Breaking Balance: Discovering Alignment in Business and Life

Balance is almost impossible when it comes to your life and entrepreneurship, and I'm here to tell you why. Ever chased the perfect equilibrium in your business and life, only to end up on the brink of burnout? I've been there too. Instead, let's explore the power of alignment. Through my personal journey and practical examples from everyday life, discover why alignment—not balance—is the key to creating a life of purpose, abundance, and fulfillment. Understanding alignment, like how our gut health impacts other organs or how the tires of a car need to be rightly positioned, can help us appreciate its importance in our lives and businesses.

Let's redefine what success looks like.  This episode is like a roadmap to redefine your idea of equilibrium and align your business with your personal values. I'll guide you through concrete steps to create alignment in your life, from self-reflection techniques to setting up an ideal week that reflects your values. It's time to create a business that feels in sync with our personal lives, leading to a life of fulfillment and abundance.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello and welcome back. I'm just gonna jump right in and start today's episode off with a what could be possibly an unpopular opinion, and that opinion is that I do not believe that work-life balance exists, and I'm gonna dive more into that. But today's episode is all about alignment and creating alignment in our businesses and in our lives, and how. I do not believe that balance is possible when it comes to work and life cohesively working together. So let's dive in. Welcome to the Farm to Heart podcast, a podcast for heart-centered entrepreneurs and dreamers alike seeking to plant their seeds and grow a life of alignment, purpose and their own version of joy-filled success. I'm Sarah Rutter, a former award-winning bakery owner, turned mama, animal rescuer and multi-passionate entrepreneur with a desire to help others ignite their dreams and create a life they love without the burnout. So whether you're seeking guidance on personal growth, launching or growing your current business, or simply looking for inspiration to ignite your entrepreneurial spirit, this podcast will be your loyal companion. So join me as we plant the seeds of your dreams, nurture their growth and cultivate a life of purpose, abundance and fulfillment. So saddle up and let's go.

Speaker 1: 1:30

So the idea of balance when it comes to your business and your life. I used to actually really strive for that. I didn't even really hear the term alignment or as far as in terms of using it in a business and life perspective, until kind of in the last two or three years, but before that, with the cupcake shop, I was always kind of striving for this balance. And now, looking back at it, it kind of makes sense why I got burned out because I couldn't achieve that balance and I wasn't ever going to achieve that balance, and that is what led ultimately to my burnout, because I was constantly giving and taking from either my personal life or the business, or my mental health or my personal health or my relationships, just trying to find some sort of balance between everything, and I ultimately figured out that that is impossible and that does not exist. And so that is kind of when I dove down the trail of alignment and what that looks like in your life. But because when it comes to balance, ultimately you're trying to find it's I mean balances when all elements are equal or they're in the same proportion, and I just truly believe that that is next to impossible when it comes to building a thriving business and creating a life that you love and that is full of purpose and joy. I think there is a place in life for balance with certain things, and the more that I go after creating a business that aligns with the life I wanna be living, the more that I realize that balance is actually just a feeling that is achieved by creating alignment and it's not actually one end goal that should be applied to your entire life. So, with entrepreneurship and building your life that is full of purpose, that is where I believe that balance is really really hard to find and almost impossible.

Speaker 1: 3:44

And if you're a visual person like me, I think of balance is easier to kind of visualize if you think of one of those scales where there is the two like plates on each side of the scale, and if you put an apple on each side, then the scale is gonna be fairly even, cause the apples are the same size, but if you cut up the apple and you take away a slice on one side, then the scale is going to dip on that side, and so in order to try to find balance, you have to cut up the second apple as well and take a slice off of that, and so balance is truly just constantly a give and take game, trying to find this equilibrium between the two, and it's just really can take a toll on your body, in your mind, when it comes to building a business and creating a life that fills you with purpose and that allows you to live in your passions, while also having meaningful relationships and intentional time, mindful time and stuff like that. So that is kind of the visual example of how I just think balance is really really difficult when it comes to building a business and making that business work with the life that we wanna be living. And then when I think of alignment, I think of like as the first example I think of when I think of alignment is like your car. So when you get your tires aligned, you're basically making them so that all the tires are working together too, so that one tire is not working harder than the other, basically. And when your car is out of alignment, it kind of causes other parts of your car to work harder as well and that eventually wears and tears on different parts of your car over time, causing things to break down sooner than they're supposed to. But when your tires are in alignment, then everything is kind of in this happy state and working cohesively together and certain parts aren't working harder than they're supposed to be.

