Quarterly Self-Inventory: 4 Questions To Realign

Hello , my loves , and welcome to the Purposeful Lifestyle Development Podcast , where we discuss all things thought , work and manifestation but we use neuroscience and the study of the brain to do so . I'm your host , tessa Spisak . I'm a board certified practitioner , master , life and health coach and seasoned executive speaker .

If you're ready to create your highest value lifestyle and turn your dream life into a reality , you're in the right place . Let's get right into today's episode . Are in the right place . Let's get right into today's episode . Hello , hello my loves , and welcome in to Tessa Talks Purposeful Lifestyle Development .

I hope you are feeling amazing , however , and wherever you're listening in from today , and I just want to jump right in . We are just into the second quarter of 2024 .

And if you've been part of this community for a while , then you know I'm a big fan of taking some of what I like to call self inventory , and if you don't know what that is , whether you're new to the podcast , you just don't remember .

Basically , what I call self inventory is just taking some time to check in with you , to get honest with yourself about what's been going on with your life , how you feel about it , what you want to do , coming up , and it really just keeps you present , with you .

And I like it for a few reasons , I'm sure , if you are obvious right , it keeps me in check with my goals , with the habits I want to build , and also in check with the habits that I want to get rid of , right , the things that no longer serve me . It helps me plan and maintain the goals that I've set for myself .

But my favorite thing is that it really helps me stay present . I personally really don't like that feeling where you're going and going and you look up and you see the calendar and you get that feeling of like , oh my God , where has the time gone this month , this week , this quarter , whatever it's just flown by .

I don't really like that and I think self-questioning and self-inventory are a really good way to kind of slow things down to make sure you're present with it all . And since we're just finishing up that first quarter of the year , I did feel like it was going kind of fast , so very perfect time to do this .

I want to do some check-in , do some inventory , get present and really the more I get in tune with where I am and where I want to be , the better I feel , obviously , of course , that's kind of the name of the game around here . So in this episode I'm going to go through my normal list , my normal quarterly list , so maybe it can help inspire yours .

Or , if you want to use mine , please feel free . It's pretty easy and it keeps me going where I want to , and y'all know I'm all about keep it simple , make it fit in the normal routine . So there's a couple of different ways you can do this , even just kind of thinking along , journaling along as we go . So let's reflect .

One of the first things I really like to ask myself is what overall words would you use to categorize the last quarter ? Just big , broad terms , what are some of the initial thoughts that come to mind ? You know , has this last few months been exciting or have they been busy , maybe stressful ? Have they been procrastinating or maybe really focused ?

What has been the main focus ? Right ? Just a few words that come to mind , maybe three to five key things .

Overall , what do you think about how you treated you and the things that are important to you in this last bit of time , for however long you're doing this and hopefully the words that come to mind are positive right , we always hope that we can honestly say , when we really clearly look back , that it was happy and that it was focused and productive and in

flow . But we're humans having a human experience and we know that's not always the case , because life is life . So I don't want you to use this time to be judgmental or to be dishonest with yourself at all , but just really genuinely , how has it been and how have you felt ? How have you treated you and the things that are important to you ?

And then this part's really crucial Once you get a good idea of what the general theme , or at least what your initial thoughts about the general theme are , I want you to take a minute to think through , or even look through , what are some of the big things that happened in this timeframe .

Did you have a big project going on ? Did you travel ? Did you complete something ? Or maybe , in the opposite breath , right ? Did you put something off the whole time that you said you were going to do ? Just take a minute , reflect on these last few months what it actually looked like .

I mean , like I said , maybe even poke through your calendar , take a minute to really genuinely refresh your memory , go through your you know whether it's app or you have a handwritten calendar look at what you've been doing . But this will help give you a really clear and realistic view of what you've been up to .

Basically and I like to take a second here to this is kind of bonus points here to see if my initial thoughts , those initial big broad terms , if they were in line with what I'm seeing on the calendar .

I mean , for example , a kind of vulnerability piece , I guess , or not really , but more just transparency , but a real example that I just went through with myself when I just did my own self inventory practice before recording this episode . But one of my big broad terms that I said to myself over the last month or few months is I just felt scattered .

I didn't feel like I was on top of my routines . I didn't really feel like I progressed in some of the things that I was working on in the way that I like to . That makes me feel the best .

But I go back and I look and I go through the calendar and I realize that we've been traveling and we've had sports and we had a wedding and we had family birthdays and we had events and all the things . Well , no wonder I felt scattered , right ? No wonder I didn't feel like I fully stuck to my routine , because I wasn't in a routine .

