A comprehensive life audit is necessary to get crystal clear on everything going on in your life right now. By doing this exercise first, you create a foundational place from which to grow. You also allow yourself to move forward with specific, dynamic ideas for the future.
As complex as our lives might be, they can be broken down into a relatively small set of categories. After years of work in this area, I’ve identified eight major categories that comprise the majority of the who, what, when, where, why, and how of our everyday lives. I recommend going one by one through each of them and methodically examining where you are in this moment, in this phase of life. Not where you want to be or wish you were but where you are right now. The categories are as follows:
The life audit is a powerful reframe, which is why it’s the very first step on your journey from stuck to unstoppable.
Step 1: Write down the eight major categories of your life.
Using one page per word in a notebook or a digital document, write down each of the eight categories that comprise your life:
Emotional
Environmental
Financial
Intellectual
Physical
Professional
Social
Spiritual
Set a timer for five minutes, and during that five minutes, jot down what immediately comes to mind when you think about the first category. Repeat for each category. Remember to do your best to complete this exercise without judgment. There are parts of your life that you’d like to improve, but that is not the purpose of this exercise. Instead, remain objective and write down as much as you can.
Step 2: Take a break.
Go for a walk. Have some coffee. Take a nap. Whatever you need to do to clear your head. You want to get away from the exercise long enough to clear your vision to see anything you might have missed. Take at least twenty minutes away from your notes, and do something that gets your heart rate up or creates clarity in your mind.
Step 3: Return to the audit and objectively review it.
I like to divide my insights in each category into two sections: what’s going well and what could improve. The purpose here is to gain objectivity and identify the parts of your life you may be overlooking because of the areas that may feel over- whelming. Write down anything else that comes to mind, and be as objective as possible to create a comprehensive life audit.
Step 4: Take stock.
Review what you’ve written and draw some conclusions. Note the three to five components of your life or circumstances that feel the best and that you can use as your foundation going forward. Don’t skip this. These foundational components will sustain you as you progress. Record these somewhere you can see them every day; I put mine on the mirror.