Speaker 1: 6:05

And another example, too, is when we think of our body being in alignment. If our gut health isn't doing so well, then that kind of affects other organs in our body and it shows in our skin and things like that. And so when our body is out of alignment, you can definitely feel it and see it in other aspects of our bodies and just how it's taking a toll on the way that we feel and the way that we look. And so I think those are just two really easy examples, I guess, of thinking about the importance of alignment and how important it is that these different areas and aspects of our life are kind of harmoniously working together.

Speaker 1: 6:51

And so, from a entrepreneurship and business perspective, when it comes to building a business that is aligned with your life, I think it's, it's kind of looked at like a way, it's a harmonious connection, just where everything is kind of meshing with your personal values and your goals and what you feel like you have been put on this earth to accomplish, like your purpose, and that those all kind of shine through in both your, your business and your personal life, and it they're bringing you, bringing you joy in that way, because truly, when we find, when we really sit with like who we are as a person and the alignment that we want to bring into our business, like what, what are those values, what are those interests, what are those strengths, then that is allowing us to be authentically ourselves while in our business and not and not falling into the trap of becoming our business and our business identifying who we are, which again happened with me with gold mine cupcakes. Like I let, I lost a little piece of who I was and I kind of let the cupcake shop define who I was and I I lost just my authentic self a little bit and so I wasn't aligned, I wasn't bringing my, my values and my interests and my joys into my business, and that caused me to become unaligned and really just lose a little bit of my identity. So so that's a a great example of where being in alignment can just really free us up from feeling like we have to be everything for everyone and we can just be our authentic selves in our business and in our lives because they are working together. And what I love about alignment too, is that it's kind of this ever changing journey. It's like always, this evolution, where things are are learning and growing and figuring out how to work together. And I see that definitely here, like living in the mountains and on a farm where, like, the soil has to change in order for things to grow, or if the weather changes, then the plants and the trees adapt to learn how to adjust to the weather changing. And so I love that aspect of it because it kind of keeps you in this mental state of always learning and growing as you go.

Speaker 1: 9:36

And I, like I have said in other episodes, it's it's about the journey and it's about what you learn as you're going. And I think as humans, we were designed to learn just as much along our journey as we are at the final destination of wherever it is that we're trying to go. And to me, that kind of sums up alignment. It's just this, this journey of finding this cohesive agreement between the different moving parts in your life and how they can all work together. And when things change, like Alignment is definitely not everything working perfectly all the time. Things are going to go wrong, things are going to fail, things, mistakes are going to be made, and it's just a matter of learning from it and tweaking things so that you can get back into alignment and and just finding really that Harmony between everything again and learning, learning through the journey as you go.

Speaker 1: 10:38

And when you're striving for alignment and something does go wrong it, it doesn't cause every other aspect of your life to kind of tip and Fall and break in the same way that balance does, and it also doesn't require you To give and take quite as much to put it back together. So I think that's another Just kind of plus side of alignment is that if it allows you to make those mistakes and there's more grace and more wiggle room when it comes to figuring out what that looks like in your life, then there is when you're Striving for a perfect balance and everything. So you can see I've given you a few examples of alignment and kind of what that looks like and and hopefully that's that's helpful for you when it comes to thinking about your business and or even if you don't have a business and you're just wanting more alignment in your life. Hopefully these examples can help you understand kind of what that looks like for you and and how that can be Included in your life more more often. So I mean what? I guess what does it look like to have Alignment in a business and in your life?

