Me, Myself & My Best-Self

Where am I now: The Art of Life Audits and Taking Intentional Action

• Claire Bennett

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Embark on a transformative journey with me, Claire Bennett, as we explore the art of conducting life audits to design a path aligned with personal fulfilment. This episode promises to take you beyond superficial self-improvement tactics — it's about delving into the depths of your current satisfaction and setting actions that resonate with your ideal self. Together, we'll assess the different facets of life, from the daily grind to the pursuit of health, wellness, spirituality, and career ambitions. I'll share my own satisfaction scales, and we'll talk about what balance truly means, emphasizing that a "perfect ten" isn't the objective, but rather an alignment with what matters to us most.

Strap yourself in for a personal tour of my own challenges, from reshaping routines to revamping my diet and honing time management to propel my business strategy. By examining the highs and lows of our existence, we'll create a vision for a year that not only looks good on paper but feels right at heart. I'll walk you through a free-form writing exercise that will unleash your aspirations and, looking ahead, tease the excitement of next week's episode on decluttering and organizing. Your journey towards intentional living and personal transformation starts here, fortified by the community we're building with every review and subscription. Here's to the empowerment that comes from genuine self-awareness and the courage to chase the life you envision.

Speaker 1:

Hey there, curious minds and self-improvement dabblers, welcome to me, myself and my best self. The podcast where we casually navigate the maze of personal growth without the hype, no promises of overnight transformations or grand life revelations here, just real talk, relatable stories and a few laughs as we figure out this whole becoming our best selves thing. I'm Claire Bennett, your guide through the maze of life's quirks and challenges. Let's wander through it together. No pressure, no perfection, just a touch of curiosity. Now this is about my sixth attempt of doing this podcast. For some reason, my dogs are going crazy today, so I'm hoping that I can get through this podcast without another dog barking. You may hear one snoring in the background, so I do apologize. See, that's one scratching already. But let's get back to the podcast. So I hope you enjoyed the self-reflection exercises from last week. Self reflection is such a powerful tool for personal development. It really does help to foster a deep understanding of ourselves. There should be something that we kind of do occasionally throughout the year. Now this week, I'm super excited. This week we're looking at life audits and it's the second step in getting prepared to set some goals for 2024. Life audit is a reflective process and it allows you to assess various aspects of your life, identify areas that are going well and assess areas that may need some improvement. See, I find it really useful exercise for gaining clarity, finding balance and deciding on some positive changes that I want to make Now. The difference between this reflective process and the process from last week is last week was all about us at our core. So our values, our strengths, our passions, what's meaningful in our life. Where this week the reflection is about where we are now. So what does our current life look like and feel like, and how satisfied are we with our current life, and what's working and what's not. So I like to find some time to carve out a few hours and do the exercise in one go. I also like to make sure I'm comfortable and there's no distractions. I like to immerse myself in this process of a life audit and enjoy it. Now I start the life audit with evaluating my current life satisfaction in all the key areas of my life.

Speaker 1:

Now, for me, I use the following categories Now the first. So I get a piece of paper and pen and I write these headings down. Now the first heading I use is daily life. Now, for me, this includes habits, my routine and my overall lifestyle. Then my second heading is health and wellness. Now, this includes my physical, my mental and my emotional health. Then the third one is spirituality. Now, I know for some this can be a bit of a woo-woo word, but for me, spirituality is about connection to my higher self and to myself fulfillment. But you may want to use a different name for that. You may want to name the categories religion or faith, or not use it at all.

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Now my fourth heading is my husband or marriage. Now, you could use a more broader term, such as romantic relationship, or you could use which would include significant other, or you could write dating or life partner, so that can be. That category is completely dependent on where you are now. Then my next one is family, then friends, then home. Now, for me, I choose home because home is quite important. It's where I spend most of my time, so I like to assess the environment, how my house feels, the belongings I have, the resources I have in my home. Then the next category is finance and money. Then I have community. Now, for me, community is both connecting with and giving back to my community. Then I have career and work.

