Self-audit. I know when you probably read that word, you must be thinking this involves numbers or you need to hire a CPA, but this type of self-audit doesn’t involve any of that, so scratch the thought of tax season.
I know I say this all the time, but I constantly listen to podcast. It’s my healthy obsession and I must credit much of who I have become to the podcasters I listen to.
It’s funny how we TRULY do become what we surround ourselves with and for me, I choose to feed myself with everything I want to become, but it took me such a long time to realize what was holding back- me.
This morning, I was on a very long walk and while listening to a podcast about how you should “audit your calendar from the previous year,” I stopped listening completely and asked myself, “Jess, what if you write a blog post about auditing yourself rather than your calendar?”
What IF we do a self-audit at the end of each year and focus on finding the outliers to ACTUALLY LEARN from the previous year?
I don’t believe in coincidence. I think every single minute on my timeline was strategically planned out by God. Sometimes, I imagine him sitting at a large wooden table with a long white roll of paper marking each line with a quill on my timeline and realizing that every second was planned by Him and that I am not the one with the quill- he is.
I believe the outliers are important to pay attention to. The moments that stand out to us, whether good or bad, are the moments we must pay attention to most (not forgetting about all of the little victories and setbacks).
So, how do we complete a self-audit? I believe this starts with us going into it wanting to get the most out of it. This requires some hard questions and honest answers . Honesty with yourself is what is most important and will help you see the best results.
You’re here reading this post and that is the first step to completing the audit!
1. Decide what areas of your life you would like to audit.
How do you decide this? Think about the categories in your life you would like to evaluate. Think about the areas you would like to improve. Is it your health (emotional, spiritual, mental), relationships (in all capacities-most importantly your relationship with yourself), finances, etc. Once you decide on the categories you would like to audit…this is where the questions come in.
2. Ask yourself the hard questions and give yourself some honest answers.
- How is my relationship with myself?
- Am I prioritizing my mental health?
- Is my spiritual health where I would like it to be? If not? How can I get it to where I would like it.
- Am I seeking the proper care to keep me in a healthy emotional state? If not, who can I seek out for guidance?
- How is my relationship with my family?
- Who are the active people in my life?
- Am I prioritizing the active people in my life?
- Are there relationships I would like to improve? If so, which ones?
- Is my work environment a safe space for me to be myself?
- Who are the people who have character traits I want to be like?
- Who are the people who may be hindering my growth?
- How can I improve my finances?
- Am I spending more than I make?
- What goals did I meet this year?
- What goals would I like to make for the new year?
- Who will help me reach those goals?
- What resources can I utilize to get me to where I want to be?
I think these are some HARD questions I had to ask myself in order to get me to where I want to be in the new year. I believe that my honesty with these questions (and your honest y to these questions) will be a GREAT tool to get you to where YOU want to be in the new year?
3. Use your answers to continually evaluate yourself throughout the new year.
Asking these hard questions to yourself throughout the year is a GREAT way of of evaluating yourself throughout the year. If you are seeing progress in your answers, GREAT if you are not, you know the areas you need to improve (and you don’t have to wait until the new year to make these changes.
How do you rate yourself? Set a scale from 1-3 (1- no improvement, 2-some improvement and 3-much improvement). Rate yourself quarterly based on your previous answers always remaining honest with yourself. Taking this step of completing a self-audit takes much courage and is already a step in the right direction!
I hope this helped you and I hope that if you complete the audit, you truly feel the relief that I felt as I asked myself these SAME questions. Know that I will be doing this quarterly with you. and I hope by 2023, you see SO much growth in yourself! Let’s take on this year TOGETHER! See y’all next year: )