How to Do a Fall Life Audit: Body-Based Goal Setting Framework

What is dead and draining your resources right now?

I asked myself this question recently, and the answer stopped me in my tracks. So I grabbed my journal, and what emerged was an entire framework for how to prepare for your next chapter when you're feeling stuck, drained, or like you're just going through the motions.

If you're in that space too, feeling like you're in a season of pruning and taking inventory, this post is for you.

Understanding Life Seasons

I've started thinking about life in seasons, and I don't mean that in a cliché way. I mean literally understanding that we move through cycles:

• We rest

• We recover

• We get new ideas and explore new ways of doing things

• Then we start living it out

Right now, in the middle of fall, we're in what I call the "prune and take inventory season." It's when you look at what's not working, what's taking up space, and what needs to be cut back so that when winter comes and you're resting, and then spring comes and new things start to emerge, you're actually ready.

But here's what I've learned: before the joy can start to come out on its own, we need a season of rest.

The 3 Areas Framework

The first step in my fall life audit is asking: What are my 3 main areas of focus right now?

Not 10 things. Not every single thing in your life. Just 3.

For me, it looked like this:

1. Business & YouTube - My work, my content, living on purpose

2. Fitness - Losing 20 pounds, getting healthier

3. Focus & Presence - Being present, regulated, and aligned in my daily life

Your areas might be completely different. Maybe it's relationships, finances, health, spirituality, or career. Whatever it is, just pick 3.

Because when you try to focus on everything, you focus on nothing.

The "What Gets in the Way" Exercise

Now here's where it gets real. For each of your 3 areas, ask yourself:

"What gets in the way of these things?"

Be brutally honest. What are the actual obstacles?

When I did this for my business, I uncovered something uncomfortable:

Business obstacles:

• My current job (I'm absent from clients)

• Not having anything ready to sell

• Not knowing what I want to sell

• What do I have to offer?

That last one? That's the real obstacle. That's the belief underneath everything else.

For fitness, I wrote:

• Not prioritizing myself

• The feeling I need to keep pushing in my business

• Taking ownership of living the life I have now

• Rejecting my current circumstance keeps me from being with myself now

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And here's what I realized: I'm so busy rejecting where I am that I can't actually move forward.

If I want to lose 20 pounds, I need to accept and embrace my current circumstance as it is. Not shame myself. Not resist it. Just be here.

Whatever your goal is, the thing getting in your way isn't usually the logistics. It's a belief. It's resistance. It's some story you're telling yourself about why you can't or shouldn't or aren't enough.

Finding Your Common Belief

After doing this exercise for all 3 of my areas, I noticed a pattern. A belief that was showing up in ALL of them:

"I need to reject the life in front of me in order to make space for the life I want."

That's been my operating system. And it's kept me stuck.

Because when you're constantly in rejection mode, rejecting your body, your circumstances, your current business, your relationships: you can't actually be present enough to build something new.

This makes sense for me because I often used distraction and daydreaming as a coping tool growing up.

What's your common belief? What's the thread running through your obstacles?

The P3R Framework for Body-Based Goal Setting

Once you know what's in the way, you need a framework for moving forward. This is where body-based goal setting comes in—and it's the foundation of what I call the P3R Framework.

Traditional goal setting works from the neck up. We make lists, set deadlines, and hope willpower carries us through. But if your nervous system is dysregulated, if you're operating from a place of resistance and shame and lack—nothing sticks.

Body-based goal setting is different. We define our goals through how we want to FEEL, what sensations we want in our body, and what emotional state we want to live from.

Here's how the P3R Framework works:

1. PREVENTION: Prime Yourself for the Desired State

This is about defining what your desired place actually looks like. Not just "I want to be present"—but what does that FEEL like? What does your day look like?

Ask yourself:

• What do I feel like? (sensations)

• What do I think like?

• What are my emotions?

• What does my day look like?

• What are my relationships like?

Then create a 10-15 minute daily visualization based on this. Make it real in your body first.

2. RECOGNITION: Know When You've Left It

This is your early warning system. You need to know:

• When did I come out of this desired place?

• What triggered it?

• What's the STEW? (Sensations, Thoughts, Emotions, What do I need?)

For me, I recognized I left my desired headspace when my baby cried before I finished journaling.

Sensations: Hurried, tense gut, scrunched faceThoughts: "Me-time is very limited. Everyone steals from me. Lack, lack, lack."Emotions: Restricted, sad, desperate, emotional

That's my recognition signal. When I feel that way, I know I've left my desired place.

3. REGULATION: Tools to Reconcile Resistance

This is your toolkit for getting back to center. Things like:

• IFS (Internal Family Systems)

• Meditation

• Inner conflict work

• Addressing a limiting belief

For me, the core issue was: Frustration that I can't do what matters AND be a good mom.

So my regulation practice is addressing that belief directly.

4. REWIRE: One Aligned Action

This is where it all comes together. One practice. One habit that rewires the old pattern.

Mine is: 2 times per day, set a timer for 5 minutes. For those 5 minutes, the goal is to be present together with my son. No agenda, no to-do list. And I say this affirmation: "I can have you and have me too."

Because that's what I need to rewire. The belief that I have to choose. That I'm abandoning myself when I'm with him, or abandoning him when I'm with me.

I can have both. I can have him and have me too.

Your Fall Life Audit Action Steps

Here's how to implement this framework:

1. Identify your 3 main focus areas - Where do you want to grow?

2. Name what gets in the way - The real obstacles, not just surface stuff

3. Find your common belief - The thread running through everything

4. Apply the P3R Framework:

   • Prevention: How will you prime yourself?

   • Recognition: How will you catch yourself?

   • Regulation: What tools will help you reconcile resistance?

   • Rewire: What's one aligned action you can take?

     
     

You don't have to do all 3 areas today. Just pick the one that feels most alive, most urgent, most ready for change.

This is fall life audit work. This is how you prepare for your next season.

And I'm doing this right alongside you. I'm in the prune and take inventory season too. I'm looking at what needs to go, what needs attention, what needs to change.

Because before the joy can start to come out on its own, we need this season of rest and reflection.

The Truth About Seasons

Here's what I know: you're not stuck forever. This is just a season. And seasons change.

But they change a lot more intentionally when we do this kind of work.

So grab your journal. Work through these questions. Find your common belief. And then create one practice (just one)that helps you rewire it.

Because feel-good goal setting isn't about forcing change. It's about aligning with yourself so deeply that change becomes natural.