So , even if this is just a moment to give yourself a little bit of grace , it gives you the chance to have that grace if you need it and , of course , again , on the opposite vein , we don't need to go through this one , but it gives you a chance to call yourself out where you need it to right . Again , this is a space to be honest with you .

So then , once you get comfortable there , after you've gone through what you overall think , maybe getting a little bit more clear , going through what it actually looked like I like to have an overview on the last quarter .

Again , whatever timeframe that I'm taking inventory over , I like to take a look at the goals before I had I'm sorry , before I got into this timeframe right the ones that I had before here . So , if you're listening to this as it comes out , we're just hopping into quarter two . So what were your new year's resolutions ?

Did you resolve anything for the new year ? Did you set any goals , any plans , any habits you want to gain or maybe again get rid of ? Right , and I hope you did . Of course , it's always good to set little things for ourself , but how did you stick to them ? Have you been keeping up with them or kind of forgotten about them and let them slide away ?

Were you good at it for a little while and something happened right ? What happened there ? Maybe even going through what were you good at ? Or even I like this question a lot . I'm going to touch on this a bit . Should I more highly prioritize something , or is there something I need to deprioritize Again ?

These questions are never in the realm of self-judgment , but instead it really gives you a chance to see where things are working in your favor . What are the roadblocks ? And if there are roadblocks , are there some things that we can change ? Are there some things that are out of our control that we can't change ?

Were we realistic about what we wanted and everything in between ? This also gives you a chance to be really proud of yourself and really happy that you did what you promised yourself you would do . I spend a lot of time talking about that , how important it is for your brain and your mental health that we keep the promises we make to ourselves .

So if we did take the time to be really proud of that . Now , of course , that includes a flip side , right ? This can also give you some clarity on what happened not in the way that you planned , right ? What can we replant ? What can we come up with in a new way to get you where you want to be ?

Sometimes is it that it didn't work or I just didn't do the work , right ? Not self-judgment , but here to get clear , here to get some honesty , and I would say my last piece , my fourth piece of this , easy four steps here , last bit , with all of that out on the table , what are you going to do about it ? What are the things that worked ?

What moved the needle in the right direction of where you want to go ? What are the things that need adjusting or reprioritizing ? And I think this is so , so important . So I'm going to say it 900 times in this episode . But we have to be honest here .

We're not thinking about what your friend , your mom , your family member , what the lady you work with , what even I would think that doesn't matter , not what anyone else's goal would be for you , but what moves the needle for you , what actually brings you closer to the life you want , what can you , as I said before , prioritize or reprioritize to better align

with what you want ? So it's really simple . It doesn't take a lot of time , but it really should be done , whether you sit down and you journal it out , you know , of course , this is my favorite , because when we write something , we also read it . We see it .

The brain just absorbs the information even better because it's coming through all those different mediums . But either journal it or ponder it on your daily walk , use it as a thought , work , practice . But overall , the goal is to get clear , get honest and realign with the life that you want and you deserve . Four simple steps here .

So one first ask yourself overall , how would you categorize this last quarter , this last time period , the big , broad terms ? Give it three to five of them . Then actually go through . Go through what your calendar looked like . Go through this time whether it's pondering , actually looking it up , right , thinking through it all .

Actually looking it up , right , thinking through it all . What did it actually look like ? And did those two terms realign how you generally felt about it and what you actually did . Then we're going to go back to any goals you set at the beginning of this timeframe , at the beginning of this quarter . How'd you do ? Did we hit them ? Did we forget about them ?

What do we need to prioritize and deprioritize and then last again , when it's all there , when it's all in front of you , what are we going to do about it ? Now , of course , if you need help , you know where to find me . My goal is always to make the journey really easy and really fun .

That is the best way to get change , especially change that you want and in a way that serves you . But I'm always proud and honored to be part of your journey , whether you just hang out here in the community on the podcast or we set up some sessions one-on-one and we talk it through together . Either way , I'm glad to talk to you today .

Enjoy your journaling session .

Let's make this a little bit of a habit , whether it's quarterly self-inventory . If it's monthly , maybe we can go through what a nice monthly quarterly inventory would look like . Definitely let me know , send me a message or review if you'd like to hear that . But with all of that said , if you haven't heard it today .

All of my love to you and enjoy your week . But all right , my loves , that's where I'll leave us today .

I want to thank you so much for joining in on this conversation with me , and each week , every Monday , we're going to be posting a new episode , going a little bit deeper into the conversation , of what you can do to train your brain on purpose to really allow for the lifestyle that you want to live . Until next time , my loves .

In the meantime , here's to your health and your happiness .