Businesses are collapsing, marriages are failing, friends are falling apart, people are losing their jobs, so many are struggling under the yoke of indebtedness, some are so broke in spite of their monthly earnings and many are dying prematurely because there is a general lack of self-auditing to generate a lifestyle report that will define and inform the necessary changes that must be made in our way of life.
Lifestyle auditing is as important as a routine medical examination. As a matter of fact, a routine medical examination is a subset of lifestyle auditing. We, however, pay very little to no attention at all to the former and that has slowed our progress and worsened our woes. As Plato said, “The unexamined life is not worth living!”
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:3-5).
It is evident that God is not happy with our lack of concern for self-evaluation which we have replaced with an inquisitive, fault-finding spirit in other people’s business. Making it your business to find fault with other people’s business will not improve anything in your own life. As Apostle Paul admonishes in 1Thessalonians 4:11, “Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we instructed you before.”
Self-auditing takes every aspect of one’s life into consideration and there is total evaluation of all those aspects to detect areas that one may need to make changes and where one must continue a particular lifestyle practice.
Just as the butterfly is a better and more resourceful version of the caterpillar, everyone has the potential to constantly upgrade from their old edition to newer editions every now and then, by improving oneself through personal development and the cultivation of a result-oriented mindset.
The caterpillar is slow but the butterfly is quick. The caterpillar has an unpolished sour taste and therefore feeds on bitter things; the butterfly has a rich taste and feeds on nectar. The caterpillar is ugly and lacks the ability to attract people; the butterfly is beautiful and has a magnetic attraction. The caterpillar does not contribute much value to its environment but the butterfly pollinates flowers thereby making the environment very colourful. Yet, every beautiful butterfly starts life as an ugly caterpillar.
There is a butterfly in every caterpillar but not all caterpillars evolve into butterflies. There is a better version of you in you, but that version will not emerge automatically. There is a due process to follow before people can transform themselves into their more improved edition. That process begins with self-auditing.
In my readings, I discovered that the POOR is an acronym that means Passing Over Opportunities Repeatedly. Over the past fifteen years of interacting with people in the Personal Development Industry, I have come to a conclusion that, in all of life, the greatest opportunity which is common to all people everywhere, but which a majority pass over repeatedly is the opportunity to self-improve and translate themselves into richer, more valuable versions in a consistent manner.
Without royal blood, David was able to ascend to royalty because he had mastered the craft of using his sling and stone during enemy attacks. Goliath was a challenge for Kings but King Saul lacked the skill and courage to face him. David however, had the courage and skill to confront the king’s problem. Once he succeeded at resolving the problem meant for the King, he proved that he was suitable for the office of the King. David was anointed to become a King but in order for him to be appointed to that office, he needed to provide a practical suitability statement, which he did by the courage and competence he demonstrated in conquering Goliath. The anointing you have for greater accomplishment will continue to lie in waste until you make yourself useful.
Unfortunately, the modern-day Christian has been deceived to give more attention to their so-called mysterious Goliath instead of conducting a self-audit to obtain a blueprint for self-improvement. David killed Goliath once, but the modern Christian ignorantly believes that the finished work of Jesus on the cross is not enough, so they are always praying for the death of witches and wizards, who never seem to die.
They are always breaking satanic altars in their bloodlines. They break it in an “Altar Against Altar Conference” in January, and in February, they do the same thing in a “Kill Them Before They Kill You Prayer Summit.” At these meetings they make huge financial sacrifices hoping to experience a change in the outcome of their lives that never become a reality; because the result of a change in attitude cannot be gotten by praying against a witch.
The value we reflect is the value we attract. It is the value you contribute to the marketplace that determines the value you take from the marketplace. No employer pays you based on the size of your family. No employer will pay you because of the number of times you pray or the amount of offerings you give in church. No employ pays you because of your beauty or handsomeness. The value you create for your employer is the metric for determining how much you are paid. And if you are an entrepreneur, it is the value to create and contribute to the marketplace that determines how much you earn from there.
When was the last time you sat down in a very quiet environment to take stock of your life? Do you have a plan for your life by which you evaluate your progress? Is this all there is to your life? Have you come to your wits end? Have you used up all the potential God gave you? Are you at the peak of your performance? Who are your role models? Where do you draw inspiration for your aspiration in life? How do you treat the people around you? Are you a good wife or a good husband? Are you a good son or daughter? What is your worth to those around you?
