Follow this simple life audit process to help you identify changes you need to make to experience more happiness and fulfillment in your life.

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Before I started doing regular life audits, I was living a life that looked good from the outside but didn’t feel so happy and fulfilling on the inside. I was just kinda doing what you were “supposed to” do my whole life:

• graduate university with top marks (and sacrifice all happiness and sense of balance in the process)
• get a good paying job (regardless of whether you like the work, the people, or the company)
• secure the promotion (even if it means more hours away from your little ones)
• buy the house in the suburbs (even if you prefer full time travel or want to live on a farm)
• over-schedule your kids’ sports (even if it means sacrificing every hour of spare time you have together)
• wake up, dash around the house, grind through work while counting down the hours to 5 PM, come home, scramble through evening chores, collapse into bed, and repeat—always looking forward to the weekend.

I remember the day I hit a wall and finally acknowledged that I just didn’t want to live like this anymore. The next few years of figuring out how to re-design my life to bring me joy and fulfillment were messy, uncertain, and tough. But here I am on the other side of it, living the biggest, boldest version of my life:

• Running a 6+ figure business while working <20 hours a week and helping other entrepreneurs do the same
• Doing work I’m passionate about, that lights me up every day
• Spending every afternoon with my kids and being the present mom I’ve always wanted to be
• Travelling for 5 months at a time because my business can support it in time and money
• Actually having time for real hobbies now: reading countless books, mountain biking, playing volleyball, hiking every day…

I’m living a life that’s profoundly aligned with my values, and it feels worlds apart from where I was five years ago.

But this transformation didn’t happen by accident. It happened because I started doing consistent life audits and setting goals that aligned with where I wanted to go (using my handy dandy goals planner!). By taking the time to reflect on what was working and what wasn’t, identify my true values and desires, and set clear goals, I was able to intentionally create the most authentic version of my life.

Now, I help other entrepreneurs do the same. My business coaching clients come to me not just to scale their businesses and increase their income, but to do so in a way that allows them to lead even more fulfilling lives.

(If you’re a business owner feeling stuck on a hamster wheel of your own making, book a discovery call to explore how I can help you scale your business while freeing up your time through 1:1 coaching.)

Learning how to do a life audit accelerated my personal growth journey and continues to serve me as an entrepreneur, a mom, a wife, and a friend

I do a life audit every year to reflect on what’s working well and what could be even better, and I continue to set goals that move me toward more happiness, fulfillment, and success continuously. 

And now I’m sharing my step by step life audit process with you so that you can take your power back in life and figure out exactly what changes you need to create to live a life in alignment with your values.

Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, a seasoned CEO, or an ambitious human, this step by step life audit process is exactly what you need to powerfully transform your life in the new year.

What is a life audit?

If you’ve never heard of a life audit before and are wondering “what is a life audit?” let me clear that up for you real quick:

A life audit is a structured lifestyle design process

It’s a way to intentionally reflect on what is and isn’t working and visually see your level of satisfaction across all areas of your life. A life audit is a great tool to help you pinpoint what actually matters to you so that you can focus your time and energy on creating a life you truly want to live.

A life audit can come in handy whether you’re going through a massive transformation — like a career change, a relationship change, a location change, or an identity crisis — but it’s also an invaluable tool to use on a regular basis, when nothing is necessarily wrong, but you want to make everything even better.

Related post: How To Find Your Purpose & Direction In Life

Why a life audit is so important

A life audit is an important tool because it brings intentionality to your life.

When you don’t take the time to honestly reflect on what is and isn’t working for you in your life, the goals you set reflect other people’s (your parents’, your friends’, your boss’, society’s) and not your own. When you achieve those goals, you don’t feel any happier or more fulfilled because they were never your goals to begin with.

A life audit is so important because it allows you to get clear on what you actually want and puts you in the driver’s seat of your life. And from that empowered place, almost anything is possible.

In 2022 I took my kids on a 5 month road trip across Canada to see all of the national and provincial parks we could get to! This isn’t a goal that happened just because our society says you should travel more (they don’t) or I happened to have tens of thousands of dollars laying around without a purpose (I didn’t) or I had a job that just let me take 5 months vacation without questions.

In fact it’s quite the opposite: had I followed society’s expectations I would have spent that $50,000 on a new car instead of taking 3 years to convert a school bus into a luxury tiny house on wheels and take the trip of a lifetime.

