Are you happy with your life? Do you have painful regrets? If you could turn back the ever clockwise hands of time, what would you do differently?In life we are so engulfed with various life situations and hurdles. Some could be personally inflicted, some could be beyond our control. Do you think there's a need to PAUSE, look back and take account of all your decision process that brought you to a life of dissatisfaction in a bid to help prevent future occurrence? Hence the need for life Audit.
Life Audit is taking stock of your life decisions and actions to trail the impact of such decisions in your life now and subsequently, in a bid to take deliberate preventive or hence corrective actions In this write up, you would be learning about what life Audit entails, how worse off your life could get without proper audit and how beneficial it is for you to take an audit of your life periodically
Why Audit?
in the financial industry, audit is useful to help check the accounting system and book keeping to ensure it is free from Material misstatements, errors or fraud. This helps to alleviate subsequent problems that could arise as a result of the errors left undetected. Life Audit helps us to investigate and trail our life's stance and decisions to ensure its living up to par and expectations.
Pin this fact that “life doesn’t always go as planned”. So having that out of the way let’s focus on what impact this audit could have in our lives.
FICTIONAL STORY FOR NARRATION
Lesley was a well mannered child properly brought up by her puritanic parent, she was morally upright and didn’t do anything her parent didn’t approve of. She was academically smart and career ambitious, she always dreamt of being a pilot. She met a girl by name Olive in high school, Olive totally altered the course of her life She lured and influenced Lesley into smoking, they took drugs and did all manner of nasty things together.
Lesley gained into college but Olive didn’t. Lesley still got into communication with Olive as they had been best of friends for a while now, and with Olive’s impact in her life, she found it hard to stop those nasty indulgence. She graduated to sleeping with lecturers for grades, she barely attended lectures, she partied hard and unapologetically ‘cos she always had olive that got her back whenever she feels like being nasty. The snowball effect took its toll on her, she remembered how ambitious she was about being a pilot and how she’s now struggling to scale through a class without failing. This totally ate her up and got her probated from school. Lesley eventually got drowned in her unproductive lifestyle and got wondering what she did wrong.? When did all this start? How did she become like dis? How could she improve? She never realized till she was really drowned head deep Here comes the act of life Audit!
Sometimes you may go astray without knowing just how far you have gone from the norm. Like the saying goes, "a little drop of water makes a mighty ocean" so also, when you go against a presupposed norm, you may not realize just how far you’ve come till you are totally enshrouded in sadness and regrets streaming from our wrong actions.
Why Life Audit?
1. Helps Prevent Painful Regrets:
So much a time, you may get entangled in a situation caused by poor choices and there’s absolutely nothing you can do than to wallow in self pity. These choices could be avoided when you deliberately take stock of your life to help enhance further decision making. If only Lesley had been nudged toward a Life Audit in her freshman years, she would have gathered enough wisdom to help quit such notorious lifestyle.
Our lives are in a retrospect, one decision affects the other person in one way or the other. Olive’s nasty choice of life, snowballed into Lesley and that further got Lesley drowned in self pity. If you take the time to have a Life Audit, you would prevent the negative snowball effect our actions could have on others and even yourself and subsequently make life better for people.
2. Gives More Understanding Of The Situation.
Audit is a deliberate action that helps us understand a situation we evidently wouldn’t have because of the various hustle and bustle of life that so distracts and clouds our thought, it’s very hard to come to understand a certain rather infinitesimal aspect of our life or decisions. When we take that time to audit our lives we come into full and clearer understanding of the significance of our decisions.
3. Channels Your Life To Its Right Course.
when you conduct proper life Audit and you realize just how far gone you have been on the negative side, you immediately seek for ways to re-track your actions; This helps improve your quality of life. If Lesley had just retraced her steps in her freshman year, she would have been a graduate registering for her flight training.
How can you conduct a Life Audit ?
1. Pause
You may wonder, what do i mean by pause..? Does someone have to hit "pause" on the remote control? Lol! Before you conduct a life audit you should stop, put everything down to fully concentrate on the main task on ground. Life Audit needs concentration. And you can get that total concentration when you keep everything aside to focus on the Audit task.
2. Think Of Where You Want To Be At This Present Time.
Mind you, there are some situations of life that you can’t control. Think of that which is within your control. Could it be that like Lesley, you are supposed to have been graduated by now but 'cos of lack of proper studies you keep failing, it could be that you are supposed to have toured to 3 countries but you lack the financial wherewithal to travel ‘cos you gambled away your money, it could also be that you are now hospitalized cos of an accident you got from drunk Driving that has made you miss a very important interview that could have landed you your dream job..?
if you are where you need to be within your power of control, then you can stop at this point. But if not, proceed to step 3.
3. Try To Decipher What Went Wrong.
Since there’s a lapse between where you want to be and where you are presently, try to go on a mental reflection to figure out the point where your life seemed to hit the bricks.
If you’re lucky enough to find that one moment or action that altered the course of your life, then move to step 4
4. Making Decision
What possible action could you take to correct the already sullied situation? This is where the decision is made. If it’s a situation that cannot be corrected, then what possible actions could you take to prevent future reoccurrence. Like Lesley’s situation, her corrective decision would be to avoid negative friends, stop all irresponsible behavior.
If you noticed, I used the word “corrective” instead of “preventive”; meaning that the decision she would be making wouldn’t change the already damaged situation; It would only help prevent future re-occurrence.
Some situations may not be as bad as her’s, hence just needing a preventive measure. Early detection is key. When you take a life Audit early enough, it helps prevent indelible scars. Do well to write down the preventive or corrective decision(s) you’ve concluded on.
5. Taking Action.
After the decision is being made, actions need to be taken to the direction of the preventive/corrective decision arrived at in step 4. Here, you make steps in acting according to the the decision you already made, to help null or prevent such adverse situation from recurring. If your corrective / preventive measure is to cut off drinking then start the process of getting rid of that habit.
Congratulations!!
Now you are done with your life Audit for this period of time, and you have already made actions to aid for a better Snowball Effect, ensure that this audit exercise be carried out constantly.
Conclusion
Life Audit is an exercise that should be taken seriously ‘cos of its ton of benefits. Note also that there are some situations beyond your control, Life happens! This Audit is to correct or prevent situations that are still within our control. Life Audit, if taken early enough would help prevent a whole lot of chaotic situation our lives have been flung into.
Engagement
1. Do you think you are in the place where you wish to be (that’s within your control)?
2. Are you happy with your life at the moment?
3. Do You feel there’s a need for life Audit at this point of your life?
4. What decisions can you take to enhance and improve your life?
Don’t forget to take that Audit Exercise 📢 NOW!!!
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GIVEAWAY: Word For TodaySerenity: The state of being calm, peaceful, and untroubled."an oasis of serenity amidst the bustling city"
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