In her new book Alignment, Dr. Katie Keller Wood shows us that we have to stop striving for some impossible, made-up construct called “balance” and instead start focusing on maintaining a healthy alliance between our work and our non-work. There is overlap, she argues, between our work and our lives, and this connection is essential to our highest functioning. Ultimately, the best way to think of our lives is not as a balance scale but as a mosaic, with all our “tiles” (work, family, friendship, etc.) in some form of optimal, albeit continuously shifting, alignment. Using key Montessori education principles and frameworks, and drawing on two decades of experience teaching adolescents and adults, Dr. Wood shows us that it is possible to thrive in work and in our messy, complicated, and beautiful lives while still making a difference in the lives of others.

Dr. Katie Keller Wood grew up in the world of education and works with hundreds Montessori teachers from all over the world through the training program she runs, CMStep. She is an adjunct instructor for the University of Virginia, Xavier University, and the University of Wisconsin, and is active in the Montessori research and teacher education communities. Visit her at katiekellerwood.com. Katie lives in Richmond, VA