Speaker 1: 11:49

For for me, it definitely Increased my sense of purpose. I think when I started seeking alignment and things, it really brought my mental state to like this is my purpose, and I was able to be more creative, I was able to be more intentional and it really just helped align my values and my passions with each other and really use that to to go after what I believe my purpose is and Find alignment between all of those. For example, I feel like when I Kind of have it in the back of my head that I am creating this business that aligns with my life, it gives me this permission to almost set better boundaries for myself and really just with every decision that I'm making, I kind of think I sit back and think to myself, like, is this going to enhance the life that I want to be living or is it going to be taking away from it? And it really has pushed me to say yes to things that really truly Align with my values more and say no to things that just are kind of a waste of time or or maybe not even a waste of time just things that don't really align with what it is that I want to be growing and the the morals and values that I want to be living in both my business and my life. Because with gold mine cupcakes I I had the values and the morals in my head but I had a really, really hard time not saying yes to everything and because I just thought that's what I needed to do in order to keep the business growing and in the end it really took away from the life that I wanted to be living and just made me exhausted and made me resentful because I was treating my life and my business as two totally separate things, which in a sense, they are, but they should be working together. They shouldn't be competing against each other. They should definitely, because otherwise, what's the point in creating a business if you can't be living the life that you dream of or that you feel like you are called to be living? So I hope that's helpful.

Speaker 1: 14:15

I think that's kind of where where my head is at when it comes to this new business with Sweet Freedom Farm and just kind of creating it more in alignment with the life that I want to be living, because, truly, when we are able to be our authentic selves as a human being but then also create a business that aligns with that. Like it doesn't really get any better than that. We and we are the face of our company, whether we like it or not. So if our values and our passions and our purpose and our interests and our morals, all of that stuff that makes us who we are, if that is not injected somehow into our businesses, then our businesses are not really a part of us. I mean, they're like, they're just kind of there and they're going to end up competing with our hearts and competing with what feels right to us and what purpose we're trying to go after and what mission we want to be on. And so, like, when your business is in alignment, you're going to be attracting more of your ideal customers because they're going, they're going to see you as the person behind the business. And then they're going to see the business and and realize that your heart behind the business is so huge and the, the purpose behind the business is truly just an extension of you.

Speaker 1: 15:49

And also, when you're hiring people, when you're hiring your staff or or contractors or whoever it is that you're hiring you, you're going to be more clear on who you should be hiring because you want to be hiring people that are similar to you when it comes to those values. Otherwise, there's going to be a lot of friction there and there's going to be a lot of headbutting, and I I learned this the hard way several, several times, but it definitely, I mean it makes a huge difference when you hire people that are are aligned with you and they may not have the same skill set as you and they may come in with better skills than you in some areas or just totally different skills. But if you guys are in alignment with the, the why behind the company and the purpose behind the company and the mission, and then who you are as a person, like those, those people, those people that you hire, are going to to want to work for you, because they see who you are and they see that you are also a big part of the business as well, and then your offerings and your services, too, will just feel that much better because they'll be aligned with where you want to take the business and where you want it to grow, and it'll just help you get, get to the places that you want to be with that business, but also they'll help you create the life that you want to be living. So just when everything is in alignment, it really just helps the business take off. I believe, and it and it, it just feels so much better and it makes so much more ease as far as setting boundaries and what, where your yeses, where your yeses will fall and where your nose will land. And I just think being in alignment with who you are as a person and where you want your business to go is the greatest gift that you can do for your business. Because, ultimately, if you're creating a business that is allowing you to live this dream life that you want to be living, or a very purpose-filled life or heart-centered life, if your business is allowing you to do that and they're aligned with each other, then your business is going to be more successful because you're going to be so much more passionate about the why behind it and why it's so important that they are working together. And the more successful your business is, the more impact you can have in your personal life and give back if you want to, or whatever it is that your values are when it comes to your purpose in life. Like your business, if it's aligned with that it will succeed in that way and it will help you grow in that way and just live that life that you want to be living in more intentionally as well.

Speaker 1: 18:48

There are some super interesting articles too, in like Entrepreneurship Magazine and Forbes, about the correlation between the founders having alignment in their business and the success of the business. So I will try to remember to attach those in the show notes. But definitely, yeah, if you just Google it Google alignment in business or anything like that there'll be some very interesting articles that pop up about all these huge, huge companies and how aligned the founders are with the why behind the business and the employees that work for them and stuff like that. So it just goes to show the importance of alignment and how it can play such a major role in your business. So, as you can see, I get pretty passionate about alignment now because I know the importance that it has in my life and I also know what it feels like to be on the other side and be struggling to find some sort of balance and just not having it work and feeling exhausted and burnt out, and so alignment has truly been a game changer for me and I really just can't wait to see where it takes my business and my life now. But and I hope I didn't scramble too much I get a little excited about it and I start kind of over talking about it. But hopefully this was helpful for you.

