The Life Audit Before Goals
You cannot get directions without a starting point — rank every category, then move it two points
- Difficulty
- Starter
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 93%
Robbins' correction to the standard New Year goal-setting ritual. Everyone sits down and writes the destination without ever establishing where they currently are, which she calls mathematically impossible — you cannot give directions without a starting point. Instead, take a blank piece of paper, list the categories of your life, rank each one honestly, and explain why. The goal then becomes simply moving a number two or three points higher, which immediately changes your direction. She pairs it with the concept of a temporal landmark: dates like January 1, birthdays and quarter starts create a before-and-after that makes change stick.
Origin
Robbins built it around what she sees everyone miss at New Year, when temporal landmarks like January 1 drive people to write goal lists with no assessment of their starting position.
Core principles
- 01Assessment precedes goal-setting; without a starting point directions are meaningless.
- 02Temporal landmarks — January 1, birthdays, quarters, a 30th — create a before and an after that people use to change.
- 03There is no correct number of life categories; five or ten both work.
- 04A good goal is a two-or-three-point move on an existing number, not a fantasy destination.
- 05Goals and dreams are different objects: goals are the next couple of steps on a map, dreams are the distant beacon.
How to run it
- 1
Use the temporal landmark
Anchor the audit to a moment of significance — January 1, a birthday, the start of a quarter or month — because these create a psychological before and after.
Pro tip It's why gyms fill on the first of the month, beyond the pricing incentive.
- 2
List your life categories on blank paper
Write out the categories of your life — relationships, money, health, happiness, or any set you choose. There is no formula and no fixed number.
- 3
Rank each one and explain why
Score every category on a scale of your choosing, one to ten or one to five, and write down the reason for each score.
Pro tip The explanation matters more than the number — it names what is actually wrong.
- 4
Set the two-point goal
For each category ask what a score two or three points higher would look like, and what you could work towards to get there.
Pro tip 'If my health is a two what would a five look like and can I work towards that.'
- 5
Aim the dream separately
Distinct from the goals, get quiet and aim the inner compass five or ten years out to name where you actually want to go.
Pro tip The dream's job is to get your head out of the sand and point you in a different direction — you don't have to reach it.
Watch out Don't collapse dreams into goals; treating a distant beacon as a next step guarantees failure.
In the wild
You rank health a two, then ask what a five would look like rather than picturing a ten you have no route to.
→ The direction changes immediately because you have a starting point and a reachable adjacent target.
More people join a gym on the first of the month than any other day, and Robbins argues pricing incentives are only part of it.
→ The date functions as a temporal landmark, giving people a clean before-and-after to hang change on.
Common mistakes
Writing goals without an audit
Picking your head up and saying 'I want to go there' without asking 'where am I right now' is the step Robbins says everybody misses.
Setting the goal too far out
Goals are the next couple of steps on a map; treating a ten-year dream as this year's goal produces no direction change.
Is it for you?
Best for
Anyone doing New Year, birthday or quarterly planning who wants goals that actually redirect them.
Not ideal for
People in acute crisis who need immediate stabilisation rather than a reflective planning exercise.
From the transcript
“January 1 is what's called a temporal landmark”
“the most important part of setting goals for yourself I believe is first understanding where you are”
“it's mathematically impossible to give somebody a set of directions unless we know you're starting point and where you want to go”
“a really good goal is to Simply say to yourself how do I make this number two or three points higher”
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