The Art of Alignment, Part 2: Effort, Timing, and Surrender

Matthew Gottesman (0:02)

Welcome to The Niche Is You. My name is Matt Gottesman, at Matt Gottesman on Instagram, and this is my daily podcast where I create short, quick hitting episodes to help you uncomplicate life, creativity, and the pursuit of your highest self. There's only main character energy here. Now, let's get into it.

Welcome to episode 899 and part 2 of a four-part series on the Art of Alignment. And this one's going to be on effort, timing, and surrender.

Knowing when to keep showing up, when to stop forcing, and what to release. Think about that. When to keep showing up? When is this like, no, this deserves my intention and attention because it's something deeply rooted within my path. And I know some people will say, well, I thought it was, but maybe it wasn't. So when do we stop forcing? When does it start to feel like we're working harder than the fruit is really showing it deserves or maybe lack thereof? And then also what to release? How do we continue to have faith in this process and make sure that what's for us can easily continue with us and being okay with that release, with that letting go, right? And so alignment comes up all the time. I have incredible conversations about alignment. And I get it because there's this, how do we know what's our work? How do we know when it's not being met equally or at least to a degree of what's supposed to be happening? And how do we know what belongs to God, as we previously talked about? So in this episode, there's six key points I want to talk about. And then in each of them, we'll spend a little bit of time. But the first being is that there's a difference between working hard for something and working hard to convince yourself it belongs in your life.

Very fine line, because obviously, anything we feel called to, anything that feels right for us, anything that is holy and sacred and important, deserves our work, our effort, right? And then sometimes, if we're not careful, there are things that are maybe look like they deserve those things. And so we find ourselves convincing ourselves that it belongs in our life. And that happens, it's hard. There's a fine line in there, right? And so we're gonna dive into that. We're also gonna talk about that you don't have to keep adjusting yourself to make something fit that repeatedly asks you to become someone you're not. You do not have to keep adjusting yourself to make something fit. Now, this isn't just relationships. This is also maybe environments. This is also maybe work or job or maybe your current entrepreneurial season with something, right? You don't have to keep adjusting yourself to make something fit that repeatedly asks you to become someone you're not. Because if it's moving you away from purpose, away from yourself, away from God, away from calling, then that's something to... It's asking you to shrink in some way. It's asking you to not be who you are here to be or called to, et cetera, right? I also want to talk about sometimes the most aligned decision is the one that requires courage rather than certainty. We do not always have certainty. A lot of times we don't have certainty. It's how we actually develop our faith. Courage allows us to make a good decision without really knowing the outcome, the more definitive outcome. I say it like that because I feel like in some way, in an intuitive way, we kind of know. But because we don't know the exact steps, that poses a certain level of uncertainty and it makes it very difficult sometimes to make that decision. I mean, you see this all the time, like, oh, I can't do it because I don't know enough of this, I don't know enough of that. And it's like, you never really know all the answers, right? So we're going to talk about that. I also want to talk about how you can want something deeply and still be willing to release it if it isn't right for you. This is so highly important because throughout your life, you can see this across all areas. Again, work, relationships, friendships, whatever it might be, you can want something deeply and still be willing to release it if it's not quite the thing or the... There's something in your soul that says, you know what, I don't know, something is missing here. And the best part is that having that faith and that trust, no matter what, it's going to work out. And I know that that's sometimes really hard to see on the surface level because you're like, well, I don't see how. And it's like, again, because God always provides that equal or greater value. Right? Also how not every delay means you're on the wrong path and not every open door means you should walk through it. Right? Alignment. Not every delay means you're on the wrong path. Formation. You're constantly being worked into how you increase capacity for receiving what's for you when it comes. Or not every door means that you should walk through it. Oh, man. The art of saying no. I know I've done that podcast on no before, but we should probably re-up one. You have to be willing to say no to a lot of things that just don't feel right. And some people say, like, well, I don't know if it's right or wrong. I'm like, but see, that alone is already probably telling you some information. So we're going to talk about that. And then finally, we're going to talk about how alignment doesn't remove responsibility. It gives your effort a direction you can stand behind. Alignment doesn't remove responsibility. It gives your effort a direction you can stand behind. Because sometimes, I think people say like, oh, that's not aligned with me, therefore I'm not going to take care of it. No, you will always have responsibility. The whole purpose in creating a life and making good decisions is and having the right things in your life constantly growing and doing better is total responsibility. So let's jump in the first one where I said there's a difference between working hard for something and working hard to convince yourself it belongs in your life. Meaningful work requires effort, but effort shouldn't constantly feel like self persuasion.