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The New Habit Challenge: Can A "Life Audit" Help Us Accomplish Our Goals?
Join our resident habit expert Rachel Gillett, other Fast Company staff, and Ximena Vengoechea, the brains behind the "life audit," on Friday, January 16 at 11 a.m. ET as we discuss what happened when we put Vengoechea's life audit method to the test.
Sure, we may be a little skeptical about all the hype behind New Years Resolutions—we're more into lasting positive habit change than impersonal pledges you just don't mean.
But we can get on board with using a fresh, new year as an excuse to reanalyze our goals and put things into perspective a bit, and conducting a "life audit" may just be the best way to go about it. That's what Ximena Vengoechea, a product operations manager at LinkedIn, thought earlier last year.
After realizing that her system of writing her goals on color-coded Stickies and keeping them arranged on her computer’s desktop was too unwieldy, she decided to reorganize her goals to determine what were short-term and long-term goals, what were important and what weren't.
To do this, she blocked out a few hours of alone, distraction-free time and started writing every goal, desire, and new habit she wanted to see come true on Post-it Notes. Next, she arranged all of her 121 Post-it Notes into themes like Health, Skills, and Relationships and separated them into. Then she designated each note with when the goal could be accomplished: either now/soon, someday, or on an everyday basis.
Vengoechea offers five practical tips you should consider when conducting your own life audit:
- WRITE FREELY, AND WITHOUT JUDGMENT:
Don't think about what kinds of things are "right" to write about. - GIVE YOURSELF SPACE (PHYSICAL AND MENTAL):
Choose a quiet space without distractions. Make sure it's a room with ample wall space, and don't take any calls. Set aside some me time, and honor it fully. - BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF:
No one is watching or judging. If you can't be honest alone by yourself, who can you be honest with? Remember that wherever you land (in your assessment and alignment of interests and priorities) is okay—sometimes you need a reset. - SHARE WHAT YOU LEARN:
If you don't share your goals out loud, it's hard for people to help you. You don't have to share everything, but if there's a great big goal on there you'd like to focus on, share it. - BRING A WATER BOTTLE:
Thinking about the future makes you thirsty.
For this week's habit challenge, a few of us at Fast Company plan to put Vengoechea’s life audit to the test and see how the exercise works for us. We'll start with blocking out time to write out all of our goals on Monday, share our goals with friends on Tuesday, and check in with ourselves the rest of the week.
Join us here at 11 a.m. ET on Friday, January 16, when we’ll be chatting live with Vengoechea about how to use the life audit method, to find out how it went for us, share your thoughts, and ask us questions.
Did you conduct a life audit? Tell us about your experience in the "make a comment" box below or join in the discussion on Friday.
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Yes, I found that my goals were disproportionally "now"!
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I totally agree. At first everything felt like it should happen now, but prioritizing is key.
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My main questions is how to prioritise...what should be considered #1,2,3...etc
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I think that depends on what's most important in your life right now - if there are certain dependencies, or deadlines, or other reasons to bump a goal up.
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But I also think there are ways of experimenting as you go.
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So if you pick a goal and think it's a priority, you can timebox it - work on it for a month and see how it goes, then reevaluate from there and consider if it is actually still a priority.
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Val, you made an awesome video about your life audit. Halfway through, though, you reveal that you couldn’t actually conduct your audit with the camera rolling. Why was this?
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Yeah, it was funny - I told you and my boss that I'd film myself doing it. And I had an idea that it'd just be really fun and I'd let it roll and see how it happened. But when I was actually writing my goals, it just felt too staged and fake. I kept writing down cool stuff in case someone could see it. Y'know? So I decided to turn the camera off so I could really let it rip. That's when the most honest stuff came. I'm totally an open book but that was one thing I wanted to protect, I guess.
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Ximena, do you think this speaks to the need to be alone to be completely honest with ourselves?
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I will say, for my part, that my fiancé was in the next room while I was doing my life audit, and I had to put a do not disturb note on the door and lock it. I was very protective of my process.
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Totally. I watched Val's clip and wasn't surprised at all that she turned it off - because it really is a personal exercise! A lot of people have reached out to ask me to moderate group Life Audit events, and it's a tricky thing to navigate for that reason.
