4 Self-Inventory Questions To Align You With Your Big Dreams & Goals

This week's conversation outlines exactly how to keep tabs on where your energy and focus is going, and how to harness the power of inspired action. 

In this episode, I am giving you a set of 4 simple but incredibly powerful questions that you can ask yourself to take some monthly  (or honestly, whenever you need it!) inventory.

This is an insightful practice designed to align your actions with your big dreams and goals. (Remember - Idenentiy Alignment*) This is a quick but impactful conversation that could shape your perspective on your own self-reflection.

- Discover where your focus lies, whether it's a career milestone, a personal project, or a family transition. 

- Reflect on your achievements and positive habits. Acknowledging your successes not only boosts your morale but also enhances your awareness of the aspects of life you can control.
- Take a moment to identify areas for improvement and change. This question prompts you to confront obstacles and helps you outline actionable steps toward your big dreams.
- Let's figure out where we are actually going. Set a specific, achievable goal for the upcoming month and visualize your progress. Be specific about their expectations and imagine the growth that could come from staying committed to their habits.

Taking your monthly inventory is a simple yet impactful tool for staying connected with yourself and the things you truly want. Whether you're aiming for personal development, health goals, or professional success, these questions are designed to help you gain clarity and empower you to create the life you desire.

Keep this tool handy as a way for you to ensure the actions that you are taking are in line with your big dreams and aspirations. 

This is how we keep the course on our journey towards a healthier, happier lifestyle. 


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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
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 Spizak.
I'm a board-certifiedpractitioner, master, life and
health coach and seasonedexecutive speaker.
If you are ready to create yourhighest value lifestyle and

(00:26):
turn your dream life into areality, you're in the right
place.
Let's get right into today'sepisode.
Hello, hello my loves, welcomeback to another episode here on
the Purposeful LifestyleDevelopment Podcast.
Thank you so much for everyonewho tunes in weekly.
I so appreciate you spendingyour time here with me and if

(00:46):
you're new here, welcome.
Don't forget to hit subscribeso that you never miss part of
our conversation.
And this week's conversation isa bit of a continuation from
last week, talking about gettingaligned with our big goals and
with our big dreams and who wewant to be.
Taking inventory to stay clearon where we are, where we want

(01:09):
to go and allowing for the ebbsand flows in life to come, but
without knocking us off of ourfooting.
So today I want to talk abouttaking some general inventory.
This is a great monthlypractice, again for that
practice of identity alignment.
This is great to do quarterly,or if you're something like an

(01:31):
entrepreneur where maybe yourday-to-day changes a lot, maybe
this is even a good quickpractice to do weekly.
But just know, this is a supersimple tool.
It won't take you more than afew minutes and it really does
not have to be some intensejournaling session where we feel
all the feelings or some reallydeep meditation session.

(01:54):
I promise it's just fourquestions, only four, but it
will really help make sure thatyour actions are in line with
the things that you actuallywant for you.
So let's just jump right intoit super quick and on the money
today.
So here are four questions.
First, I want you to askyourself what era am I in right

(02:16):
now?
What season am I in?
Where is the majority of myattention and my energy going at
this time?
So, if you maybe have a bigcareer event happening right now
, or if you're in the middle ofmoving, or if you have kids who
are in some kind of transitionin school or what have you, so
you're focusing on them throughthat, maybe you have a big

(02:38):
fitness goal that you're workingon or you're giving your
attention intentionally to yourcreative things, just check in,
kind of ground yourself withwhat your big right nows are.
Like I said earlier on, thiscan be maybe quarterly, every
few months, looking at, okay,what is the last few months been

(02:59):
, what is the next few months.
This could be monthly that'skind of what I suggest or, again
, for some people, maybe weekly,just like a regular thing that
we do.
But check in and really groundyourself when asking yourself
where are you right now?
And this helps you do twothings.
First, it gives you anopportunity to really give

(03:21):
yourself a bit of some honestfeedback.
Is what you're currently doingworking?
Does it feel good to you, doesit feel successful and kind of
like flow?
Are there some areas that maybeyou'd need to change or address
?
Maybe you notice that there'ssomething that should be getting

(03:41):
a bit more of your attentionand focus.
But whatever it is, this isreally just a really simple way
to get an overview picture ofwhere your energy is going and
seeing if it's going where youwant it to.
But also, secondarily, I thinkit's really important because
asking yourself this questionand honestly actually finding