There are so many underachievers who have accepted mediocrity as their God-ordained destiny. They say with a high religious revolve that they are content with what they have but they are a disappointment to God like the underachiever we are introduced to in Matthew 25. They describe their covenant with failure as contentment but contentment and mediocrity are not the same thing. Contentment is appreciating what you have at the moment and making the best of it. Mediocrity is settling for the little you have as the best you could ever have and condemning yourself to a life of underachievement and bad taste.
In the long run, whatever does not appreciate in value will depreciate in value – there is no middle way. But how do you ensure that you are constantly putting yourself in a position to increase your worth in the marketplace? Self-auditing!
We are likely to evaluate our performance in relation to those we seem to be outperforming and feel we are high achievers when we may actually be performing far below our actual capacity. The fact that you are better than somebody else does not necessarily mean that you are at your best. Self-auditing gives you the opportunity to compare your performance with your potential. It awakens you to the vast reserve of untapped potentials and unexplored capabilities within you that could be cultivated to increase your reach and widen the scope of your achievements. There is no way anybody will settle for less once they get convinced that they have capacity for greater prospects in life.
No matter what anybody does for you in this life, the only person who has the best influence over your life is yourself. Even the people whose views influence your decisions and choices in life play that role in your life because you allowed them. Eventually, the turn of events in your life is a consequence of your personal choices and the extent to which you are willing to take responsibility for the outcomes of your life.
We naturally exude greater commitment to fix faults we find on ourselves than what others point out to us. To be a better version of you, you must keep improving your capabilities and increase the value you bring to the marketplace until your weaknesses get lost in the shadow of your strengths.
The Purpose Factor
Your performance in life is a question of purpose. The area of your giftedness and calling must determine what you give your attention and efforts to. Once you know exactly what you were born to do to contribute meaningfully to the world, you can focus on doing what you can do best instead of becoming a carbon copy of others. The purpose factor is fundamental in self-auditing. Is this what I was born to do? If this is all I would have poured my life into at the point of death, would I be fulfilled? If your work is a passion project, you are more likely to handle it at the level of the big players in that industry. If you demonstrate a commitment to your marriage and your children, you are going to be among the best families that enjoy the virtues of togetherness and peaceful living.
We have published a lot of articles at TOPVINCENT.COM that address questions related to the auditing of one’s expenditure pattern to help detect nuisance spending and the amassing of attractive waste into one’s life.
Whether you want to evaluate your life as a husband or wife; employer or employee; teacher or student; or whichever area you want to assess, there are three levels that you must be looking at. The three levels are benchmarks which you must estimate with very high standards. Ask yourself whether you are a PEAK PERFORMER, PLATEAU PERFORMER OR PIT PERFORMER.
A peak performer is one who is doing a particular thing with excellence. If you are a good husband, then you must be performing excellently in every aspect of your duties and this conclusion should not be based on how you expect your family to think of your performance. It should be a natural perception of your family about how you go about things.
A plateau performer is one who is not maximizing his or her potential. This refers to people who do less than they can actually do. Sometimes, complacency is the biggest problem with people in this category. They start well, but they do not continue to improve upon their previous performance.
A pit performer is one who is failing at making relevant use of the breath in their nostrils. They just go by in life and not enthusiastic about anything. They will not move unless they are pushed and when they are pushed, they make no effort to stay on their new level so they fall back to their original position.
Dear smart reader, nobody obtains a seat at the table of great achievers by luck. Until you prove that you have the capacity to handle greatness, not even God will give you an appointment in a high place. It is time to conduct a critical self-examination. It is time to start looking out for the best examples on the international front and begin to evaluate yourself by a high standard. You cannot be all you can be if you are not willing to face the truth about yourself and make the right changes.
It has been said that the richest place on earth is the cemetery because a lot of people took great deposits of potentials they did not use when they were alive into the grave. Will you let a bad habit you can discipline yourself to change ruin your life? It is time to self-audit!
Self audit is what most at times we often miss. Sometimes due to the bitterness it brings from our past mistakes or any other reasons we completely ignore it. Instead of evaluating ourselves to identify the gaps, we intend to overlook it. This article has made me fearless of AUDITING my life, add value to it, and become a peak performer. TO READ THIS , IS NEVER A WASTE OF TIME.
I am glad you have been blessed by this article. Please, forward the link to many others so they can also benefit from it.
But in a place where people see you as egocentric. when you try to put in your best, what do you do?
You must pay attention to important details and focus on fulfilling your purpose not the opinion of haters. There will always be people who will dislike you for the good qualities you have; either out of envy or jealousy. Don’t stop doing the right thing because someone feels it is not good for them.