Sustainable Success Nudge from Your Future Self:
💬 “Alignment doesn’t always feel peaceful. Sometimes it feels like choosing what’s true over what’s familiar.”

Hi Melinda,

There’s a quiet misunderstanding about alignment that I want to clear up.

Most people think alignment feels calm.
Easy.
Affirming.
Like everything clicks into place and finally makes sense.

Sometimes it does.

But more often?
Alignment feels sobering.
Stretching.
Uncomfortable in a way that doesn’t ask you to fix anything—only to be honest.

Alignment doesn’t always feel good.
It feels true.

One of the most aligned decisions I’ve made recently didn’t feel easy at all.

Earlier last year, I chose to retire from The Coaches Console—a business I had led for over twenty-one years.
It was familiar. Natural. Second nature.
I could do that work in my sleep.

From the outside, it looked aligned—and for years, it truly was.
From the inside, my intuition was clear: it was time. 

That decision didn’t come with instant relief or certainty.
It came with hard conversations.
With grief for an era that mattered deeply.
With the unraveling of something I had spent decades building.
It came with months of preparation, communication, and countless tasks—each one asking me to stay present, honest, and anchored in what I knew to be true.

And still—I knew.

Alignment asked me to let go of what was familiar before it could give me anything new.
It asked me to trust.

That’s the part we don’t talk about enough.

Alignment isn’t the absence of fear.
It’s the willingness to move with truth even when fear is present.

It doesn’t always quiet the mind.
But it does settle the body.

You know you’re aligned not because everything is figured out—but because:

• your body isn’t bracing
  
• your energy isn’t fractured
  
• your intuition is louder than your urgency

Even when nothing looks settled yet.

Since making that decision, I don’t yet know exactly what my “what’s next” is.
And strangely—I feel more at peace than ever.

My "what's next" feels like it's starting to take shape.
There are more synchronicities happening each week.
More right-timed conversations “out of the blue.”
More moments where I catch myself saying, “You’re not going to believe who I just met.”

Alignment doesn’t rush.
It doesn’t perform.
It doesn’t need validation.

It simply keeps inviting you to release what you’ve outgrown—so something truer can arrive.

Try this today:
Think of one area of your life or business where things feel slightly off—not wrong, just tight or effortful.

Ask yourself gently:
If I weren’t trying to make this easier… what truth might I be avoiding?
What would alignment ask me to release before it offers me anything new?

You don’t need an answer right away.
You just need the honesty to ask.

Because alignment doesn’t always feel good.
But it always feels like coming home.

With trust in the unfolding,
Melinda