The Life Audit Cover Reveal!

My baby’s growing up

Ximena Vengoechea
4 min readMay 17, 2024

Nearly ten years ago to the day, I wrote a little post on Medium titled, “How and Why to do a Life Audit.” For the uninitiated, the Life Audit is an exercise I created to help you figure out how to spend your one, true, beautiful life. I originally created it when I was in my mid-twenties, just barely past my quarter-life crisis and beginning to settle into what I hoped would be the beginning of a long and fruitful career. At the time, I was feeling overwhelmed with all the things I could be doing with my life (time really is expansive when you’re young), and daunted by where to start.

So, in true user research fashion, I decided to “study” myself. The Life Audit is a method I created to do just that. It’s an exercise in self-reflection that helps you clear the cobwebs of noisy, external goals and current distractions, and revisit or uncover the real themes & core values that drive & inspire you.

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A decade later, it’s an exercise I still turn to when I am at a crossroads, unsure of what to do next, or when I have too many ideas and am uncertain about how to start. I revisit it most New Years to help me tune into my hopes and needs for the year to come, and whenever I feel a shift inside me that calls for new clarity and new beginnings.

Sneak Peek: New art from the book!

Over the past ten years, I’ve heard from many readers who have also benefited from the Life Audit in matters of career, romantic relationships, and personal growth. They’ve shared how their lives, ambitions, and perspectives have changed through their personal life audit. Some have changed jobs, others have moved cross-country, gotten divorced, or started a family. However different their personal transformations may be, they have all gained the courage to ask for and pursue what they really want in life.

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Since writing the original blog post a decade ago, many readers have asked for a Life Audit book to keep on their shelf and return to whenever they need clarity, perspective, and deeper intuition about what comes next. Today I’m thrilled to share the cover for this beautiful book, which is now available for preorder and will hit shelves in October. For signed copies, be sure to order from Community Bookstore. It’s truly a dream come true to get to share this with all of you.

What’s new in The Life Audit book?

The Life Audit book includes the life audit exercises you know and love plus a brand new action-planning section to help you turn your wishes into action. You’ll learn how to uncover your deepest desires, as well as determine which goals to pursue when, and identify the resources and help you may need to see those goals through.

It’s also beautiful. It’s got four-color illustrations, which is just a fancy way of saying that I used all the colors of the rainbow for this one, and it’s really stunning. I had SO much fun putting together the color palette and pushing myself to experiment more with my illustrations, and I am really proud of how it turned out. It’s vibrant, exciting, and joyful — like all the hopes and dreams you have within you. It might just be my best book yet.

You can preorder The Life Audit book here, grab a signed copy here, or support your local indie. A preorder in advance of publication is a massive vote of confidence that not only makes me happy, but also allows me to keep writing books. It’s preorders that help get books like mine on shelves in bookstores and libraries near you, and help prove an author’s track record. So, if you think you’ll enjoy the book (and I hope you do), please consider preordering in advance.

In gratitude,Ximena

💌 Thanks as always for reading along and supporting my work. If you like what you see, hit the heart button, drop a comment, or share this with someone you think will love it, too. You can order my books or book me for a speaking event here. 💌

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Ximena Vengoechea

Writer, UX Researcher, Author of The Life Audit ('24), Rest Easy ('23), Listen Like You Mean It ('21). ximenavengoechea.com/books