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Life audits are a powerful way to reset your life, review goals, and create action plans to accomplish them.

Life audits can be done anytime you need a good reset. However, my favorite time to do a life audit / reset is at the beginning of a new year!

Doing a new year life audit is a great way to reflect on the previous year, reset your goals, and plan your best year yet! And that’s exactly what we are going to do in this post.

Let’s dive into my guide on how to do a life audit for the new year!

Life Audit Step 1: Reflect Honestly on Your Year

Before we can look to the future, we have to reflect on the past. The first step in our life audit guide is to reflect honestly on your year or the last few months.

You should look at every aspect of your life to do a thorough life audit or a new year reset.

How did your life look physically, mentally, professionally, and financially?

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Being thorough and honest here is so important! Normally, I start to see patterns, habits, and things I would like to change or focus on for my life audit and reset during this step.

I like to brain dump this section and journal my thoughts and feelings about these reflections during this step and the next.

Use Journaling to Deepen Your Reflection

Here is a small list of journaling prompts to help you with the previous step in your life audit and new year reset:

What am I most proud of from the past year?
What am I holding onto that I need to release
What habits supported my growth this year
Did my financial habits support my goals?
Who do I want to become in the next year?
What do I want to prioritize moving forward?
What do I want my life to look like one year from now?

Get my free list of 50+ Life Audit journal prompts to take this step even further—plus be the first to know when the full Life Audit Blueprint workbook drops

Life Audit Step 2: Reassess Your Goals and Vision

Once you have begun reflecting on the past year, review your previous goals, resolutions, and vision board.

Did you accomplish your goals? What progress have you made toward your vision? Did you completely forget about them?

Celebrate your accomplishments first! Then, identify what did not work and why.

Ask yourself this when reviewing your past goals: “Do these still align with me?”

If not, it’s time to release them and create a new action plan. If they do, it is time to get really clear on how you can accomplish them.

Step 3: Audit Your Life Categories with Intention

Now it is time to review every area of your life. Decide what your priorities are, where you’d like to make changes, and what you’d like to leave behind in order to become your best self.

I recommend breaking your life into these categories: health/wellness, relationships, career/professional life, finances, lifestyle, etc.

For each of these categories, I like to braindump all the things I want from them.

This step will help you craft your goals and vision board for your new year, so be thorough!

I also recommend prioritizing 1-3 categories you would like to focus on. It’s easier to achieve your goals when you prioritize 1-3 rather than everything all at once!

Want help digging deeper into each category? Download my free list of 50+ Life Audit journal prompts to guide your reflection and help you assess every area of your life with intention.

Step 4: Choose Your Priorities, Goals, and Intentions for Next Year

It is time to identify your goals, priorities, and intentions for the new year and your life going forward.

Identify 3 or so focus areas in your life that you want to prioritize in order to become your best self.

You may also have one main goal, like paying off debt or building your dream business, that you can craft the rest of your life goals around to achieve it!

For example, I like to envision my dream self and break down who she is and what she does to set my goals, priorities, and intentions for the year, so I can work to become her!

Identifying these goals will help you craft your action plan and vision board for the new year!

Step 5: Make A Vision Board That Actually Works

Use your journaling prompts and braindump exercises to create your vision board.

To create your vision board, identify your main priorities and goals for the coming year.

Next, I like to use Pinterest to find images that correlate with these goals and wants. It is very important to pick images that are specific, invoke emotion / inspire you, and that align with the goal you are working toward.

Vision boards don’t simply work because you made them. They work because YOU put in the actions to make them work.

It is also important to put your vision board in a place you will see it regularly. I have mine in my bathroom. You can also have it as your phone background, on your laptop, or hanging in your room!

Use your vision board to inspire and motivate you to work on the action plan we create in the next step!

Life Audit Step 6: Create Your Action Plan

We have officially laid the foundation for your life audit! Now it is time to create your action plan so you can achieve the goals you’ve set!

Action plans are the #1 most important way to achieve the goals you set with your life audit.

I am working on a post that breaks down my exact strategy for achieving any goal I set, but for now, here is a quick explanation.

First, identify your main goal (or top 3 goals).

Secondly, set a deadline for your goal.

This can be changed (and it’s not set in stone either). But it will help you identify your smaller progress goals!

For each goal / priority, write a list of all the steps, habits, or actions that may need to be completed to get there.

This list can be long… don’t get overwhelmed!

Doing this will help you begin outlining the exact strategy and steps needed to get there.

Next, identify the *most important* actions that will help you reach your goals.

Use your list of action steps to create your action plan.

Once you have identified the order in which your steps need to be completed, set smaller progress goals based on those steps.

Goal Breakdown Example

When I was building my blog, launching my blog was the main goal. I knew I needed to write blog posts, build my website, create my email list, activate my Pinterest account, and take many more steps.

I then decided which steps needed to be done in what order,and writing my blog posts was first on the agenda.

Then, I made a short-term deadline for when I wanted to have all 9 posts written.

Writing blog posts became my first goal, and I had a goal to write 9 posts.

Once I set this short-term goal, I broke it down into even smaller action steps, such as brainstorming post ideas, outlining posts, writing posts, editing posts, etc.

Breaking your goals down this way helps you build an actual, step-by-step plan to achieve them.

Activate Your Life Audit & Create the Life You Really Want

A life audit is one of the most powerful ways to reset your life, realign with your goals, and become the version of you you’ve always dreamed of being.

By reflecting on your life, reviewing your goals, and creating an action plan to achieve them, you are laying the foundation for your dream life.

You deserve a life that feels aligned, exciting, and intentional—and your life audit is the first step toward making that your reality.

Here’s to your reset, your new goals, and the best year of your life yet!