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For group events, the important thing is to really take independent time to do the initial brainstorming and sorting of your wishes. That's the quiet Me time of the event. The group part comes in during a sharing part, where you can pick your top 3 goals to share - both for accountability, and also for advice. Sometimes people have great suggestions for how to help you reach certain goals, if you're willing to share them.
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Yea, so one of the tips that you gave us is that you should share what you learn during your life audit. Why do you think it’s so important to do this?
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Do you have any examples of people helping you out?
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I'm a firm believer in sharing your goals - I think their success is dependent on you, and your network of friends, colleagues, mentors etc. And the thing about people is that they want to help. If you share your goals, you give them an opportunity to help where they can - most people really love to do this! I think we're just wired that way.
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I really liked how there was a whole ‘day’ of the challenge dedicated to sharing w/ others. Didn’t realize it going in, but sharing goals with coworkers, boyfriend, friends - especially goals that directly related to them (more effort into keeping our relationship active; more effort to keep in touch with friends) - really helped set up some accountability and reinforcements. Already Andrew (my b/f) has been asking me how it’s going with some of my near term goals. I think that’s going to be the key to maintaining this and not relapsing into my typical resolution failure.
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I love this! I have often been told I want to "do too much" but for me, it's all connected in the sense of my passion, my curiosity, my desire to learn and serve and grow! This life audit gives me a better visual at all I want to explore..it's not so much about doing, but being :)
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I think it's definitely important to share with close friends and significant others who are part of your goals - you can work on those together, and they probably feel great that you value that relationship so much to make it a goal to improve it.
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In a way, I think sharing my goals makes me feel less... special about them. We all have these things to strive for and that's what the people in our lives are there for, and why we're there for them. It makes the striving universal in a comforting way, I suppose.
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For the goals that are 'far off' - what is the process to make sure it still shows up on your radar? In other words, how to break it down into pieces so that it still can be worked on while attending to the more immediate goals? I find that 'far off' goals are overwhelming and are difficult to bring to fruition.
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NewMe raises an interesting point. In this article about setting goals, one expert argues that setting too many goals, setting unrealistic goals, or setting really broad goals can prevent us from actually accomplishing them. -
Do you have any advice for how we can work to achieve the goals we set for ourselves during our life audits?
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I'm tackling my life audit this weekend and I'm super stoked! What did you guys do post life audit to keep your goals top of mind? I live that ENFP life and have a hard time determining what I'll still be interested in 6 months to a year from now.
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I'm with Sarah. I'm terrified of sharing my goals! When I ask myself why? Its due to fear of failing in public then being judged/shamed for not following through. Any advise?
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I love this life audit exercise! I just wonder if it is a good idea to share all of my goals with people.
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The purpose of documenting your far off goals isn't to make them part of a really long to-do list. It's actually the opposite. There are a few ways of thinking about it. If these are really far off goals (one of mine was "to be spry at 80") it's more about finding the daily intention that can help you work on that ("stay active"). If it's a big hairy audacious goal, then I'd suggest breaking that up into smaller chunks. I'm a big fan of one habit or goal per month. I spent a whole year working on and documenting habit changes on a monthly basis, and that was really productive for me.
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I love that, Ximena. And back to what Bianca said - I agree with you. I’m finding that a lot of these are feeding into other goals that I didn’t realize they’d supplement. For me, being more curious (and acting on my curiosity) and reading more were both on the list. Now, I just happen to be reading a book by a Hollywood producer on being more curious and the benefits of learning on the fly.
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And I’m sure even that incremental intention will help me accomplish one of my later goals (know what I want to teach my kids) later on.
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How about getting back to good old "S.M.A.R.T" goal setting? I like to set annual and 4 week goals.
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I'm one of those people who kinda gets hives when I have to use the word "goal" to describe things I want. I love that word you used, Sarah: Intention. That's the inner motivator that continually nudges you on the right path. Because life is unpredictable, right?
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In response to Erica S. It`s true that sharing goals can be scary...you're afraid that if you fail at your goal, it will be known. However, research shows that it is more likely you will succeed.
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Intentions are important because you can focus on them daily. I actually have a whole post about resolutions vs intentions - intentions are much more forgiving!
