Aligning Your Inner Compass: A Guide to Purposeful Living for Polymaths
Conduct a life-audit to re-align with your 'truth' AKA your inner compass
In a world constantly urging us to do more, be more, and achieve more, finding alignment with our values, passions, and purpose can feel like navigating an intricate maze. For polymaths—individuals with diverse interests and talents—this alignment isn’t just a skill; it’s a transformative force that helps us create a life rich in meaning and impact.
Every year, whenever I find myself navigating a season of transition, feeling a bit burnt out, or sensing that I'm not fully aligned with where I want my life to be, I conduct an Inner Compass Life Audit. I started this practice around 2019 when I developed this framework, and it has since become an indispensable tool in my personal and professional life. This life audit has helped me realign with my core values, reignite my passions, and reaffirm my purpose, ensuring that I live a life that feels both meaningful and harmonious.
I love teaching the Inner Compass Life Audit to purpose-driven individuals whose work is designed to help them live out their mission or purpose in life. These individuals are committed to making a positive impact, and ensuring that every aspect of their lives aligns with their personal values and passions is crucial for their sustained motivation and effectiveness. Discovering and refining your Inner Compass not only empowers you to live more authentically but also amplifies your ability to create meaningful change in the world!
The Importance of Living in Alignment
In a society that often equates success with metrics like wealth, status, or achievements, it’s easy to lose sight of what truly matters. Yet, true success lies in authenticity—working towards goals that resonate with your inner values and passions while contributing to the world in a way that feels meaningful to you.
Alignment isn’t static. It evolves as you grow, adapt, and face new challenges. This is why regularly revisiting your Inner Compass—through practices like life audits or self-assessments—ensures you’re consciously choosing a path that aligns with your truth.
Click here to download the Inner Compass Life Audit Tool
One of the most valuable lessons I've learned is that the Inner Compass is not a one-time fix but an ongoing practice. Conscious living is a continuous journey of self-discovery and realignment. As I grow and evolve, my values, passions, and purpose may shift slightly, requiring me to revisit and adjust my Inner Compass accordingly. This dynamic approach ensures that I remain true to my authentic self, even as my circumstances and goals change over time. By committing to this process, I've been able to navigate life's complexities with clarity and intention, consistently moving towards a life that truly reflects who I am and what I stand for.
Here’s how you can start living in alignment today:
Perform a Life Audit: Regularly assess whether your actions align with your values, passions, and purpose.
Refine Your Daily Activities: Evaluate how your work and hobbies are guided by your inner compass. Adjust as needed to maintain alignment.
Prioritise Holistic Success: Shift away from rigid categories like “career” or “family.” Instead, integrate your inner compass (the intersection of your values, passions, and purpose) into all aspects of life.
The Components of Your Inner Compass
As polymaths, our diverse interests and talents can sometimes feel like competing forces. Yet, when aligned through the Inner Compass of values, passions, and purpose, they become a powerful synergy for personal and collective transformation.
The world needs more changemakers who live authentically and purposefully. By tuning into your Inner Compass, you can activate your unique power to change the world—one aligned step at a time.
Values: The Foundation of Authenticity
Your values are the guiding principles that shape your decisions and define what matters most to you. While society, culture, or upbringing may influence them, identifying and living by your unique values is key to authenticity.
Action Step:
Write down your top 10 values in order of importance.
Define what each value means to you personally.
Rate yourself (1–5) on how consistently you live in alignment with each value.
Consider how you can make changes in your life to realign with the lowest rated values
Passions: What Brings You Alive
Passions are the activities, topics, or pursuits that light you up. They energize you, bring joy, and often feel effortless or deeply fulfilling. For polymaths, passions can range widely—from storytelling to scientific exploration or artistic creation.
Journal Prompts:
What activities make you lose track of time?
What skills or talents do you enjoy using?
If you could pause time and have a week to yourself, how would you spend it?
Write down your macro passions (big-picture interests, like storytelling) and micro passions (specific expressions, like podcasting or vlogging). Assess how well these passions are integrated into your life and explore ways to engage with them more meaningfully.
Purpose: Your Why
Your purpose is your life’s overarching mission—the reason you feel you were put on this Earth. For some, this comes intuitively; for others, it requires deeper reflection. Purpose connects your passions and values to a broader vision for positive impact.
Action Step:
Write down what you believe your purpose is.
If you’re unsure, jot down dot points or themes that resonate with you.
Your purpose doesn’t have to be grandiose—it can simply be about creating meaningful connections, advancing knowledge, or fostering change within your community.
The Inner Compass: A Key to Living Authentically
The Inner Compass Life Audit has been a cornerstone of my personal growth and fulfillment. It provides a structured yet flexible framework to ensure that I live in alignment with my true self. I highly recommend this practice to anyone seeking to lead a more purpose-driven and authentic life. By regularly conducting your own Inner Compass Life Audit, you can navigate life's challenges with resilience, stay true to your values, and make a lasting impact on the world around you.
When you’re out of alignment, you might feel unfulfilled, burned out, or like something’s missing. Revisiting your values, passions, and purpose can help recalibrate your path.
A life audit is not a one-off practice, but a tool that you can come back to whenever you feel like you might not be living in alignment, going through a period of change, or when you need to make a decision. Your truth is the alignment of your values, passions, and purpose. Living consciously and in alignment with this truth is the ultimate measure of success in your life.
The world needs more changemakers who show up in a way that is authentic and purposeful! I look forward to helping YOU activate your power to change the world. I hope this tool helps you as much as it helps me!