Speaker 1: 20:15

So I just kind of want to conclude with some simple steps on where to start if you feel like you want to create more alignment, either in your life or in your business or with creating a brand new business. So those are here's the three simple steps to start with that. So the first one is really just your self reflection. Just sit down with a piece of paper or your journal or whatever it is that you want to write on and really just go through and kind of start identifying your, your top values and just things that are important to you and things that you really would want to incorporate more of into your life, or even things that you want to less of in your life, that you know that right now maybe there's too much of it and it's draining you or it's causing you to be unhappy.

Speaker 1: 21:10

And then also start just jotting down things that you're passionate about, things that you goals that you have for yourself and different skills that you have, and those skills can truly be anything, just any sort of skill that you think you have. And this is your opportunity to to brag on yourself like we don't. We don't do that enough. As humans, we kind of tend to shy away from just from bragging about things that we're actually good at, and and it tends to really just causes to hide in our shells. But we all have so much to offer and so much to give. So definitely just go through and and list everything that makes you happy and everything that you're passionate about and all the interest that you have, and then the number two we're going to be, we're going to be defining your ideal business.

Speaker 1: 22:03

So, from all the things in your self-reflection, list like, how can you incorporate those into a business? How can you create a business that will allow you to really be truly living into your skills and your passions and your purpose and the goals that you have, and what does that business look like for you and what are some business ideas that you might have that would incorporate all of those? And this is a good place, too, to really start identifying areas like gaps that you might have, places that you might need help with, because, although we all would like to think that we can build a business single-handedly, by ourselves. Eventually we're going to reach an area or a time when we need help, and community is so important when you're building a business, especially community of like-minded people. So like a group of women entrepreneurs or a group of creative entrepreneurs or people that have same interests as you, or anything like that If you can surround yourself with people that you know are gonna be your biggest cheerleaders because sometimes, unfortunately, our family and our friends, they just don't. They don't get it, they don't understand, and so it can be discouraging when they don't really know why you're trying to build a business a certain way or why you're going after a certain dream. And so if you can find even just one or two people that get it and that know why you're doing that, they know why you wanna pursue that, that is gonna be a game changer for you.

Speaker 1: 23:45

And then, once you've kind of jotted down some business ideas, or even some ideas of how to realign your current business, or maybe even start from scratch, go ahead and create like an ideal week for yourself, like what does that look like? And get really detailed with it, because you'll be surprised at things that you wish you were doing more of in your life or things that you realize you are doing a lot of right now that you really don't wanna be doing anymore. And so just kind of create an ideal week for yourself and how your business would play into that and what your personal life would look like and how you're going to insert things that bring you joy and create mental and physical and emotional health for yourself and just all that stuff. Make a schedule and map out a week of what that would look like for yourself, and then the last step is just to take action. Just go for it. Start figuring out ways that you can take baby steps but also take big action into creating a life and a business that feels more aligned for you, because we all deserve that.

Speaker 1: 24:57

This life is way too short to not be living with so much joy and passion and purpose every day. And yes, every day is gonna be different and every day is not going to be wonderful, but if you're living in alignment, it's still gonna fill your heart so much more than if you're constantly battling to find that balance every day. So you owe it to yourself to go create a life that feels aligned and I would love to hear all about it. I wanna hear what you wanna create. I want to see if I can help you in any way. So please, please, reach out to me if you have any questions, and I just am so grateful that you are here and I can't wait to just continue to get to know all of you and hear your stories and we'll keep creating this aligned, beautiful life together.

Speaker 1: 25:50

Thank you so much for listening today. If you enjoyed the show, please like and subscribe to the podcast on your favorite listening platform. You can also leave a review anytime or send me a DM on Instagram at farm2heartsara. I would love to hear from you and hear more about your story. You can also help the podcast even more by financially supporting the tech and time costs of each episode, starting at just $3 per month. Click the support the show link and show notes to learn more Today's show, plus more farm fun, can be found on the blog at sweetfreedomfarmcocom. I can't wait to talk to you again next week. Have a beautiful day everyone.