The Face the Truth Audit
Confront reality gaps between your current life and your potential
The Face the Truth Audit is a structured self-assessment process designed to break through denial and avoidance by systematically examining how you actually invest your energy versus how you believe you do. The process uses a combination of objective measurement, multi-source feedback, and guided self-reflection to surface uncomfortable truths that are prerequisites for meaningful change.
The audit works because most people operate with significant blind spots about their own behavior. They tell themselves stories about who they are that diverge substantially from how others actually experience them. By gathering concrete data from physical assessments, peer feedback, and honest self-evaluation, the audit creates an undeniable picture of current reality.
Importantly, the audit is not designed to generate shame or self-criticism. Its purpose is to establish a clear baseline from which to build. The discomfort of facing truth is reframed as productive energy, the necessary precursor to every meaningful improvement. Without accurate self-knowledge, all change efforts are built on a foundation of delusion.
- Self-deception is the single greatest barrier to sustained positive change
- Truth-telling requires both courage and a supportive framework to be productive rather than destructive
- Objective data and external feedback are essential because self-assessment alone is unreliable
- Facing uncomfortable truths generates the discomfort necessary to fuel genuine motivation for change
- Avoidance of truth in one domain typically indicates avoidance across multiple domains
- Gather Objective Physical DataGet a comprehensive physical assessment including body composition, cardiovascular fitness, blood pressure, cholesterol, and other health markers. Do not rely on how you think you feel or memories of past fitness. Objective numbers cut through self-deception about physical condition.Pro tipMany people are shocked by the gap between their perceived fitness and their measured fitness. This shock is valuable data.
- Collect Multi-Source Behavioral FeedbackAsk five to ten people across different life domains, including colleagues, direct reports, family members, and friends, to honestly describe your strengths and weaknesses. Use a structured questionnaire to make it easier for people to be candid. Focus on patterns that appear across multiple sources.Pro tipThe feedback that stings the most is usually the most accurate and the most important to hear.WarningBe prepared for defensiveness. Your first instinct will be to explain away negative feedback. Resist this impulse and sit with the data.
- Conduct an Energy Investment AuditTrack how you actually spend your time and energy for one week in 30-minute increments. Compare this with how you believe you spend your time and with what you say matters most. The gaps between these three pictures reveal where your stated values and actual behavior diverge.Pro tipPay special attention to how much time goes to reactive tasks like email versus proactive high-value work aligned with your purpose.
- Identify Your Performance BarriersBased on the data gathered, identify your top three to five performance barriers. For each barrier, articulate the specific energy and performance consequences. Be concrete: not just 'low energy' but 'low energy leads to poor concentration in afternoon meetings, which leads to weaker decision-making.'Pro tipPerformance barriers often cluster together with a single root cause. Low physical energy, for example, may be driving irritability, poor focus, and relationship distance simultaneously.
- Transform Discomfort into an Action PlanUse the gap between where you are and where you want to be as motivational fuel. For each performance barrier identified, design one specific ritual that directly addresses it. The audit is not complete until the truth discovered has been converted into actionable commitments.Pro tipStart with the barrier that, if addressed, would create the biggest positive ripple effect across other areas of your life.
Roger arrived at the Human Performance Institute believing he was in reasonable shape and generally treated others well. Physical testing revealed high body fat, low cardiovascular capacity, and multiple heart attack risk factors. Colleague feedback described him as critical, impatient, and short-tempered. His daughter's accusation that all he ever did was yell at her completed the picture.
At the Human Performance Institute, Loehr and Schwartz discovered that nearly every corporate client arrived with significant blind spots about their actual behavior and its impact. The formal Face the Truth process was developed because informal self-assessment consistently proved unreliable. Clients who described themselves as calm leaders were experienced as volatile by their teams. Executives who believed they were in decent shape tested poorly on basic fitness measures.
The multi-dimensional assessment approach emerged from recognizing that truth-avoidance operates across all domains simultaneously. People who deny physical deterioration also tend to deny emotional distance in relationships and declining performance at work.