But because I had done a life audit I was able to see that I actually valued something different from most other people. And then I could take action in alignment with my personal values and experience more happiness and fulfillment.

That trip was one of the best decisions I’d ever made, and it happened because of a life audit I had done in 2018 when I was absolutely miserable at my corporate job and craved a more fulfilling life.

A life audit forces you to be intentional with how you’re spending your time, money, and energy so that they can contribute to your personal fulfillment and success.

Why entrepreneurs specifically benefit from a doing a life audit

Doing a life audit is especially important for entrepreneurs who spend so much time thinking about how to move their business forward but so little time intentionally planning their life.

A lot of the ambitious entrepreneurs I’ve met over the last 5 years as a business coach tend to put life on the back burner to focus on getting their business to a certain level… (telling themselves along the way that when they get to a certain level, then they will be happy)…

but I firmly believe your business thrives when YOU thrive! So if you aren’t intentionally living a LIFE you love, not only are you sabotaging the success of your business, but you’re kind of getting the whole thing backwards!

Your business exists to support a life that you love — not at some arbitrary point in the future, but always.

If you’re an entrepreneur, I’m willing to bet you dedicate a lot of time and energy focusing on how to improve your business. I urge you to take that same approach to thinking about your own life because it will change the game for you, I promise.

After all, you didn’t become an entrepreneur just to recreate the corporate grind, not have time for your family, and feel stuck in a hamster wheel of your own making. So, if your business isn’t currently supporting the life you dream of living, it’s time to make some changes — starting with doing a life audit for entrepreneurs.

How to do a life audit

To set yourself up for success in doing the life audit, you’ll need:

• 1 hour of uninterrupted time to allow yourself the space to process your thoughts and feelings.
• A commitment to radical honesty with yourself throughout the process, allowing you to pinpoint what isn’t working and what you truly desire.
• An intention to let go of societal expectations and prioritize your own personal values.
• A method to document your insights—this isn’t something you can do solely in your head!

I’ve actually designed a life audit workbook for you to document your own life audit as you go through this process. You can buy the ultimate Life Audit Workbook here for just $9! (it’s an editable pdf that you can also print out if you want!).

I highly recommend doing this exercise WITH the workbook because just reading the article isn’t going to make a difference in your life!

Step 1: Reflect On Your Happiness In Each Area Of Your Life

The first part of the life audit process is to really think about how satisfied you are in each area of your life. These areas include:

• business/career
• finances
• mental health
• physical health
• friendships
• romantic relationship
• family
• hobbies & creativity
• learning and personal growth
• adventure and travel
• home and environment

Think about each area above and rate it on a scale of 1-10 to reflect how satisfied you are. Then elaborate on why you gave it that score.

• What IS going well in this area of your life? What are you liking or enjoying? What do you want to make sure continues?
• What is NOT going well in this area of your life? What do you wish was different?

Take your time with each area and get really specific with what is and isn’t working.

For example, for physical health, don’t just say “I’m working out”. Say “I’m working out consistently 3-5 times a week for 30 minutes. OR I’m not getting outside more than once a week and I’d like to change that.”

Specificity will make it easier to continue the things that are contributing to a positive score already and the things that you want to change.

Step 2: Envision Your Level 10 Life

The second phase of the life audit process is to think through each area of your life and get crystal clear on what a 10/10 version would look like. Really give this some thought and write out a paragraph (or an entire page!) for each area.

Ask yourself the following question to help envision your level 10 life:

“Imagine you are standing here 12 months from today and you’ve just had the most phenomenal year of your entire life! What does ___ area of your life look like? How does it feel? What are you doing? What are you not doing?”

Use this question to work through each of the 10 areas and write down what comes to mind.

Where most people hold themselves back in this step (and in life in general, really) is playing small.

They’re afraid to really claim the vision they have for themselves because it’s uncomfortable, and the self doubt creeps in, and it requires effort.

But the key to living an extraordinary life is not holding yourself back from what you want. 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’d go about making this happen. Just give yourself the space to get really clear on what your perfect year would entail, without holding anything back.

Again, get super specific with how this looks and feels so that you can actually create a specific outcome.

For example, “I have more freedom in my business” is too vague. “I travel 2 weeks out of every quarter; I take weekends off completely; I can work remotely from anywhere in the world; I have a self sufficient team of 3-5 people that doesn’t need me to be IN the business every day; I work 20-25 hours a week” is much, much, much more actionable.

