Check your bearings
Take stock of your path and redirect as needed.
Are you moving toward your life design goal or just drifting? Regular reflection keeps you on the right track.
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Periodically evaluating your life design journey is a focused, reflective practice that takes little time but can make all the difference in reaching your design goal. It helps you assess progress, stay aligned with your life purpose and values, adjust your course when needed, and maintain balance across the key areas of your life.
Checking your bearings is like pausing to confirm your direction and making adjustments when needed.
Why check your bearings?
Regularly evaluating your life design journey helps you stay on course and make meaningful progress. It allows you to:
👉 Assess direction and progress: Track how far you’ve come, assess whether you’re still working toward the right design goal, make timely course corrections, and define your next steps before missed opportunities turn into regrets.
👉 Stay aligned and balanced: Ensure your actions reflect your current life purpose and personal values, focus your time and energy on what truly matters, and maintain a healthy balance across key life areas such as health, work, relationships, and personal growth.
👉 Strengthen responsibility and learning: Hold yourself accountable for your choices, replace unhelpful routines with productive ones, and learn from mistakes to make better decisions.
How to check your bearings?
You can evaluate your life design journey and adjust your course in a few simple steps.
⚒️ Set your check-in schedule
Decide how often you want to evaluate your life design journey. Use monthly check-ins to track progress, adjust habits, reflect on mistakes, and set priorities for the month ahead. Use the broader half-yearly or annual evaluation to reassess your overall direction, values, and design goal. Choose specific dates and record them in your calendar for the coming year.
⚒️ Check your bearings monthly
At the end of each month, take a moment to answer the questions below. They provide a simple framework for reflection and evaluation. Record your answers so you can track your progress and see how your life design journey evolves over time.
🤔 Assess progress
Have I moved closer to my design goal this month? Am I satisfied with my progress? Am I using my time effectively? What obstacles are slowing me down, and what strategies can I use to improve my chances of success?
🤔 Life purpose and values
Do my actions and choices reflect my life purpose and personal values? Have I become more like the person I want to be? What specific steps can I take next month to move closer to that ideal?
🤔 Balance
Am I maintaining a healthy balance across key life areas such as health, work, relationships, and personal growth? What actions can I take to restore balance where needed?
🤔 Adapt to change
How well did I respond to unexpected changes or circumstances? What could help me handle change better in the future?
🤔 Unhelpful habits
Which habits, distractions, or routines are holding me back? What steps can I take to replace them with more productive ones?
🤔 Learn from mistakes
What mistakes did I make this month, and what did they teach me? How can I apply these lessons going forward?
🤔 Set priorities
Based on this evaluation, what matters most next month? What are my concrete next steps and action items?
Celebrate your achievements and acknowledge your progress. If the evaluation disappoints, be kind to yourself, focus on doing better next month, and let go of unhelpful thoughts and feelings holding you back.
⚒️ Check your bearings annually
Once a year, or every six months if you prefer, take a step back and evaluate the overall state of your life. Do this earlier if needed, especially when you sense that your life is drifting away from what you want.
👉 Prepare the evaluation
Gather the most recent versions of your life design documents, including your life purpose, personal values, life area tables, and design goal. Make sure you have copies before updating them. Collect relevant information, including monthly evaluation results, health or financial data, and major changes since your last annual review. If helpful, seek input from friends, mentors, or advisors for additional perspective.
👉 Update personal values and life purpose
If your personal values or life purpose have changed since your last annual evaluation, update them. If needed, revisit the personal values or life purpose determination process to clarify what matters most to you now.
👉 Update where you stand
Your life circumstances have likely changed since your last annual evaluation. Update how things are going in each life area, such as physical health, emotional health, work, relationships, and any additional area you choose. Revise your life area tables and rate each area on a scale from 1 to 10. Compare your scores with the previous evaluation and note what has changed.
👉 Choose a new trail to explore (if necessary)
If your current design goal no longer aligns with your life purpose, personal values, or current life circumstances, formulate and record a new design goal. Do this by choosing a new trail to explore, then plot your trail, take some trail walks, and begin forging your trail.
This completes the annual evaluation. Based on the outcome, you either continue to forge your current trail or choose a new one to explore.
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Your life design evolves as you do. Check your bearings, adjust your path when needed, and keep moving toward a life that reflects your values, purpose, and priorities.
References
Designing Your Life, by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans
