End of Year Life Audit

As the year comes to a close, I’m inviting you to pause before setting new goals. In this episode of Modern Body, Modern Life, I guide you through a simple but powerful end-of-year life audit to help you reflect on your health, habits, mindset, and life.

We talk about how to review the past year without shame, recognize what actually worked, and release habits, stories, and responsibilities that no longer serve you—so you can move into the new year with clarity and confidence.

In This Episode, I Cover:

• How to do an end-of-year life audit
• Reflecting on health, habits, and personal growth
• Letting go of negativity, old stories, and burnout
• Creating clarity before setting new goals
• How consistency (not perfection) creates real change

I also share details about Modern Change, my 12-week group coaching program for women who want to lose weight permanently and feel stronger, healthier, and more confident.

🎧 Listen now and give yourself the gift of reflection before the new year.

Enrollment is NOW OPEN for my April Modern Change Group Program. If you are loving the podcast, click HERE get all the details of my program. It is for women who not only want to lose between 10 and 15 pounds by summer, but also want to finally do it permanently and without dieting. In my program, you will become a woman who is in control of her eating, mindset, and follow-through.

Transcript

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Bob, welcome to modern body, modern life, the podcast for women who want to feel powerful, healthy, strong and confident, inside and out at every age. On this podcast, we talk about becoming a woman who is fully in control of her eating and movement, so weight loss, strength and energy become permanent. We also talk about something bigger, becoming the woman who takes her deepest desire seriously and goes after more in every area of her life. I'm body and life coach Courtney Gray, and I believe you can get in the best shape of your life at any age, and when you do, it becomes a catalyst for everything else, your relationships, your confidence, your joy, because when you feel like you and your body, all of life gets better. Let's get started. Welcome to the podcast episode 111 end of year life audit. Now I know it's not really totally the end of the year yet, but stay with me. I love when there's only a week or two left in the year. I love starting to just mull over how the year went. So sometimes what happens? I've seen this with clients, and I used to do this as well, is all of a sudden at the end of the year, I would be like, Oh, okay, I didn't accomplish everything I wanted this year, but you know what? On to the next year? And I would all of a sudden start creating a word of the year and creating goals, and kind of not really doing an evaluation of the year prior. And I think that it is so much more powerful starting to look forward in January with new goals, new insights, new versions of ourself that we want to be. But it's more powerful to do it after you've done a year audit from the year before, and this does not take that long. So what I want to suggest you do as you listen to this podcast a because this is the week of Christmas, right? You are probably cooking and going for a quick walk, and you're probably still really busy doing all the things you're doing. And I totally get that. So don't feel like you have to stop this and write all these questions down. I would just listen to this and be mulling it over, and then come back to this podcast when you're ready, maybe after Christmas. A lot of us have a little bit more time after Christmas when you're ready to just take 10 minutes and journal and answer these questions and do a little end of the year life audit. I'm telling you, I've been doing these for a few years now, and I spend at least an hour really going through the past year and really diving into these questions, and then I start planning out my next year. And it is so fun, so empowering. And every single year, I noticed some of the things that I had planned to do I didn't get done. And I figure out why, what got in my way, but I by doing a year end of the year evaluation, I come out of it so much more proud of myself than I ever would have been, because I really sit down and take time and go, Oh my God, and I start realizing all of the things I did this year. And I think that we, especially as women, do so much, but we tend to negate it. So I think it's important for us to look back and go, I'm kind of amazing. So that's what I want this to be for you. So feel free not to write any of this down, and just listen to it while you go on your walk, or take your dog for a walk, or or while you're cooking, or whatever you're doing on the peloton, whatever, and and just mull it over and start to actually kind of think. And then when you're ready, have a sit down and answer these questions. And now, before I dive into all of that, I want to let you know modern change, my 12 week group coaching program for women who want to lose between 10 to 15 pounds permanently is officially open for enrollment. Now listen, we don't even start until January 21 but space is limited in this group. I'm going to keep this group small so enrollment is open. So if you head to modern body, modern life, there is in work with me, modern body, modern life, slash work with me, you will see all the information, all of the dates, all of everything you get that comes with this group. And there's testimonials, and