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Sharing your life-audit results--and the goals that come of them--means surrounding yourself with support. Read on for why accountability matters. -
Question: After sorting out all your goals/intentions, what method did you use for reminding yourself of your goals/intentions? Sharing with friends is great, but do you have other suggestions?
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You can do regular check ins to chart your progress. I did these every few months, less to "check something off" my list, and more to just ground myself again in the intentions I had uncovered earlier. It's actually a really great exercise to go back and sift through your life audit results, and take stock of how you're doing, and whether you're making progress.
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I have a follow up - is it okay to shift your original intentions/goals (even if they’re big)? And is it okay to constantly be adding them? I added two while we were talking just now…
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That's why I think I tended toward goals that are more about what kind of person I want to be than actual things I want to accomplish... because you just don't know what's going to happen! But you can control how you react and what kind of tools you equip yourself with to face life.
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Great question. I think there is a difference between adding daily to do's or dream ideas or side projects, than to adding to a life audit. Are the things you are adding fitting in with a whim for today or this week, or are they more tied to central core values that came out in your life audit? I'd reflect on those and then decide where their place is. In general, yes, you can continue to add - but it's not really meant to be a daily exercise, to keep adding.
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One most digestible way to approach setting a habit or tackling one of your "soon" goals is to assign them to a month. I pick a different "theme" each month (journaling june, call your friends july, try 100 different vegetables in august, etc). For some reason the 30 day time marker was very non-intimidating. For some of them (particularly journaling every day), there were some days I hated it, but I learned it was more realistic for me to only journal on work days, so after June was over that's what I've stuck with.
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Ximena, you recently did another life audit. How often do you do them? How did doing it last year change this year’s attempt? Did you adjust the process in any way? Did you learn anything new about yourself this time around?
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That's my favorite approach, Fiona! Monthly is great.
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I don't do them very often - this was only my second, and I thought it was fitting for the new year (I did mine on NYE).
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This year's went a lot faster - I had internalized a lot of my intentions from the last six months already.
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I also found that a lot of my new goals were for others - I had already gotten my big goals out in the previous audit, so this time around the column for Family was much longer - wishes I had for family members, for my boyfriend, for close friends - those were more plentiful this time around.
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There were also some repeats - things I still want to focus on but haven't made time for yet; and also some new goals. The process was largely the same though - just much quicker :)
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I’m really curious to know, did anyone have any big revelations during their life audit?
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I did! And even after this chat. I’m finding that a lot of my written goals are actual actions. They’re practical rather than fantastical. And it’s great because sure these goals beget actions which require goals to complete - then more actions and goals! But at the same time, maybe I lacked a big of imagination/foresight. I didn’t realize that I should be writing down the kind of person I want to end up being. And I think I’ll do a little revise tonight so that those are on paper, too. Thanks for that insight, Val and everyone else!
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I spent almost a half hour focusing on ways I could lead a healthier lifestyle. It felt good to strategize and come up with something I felt I could implement. More than that, though, it felt amazing to get it off my shoulders and out of my way. I realized that when that was off my mind, for the first time in what felt like ages I could focus on other aspects of my life and well-being.
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One of my takeaways from the most recent audit I did was that I want to document more of my life - in film, photos, writing, etc. I do a lot of that piecemeal already, but it took on a new meaning for me when I thought about in terms of archiving moments, documenting lessons, forming a sort of creative thing to hold onto in the future. I'm not sure what it means yet, but I'm working on it!
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I like to start from the end when making a life audit and then work my way back to short term. Like at the end of my life, what would I be proud of, and what would make it that I would say that I am satisfied with what I have accomplished and how and with whom I have spend my life? From this, important, and very personal theme emerge.
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My big revelation is that my life is going okay so far! I actually expected this exercise to make me feel miserable about how much I have to do to realize my dreams. But I felt pretty awesome when I realized I'm enjoying the journey. Not to get too touchy-feely or anything.
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Ok folks, I think that about wraps things up. Thank you to everyone who participated and to our viewers for their wonderful questions!
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The New Habit Challenge: Reduce Stress By Visualizing The Future
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We’ll have a write up about this challenge and our chat available at Fastcompany.com on Monday. And don’t forget to give next week’s challenge a try, where we will visualize the future to reduce stress.