ad lineare, to bring into a line
Alignment
The distance between who you say you are and what you actually did this week. A measurement, not a judgement.
What is alignment?
Alignment is the distance between who you say you are and what you actually did this week. From ad lineare, to bring into a line. It is a measurement rather than a judgement, and it is the only score Character Arc keeps.
Why it works
People do not act on their values. They act on their identity, which is the story they currently believe about themselves, and that story is built from evidence rather than intention. This is why declaring a value changes nothing and casting one vote for an identity changes a little. Alignment is not a moral grade. It is the gap between the declared story and the lived one, and gaps close from the lived side.
How to use it
Name one identity out loud: runner, writer, someone who says the hard thing. Then count the votes you cast for it this week. If the number is zero, the problem is not discipline, it is that you declared something you do not actually want. Both answers are useful.
What proving it looks like
"Said I was a writer. Wrote on four days out of seven. That is the number, not a feeling about the number. 30 Mar."
Where this lands
Alignment is read off your line rather than asked about, because what you did is already on it.
This is one of the ideas inside Character Arc. See where it lands on your own line.