The Life Audit: Aligning Your Passion and Purpose with Your Goals

What if you achieved all of this year’s resolutions and then still found yourself unfulfilled?

The ugly truth is that such an outcome is a real possibility. In fact, it’s far more probable than achieving all of your resolutions. It could also very well be that the reason you lose interest in your resolutions is that they aren’t aligned with your passion or purpose.

Think about it. Maybe you haven’t lost that weight because the real motivation for such a goal doesn’t align with the reasons you proclaim.

Or maybe a particular resolution doesn’t sit well with one of your core values.

Setting resolutions and goals without full introspection is a lot like using GPS for a trip that has no defined destination. Oh, you’ll get to plenty of places, you’ll spend a lot of time moving forward, but none of those places are likely to be the one place you’d really like to visit.

How can I feel so sure about all of this?

I’m going to read your mind and draw forth your resolutions for this year (and last year and the one before that, and probably the one before that.)

1. Make more money – get a better job

2. Lose weight – get in better/healthier shape

3. Exercise more

4. Find or improve a relationship

5. Devote more time to wellness – spirituality, meditation, relaxation, “me time.”

6. Learn that skill you’ve been saying you would learn

7. Finish that personal passion project you never make time for.

Did I get most of them? I bet with some small modifications I got all of them (like extending “lose weight” to “eating healthy.”)

It’s not magic, it’s Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. As humans, our goals are all pretty much aligned. Resolutions, like wealth, is about adding zeros. As we grow and improve our self-actualization goals grow too.

For me, exercising “more” means getting to the gym four times a week, for someone else, it might mean just taking a walk, and for another, it may mean getting in competition shape with six-day workouts.

The “things” we resolve are only as important as how the results align with our true passions and purposes. Without the proper “why” behind a resolution, all we’re really doing is staying busy. Much like following that GPS to a destination that won’t fulfill the purpose of our trip.

Which is where the Life Audit becomes an invaluable tool for not only understanding your true personal fulfillment goals but also for ensuring the things you’re doing actually align with your life’s mission.

Because your life mission is the destination.

I spent around two months on my life audit. At first, I ran through it answering the questions as I wanted the “world” to view me rather than how I actually felt, thought, or believed.

In other words, I wasted some time lying to myself.

So, I went back and did it again – with honesty.

And then I went back again.

On the third version, I questioned everything I had written.

I asked, “is that truly me or the version of me I think I should be.” And “why is that a goal? Where did the idea of it come from?”

In my opinion, the only way the Life Audit will be of any value is with true introspection and complete honesty. It has to be written as if no one will ever read it and probably no one ever should. Because to gain the most significant benefits, you have to question the things about yourself, your relationships, and your life that may not be very pretty to others.

If the thing that is holding you back is your spouse, you need to list it. If your parent or friend is a toxic element in your life, you need to record that too. If your idea of wealth is less (or more) ambitious than your partners that goes on there also.

But once you’ve got an honest and well-contemplated Life Audit complete, your life mission becomes clear, your resolutions and themes easily follow, and you feel a lot more positive about what you’re working on because it all aligns with where you want to go.

There are several Life Audits out on the Web. There are also a number of great books on the subject. The Life Audit I used is of my own creation. It’s a version I created from various bits and pieces. Follow the Link Below to download it for free.

Good Luck!