I remember my year as the copy desk chief for my college newspaper, The Famuan. My colleagues and I spent many nights in the newsroom, aggressively editing the stories submitted to us that were chosen to run in the upcoming week’s issue. With each edit, we took away what didn’t serve the purpose of the story and placed in the quick and dirty of what we knew our fellow Famuans wanted to know.
I was listening to Myleik Teele’s podcast the day I remembered this experience, and on the podcast, she introduced a new concept to me called life editing. Myleik calls it “taking inventory” of the things in your life that either are or aren’t serving you on the journey to achieve your most personal goals. In the episode, she outlines that the criteria of the edit will be unique to what we value most, so it's different for everyone.
I came up with my own life edit criteria below and filled it out. And guess what — I also flexed on my creative skills and included a FREE download of the life edit worksheet! Please feel free to print it out, change up the criteria to your values and post it up where it’s visible to you so that you’re always in alignment with your goals.
Tips on completing a life edit
First begin with the question: what do I want in life? After a series of meltdowns in my career, finances and personal relationships, I decided that something needed to give but it wasn’t anything external that could help. The change was inside of me and involved me stepping into being a creator or my reality instead of looking from the outside in hoping someone else would get me to my desired state of happily being. I am the only person who lives this life, and being reactive instead of proactive thus far hadn’t yielded me much.
On the worksheet, I outlined in each box what my ultimate goal is and what I need to create room for or edit to get there. Here are a couple of tips on putting action behind a life edit, once you’re done with the planning portion.
Intention
This is everything, any goal needs intention behind it. Intentions will guide your daily action so each day do one small thing that’s attached to your bigger goal.
Preparation
Poor preparation sometimes leads me falling back into bad habits. One big example is meal prepping for the week. If I prepare food for the week or at least have a full refrigerator I’m not going to eat out. So this intention of staying prepared, gets me closer to two of my goals: saving more money and staying snatched because my meals are made at home.
Track progress and optimize
I track the progress of my goals every three months or so and sometimes I refine them or change them completely. We are human beings, constantly evolving so nothing is truly finite. It's normal for goals to change, try not to beat yourself up about it.
Again, get the worksheet HERE, and please let me know how and if it worked for you!
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