(04:03):
that answer it gives you anopportunity to remind yourself
that if the majority of yourenergy is going to these certain
areas.
It's okay if you're not 100% inevery single other area, that
if one space, one portion ofwhat you're doing of your life

(04:24):
right now is getting a lot offocus, it's okay that you're not
keen-eyed, super clear, focuson absolutely everything else.
Shonda Rhimes she's an actressand so many other wonderful
things gave this really famousand really really powerful
commencement speech at Dartmouthand it's referenced all the

(04:46):
time where she says in so many,so many beautiful words and lots
of examples, but she basicallygives the message of if I'm
succeeding in one area of mylife, this does mean that I'm
having to sacrifice in another,and that's true for all of us.
We unfortunately haven't madeit to superhuman yet, so we may

(05:07):
not be able to give 100% ofourselves to every single thing
at every single moment.
But by doing this and givingyourself this understanding,
almost making this declarationof hey, I know what I'm focusing
on is here right now itessentially gives yourself the
space or it allows yourself tofeel safe with your current

(05:31):
focus, and I really think thiswill help in a lot of ways.
It'll help you again, not justkeep yourself feeling safe with
that focus, but it'll help youavoid burnout later on, so that
you're not trying to give 1000%of you to everything and really
just a whole host of otherreasons.
But the main point here is,with the first question is that

(05:54):
we are anchoring into ourdecision what season are we?
What era is this?
Where's our attention and focus?
What are the big things?
The next question, once you havea good answer there, that we
want to ask ourselves is what isgoing really well for me right
now?
Or, more specifically, what amI doing currently that is

(06:14):
successfully filling up my cupor helping me get to where I
want to go?
What habits did I develop orkeep up with that have supported
me in what I'm doing?
What am I proud of myself forin terms of what I'm doing for
myself, my health, my goals, mybig dreams?
What are these things?
List amount.
This not only gives you thechance to acknowledge and do a

(06:38):
good, positive callout of allthe things that you're doing and
the things that you want tokeep your focus on doing, more
of which we know, when we dothat nice pat on the back, so to
speak, the brain gets a nicehead of dopamine and it's going
to start a nice positivity loopwhere it wants to continue to do
these things, but also itreally does help take that

(07:00):
inventory and have moreawareness of what's going on in
your life that you do havecontrol over.
Because also, here's a goodpoint too as you make this list
of all the things that you'redoing that are great, that
you're proud of yourself forwhether you're taking your
vitamins, you're stayinghydrated, you're committing to
learning about the thing,whatever that case may be, even

(07:23):
if it's as small, as I had thisnegative thought and I changed
it.
I've gotten better at talkingto myself in this way, something
internal that nobody else caneven see.
As we make this list, there's agood chance that there is a
subliminal little list formingof a few things that maybe you

(07:45):
wish you had done.
Maybe you wish you hadcommitted to these as well or
been a little bit better at,especially.
If that's the case, here's yourquestion three If you're just
on the ball, then maybe there'snot much on this list.
But, to be fully transparent,when I do this for me even

(08:06):
though I'm a coach in this Iteach people how to do this I
typically have some things onhere as well.
But what would you like to seemore of or less of from yourself
in this upcoming month, week,whatever time frame.
What are the things in yourcurrent reality that you
currently have the ability tochange that?

(08:28):
If you're being honest, youknow that they're getting in
your way of the big dreams, thethings that you want to achieve
for yourself.
Maybe we're still doing someaction that doesn't exactly fit
with what we're working towards.
Let's make a note of that here,too.
What do we wish we were doingthat we weren't yet, the habits
that we're trying to anchor inon and maybe they just haven't

(08:51):
set forth yet, maybe the thingsthat we're trying to stop doing
and that kind of fell throughthe cracks, maybe picking that
back up.
Again, this is a time to bereally, really gentle.
This is not a space for you tojudge yourself.
Shaming does nothing positivewhatsoever.
Again, we're just callingawareness.
We're getting this bird's eyeview.

(09:13):
We're getting the biggerpicture.
Put it out there so that weknow we can see it.
Here's the things that maybearen't serving me right now.
Then we can come up with a plan, of course, to add it, take it
out if it's something that wedon't want anymore and we'll go
from there.
But again, just seeing that,getting that on paper.