Speaker 1:

Now, this is maybe the area that I like to see is the area that you spend the most time doing. So it may not be. It may be volunteering, it may be being a parent, being a mother, being a father. Then my next category is personal growth. Now, for me, that's about learning and exploration and self-improvement. The next category I like to use is hobbies and creativity, and then my last one is social adventure and fun. Now, you might want to change that to social and travel or whatever appeals to you. Now, as I've said, you can use all of these, or you can just choose the areas that are applicable to your life, or you might want to add some areas or split some categories, such as physical and mental health you might prefer to do those as separate because they're so different or, with family, you may want to be specific, such as children, parents, extended family. So, remember, this is your life, so choose the categories that are relevant to you.

Speaker 1:

Now, once you have your list of areas, for each life area, I assess how satisfied I am currently, from a scale of 1 to 10. One being completely dissatisfied and 10 being completely satisfied. Now it's important to use the first number or score that pops into your head, not the number that you think it should be. This process is simple but powerful, and it's a tool that helps you evaluate all the important areas of your life at once. The process helps you to better understand which of your life areas are flourishing and which ones may need some focus Now, when you're looking at your scores. This process is not about getting them all into balance, so they shouldn't all be an 8 or they shouldn't all be a 10. Life balance is personal and unique to each individual, so what may be satisfying or balance for some may be really stressful and boring for others. Fundamentally, the exercise should be used to raise your awareness of all the areas of your life and where you're satisfied and where some areas lack satisfaction. Awareness allows you to plan for a more satisfying life, and that's closer to your unique definition of balance. For example, you may rate your romantic relationship as a two, but this time in your life you're quite comfortable with this being a two, so it's not necessarily a focus area for you're an area that you really want to develop.

Speaker 1:

So for me, I always put hobbies and creativity, because as a child I loved doing creating stuff and hobbies, and I do want to find something that can keep me occupied, but right now that's probably a three. So I do delve into it and so occasionally I'll go and do one of these like days out where you do pottery or you sew a pillow, or one that I've got coming up is make a rug. So, but for me it's. It's not something that I practice daily or weekly, and so for me it's it's probably a three or a four, but actually I'm quite satisfied. I'm quite happy with it being a three or four. Yes, in an ideal world it may be a seven or an eight and I make beautiful things every week, but for me it's fine being at that level. And the process in your scoring is a snapshot of where you are now and remember it will change over time, changed maybe month to month, but this is just getting a snapshot of where you are Now.

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Once you have your scores, think about the changes or achievements that you want to make in some in those areas of your life over the next 12 months. Now, some areas you might not want to change. So don't try, don't write anything. Another area you may want to make some changes For example, in finance and money, I want to earn more in 2024. Who doesn't? But I also want to spend less In adventure. I want to travel more and in health, I want to eat less sugar and do more yoga. Now, that wasn't a change that I wanted to make in 2023, because actually my yoga I was, I was practicing regularly and I kind of want to get back to that. And for my daily life, I want to have clearer routines. I want to have clearer times to do my housework and food shopping, et cetera. It might sound really boring, but it de-stresses my life and these aren't goals. These aren't goals per se, and you don't need to do any more than just list what you want in each area at this point.

Speaker 1:

Ok, so now it's time to do a bit more in-depth reflection of your past year, taking into consideration your life as it is, and to do this, I asked myself the following questions. So the first question is what is going well? So for me, that's what am I? I'll stop about 30 minutes before the break. What am I? What am I liking? What am I enjoying in my life? What do I want? To make sure that I continue? So, for me, building my business is going well. I got a coach about six months ago to keep me accountable, and I'm making progress. I've also found a good balance for social life, and now don't say yes to everything. I make sure that I have four to eight events a month, no more than two a week, and that's a good number for me. I also try and have one weekend a month where I have no plans and I can just do what I need to do. It also means that I'm selective about who I spend my time with, as I discussed previously. For me, quality over quantity and for some, my four to eight events a month might seem a big number and for others not enough. Again, it's all about you and what you need and what you want.

