Why You Need to Stop Monkeying Around and Do a Life Audit!

I must admit that when I hear the word audit it doesn’t exactly conjure up positive thoughts in my mind and I am sure many of you feel similarly. I think the reason being is that audits usually do not lead to good things. From IRS tax audits to audits of hospitals by regulatory bodies to investigative audits to many more – audits usually get us worked up and stressed out, which is no fun. Which reminds me of a story on how I learned about audits the hard way – more on that later!

Today’s post is focused on another type of audit and one you should not be scared of, it is called a life audit.

What is a Life Audit?

As I said, while most people are frightened about the prospect of being audited, there is another type of audit that we should not only not be frightened of but one that we should welcome. The audit of which I am speaking is the life audit, which is simply a process of self-assessment or taking stock of your life to see how you can improve it.

The Drucker 5 Questions Model

The model which we are going to discuss today to conduct a life audit is one that was popularized by the late management guru, Peter Drucker. It is based upon 5 questions that Drucker would ask when he met with organizations many years ago.

While these questions may seem to be simple, as you will see they are at the same time complex and compelling. Drucker’s point was that for organizations to be successful they would need to have clear, well-thought-out answers to these questions. The same applies to us as individuals, having clear and well-thought-out answers to his 5 questions will allow us to be successful.

Without further ado, let’s take a look at the 5 questions that Drucker would ask when meeting with his clients:

(1) What is our mission?
(2) Who is our customer?
(3) What does the customer value?
(4) What are our results?
(5) What is our plan?

Since these questions are intended for boards and corporations, let’s tweak them a bit to make them a bit more relevant to us to conduct a life audit in our personal lives:

(1) What is your personal mission statement?
(2) Who are the stakeholders in your life?
(3) What do your stakeholders value?
(4) Do your results match the expectations?
(5) What is your plan of action?

Let’s now take each question individually to see how you can use them to take stock of your life as a life audit exercise.

The first question deals with something we have covered in previous blog posts, but it is so important that we need to touch on it once again…

What is your personal mission statement?

In business, a mission statement is a declaration of the reason for the existence of an organization.  It should be short and memorable, as well as noble and motivational; no more than 12 words max!!! The shorter the better.  It should be easily remembered by all stakeholders of the organization and should be used in decision-making at all levels within the organization.

Why have a personal mission statement? Well, the answer is simple…

“If you don’t know where you want to go, any road will get you there.”

You can think of a personal mission statement as a roadmap for your life that will make sure you take the right road to where you want to go!

Just as a mission statement is a declaration of the reason for the existence of an organization, a personal mission statement is a declaration or statement of the reason for the existence of you.

It will help you prioritize and allocate your time, it will help you say no to attractive distractors, and make better decisions that are aligned with your personal mission statement.

But most of all, it will help clarify your purpose and reason for existence and why you do what you do!

If you don’t have a personal mission statement, I highly encourage you to create one, and I walk you through the steps in this previous post.

In the business world, Drucker challenged his clients to really think about who their primary and secondary customers were. Primary being those whose lives were changed through your work and secondary being others who also need to be satisfied but to a lesser extent. His thinking was that you need to know what influences them, so you can create satisfying experiences for them.

In your personal life, you need to explore those whom you have relationships with in your life by thinking about…

Who are the stakeholders in your life?

When I say stakeholders, I mean those people who have any type of interest or involvement in your life – including YOU! Because, in many cases, your actions may impact their lives and their actions may impact your life.

Some primary stakeholders may be immediate family and close friends, while secondary stakeholders could be your boss, coworkers, your pastor, your attorney – to name a few.

The point is to identify the key stakeholders, so you can understand who you want to keep in your life, who you want to spend more time with, who you want to spend less time with, and who you want to totally divest from your life.

Next, Drucker said that you need to listen to the customers to understand what they value and expect so that you can build it into the product or service…

What do your stakeholders value and expect?

It’s hard for you to optimize your life and those of your stakeholders without knowing what is important to them as well as their priorities and goals.

You also need to know what your stakeholders expect from you. How can you expect to give them what they want if you don’t know? On the flip side, do they know what you expect from them?

And again…you need to know what your most important stakeholder (YOU) values and expects!

Fourth, Drucker believed it was important to look at your results in terms of how you define them and whether or not you were successful, that way you know if you are headed in the right direction.

Do your results match the expectations?

This question forces you to reflect on the results you have attained in the various areas of your life? Have they met your expectations? Have they met the expectations of your stakeholders?

This should cause you to ask yourself a bunch of questions including:

Are there areas of your life that you need to strengthen?

Should you abandon certain activities to focus on others?

The last question Drucker would ask is the most important one as it is all about action, it asks…

What is Your Plan?

So, now that you have…

Clarified your purpose with a personal mission statement and…

Identified the key stakeholders in your life (including you) and…

Understand what they/you value and expect and…

Compared your results with both your and stakeholder expectations.

It is time to do some planning which simply defines where it is you want to be and the steps that you are going to take to get there.

As Einstein said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.”

There you have it, using Peter Drucker’s 5 questions to take stock of your life as a sort of life audit.

So, Back to How I Learned About Audits the Hard Way…

Let me take you back to the late 1990’s, right in the middle of the dot-com boom. I was living in Toronto working for a software company.  It was during the time that the internet was in its infancy and everything internet-related was brand new. We had just got email at our company and were using an email client called Eudora. Being that the internet and email were so new, there were no real policies or procedures or best practices for office email or internet etiquette. It really was the wild, wild west so to speak – people literally sent and forwarded all kinds of crap around.  I just shake my head at some of the images and videos that were sent.

Anyways, for whatever reason, our email client kept crashing every day and it was really getting annoying and pissing everyone off. So, they decided to do an audit to figure out the reason it kept crashing.

Well, it turns out that this here video was the culprit:

Even though it was only 1 MB, back then that was a HUGE file…which ended up crashing the email client.

Funny right?

Yeah, but not for me!

You see being a bit of a prankster I was the one who sent it to most of the people in the company which overwhelmed the client causing it to crash.

The audit showed that it came from me and I got a little slap on the wrist. Which is how I learned about audits…the hard way!

Until next time, stop monkeying around and just do a life audit already, and as always…PYMFP!
–Rick

Use it Or Lose It – Using Drucker’s 5 Question to Do a Life Audit

To perform a life audit to take stock of your life you can ask a variation of Peter Drucker’s 5 questions which are:

(1) What is your personal mission statement?
(2) Who are the stakeholders in your life?
(3) What do your stakeholders value?
(4) Do your results match the expectations?
(5) What is your plan of action?

When to Use It

When you would like to take stock of your life.

What Do You Think?

Have you ever done a life audit? Do you believe Drucker’s 5 questions are a helpful way to take stock of your life? Please discuss in the comments below!

If you enjoyed this post, it would mean the world to us if you shared it with people you care about via any of the social media platforms below!

Popular Previous Posts:

This is What to Do When You Screwed Up! – VIDEO
Reel in the Cause of Your Problem with a Fishbone Diagram!
How to Be the Most Interesting Person in the World!
The John Wooden Pyramid of Success is No Scheme!
How to Practice Gratitude and Get a Gratitude Adjustment!