This article is all about how to conduct a life audit during the holidays.
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The holidays can be a disorienting time of year. A short life audit during the holidays will help you regain your composure and get a fair evaluation of where you are right now.
It is great to set goals but does it really matter if we don’t know how far we have to go?
Why is this important to do during the holidays?
You receive the best results when you are in a period of stress.
If you are an introvert like me, you are suddenly bombarded with more social activity in the span of a few months than you had for the whole year.
Your budget which you just spent the whole year perfecting is all out of whack because of the sales and now Christmas is looming around the corner and there is no amount of shopping that could ever make you feel prepared enough.
Sure, you could audit your life at any time of year, but you would have the most complete picture of how your year went if you chose to do a life audit during the holidays.
At the end of the year, you have likely wrapped up your goals or at least come to some conclusions about the year.
Life Audit Checklist
A life audit checklist is a survey that gauges your perspective and feelings at the particular time that you complete the survey.
This can be extremely helpful as you can answer the same questions at different times in your life and see your progress.
Some questions that you may ask to get the gears turning in your mind are:
- Can I say that this year was better than the last?
- How will I spend my time now that I have finished school?
- What was my biggest lesson?
- What was my largest area of growth?
- In which area did I fall short the most?
- What is next for me?
If you would like to create a survey of your own, I would suggest that you leave a space for you to write. Here, you can expand on the answers that you gave to the questions or the markings you left on the questionnaire.
It is difficult to remember how you feel during day to day life unless the event is significant.
A documented life audit during the holidays will give you great information to compare your current information to.
Who Benefits From Doing A Life Audit During The Holidays?
Everybody!
Yes, everybody can benefit from a life audit during the holidays.
Do you know who would find extra benefit from doing a life audit?
Women who have completed their undergrad. This is a very strange and vulnerable time in one’s life.
You are letting go of the routines that you have been doing for years and are now faced with making “adult” decisions. If you are unprepared, you may end up doing what is most convenient or what you think the people closest to you would approve of.
A new year is a great opportunity to restart and to plan for goals. You would have an easy time creating a timeline and you have the support of the people around you also setting their goals.
- Why is this important to do during the holidays?
- Life Audit Checklist
- Who Benefits From Doing A Life Audit During The Holidays?
- 1| What Are We Working With?
- 2| What are our prospects?
- 3| Do We Like Our Prospects
- 4| What Does Success In the Next Year Look Like?
- 5| What Are Steps We Could Take Now To Have A Successful Year?
- 6| The Bigger Picture
Ultimate Guide to A Life Audit During The Holidays
1| What Are We Working With?
Every good audit includes an opportunity to reflect.
Knowing where you are currently will give you hints about where it is that you want to be.
You can reflect on what you have accomplished during the year or really think about how you have spent your year.
Pacing is extremely important.
People like to say that the days are long and the years are short.
This is extremely true.
If you cannot remember what you have done in the year, you may need to revisit your vision board or make a reflection board (essentially the opposite of a vision board). You would include photos, quotes, memories, songs, etc. that represent the year that you just had.
Like a vision board, it can document your memories and easily capture where you were physically and mentally during this time.
You should use this time to really assess if the year you had is setting yourself up for the year you want. If you have more work to do, then you should
2| What are our prospects?
Do we have something lined up? Are we winging it?
This is an important thing to consider in your life audit during the holidays because you need to know where you are beginning.
If you have something lined up, like a job, internship, or experience, you can adjust your target.
Whatever you need to do to prepare for your success in your next steps, this is your time to plan.
You may find yourself on the other end too.
You may have no prospects.
This means that you need to plan to grind.
Everybody’s future is going to look different, but hopefully, you will use this time to move yourself forward.
Focus on the steps that will bring you progress. This progress should be measurable, within a time frame, and should challenge you.
If you want to change your prospects, some things that you can do are:
- Work a low-end job to earn and save money to support yourself while you find a job that will pay you what you are worth.
- Pick up a side hustle that you are passionate about and grow it to replace your main income source.
- Start frequenting the spaces that the people you admire visit and meet new people.
- Move to an area where there is more opportunity for your passion.
If there was ever a time to plan your exit from one situation and entry into another, it would be in a life audit during the holidays.
If you liked this post, you’ll love these:
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- How to show yourself love on Valentine’s Day
3| Do We Like Our Prospects
Sometimes, we don’t take the time to consider if we like our options. It is easy to fall into the trap of just being glad to have options.
I would like to remind you that all that you have seen with your own eyes is not all that the world has to offer.
A life audit during the holidays will give you the chance to reflect on the opportunities that have been presented to you.
If you are unhappy with the options that you have, this is the time to brainstorm different ones.
Everyone has a different tolerance to risk. It is okay to be scared of your goals. The problem comes when your goals do not scare you.
Challenge yourself and get through the awkward phase. It does not last forever, and you will probably adjust much faster than you think.
4| What Does Success In the Next Year Look Like?
How do you want to feel this time next year?
It is important to assess your thoughts on success because you need a clear picture of what it is that you want.
The more specific you can be and the stronger the why, the greater the likelihood of you reaching these goals.
I think that you should specifically focus on how you want to feel.
Example: How would it feel to be one year in at your first “grown-up” job? How would it feel for your side hustle to exceed your expectations? How would it feel to be a consistent volunteer?
People find meaning in any and everything. One thing that makes life worth living is the meaning that you create in your life.
If you can create a meaningful life, you have won.
A life audit during the holidays will clarify your view of success and bring to light what is meaningful to you and how you create meaning.
If you liked this post, you’ll love these:
- Starting from Zero | Best Ways to Set Yourself Up for Success
- How to Stop Overthinking and Take Back Control of Your Life
- How to show yourself love on Valentine’s Day
5| What Are Steps We Could Take Now To Have A Successful Year?
This is the million-dollar question, isn’t it?
Let’s be honest, you knew this was coming.
What good is a plan that is all theoretical? Any goals worth having require work.
Work doesn’t have to be a bad thing either!
When you take the time to determine the “why” behind “what” you do, you increase your odds of success.
Feelings are strong motivators and they are not easily forgotten. Channel your feelings into practical steps (that you can control) to create your roadmap.
Let’s go over some examples of what I am talking about.
Goal: I want to make a career change.
Feeling: I am uninspired in what I currently do and feel like I am wasting my life minutes every day that I spend in that (insert adjective here) office!
Plan: I am going to complete a course using Course Careers to become certified in sales engineering. Then I am going to submit 50 job applications a week until I receive a job offer.
You see? These are things that you can do!
These are tasks that you can check off the checklist and make progress…immediately!
No one said that life was about getting everything you want when you want it, but it sure doesn’t have to be about suffering until you can’t suffer anymore.
You have choices! Use them!
6| The Bigger Picture
Consider a life audit during the holidays as a single snippet in time.
These are the things you desire and what you want to receive at a specific moment in your life. Nothing is written in stone, but it is meant to be a resource for you to build upon.
As you improve your reflection abilities, you can get a better gauge of your vision. Each year as you complete the life audit, you refine your vision bit by bit.
The goal doesn’t need to be to completely change your life and accomplish everything on your bucket list.
You have your whole life for that!
You are on this journey for the long haul. As you make these plans and begin to act on them, leave room for detours and lessons.
You are already doing better than the average person because you have a plan!
Conclusion
Completing a life audit during the holidays is extremely important.
You give yourself a better chance at success and reaching your goals by taking the time to do a life audit during the holidays.
Help your future self out by setting them up for success. Time is on your side and it is a terrible thing to waste.
Let’s Keep the Party Going!
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