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My second question is what's not going well in your life? So what do you wish was different? What do you wish you could stop doing? Now, for me, off the top of my head, it would be my daily or weekly routine. It's not where I want it to be. I need to develop my routine so I make them habit. So I also need to make sure that I get back into regular yoga. Over the past months it's gone a bit sporadic and I know that it makes me feel better, both mentally and physically. Other areas is my diet. I'm eating far too much sugar. Yes, I know it's Christmas, but for me it's about getting organized and planning my meals the week before and making sure there's quick, healthy food available, and stupid things like making sure I don't go shopping when I'm hungry, because otherwise I come back with loads of snacks.

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Now the third question is what brings me joy? And it's what's brought me joy in the past 12 months. So for me, it's spending quality time with my sisters and my mum, spending quality time with my dogs, going on walks, having date nights with my husband so those intentional nights not the nights where you just slumped in front of the TV, watching another episode on Netflix and when I see friends, I've really enjoyed doing different experiences rather than just going for a drink or drinks and dinner. For example, me and my sisters no longer buy each other birthday gifts, but instead we buy an experience and we've done a couple of days this year where we've done escape rooms and then had lunch, and it was so much fun, so enjoyable, we spent the whole day together and something to really look back on.

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And the fourth question is what is causing you the most stress? So at the moment. For me, that's my time management. I need to work smarter, not harder. Also not having a clear enough business plan yet. So that's something that I need to work on, or I know I need to work on Also my dad, but that's a whole other story. And my fifth question is what feels unsettled or not quite working? And for me, it's my priorities. They seem to change daily or weekly. I'm very reactive rather than proactive, so I need to have a clear plan of what I want, both personally and in business, and then I need to need to work out what my priorities are and where I need to focus my time. What or who boosts my energy? So, yeah, my mom, my sisters, my husband, most of the time, my dogs. Yoga, eating healthy, taking my vitamins daily, getting up early in the morning, having a to-do list, my friends taking time out and actually relaxing. And what or who drains my energy is the last and seventh question. And for me that's not being organised, that's having the TV on in the background when I work. Yes, it's a really bad habit Sugar migraines, missing my afternoon dog walk or evening yoga class. So, bear the questions, take your time, answer them. We don't have to answer them in that particular order. But just take your time Now, once you've answered the questions, reread your answers, and I want you to make two lists.

Speaker 1:

For the first list, write down the things that no longer serve you, that you want to stop or you want to do less of, and in the second list, write down the things that you want to do more of Now. For example, I mentioned my. Now you may have stuff in there that is causing you stress or it feels unsettled or it drains you, and it might not be something that you can stop or stop doing, like, for example, I've got my dad in there. Well, I can't, and I've decided not to stop seeing him, as you remember from a previous episode, but I can and I have put in boundaries and maybe I need to reevaluate those. Now. You may repeat yourself from the first exercise, but don't worry about that. Any repetition just highlights the things that are really important to you. Okay, now for the part that I like the best. So this is the next bit, the part where you get to think about the year ahead.

Speaker 1:

This phase of the life audit process is to get crystal clear on what your best life would look like in 12 months' time Now. Take into consideration the changes or the achievements that you want in all the areas of your life. What is it you want to do more of in the next 12 months? What do you want to do less of? You can write about the different areas separately, but for a more holistic approach and the way I profess to it is just write freely about my life.

Speaker 1:

Now I ask myself the following questions. Imagine yourself in 12 months from today and you've achieved your goals and you've just had the most phenomenal year of your entire life. Now, what would that look like? How would it feel? What dreams have come true? How do you spend your days Now? Allow yourself to write freely, without editing your thoughts or trying to make it sound nice or look pretty. Don't judge yourself for what you want or don't want. Don't worry about how you're going to get there or how you're going to make it happen. Just give yourself the space to really get clear on what your life would ideally look like in 12 months' time.

