Conducting a Personal Self-Audit on your Life
Answer this question. Go on, indulge me and sit with it for a few minutes.
What do you know that you wish you didn’t know about yourself?
I found this question in a TED talk from career coach Ashley Stahl, at first I couldn’t quite figure it out. Then I sat with it for a bit and discovered that I’m pretending to be happy…and I didn’t even realise.
You can check out Ashley Stahl’s TED talk here
On this journey to get to know myself and discover what I really want in life I have scoured the internet, read a ton of personal growth and psychology books, attended seminars, and asked myself a lot of pretty searching questions.
One thing I came across, in one form or another, is a personal self-audit.
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What is a personal self-audit?
Something to do with taxes? Well, yes it could be. But that’s not what I’m talking to you about today, and anyway please don’t take advice from me on taxes, there’s a good reason I have a guy for that!
Basically you can think of it as a ‘spring cleaning for your life’ or a ‘catch-up meeting’ with yourself. In a nutshell, a personal self audit is simply checking in with yourself and doing a bit of good old fashioned reflection.
The goal of a personal self-audit is to take stock of your life situation, figure out your current trajectory, and whether your on track to reaching your goals.
Even if you’re confident that you’re on the right track and happy in life, I’m sure it won’t do any damage to stop for a minute and take a look on the inside.
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3 Ways to do a Personal Self-Audit
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1 Bucket List
One thing that I discovered is the bucket list. Named after the idiom ‘to kick the bucket’ meaning to die, this is a list of stuff you want to do, see, visit, own, experience, etc before you…well, kick the bucket.
This is really fun; take a brand new pack of post-its, a journal or in this digital age just open a word document.
Now write your list, you should aim for 100 things. I know… 100 things sounds like a lot, but hopefully you’ve already done some of these things and you’ve got a lot of years left to work through the rest.
To be really successful here, you have to approach it with an open mind. Don’t write things you feel like you ‘should’ want. Think back to your childhood self, what did that person want? If you showed your current life to that kid, would they be super excited to jump forward into your adult-sized shoes?
This is your life my friend, the sky is the limit. Actually that’s not even true, I’m pretty sure you could get beyond the sky if you really wanted to. Just ask Elon Musk.
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2 Life Wheel
This is great for those who like visuals. Basically a six to ten-spoked wheel representing six to ten areas of your life that you want to check in on.
Typical areas are:
- career/business goals
- education
- finances
- health
- family
- love/relationships
- social
- fun
- spirituality
- contribution
- self-image
For each point that you want to audit, give it a score from zero (crappy) to ten (amazing), and you should end up with a kind of kite-diagram.
This will give you a very visual idea of which areas your life is lacking and help you in deciding what changes you want to make.
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3 Personal Self-Audit Questionnaire
If spreadsheets are more up your alley and you want to answer specific questions about the above topics, consider a personal self-audit questionnaire.
Basically you create a spreadsheet and follow the zero to ten rating system used in the life wheel exercise.
The advantage of this is that you can ask yourself more specific questions rather than just general topics.
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Here are a few examples of personal self-audit questions to get you started:
Career/business: Do you look forward to going to work? Do you find your work rewarding?
Education: Are you learning and growing? Do you have the knowledge and skills that you want or need?
Finances: Do you feel financially secure? Are you able to do what you want to do without constraints?
Health: Do you have enough energy pursue your goals every day? Can you maintain a healthy weight?
Relationships: Do you feel connected with your partner, friends, and family? Do you have share experiences with them?
Fun Do you laugh a lot? Do you find the time to relax and do things you really enjoy?
Spirituality: are you connected with your core values? Do you feel a deep connection to the environment/planet/universe?
Giving/Contribution: Do you give (time, money, etc.) to others freely? Are contributing to making the world a better place?
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3 Steps to Implement your Personal Self-Audit
Once you have your data organised nicely its time for action.
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1. Figure out your pain points and set your goals.
Look at the results of your personal self-audit. Which areas do you want to work on? Where do you want to see improvement?
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2. Measurability.
As a trainer I know the importance of measuring your goals. How will you know that your making progress? What benchmark metrics can you use to measure your success?
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3. Create a road map and set your priorities.
What’s the best way to eat an elephant? Take one bite at a time! (please don’t eat elephants, they are wonderful, intelligent, majestic creatures).
Decide which goals are most important to you. Decide on the actions you are going to take to reach them. Break them down into manageable steps. This is the best way to avoid getting overwhelmed. Be ambitious, but be aware of your limits. Slow and steady is the way, sprinting through your personal and professional development is a fast way to burnout.
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Taking some time out every now and again to conduct a personal self-audit by slowing down, reflecting on what’s really important to you, and checking your trajectory can mean the difference between living your life on auto-pilot, and putting yourself on the path to living a happy and fulfilled life.
