So a topic that has been coming up a lot recently with clients is intentionality. Am I building the business that I actually want? Am I moving forward in a way that truly supports my goals? Does the day to day structure of my life actually light me up? It can be so easy to get on autopilot going towards something that society tells us to want or that we should do or that we previously wanted but maybe it’s no longer aligned. But what happens is time moves quickly, so before we know it, weeks, months, or even years have just zoomed past. So these conversations are really centering around “what do I actually want?”
We have so many things that we hold and there is only so much time in the day. Family, household, fitness, business, personal relationships, time for ourselves, etc.
If you’re a tiny bit familiar with me, you likely know that I talk a lot about building a life by design instead of by default. But one caveat of that is that you do have to actually design that life and take action towards it – not just talk about it and hope that it somehow magically happens, and also being very intentional that the steps that you’re taking are leading you down a path that you legitimately want to go.
Everything in our lives are connected, and I tend to recommend you look at a really holistic view of everything. Your life, your business, your relationships, everything. In episode 12 of the podcast, we talked about CEO days, which are very specific to business. But whereas a CEO day is much more zoomed in view specific to business, what we’re going to be diving into today is more of a zoomed out, bigger picture view of everything.
Introducing: life audits.
What is a life audit?
A life audit is a process to help you identify what’s working and also what’s not working in your life.
It gives you an opportunity to reflect on where you’re currently at, get clarity on where you want to go, dive deep into what changes you need to make in order to get there, and then map out a gameplan to actually take you there.
Life audits help you get clear on what YOU actually want and help you to course correct and get in alignment with your actual hopes, dreams, and goals. It allows you to identify what truly matters to you so that you can create your life by design.
In short, it’s essentially an assessment of your life and supports you in gaining a clear picture of what you actually want and is a way to intentionally create the life that you desire.
To be clear, a life audit does not mean you need to add more things onto your to do list. Also some things that you thought you wanted (or previously wanted) may have changed, and that’s okay. It’s okay to let them go if they no longer support the direction you’re going in now.
Life audits can be challenging because they require us to get honest with ourselves about what’s not working and areas that were unfulfilled. However, once we do have that clarity, we can tweak or let go of those things.
One cool thing about a life audit is that it can help you up-level your life, and also level up your business.
It’s like a ripple effect. When you have more space, capacity, and clarity in your life and where you’re going, it can make it easier to make decisions in your business. Specifically, decisions that actually move you towards the life that you want to create instead of moving just to move or stick you on autopilot.
So life audits are a great way to analyse all areas of your life instead of just thinking business strategy.
Other benefits are that they can help you
-be intentional and get clear on what you actually want
-figure out how the next stage of your life should look
-determine the things that are the most important to you and also what’s no longer serving you
-see how far you are from hitting your goals so you can figure out what the best next step is
And specifically for female entrepreneurs, we can tend to put life on “hold” or on the back burner in order to gain traction in our businesses to help it hit a certain level, but again everything is connected. So taking this holistic approach can help you have a more balanced and fulfilled life in general, but it can also help you catapult your business.
When to do a life audit?
You don’t need to wait until a specific time. You can literally start to do this now. However, it can be really helpful to do life audits:
-every quarter, 6 months, or at least once per year. The end of one year or beginning of another is always a great time to analyse things but it can be really insightful to do them more frequently.
-if there’s a significant change in your life. So for example if you’re making a big move, getting married, pivoting your business, going through a separation, having a health scare or complication or one of your family has one, etc. Basically when there are big changes in your life.
-if you’re feeling stuck or on autopilot
-if you’re unclear about your goals
-if you’re unfulfilled, lacking purpose or lacking direction
-if you’re constantly overwhelmed
How to do a life audit?
-Give yourself time and space to think through these. I’d recommend setting aside at least an hour or two and grabbing a journal or notebook so you can do a brain dump and write things down.
-Be prepared to be brutally honest. Remember this is based on what you want and the life that you want to create for yourself. It’s not expectations from other people or from society as a whole. It’s can also be difficult to let things go that we thought we wanted or actually did want in the past – being completely honest will help you make clear, relevant decisions so that you’re only moving towards things that you truly want moving forward (and it’s totally okay if some of these things have changed over the years).
-Don’t skip over areas that feel sticky. There are going to be categories that you’re not as confident in or that aren’t a priority right now. That’s okay – but still try to work through each of the categories that are important to you so you can really get a holistic view of everything.
Now let’s go ahead and dive in.
1. Categorise
So for starters, you’ll want to break things into categories. These may look a little different for everyone, but here are some of the key categories.
-Health (health, wellness, and fitness)
-Wealth (money and finances)
-Business (career and business growth)
-Personal relationships (social and romantic)
-Self-care
-Personal growth and learning
-Emotional health
-Spiritual life
-Adventure and travel
Now auditing all of this in one sitting can be overwhelming, especially if you’ve never done one of these before. So give yourself some grace if it feels like a lot, especially if it’s your first time or you haven’t done one in a while. The more that you start to do these, the easier they will become, and you’ll also have clarity on them which makes it easier to track and course correct.
With that said, what we want to avoid is to audit only one or two of these areas and leave the others out, which is then imbalanced. So take some time to get clear on what your categories are. Not ALL of these are going to be relevant for everyone and you may also want to add others in there – that’s fine. We just want to make sure to not skip over ones that aren’t doing so hot right now. So for example, if you do not focus on health AT ALL but you know you need to and that’s something you want to incorporate into your life in the future, don’t skip it just because you’re not doing anything with it now. So I just want to clarify the difference there with ones that aren’t relevant to you with ones that you are just avoiding or haven’t been focusing on.
2. The actual audit
This is where you’re going to ask yourself questions in each area.
Now again, this can be super time consuming at first, so don’t feel like you need to rush through it and try to not get discouraged if it feels like a lot. But I do just want to reiterate, once you have this clarity, it is SO much faster and easier to jump in in a few months and see where you’re at.
For example, I first did one of these in 2019 and it took me FOREVER to figure out what the hell I actually wanted. But now that I have clarity in each category, it’s actually pretty quick when I do audits. I can make little tweaks here and there and just make sure I’m still going in the direction of the life that I WANT, and the same thing will happen for you. So just trust the process.
Here are some questions.
How satisfied am I with each area of my life?
What feels the most meaningful and purposeful? What doesn’t?
What’s going well? What isn’t going well?
If I could wake up tomorrow and do anything, what would that be?
How am I spending my time and energy?
In general, how am I feeling about life right now?
What dictates my current decision-making process?
3. Get clear on your priorities
Now this one is crucial. If you want to improve in 3 categories, great. Knowing is the first step. However, be mindful to get clear on the actual priorities.
4. Create an action plan
There is so much power in determining where the gals are. However, it’s not enough to just figure out where the gaps are and what you want to improve. You have to actually take steps to improve.
Small action steps daily. Doing a little bit each day.