Speaker 1:

Now I like to imagine myself doing this exercise in 12 months time, sitting at my desk, smiling, feeling healthier and more energized than I ever have, to feel more confident and content. And then I take a few moments to get myself into this state, put a big smile on my face, I spend a few minutes imagining my life and then, when I'm ready, I start to put pen to paper. Now, you can do this on a computer, but, as I've said before, I prefer to write on paper. Just make sure you're feeling good before you do this part of the exercise and, as I said, you can separate the different areas of your life and write about them individually, for example, or bulk them together, for example, family, home and relationship and then career, money for, etc. For me, I just like to write, but all of us have preferred ways of doing these things. Now, I also like to time it, so you might want to time it or you might not, but I would suggest writing for at least 20 minutes and a maximum of 40. Now, I'm sure some of you could write for hours, but I think having a specific time period helps you focus on the key things and not every little detail.

Speaker 1:

As I said, this is just about. This is just writing about your life in 12 months and write it as if it's already happened and you're living it and as you're describing what your life is like. Okay, so you now have a clear picture of what your life looks like at this stage. I don't want you to reread it just yet. I just want you to write down three doable actions that you can do in the coming week that will help you move into 2024, closer to your ideal youth. So this is not about setting goals. This is just coming up with three doable actions.

Speaker 1:

So for me, off the top of my head, I'm going to look at my schedule for the week and have some key routines for both my work and personal life, and I'm going to add to my calendar when I'm going to plan my food for the coming week and set a regular day to do my food shopping and for work. I'm going to schedule some time for some sales calls and emails and time to do marketing and finance All these things I constantly put off but are super important for my business. Now my action two is to plan some dates for the first quarter with my friends and family getting the dates in the dioramy and I have something to look forward to, and I make sure I'm prioritising the people that I love spending time with, because because I only want to do four to eight events a month. I want to make sure that I get the key people in quick. My third action is to devise a list of 15 to 20 healthy recipes that I know that I love and I know that are nutritious and I know that take less than between 15 and 30 minutes to prepare. And then, when I struggle to work out what I'm going to eat for the next week, I can refer to this list and, although we hate to admit it, we are creatures of habit and so often we end up eating the same thing every week anyway. So I'm going to come up with 15 to 20 recipes so that I can work out what I want to eat, make sure that I'm maybe eating a bit differently as well week to week. Now I also know that a lot of my friends are doing these delivered meals and that works really well for them, so maybe you want to, if you have similar problems to me, maybe it's so you want to sign up to one of those next year. Personally, I've tried them and for me and my husband they just don't work as well, but they could be an option for you. Some of my friends swear by them. So take just right three actions and put them on your to-do list to do for this week and, obviously, do the life audit. Now, that's the end of the life audit and the end of the podcast for this week. Thanks for tuning in to me, myself and my best self today.

Speaker 1:

I hope our discussion on life audits provided some valuable insight for the start of your 2024 journey. Remember, this isn't about achieving perfection, but embracing the continuous process of self-improvement. Now, today's episode, we delved into the significance of life audits, a reflective process to assess different aspects of our life, celebrating the positives and identifying areas for change, from evaluating satisfaction across categories to envisaging our ideal lives in 2024. We covered a comprehensive guide to gaining clarity and making some intentional choices as we navigate this maze of personal growth. Let's keep the conversation alive.

Speaker 1:

Share your reflections or any a-high moments with me on social media. You can find me at ClaireFallliving on Instagram and looking ahead to next week episode. Next week, we're going to tackle the transformative power of decluttering organization and simplifying your decisions. Now. It's a crucial step in setting the stage for a more focus and intentional 2024. If you've enjoyed today's episode, consider living a review and subscribing. Your feedback not only fuels the podcast, but also helps others discover the joy of real talk and personal growth. So until next time, here's a recap. Stay curious. This is Claire Bennett signing off Cheers to the journey ahead.