(09:35):
Finally, your last questionwhere do I want to be?
Where do I actually see myselfin the next month With what I'm
doing and with what I expect tohappen if I keep it up and this
goes as planned?
Where do I expect to be?
This gives you a little goal tofocus on a smaller time frame,
something more manageable thatyou can really really put your

(09:58):
attention onto, instead of justhaving this overall goal of
something.
Like you know, here's one thatwe hear a lot.
I think, again, we can all pullour own personal thing in here
but say it's this overall goalof something that's like I want
to get more fit, I want to getstronger.
That is commendable, we likethat right, but it's also

(10:20):
totally open-ended and I'm suremeans so many things to you
being more fit, being strongerthere's a whole host of
different things that that couldmean.
But instead, when we're doingthese questions and we're
checking in with hey, what do Ithink that next month is going
to look like?
What happens if I keep this up?
Now the answer is much moredetailed.

(10:42):
It's something like well, if Ikeep this up, I'll have a whole
month of more consistency.
I want to keep improving andworking towards heavier weights
in this workout and at this timenext month, I think I'll be
more confident in my timemanagement of my workout routine
.
I'll feel more disciplined inhow many times I show up.

(11:02):
I think the things that feelreally difficult to me right now
, if I keep doing this, it makeslogical sense to say it's going
to be a bit easier for me andso I'm going to be excited about
that Get specific.
Get more specific, then.
What do you actuallyrealistically expect to happen
if you keep up the habits androutines that you have now the

(11:25):
good ones, and maybe not thegreat ones, right, the ones that
we're not so happy about and ifthis feels too weird I've heard
this before sometimes it feelslike you just can't do this on
yourself objectively Then justimagine you're doing this for
someone else, a faceless person,just person A.
If person A was to spend theirtime and energy committed to

(11:49):
this thing, disciplined to doingthis thing, giving themselves
love and filling up their cup inthis way, what growth or
accomplishment do you expectwould happen for them?
What makes logical sense there?
So, as you can see, these fourquestions.
They are not difficult and youcan really knock it out in just
a few minutes and that means youcan do it regularly.

(12:12):
Again, we're not committing alot of time.
This doesn't even take a lot ofenergy.
This is Bird's eye levelquestion and inventory taking.
But I think taking yourinventory and checking in is
what's so important.
You're creating that connectionwith yourself and what you
actually want.
Really, taking a moment to setaside any of the distractions

(12:33):
that we have throughout the daythe limitless distractions and
ask yourself some questions thatonly you know the answer to,
making sure that you're happywith the way you're directing
your life to go, because we arethe directors of our own movie
here.
Really take that time toappreciate yourself for being
self-loving and self-respectingenough and this is self-care

(12:56):
really enough to do the thingsthat feel great long term Not
just the short term things thatfeel really good, but the things
that long term, get you whereyou want to go.
And it also allows you to catchthe stuff that you don't really
want to be part of your realitybefore it becomes so ingrained

(13:17):
and so much harder to stop orget rid of.
To do this monthly, that's greator again whenever you really
need that check in to just seewhat the heck is going on.
This will help you stop beingstuck, stop having the same
month over and over, stop endingup with those same frustrations
that we talked about in lastepisode, but really let you have

(13:41):
that power over what's going onwith you.
And I know getting honest andvulnerable with yourself can
feel really scary at first,especially if this is something
that you're not really used to.
It's not really familiar to you.
But here's my promise getting aclear enough picture with
yourself to actually do thethings that move the needle in

(14:02):
your life.
That's what sets you up forfeeling so empowered, so
motivated and like you have thattotal and complete autonomy on
your life, which is such anincredible feeling, because you
absolutely do.
You have autonomy over yourlife and you have every
opportunity to align with whoyou want to be, with your

(14:25):
desired identity and who youknow you have the potential to
be.
So keep this exercise in yourtoolbox, save this episode,
write it out for when you needit or on a monthly basis, and
please don't hesitate to let meknow how it helped you, how you
got some clarity on the thingsthat you want for you, because
one belief I will never, ever,ever let go of is that you

(14:47):
absolutely deserve the thingsthat you desire for yourself,
and I'm here to help you createthe blueprint on how to get it.
If you need more from me or somespecific help, you know where
to find me.
I'm always honored to be partof that journey, on a one-on-one
with you or however we connect.
Thank you so, so much, and withthat, I send you off with all

(15:08):
of my love until next time.
But all right, my loves, that'swhere I'll leave us today.
I want to thank you so much forjoining in on this conversation
with me, and each week, everyMonday, we're going to be
posting a new episode, going alittle bit deeper into the
conversation, of what you can doto train your brain on purpose
to really allow for thelifestyle that you want to live.

(15:30):
Until next time, my loves.
In the meantime, here's to yourhealth and your happiness.