there's just an example of everything I'm going to be teaching and what to expect in every capacity. This basically is for women who have been loving this podcast and who know they really want to take everything they're learning and actually implement it. It's one, one thing to consume and listen and go, Oh, I'm going to, I'm going to do that. And yes, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to take that into consideration. And it's a whole nother thing, being able to work with me for 12 weeks. And so this program is for women who want to learn how to eat better, permanently, not perfectly, but be more consistent. Oftentimes, women also want to learn how to drink a little bit less consistently. Women want to talk to themselves better. I teach in this program how to learn and how to manage your mind in all of the ways I talk about on this podcast. Because when we can manage our mind, then we aren't turning to food, then we aren't giving excuses to not move our body and get stronger. Right? We know how to manage our emotions so that we don't have to have. That negatively affect our life. It is for women who want to up level their emotional intelligence so they don't turn to food and really become your healthiest self. You've heard me talk a lot about this program. It used to be the modern body, Modern Life program, and I've just changed the name to modern change because I just think it's a little bit more clear and a little bit more powerful. And so yes, head to modern body, modern life.com. If you want to get all the details and enroll, I would love to have you. We start January 21 Okay, so I know it is the week of Christmas. Merry Christmas. My hope for you is that you are taking some time by yourself, taking some time to listen to your favorite podcast, taking some time to read, watch a holiday movie, go for a walk with a friend, cooking your favorite foods, doing all of those things. And my hope is that you will listen to this podcast and really start to reflect on this year, because it's almost over. And so here is my suggestion again. I told you this in the beginning. My suggestion is you listen if you're really busy, right? Really busy right now, just listen, mull all these questions over, start to consider them, and then come back and actually do a journaling session and write these questions down. There is so much research that supports that. When you really, really, really want to learn something, you not only listen to it, but you talk about it with a friend, and you also write it down. So when you do all these different like modalities or these different ways of consuming and explaining and learning, it really gets in your head even more. And I also suggest sharing this podcast with a friend, and then you and your friend can maybe go for cocktails or maybe go for a walk and answer these questions together and talk about how you did this year before you start moving on to next year and planning for next year, how you feel about the way you lived, your body and life in 2025 My hope is that you will begin to reflect on all of the things you accomplished. Your brain will go to all of the things that you didn't accomplish. We have a nasty, negativity biased brain, but I want you to force it to go to the positive. And let's talk about why. Forcing it to the positive matters. We have to mine meaning like, go in and really search our brain for the positive, because our brain just wants to keep us safe, and that is why it is always scanning for negative that's why there's a thing called negativity bias. It's just how we were programmed. Even someone like me, I consider myself an extremely positive person, I have a negativity bias. So we need to really go, Hey, what went well? And maybe a lot of your list is all the things that you did well for other people. That's amazing. You're a lovely human being, but maybe that's going to teach you. At the end of doing this work, at the end of doing this life audit, maybe that's going to teach you. I'm so glad that I was there for all these other people, and maybe this year. Now, I really want to turn a lot of that to myself, on really reaching my own goals, taking care of myself. So let's dive into these questions. First one, what are the most important lessons I've learned in 2025 so what are the most important lessons? So you can tell this is going to take a moment for you to come up with this lesson. This lesson, it's going to take some thinking, Okay, what did I learn? And so for me, when I answer this question, I'm going to answer this question in some of these questions for you, just so you can kind of hear my answers, and maybe it will kind of inspire you to come up with your own answers. For me, when I think of my most important lessons I learned in 2025 it really was to trust myself. And what I mean by that is is I am. I love to learn about everything. I love to learn on how to eat healthy. I love to learn on how to move my body, how to gain strength. I love to learn how to make money, how to work on my mindset, how to meditate, how to how to connect with my grown children. So I'm always learning, but sometimes I can be a little bit of a rule follower historically, and sometimes I can get caught up in doing it right, quote, unquote, the right way. And what I really learned this year, and I really proved to myself this year, is that I'm going to consume all of the information that the world has to offer, especially the people that I really like, but I am then going to make my own decision for myself. I'm going to trust that I know best for me. And one of the ways this has helped me this year is it's helped me help my clients. Sometimes my clients will say, Courtney, what do you think about this? Should I eat this? Or should I eat that? Or should I do this, or should I do that? And I'll say, well, here are my thoughts. But what do you think? Because I'm not an expert, no one really is an expert. I know there's a lot of people that say I'm a selling expert. I am a nutrition expert. You know your body, you know your life, you know your business, your money, your kids, better than anyone. And so by me really realizing that. I need to trust myself. I'm really encouraging my clients to trust themselves, and they hear me saying this over, and I really believe it is empowering to them. I'll say, here is what I know. And if you're not sure, try out what I'm saying, because I really believe in it. But in the end, you have to trust yourself. You have to go with your instinct, connect to your god or your spirituality or your future self or your soul, to decide what is best for you. And then it's an experiment, and then you can trust yourself to say, Hey, maybe I was wrong. Maybe I'll try something else. So what are the most important lessons you've learned in 2025 answer that question for yourself. Next question, where did I stumble and how did those experiences teach me when I look back on 2025 one of the goals I set for myself was to really up level this podcast. Now I have up level this podcast in many ways. I spending more time creating content for you, I spend more time researching before I even create a podcast. I spend more time coming up with the different subjects I'm going to talk about on the podcast. But one of the things I was going to do was really try to get on other people's podcast as a guest, and for a lot of the year, for the first six months, even though that was my intention. I did not do it. Other things got in the way. Now I'm not shaming myself. I'm just recognizing, oh, Courtney, you said you were going to make it a priority to get on other people's podcasts this whole year, and you didn't do that really, really kind of until the fourth quarter, is when you started doing that, and here's where I go into why not from a place of shame, but from a place of curiosity. So let me tell you, these are the questions I'm asking myself. Did I just drop the ball? Was I focused on something else I decided was more important? Did my personal life get in the way? And so I now need to go and do that work, and I need to mine my brain for what happened. But let me keep reiterating, you can't do this from a place of shame. You can't come out of it feeling like, Oh, I see what happened there. Now here's how I'm going to do better when you're shaming, shitting on yourself. And so none of this, even when we dive into the negative, we need to trust ourselves that we're not going to shit on ourselves, especially since I don't know about you, I used to shit on myself a lot, and when we shame and shit on ourselves, then we don't want to do this work. I have no problem saying, hey, Courtney, what was one of the things you really dropped the ball on this year with your kids? What's one of the things you really dropped the ball on with your fitness, what I can easily do those because I know I'm not going to shame and get mad at myself about it. I know I'm not going to talk badly to myself about it. So it's to me now is the work to get curious like, Oh, what happened? And I'm going to come up with what I think happened and not let that happen again, as long as that is still one of my goals, and it is. And so for me, it's very interesting when I all of a sudden, I'm reflecting and I'm like, Hey, what happened? Like, why did I not do what I really wanted to do? Do I still think that that's a priority. It is okay. How can we be better next year? Where did you stumble and how did those experiences teach you? Next question, what successes in 2025 stand out the most. I love thinking about what successes we had. I would encourage you to make a list of all your successes from the past year, and then which ones stand out the most every year. When I do this, I am surprised and delighted that there are things that I did that until I sat down and wrote this out and actually sat and go, Okay, Courtney, let me think. Let me think. Let me think. I forget that I did. One of the things I did this year is I really helped my husband start a new career path, and I helped by coaching him and by teaching him how to do the basics of a lot of things that I've known how to do for a long time. My husband has never been an entrepreneur, and so that is a big success for me, that I was able to support him in that way by saying, Here's how to create something on Canva, here's how to create an email sequence, here's how to do this or that in zoom, and all these different things, I was able to really help that's a huge success, personal success for me. So I would really come up with a list of which successes and which stand out the most as being important. And they're not all going to be about your body. They're not all going to be about personal it could be in every area of your life. One of my biggest successes in 2025 is really starting to get stronger. I was able to really up my weight, the amount of weight that I'm lifting now. Would have blown my mind. If you would have told me last January that I was going to be hip thrusting 170 pounds, I would