This weekend, starting right now, I will be auditing myself. And I invite to you to do the same with yourself. What do I mean by that?
When I was working in international banking and it came time for the auditors to sift through our processes and transactions, my SVP had this philosophy: Give them more than they can handle.
Because no one in the bank truly understood our business of foreign exchange trading, options, swaps, letters of credit, etc, the auditors asked far less than incisive questions.
So what did the auditors receive in return for those poor questions? Stacks on stacks of banker boxes filled with reams of paper, gigabytes of files, and emails containing sweeping generalities. Have fun, guys.
The lesson: Ask better questions to get better answers; Be specific and be courageous. Get to your “why”. Hint: The more uncomfortable the question is to ask, the better.
Furthermore, If I apply my energy to something that is not one of my strengths it’s going to take a lot of extra effort to make it work. Is it in my best interest to spend 80% of my effort attempting to edit a video like Casey Neistat (check his epic YouTube channel), when my strength is writing? No.
Side note: Do the crap version. Too many fancy perfectionists out there.
And before the audit it is essential for me to get crystal clear on what my big picture mission is. What is my goal? What is my vision? Why am I doing this?
Here’s 5 areas I will be auditing, what I look at specifically and a few questions I ask.
1. Mental
The mind is like a hard drive and I want to defragment it, clear up space and look at what I’m storing and see if it’s mapping to my mission:
What music am I playing?
What images am I seeing? How’s my Instagram feed? Who do I need to follow/unfollow?
What am I reading?
2. Emotional
I was fortunate to have a friend invite me to see Tony Robbins this past week and watch him harp on the importance of emotion. It was exactly what I needed to hear and here are the questions to ponder, from Tony:
Which emotions are your emotional home? That is, what emotion do you default to when shit hits the fan? Or when your expectation does not match reality? Is it guilt? Love? Anger? Avoidance?
In other words, what’s your favorite flavor of suffering? 🙂
And remember, I don’t need an excuse to feel good. Emotions are the ultimate resource. Recognize when you’re tapping into the mood and energy zapping resources, or when you’re slouching in your chair edging towards fetal position.
Elevate that mood with push-ups, jumping, moving.
Remember: You can’t have emotion without motion. So get off your ass and move. That brings us to #3
3. Physical
Movement. Just move. Walk. Stagnation is death. My best ideas happen in an elevated physical state whether it’s on the mat, riding a bike or walking around Green Lake. But since I haven’t done this in awhile, I’m aiming to have fitness goals.
What is my fitness goal?
I don’t have a target weight but I want to build muscle mass.
Do you have a fitness challenge for me that doesn’t require a gym membership?
4. Spiritual
This is serving something greater than self. This is the essence of the mission. The ability to work toward a higher purpose, whether for mom, the neighbors, or the world.
First and last question of each day: What am I grateful for?
Meditate: Visualize accomplishing my goals for the day and the future.
Note: if you’re into smudging your house with Sage, please open the windows.
5. The 1%
Improve by 1% every single day. How? Did I do 1 more push-up today? Did I do an extra set of pull-ups? Did I learn one thing? Did I create something with just a bit more craft than yesterday?
We don’t notice a star until its light hits the earth. We don’t realize the million year journey it took for that star to form, heat up and become bright enough to be noticed. The truth is in the journey.
Everyday, track 1% each day toward the vision. It’s the 1% stride toward your north star. Towards becoming a star.
Now, let’s get to the audit!
Bula Vinaka,
Timo