To be completely honest, this level of specificity might feel challenging.

You might not “know” what you want. Trust yourself. Write what comes to mind. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself to get it right. Know that you can always revisit this, change it, and nothing here is written in stone.

Declaring what you actually want your life to look like makes you infinitely more likely to achieve it.

Step 3: Create A Vision

It’s great to be so specific on your level 10 life that you can see it in your mind, but do you know what’s even better? Being able to visually see it in real life.

This is where a vision board comes in and serves as a powerful tool for keeping your life vision front and center so that you can consistently work toward it.

I wrote all about creating a vision board for your life and business right here, so head on over to this article once you’ve audited your life and designed your future so that you can capture that vividly in a vision board.

This is not only fun, but extremely empowering. It allows you to keep revisiting your vision of a level 10 life, keeping it front and centre, and giving you the motivation to work toward it consistently.

As you look at your level 10 life vision, remember you’ve got a whole lifetime to achieve your best life. All of the things DO NOT need to get done tomorrow, next week, or next year (although, if you’re anything like me, your brain will certainly try to convince you otherwise… )

Step 4: Set Specific Goals

Don’t make the mistake of trying to work on every piece of your vision all at once. Our little brains aren’t designed to handle so much change and you’re heading for overwhelm, burnout, and disappointment.

The key to creating your level 10 life is breaking that vision down into specific goals you can work toward over a period of time

When you look at your life categories, which 3 do you get excited about focusing your time and energy on? Or, which ones need the most attention/improvement right now?

Related post: How To Break Down Your Goals into Actionable Steps

Remember, there is no right or wrong answer to this question. Think about what changes would impact your happiness the most on a day to day level, and then go set specific goals around them.

Use A Goals Planner To Stay Focused On Your Biggest Priorities!

If you want to get bigger results in your business and your personal life, you’ve got to have clear goals and a solid plan to get there.

That’s why I created The Intentional CEO’s Goals Planner. It’s more than just a planner—it’s a tool to help you get super clear on what matters most each month so you can make real progress toward your vision of a 10/10 life.

Whether it’s your business goals or personal dreams, this planner helps you stay focused, feel more organized, and actually enjoy the process. Want to see how it works? Check it out here.

(We have a version for entrepreneurs and a version for non-entrepreneurs too!)

Step 5: Revisit Your Life Audit Regularly

Your goals and desires are going to evolve as you grow personally and professionally. Different seasons of life will call you to focus on different things. Make sure the life audit isn’t something you do once and forget about.

Revisit your life audit every quarter or every year. Go through the whole process again to see what’s changed, where you’ve seen the most improvement, and how your level 10 life is evolving.

I personally love to do a life audit every year in December as I prepare myself for the year ahead. And, it is absolutely magical to look at my life audits from previous years and see just how much of my desires I’ve already accomplished.

(Which is another reason why documenting your life audit on paper (and in the same way each time) is so valuable!)

Life Audit PDF Workbook

I have the perfect workbook to help you through this process. Follow the link below to purchase the life audit fillable pdf workbook. It not only includes all these prompts, but also has a wheel of life for you to fill in! You can print it out or edit it on your computer. And it’s only $9!

So there you have it! 5 simple steps to doing a life audit and setting yourself up for more happiness, fulfillment, and success in the new year.

I can’t emphasize enough how important this process is to creating more fulfillment and success in your life. Knowing what you truly want is the first step to living an extraordinary life. 

If you’re an entrepreneur looking to conduct a life audit to achieve greater balance in your business and personal life, I’d love to chat! I specialize in helping ambitious business owners like you scale their businesses while freeing up time and energy for a more fulfilling life. Book a free discovery call with me to learn more about my work with clients and see if your business can benefit from coaching.

Let’s summarize this simple life audit process for easy reference:

That’s it! 5 simple steps to doing a life audit and creating more happiness, success, and fulfillment in your life. If this article was valuable for you, please take a second to share it on your social media so that more people can benefit from it!

Being intentional about designing my life was the single most important factor in creating this level of success and fulfillment

Which area of your life are you going to focus on improving this year? Tell us in the comments below.

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Related posts:

• How to Delegate Tasks Like a Pro: A CEO’s Guide to Working Smarter, Not Harder
• Entrepreneur’s Guide To Creating A Business Vision Board
• How To Achieve Your Goals | 10 Things To Do After Setting Goals

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