Building a Life You Love is Hard. Living Out of Alignment is Harder.
You Get to Choose Your Hard
They tell you to work hard.
Stay focused.
Do all the right things.
But what happens when you do everything right... and it still feels wrong?
I remember the first time I realized success didn’t taste the way I thought it would.
It was early — my first job out of law school.
I remember thinking: What the hell is this...?
But I had student loans to pay and an image to live up to.
So I stayed on the path.
And don’t get me wrong — I’m proud of the career I built.
I learned so much through my time in private practice and corporate law departments.
I gained skills, confidence, and resilience that paved the way for the success I have now in real estate development.
I owe a lot to my colleagues, mentors, and friends who helped shape the woman I am today.
But somewhere along the journey — after climbing the ladder, checking the boxes, achieving the goals — I hit a wall.
I felt exhausted. Disconnected.
Like I was living someone else’s life — not mine.
The truth hit me hard:
This isn’t success.
This is survival.
Grind culture sells a false promise:
If you work hard enough, you’ll finally feel fulfilled.
But fulfillment doesn’t come from achievement.
It comes from alignment — from living a life that actually matches who you are at your core.
And living out of alignment?
That’s its own kind of hard.
It’s waking up every day and forcing yourself through motions that drain you.
It’s getting swallowed in self-doubt.
It’s feeling like you have to perform to be loved.
It’s living with a low hum of resentment, anxiety, or numbness.
It’s disconnection — from your purpose, your passion, your relationships — and convincing yourself: This is just how life is.
Building a life you love is hard.
Staying misaligned is harder.
The question is: Which hard are you willing to choose?
What Alignment Really Means
Alignment doesn’t mean life becomes effortless.
It doesn’t mean you’ll never face challenges or hard decisions.
Alignment means:
Your energy feeds your purpose instead of depleting it.
Your actions reflect your truth, not someone else’s expectations.
You feel a deep, quiet satisfaction — even on the hard days — because you know you’re doing the things that fulfill you at a soul level.
You are building a life that lights you up.
It’s not that the work disappears.
It’s that the work nourishes you instead of draining you dry.
Alignment is still work.
But it’s soul-expanding work — not soul-crushing work.
Choosing Your Hard
Here’s the deal:
Life is going to life.
Sometimes gently.
Sometimes all over you at once.
Those challenges and experiences are here to help us grow — even when it doesn’t feel like it at the time.
So I’m not going to sugarcoat it:
Alignment doesn't mean you suddenly start shitting rainbows and pulling money off a tree in your backyard.
(Perhaps in some parallel universe — but not this one.)
Any way you live life, it’s going to be hard at times.
But babe, you get to choose the hard.
You get to decide:
Do you want a life that chips away at your joy, your soul, your energy, your sense of self?
Or do you want a life that requires you to lean into the fear, face the limitations, and realize your true potential?
Will you swim against the current, or will you find your flow?
Both paths are hard.
The difference?
One path drains your soul.
The other path expands it.
Practices That Build Alignment
Here’s the beautiful part:
You don’t have to blow up your life overnight.
Alignment is built in small, courageous choices every day.
Here are a few practices pulled directly from my From Grind to Align E-Book to help you strengthen your connection to your true self:
Tuning In Daily
Create tiny moments of stillness — even 5 minutes a day — through meditation, journaling, or breathwork.
Stillness creates space for intuition to rise.Radical Self-Permission
Allow yourself to want what you want — without justification or apology.
Your desires are not random. They are roadmaps.Aligned Action
Take one small step toward what feels expansive.
Not what feels “safe” or “logical” — what feels true.Nervous System Check-Ins
Pause and ask: Am I acting from fear or trust right now?
Building a life in alignment requires operating from safety and trust — not survival mode.Energy Awareness
Start noticing: What energizes me? What drains me?
Realignment often begins by honoring what your body and spirit are already telling you.
Building a life you love — one that’s true to you — asks for courage.
It asks for faith.
It asks for patience with yourself as you navigate The Bridge — messy middle.
And here’s the truth:
Alignment isn’t a destination.
It’s a choice.
A choice you make again and again, every time you choose you.
Alignment is finding the flow — and staying in it.
If it’s going to be hard either way…
choose the hard that leads you home to yourself.
You are not too late.
You are not too far gone.
The last train hasn’t left the station.
How do I know?
Because you are the train.
You are the tracks.
You are the conductor.
You are the whole damn station.
You are being called back into alignment — because your soul is ready for more.
And you’re ready, because the life you're meant to live is already waiting for you.
A life of ease.
A life that fills you up.
A life built from the fountain of unconditional self-love.
And lastly — you can do hard things.
You already are.
✨ Reflection Questions:
Where in your life are you choosing the familiar hard over the expansive hard?
What’s one small way you can move closer to alignment today?
🌟 If this message resonates with you, share it with someone who might need this reminder too.
We’re not meant to survive our lives.
We’re meant to love them.
Thank you for being here. I’m going to ask you a favor, if you are enjoying these posts, please share this publication to someone you think may enjoy it as well. We aren’t just creating community, we are creating a movement. Sharing this message helps us grow, and lets me know this content is making an impact.
If you’re ready to do the hard things that actually make a real difference in your life, consider investing in yourself with my From Grind to Align E-Book ($27). Inside, I share the practices and aligned actions that helped me shift out of survival mode and into a life that feels expansive, fulfilling, and true.
Every purchase not only supports your own journey — it supports mine too.
Want to hear from me more frequently? Follow me on Instagram where I share real talk, inspirational messages, my hot takes, and personal stories.