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Your Whole Life Audit – Are you a 10?
It’s hard to believe it’s 2023. While there has been joy, there has also been a lot of tough stuff we’ve all made it through.
So, if you’re reading this, frankly I think you deserve a “participation award” for making it through the last three years. It’s high time the grown-ups get a blue ribbon for once, don’t you agree?
That said, it is the new year, and that brings me to a place each year where I like to take stock of the past year and get intentional about my year to come. I like to stop and think about what I’m creating—for myself, my children, and my family.
I’m not a big fan of “resolutions” for a number of reasons, but I do believe in taking stock and creating a vision for ourselves and our lives. This is one of the most powerful things I do with my clients and inside The Heartful Parent Academy: we need to know what we’re building in order to figure out how to get there.
It’s so easy to say “I want X” or “I want Y”, but really evaluating how we feel about the various areas of our lives is an important—and oft-missed—step. Have you ever done a whole life audit? Did you, by chance, join me in doing this exercise at the end of 2020?
And if so, what have you done with that information?
Whether you have done it before or not, used the information or forgotten about it, this year is a great year to revisit it.
To get started I’d love to share this excerpt from the new Heartful Parent Academy workbook; you can use it to evaluate the various areas of your life, create a template of your own, and assess what changes you might want to make.
Be honest with yourself. Be clear. But know that this is your audit. No one else gets to decide how you’re doing in a particular area. The assessment and what to do with it are yours alone. What someone else views as success may not be the same as what you view as success; leave room for that. And know that a score of 10 does not mean perfection (news flash: there’s no such thing as perfect, particularly in parenting!)—it means you feel, based on YOUR standards, that you are thriving in that area.
Where are you thriving and where are you merely surviving?
Once you’ve answered that question, consider what comes next.
Ask yourself: What is standing in the way of a score of 10? What do you want to focus on in 2023? What do you want more of in your life? What do you want less of? And what are several concrete steps you could take to move closer to your ideal? What support do you need to move towards thriving?
After the last few years we’ve had, we may find that we’re not quite where we want to be. That is okay.
The question is what are you going to do about it?
I don’t have all the answers. I struggle too. But I do know that we don’t have to manage it alone.
If the “pandemic years” taught me anything, it is how very much we need one another. We were simply not designed to do it all, let alone in isolation, while putting out fire after figurative fire.
This shit is hard. How can you make it easier?
How can I help? I’m here to support you.
And in the meantime, I invite you to celebrate yourself. Like I said, it’s high time us grown-ups get an award for once.
So here’s a blue ribbon for you. And one for me while we’re at it.
[Curious about The Heartful Parent Academy and all it has to offer? Check it out HERE.]
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Christy Keating is a certified parent coach, positive discipline educator, and motivational speaker. She is the founder and CEO of The Heartful Parent Collective, which includes Heartful Parent Coaching, Savvy Parents Safe Kids, and Heartful Parent Academy.
The mother of two amazing daughters, Christy strives to build a happier, healthier world - one child, one parent, and one family at a time.