have been like, that's not possible. I will break my back. So that isn't one that really stands out to me. Next question, what results from the. Year fill you with pride. Such a great question. What results fill you with pride? And again, this is the perfect question to to back up the successes from the year before. And how else do you feel about those successes? Pride? Are you excited? Does it make you believe harder that bigger things are possible for you? What did those successes teach you? Here's another really powerful question, Where was I consistent when it comes to my health, and what difference did that make? So often at the end of the year, we start telling ourselves we got to get our shit together, we have to do this. We have to do this. No more messing around, no a lot of that kind of negative talk into the positive year. But what I want you to do is say, Okay, where was I actually consistent this year when it comes to my health, and even if it's something little like, Did you drink more water? Did you start a stretching program? Did you start waking up and having a better wake up routine? Did you have a better like getting to bed routine. Have you been listening to this podcast consistently? That might be it for you. And did it make a difference? If yes, amazing. Recognize where you did well, because that is where we can build on. Not only say, Where was I consistent, but what difference did it make? So often we negate not only what we've done, but the difference it makes to our life. I'll tell you one thing that I started doing this year, I think it was either at the end of last year or this year, is I started taping my mouth shut at night. If you've heard about this, it's a very common thing. I had my dentist, Orthodontist, and I forget the other what the name of what kind of dentist she is, Paleo. I forget what it's called. I had three different friends who were or in the dental community, tell me that I need to start taping my mouth shut. I've had a lot of gum replacement surgeries, and they're like, you're a mouth breather, and because of that, it's receding your gums. And so I'm like, Okay, so I'm going to do this. And at first it was really hard for me, but now, now I have a hard time even sleeping without the mouth tape. So when I tape my mouth shut, I sleep so much better, and it has really opened up my sinuses. I'm breathing through my nose better. In fact, I keep telling my son, my son does not I don't know if he has a deviated septum or what's going on with him, but he says the only but he says the only time he can really breathe is when he's wrestling, because then he is sweating and deep breathing and all that he can breathe through his nose. But after he stops wrestling his nose like he just can't breathe. Well, I'm like, You need to tape your mouth shut at night. It just, it just helps. There's a lot of there's there's a few books about it. Actually, there's a lot of research backed by the fact that we human beings were not meant to be breathing through our mouths as much as we are. Isn't that interesting? So that's one thing that I'm really glad I did for my health. So I could easily say, oh yeah. One thing I did consistently is I started taping my mouth. But I take it to a different level when I said, say, What difference does that make? Oh, well, now I'm breathing better during the day? Oh, well, I'm actually sleeping better at night. I feel like I get better. I get deeper sleep. So really figuring out the difference it make is all the difference. Okay, next one. What grudges, frustrations and disappointments? Are you ready to release any kind of negativity? It could be grudges, frustrations, disappointments, but any negativity at all that you're ready to release. I'm really trying to focus more and more on my judgments. You know, I think we all judge, you know, people, we all have this saying it's like, oh, you know, I'm not trying to judge. We all judge. It's, I think it's part of being human. I'm really trying to judge less. So what I'm doing is I'm noticing when I am judging and I'm being like, oh, Courtney, there you go again. You're being judgmental. Does that feel good? No, Courtney, it does not feel good. What do I want to think on purpose? And so I'm really, like, really I want to release that. I really want to more and more release, like, letting everyone do what they want to do, even if they disagree with me, even if I disagree with them, and just loving on all the people. So what grudges, frustrations and disappointments? Are you ready to release? Here's the interesting thing about grudges, frustrations and disappointments, we are hurting ourself with all of those. When we're holding grudges, when we're feeling frustrated, when we're feeling disappointed, it's affecting us more than anyone else. So let's just love and love and light, love and light and release. Okay, next one. Which stories Am I prepared to let go of this year? I haven't done this one yet, but I'm really excited to spend some time thinking about what stories did not serve me this year, and which ones Am I ready to let go of? I'll tell you a lot of stories that are very common with the women I work with. Their stories around their inability at the age they're at, or at the stage of life they're at to really get in the health that they want to be in. There's a story that, for whatever reason, it's not possible I'm too old, or I'm too far gone, or I'm just not the type of person that is consistent, or, you know, there's no possible