If you own a car, you know how it goes. It starts making loud noises, will barely start, or flat out breaks down, and you take it the mechanic. They fix it, hit you with a massive bill, and you’re back to driving.

However, if you’re really taking care of your car, you also take it in regularly even when things aren’t breaking. There’s maintenance stuff like tune-ups, system flushes, filter changes, tire rotations, and wheel alignments.

Let’s look at that last one. Alignment. If it’s off, the steering feels wrong. The car gradually veers off the chosen path. The car is in a sub-optimal state for getting to where you’re going. You need to go get those wheels realigned.

Sometimes, we need our own realignment. Gradually, our day to day activities can get out of alignment. Out of alignment with our values. Out of alignment with our goals.

I think a very good habit is to, several times a year, take time to reflect on our values and goals. We should take time to ask important questions, like:

• Are my day-to-day actions actually moving me towards my goals? If not, what can I do to fix that?
• For that matter, have my goals changed? If so, have I neglected to change my actions accordingly?
• Do my actions reflect my stated values?
• Do my actions emphasize the things that are truly important to me?

These aren’t always easy questions, but they’re necessary ones. How else can we achieve something but by regularly verifying that we’re going in the right direction? It’s like walking in the woods. You need to occasionally check the compass, or else you might simply be walking in circles.