine success to alignment on values
Success, like goals, is sometimes only viewed as an outcome. Consider small, daily successes when making progress on minimal actionable steps.

Templates

Manifesto Template

Dashboard Template

Design Your Life Dashboard Template

Design Your Life Maker Mix Template

Examples

Classroom

Design Your Life After HS

As they begin their last year in high school, seniors are teetering between adolescence and adulthood. While we spend high school supporting students in discovering who they are, seniors can reflect on who they are and who they want to be. As a senior lists characteristics of themselves and reflects on how others may view them, are they all traits and qualities they want or does the student want to strike through some options? Is the student pursuing a path in alignment with how they like to spend their time or are they following the car of a friend surrounding them? Are there workbased learning experiences the student needs during their last few months to assist them in decision making?