Do a life audit to work out how you're doing and where you want to be

“It’s our job to do daily cleanups—in our work, our family, our relationships, our finances, our health. Ignoring problems is easier, for sure, but if we take even tiny steps to address them, those steps eventually become giant leaps on the journey to self-actualization.”
–Oprah Winfrey

What does it look like when life is going great for you? How can you find the underlying cause when things don’t feel so good?

Do a quick life audit. Take a bit of paper (or download these worksheets) and write down the core parts of your life.

For me, it’s:

Mind
Body
Love
Community
Creativity
Work
Money

Put a skinny box next to it that you can shade in. 0% will mean that area of life is utterly terrible right now (it probably won’t be that), 50% is so-so, and 100% is absolutely, utterly, spectacularly perfect.

It’ll be a bit like this:

How full are your boxes? Think about the reason behind each of the scores.

What’s going well? What’s not so great right now?

Pat yourself on the back for the good stuff. You’ve worked hard for that!

Then, think about where your focus is best placed right now.

Does your body need a bit of extra love? Are you rushing around and neglecting your mind’s need for calm? Have you stopped feeling creative and setting aside time for writing? Have you been less intimate with your partner, or more distant from your friends?

This should be a super quick thing to do, but it can give you a nice overview of how the really important things are going.

A career without a community will probably leave you isolated. A strong relationship without your own creativity may leave you feeling like your inner life is unfulfilled.

Work on it. Continually tinker with the delicate balance of your life.