Before you know it, your year has come to an end. You look back at the highs and lows, cherish the highlights and move on to the next year, set a bunch of resolutions that you may or not follow and get ready for the new year.
However, do you really take a minute to really sit back and assess the changes, along with what went well and what didn’t? Conducting a life audit is how you can ensure that your growth, be it personal, emotional, or professional is going on the right track and you are able to deal with changes in your environment.
The word audit might sound complicated, but it’s really not. All it takes is taking a few minutes at the end of the day and mentally assessing your wins and losses. No matter how small it be, learning from each activity you are doing or interaction you have with someone else, can really bring about a change in yourself.
You might be wondering if you even need a life audit and the answer to that question is always yes. The main purpose of conducting a life audit is to ensure that you are conscious of how you are growing, as a person. To constantly keep learning and extracting value from your interactions, is how can better yourself in the journey of life and improve your wellness. After all, learning doesn’t end at just the classroom.
Yes, this might seem to be a bit of a task at first, so, you can take the help of a journal. Draw a few columns for the different parts of your life: family and friends, work, mental health, physical fitness. Now write down notes about how you feel about these separate sections. Ask yourself questions like- have I been able to dedicate enough time to nurture this, how do I feel about this right now, how can I better spend my time and energy towards this?
You may have to remind yourself to do this at first, and might even dread it at times, because checking in with yourself means confronting some uncomfortable thoughts that you may be trying to avoid. However, after a few weeks of checking in with yourself, you will find this process to be therapeutic and might even look forward to it!
Here are some tips below to help you with becoming a pro at auditing your life:
Finding a peaceful space to conduct your life audit:
To be able to listen to your inner thoughts, you need to be able to be in a place where you can think in peace. Choose a quiet corner of your house, or if that is not possible, find a way to tune out external noise or distractions. You can do this by plugging in your earphones and listening to some calming tunes or just try to switch off your mobile phone for fifteen minutes at the end of the day so you can have a mini-digital detox and begin your self-assessment. https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanrobinson/2020/08/04/listen-to-your-body-talk-and-quiet-your-mind-with-5-minute-mindfulness-microchillers/?sh=32c804f52dab
Choose a journal that you are comfortable with using:
To make conducting a regular life audit a habit, writing down your thoughts will always help. If not always, at least in the beginning. If you feel like you aren’t able to get a hold on your thoughts and emotions because you simply don’t have the time to, journaling is the best way to gain back that lost control. The benefits of writing down your thoughts are simply endless: https://theadroitjournal.org/2020/04/03/the-benefits-of-writing-down-your-thoughts-and-feelings/
Ask the right questions:
Not every part of your life can be dealt with by asking the same generic questions. When conducting a self-inquiry, it’s better if you go all in and tackle the issue at hand by confronting your uncomfortable thoughts head on. Ask yourself what exactly went wrong, how can you make it better, how can you regain control of the situation; how can you nurture this by managing your time and efforts efficiently. At the same time, it’s important to assess your wins too, just because you had a win, that’s no reason to not learn from it. Inquiring things like, how it made you feel and how you can change to make it happen again is something you can strive to do. For some help in this regard, here are some questions you can check out: https://www.inc.com/wanda-thibodeaux/34-essential-life-audit-questions-you-cant-afford-.html
If you need some more tips on how, feel free to check out this link below: https://www.coaching-online.org/life-audit/ Now, you are completely equipped to conduct a life audit of your own. Remember, don’t be too hard on yourself, just try at first!