Have you heard of a life edit?
One of my very favorite podcasters (and all around amazing business woman) Lauryn Bosstick shared on a recent podcast how she is constantly “editing and refining her life” and that term stuck with me.
Edit and refine.
The new year is a perfect time to apply a life edit to give you more clarity, become more efficient, and help you reach you reach your goals. Long story short: trying to do little “mini” life edits myself helped me so much, I turned it into a yearly tradition. An annual life edit helps me create clarity and carve out space to attract what I really want, and I thought I’d share the practice with you if you’re interested in trying it out! Take a peek below–the results are worth it!
What is a life edit?
As a key step in cultivating your dream life, a thorough edit is intended to help you see every part of your life in its current state. The idea is to carve out time to take a deep dive into all aspects of your life: digital, home, finance, wellness, family, health, mental health, hobbies, and social life. By taking this intentional step, you’re giving yourself permission and opportunity to spend significant time sifting through the “clutter” and clearing space for what you want to create.
For me, a life edit was the missing piece that helped me truly take the proverbial reins of my life. While I knew that cultivating my “dream life” was about turning my thoughts into reality, the reality I wanted didn’t simply magically appear by me wishing for it. Instead, I had to intentionally align to it. Essentially, I had to learn to shift my actions, beliefs, and habits to support the life I wanted for myself and my little family.
But of course, I couldn’t change what I not focusing on yet right? And that, is where a life edit can be life changing.
I’ve tried to think of a life edit as a re-evaluation–it’s an opportunity to take stock, inventory and get a pulse on where your life is right now. The best way to clean your “space” is to (painstakingly) pull everything out and only put back what you really want. That’s exactly what we’re doing with a life edit, but it isn’t just physical stuff like the out of date Uggs in your closet. By slowing down and truly observing our lives, we can see what to let go of and what we ultimately want to incorporate in–bringing the space between our dream life and current reality so much closer. Here are the six areas to focus on, plus tips and tricks I’ve found to help you get the most from your life edit.
How to do a life edit
Step 1: Reflect
While I’m normally one to jump and figure out how to fly on the way down, I’m trying to break that habit by taking intentional pauses. So, while a life edit sounds exciting (spoiler: it is), the best way to ensure you get what you need is to get quiet and spend some time with your journal or a spiral bound notebook. Not a big fan of journaling? I like to think of it this way: Putting our thoughts into words gives them permanency that keeping beliefs in our heads can’t. It’s a bit like creating a solid roadmap for yourself, it’s one of the best ways to find some much-needed clarity.
In your journal, create six different sections where you can reflect on the following different areas of your life: Digital, home, financial, wellness, mental health, and social life. Next, respond to the following questions for each area:
- What do I want more of in this area of my life?
- What feels overwhelming?
- Do I feel any blocks keeping me from achieving my goals?
- What do I want to introduce more of?
- What can I release?
- How would it look to feel a greater sense of peace?
Step 2: Accept that this might be hard
Before jumping in, I want you to know that this part of your life edit can take a while. In fact, I would almost say to expect that it will take a while. There’s no set timeline, but you want to be sure not to rush the process. Be patient and give yourself grace. We often don’t give ourselves enough credit for how challenging it can be to let go of certain objects we’ve collected over the years (clutter) or say goodbye to relationships that no longer serve us(so hard). And coming face to face with the reality of our financial portfolio can be hard to look at in the mirror–I speak from experience on this one, it can be BRUTAL.
Initially, these truths kept me from acting on what I’d written in my journal. I wanted to remove certain toxic relatives from my life but thinking about how that could impact my parents brought on a whole bucket of doubt. And while I no longer wanted to feel obligated to pour effort into a relationship that was truly toxic, my people pleasing tendencies kept me from standing up for myself. But you wouldn’t have read this far down if you didn’t want to change something in your life right? You wouldn’t still be here if you didn’t have a little nudge from your intuition that something needs to go? Ultimately, the best thing you can do is move forward.
It will be difficult and uncomfortable, but nothing is more challenging than staying stuck.
Step 3: Do the darn thing
Once you’ve spent time reflecting and jotting down ideas, identify the area of your life you want to focus on first. (Pro tip: I started with the area that felt like it would be the easiest and built momentum from there.) With your journal responses as a guide, take the time to sort through everything that relates to this part of your life. So for example, I started with my digital life first. I focused on my devices and online presence. I deleted old texts, refreshed my contacts, and cleared my inbox. I went in and unsubscribed from emails (holy cow what a relief!) that I no longer needed. I set parameters for my social media apps and edited the accounts I was following. I made a point to be very strategic in removing any accounts that weren’t aligned with my goals, values, and “vision” for my life. Think of any accounts that only look for “shock” value or are only posting content that is intended to get a rise out of people–those are the accounts I removed. I also was intentional with finding new accounts to follow–mamas that were parents of disabled kiddos like me, mamas with similar body types to my own, accounts that promote a more healthy way of living, cute accounts that post animal videos, and inspiring home decor accounts.
Another thing that was fun for me was ruthlessly cleaning out our home. We plan to build our “retirement” home on the ranch in a few years and we want to be thoughtful about what we bring with us. It gave me the opportunity to separate our things into keep, donate, and trash piles. I picked one room at a time so I didn’t get overwhelmed and literally went drawer by drawer and closet by closet. Was that hard? Heck yes. My family didn’t have a lot of money growing up so I have some deeply rooted fears about throwing things away or feeling like I “wasted” money because I threw away something that didn’t our family anymore. A lot of those feelings came back up to the surface and I had to work through them as I decluttered.
Remember: No life edit looks the same. Yours will look very different than mine. This can be a deeply personal and sometimes emotional process that might make you feel stressed and stretched in certain areas where others will feel completely zen. That’s totally fine! One thing I do think most people find consistent across their life edits? You feel more aligned and confident about where you’re giving your focus, attention, and energy as you step into this next season of life.
I finished. Now what?
While I like to do a life edit on a yearly basis, there’s nothing stopping you from doing one as often as you’d like. Maybe it’s trying a mini one once a month or maybe it’s once a quarter. I’ve also see people doing them with the changing seasons–do what works best for you! The purpose is to become aware when you’re feeling overwhelmed and to lean into a life edit to bring you greater clarity. Edit and refine! And yes, it feels amazing to make your way through the process. However, it’s important to remember that it’s an ongoing journey. Life is constantly changing–ebbing and flowing. What works for you now might not work for you next year so it’s important to think of a life edit as a perennial practice.
With each update and refinement, you can trust you have what you need to create the life that you want.
Happy editing friends!