way I could get into my best health I don't have time. So those are very common stories that I hear from a lot of my clients. And it is possible that you want to let go of that story, but really diagnose which stories you're already telling yourself, and how are they affecting you. If you're thinking, I don't have time to get stronger, that that cannot be true. That cannot be true. Do you want to let go of that story, and what is the different story you want to tell is that you do have time. That's a pretty easy one. We can literally flip flop that one, but like that you do have time, or you can create time, or you can make time, or maybe you don't even need as much time as you're thinking. So what stories are you prepared to let go this year? What habits are impacting your health in a negative way, and then what habits are impacting your health in a positive way? And really take time to think about it, which habits are impacting first in a negative way? When I think back over 2025 I immediately came up with my phone. Now I've gotten better on my phone. I think I told you a few weeks ago, I read a book that talks about, I think the name of the book was breaking up with my phone or breaking up with your phone. Great book, and I have definitely gotten better. I haven't officially broken up. I kind of hook up with my phone on the side. My phone's kind of like my secret boyfriend. But I've gotten so much better. But I know that that habit of kind of going to my phone. It's always, usually when I'm bored, and I'll just go and I'll just check my email, and then I'll check Instagram and I'll check Pinterest. It's just not serving my life. And some people might say, Well, is it really that big a deal for me? It really is that big a deal, because I would rather be bored and sit there for a moment and be bored and come up with something else to do with my life, even, even at the very least, if it's reading a book, meditating, going for a walk, going over and scratching my husband's back for God's sake, anything is better than being on my phone. So that is a habit that is negatively impacting my health, my mental health, for sure. And so that is one thing that I am going to continue to get better and better and better at. So and then, what habit is impacting your health in a positive way? Can we double down on that? Can we habit stack onto that? I've talked about habit stacking before. I think the first time I ever heard about habit stacking was in the book atomic habits. I think he talks about this. I don't know if he calls it habit stacking, but the it's the same thing. It's basically, if you already have a good habit, how can you add other habits onto it? Like for many people, they brush their teeth, but maybe they're not flossers. And I was telling my twins this the other day. I was like, Guys, if you brush your teeth every day automatically, that's your habit. So put out your floss right next to your toothbrush. And then automatically just go, I'm going to floss really quick and stack that habit on top of your other already good habit. It just makes it easier to do them both at the same time to get in that good habit. Okay, last one, what responsibilities Can I relinquish to create space for more joy in my life, ladies, we are just fucking doing too much. We just, are we? I just, there's not too many women that I that I think can disagree with this. We are doing too much. So what responsibilities Can you relinquish to create space for more joy in my life? This doesn't mean do less for other people. This doesn't In fact, you know what I should change is, what responsibilities Can I relinquish? Maybe it's what responsibilities or habits can I relinquish to create space for more joy in my life. Because for some people, it's it's responsibilities that they need to let go of. They need to stop saying yes when they really want to say no. But for a lot of people, maybe it's just the habit of like Tiktok or Instagram. Maybe you need to relinquish that to create more space for joy in your life. Maybe you want to watch a few hours of TV less a week and create true joy in your life. Again. There's nothing wrong with Tiktok, there's nothing wrong with Instagram, there's nothing wrong with TV, but not at the expense of living a joyful, amazing life in your body, body and life. So if you feel like you don't necessarily have time, which so many women tell me they don't have enough time, what responsibilities can we relinquish? What habits can we relinquish to create more time for you to do you? That's a big one. That might be, oh, that might be one of the best ones. Next week, I'm doing a podcast on what is possible in 2026 it's going to be kind of almost the second part, or. To this one, but I really want you to do this work first, so feel free to listen to both. And then when you feel like you have time, maybe right after the first of the year, I would love to invite you to come back and really take an hour and journal these out. I promise you, you will get so much clarity with what really needs to change by starting with a life audit of the last year. I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful, magical Christmas. I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful, magical, whatever holiday you are celebrating, and have a great Tuesday for information on how we can work together. Head to modern body, modern life.com. To schedule a consultation with me. I'm currently coaching women privately, and I offer group coaching programs do.