Stage 4: Strategy | Resource Audit

You've built a vision. Now you know what pulls you forward and here comes the important question: do you have the resources to actually move toward it?

This exercise is about your inventory: time, money, energy, skills, relationships, and the knowledge you have right now. Before you design experiments or set goals, you need a clear picture of your starting position, because without it, you're just guessing. And guessing goes two ways: some people overestimate what they have. They quit their job on Monday, launch a business on Tuesday, and burn through savings by summer; Others sit on more than enough and convince themselves they can't start yet.

This exercise will let you figure out what you're working with and finally get specific about it. Then you can design experiments that fit your life instead of ones that look good on paper but collapse in week two because you don't have resources to continue with them.

What the research says

Three bodies of research explain why this step matters and how to approach it well.

Conservation of resources

Stevan Hobfoll's Conservation of Resources theory (1989) showed that people work to keep, protect, and build the resources they already have. Stress kicks in when resources are threatened or lost. The insight for life design is that you protect what you take stock of. If you don't know what you have, you can't protect it, and you definitely can't spend it wisely.

Hobfoll also found that resource loss spirals are real. Lose one resource (say, sleep) and others start falling too (energy, patience, focus). This is why burning through your runway without a plan is so dangerous. One loss triggers the next.

Bricolage

Claude Levi-Strauss introduced the concept of bricolage: creating something from whatever materials are at hand. Baker and Nelson (2005) applied this to entrepreneurship and found that successful founders don't wait for perfect resources - they just look at what's available and get inventive with it.

You probably have more to work with than you think, but you won't see it until you lay everything out.

Effectuation

Saras Sarasvathy (2001) studied how expert entrepreneurs actually make decisions. She found they don't start with a grand plan and then go shopping for resources. They start with three questions: Who am I? What do I know? Whom do I know? And then build from there.

Exercises

Access your Notion workbook here.

Exercise 1: The resource inventory

Go through each category and write numbers where you can. The goal is a snapshot of where you stand right now, not where you wish you were.

Time

• Hours per week truly available for new work

• Obligations that eat time (list them)

• Pockets of unused time you could reclaim

• Time you spend on things that don't serve your vision

Money

• Monthly income (all sources)

• Monthly fixed costs

• Savings or runway (in months)

• Discretionary budget for experiments

Energy

• Current energy level (1 to 10)

• What drains your energy (list top 3)

• What charges your energy (list top 3)

• Any patterns from your Step 1 Energy Audit

You can pull your findings from the Energy Audit you completed in Stage 1.Your energy patterns are one of your most important resources.

Skills

• Top 5 skills you could use immediately

• Skills you're currently developing

• Skills you'd need to learn for your vision

• Skills you use for free that others pay for

Relationships

• People who actively support your direction

• People who might resist or question it

• Mentors or advisors you could reach out to

• Communities you belong to (online or offline)

Knowledge

• What you know that's relevant to your vision

• What you need to learn

• Where you could learn it (courses, books, people)

• Knowledge from past work that transfers

Exercise 2: The runway calculation

Runway is the single most practical number in any transition. It tells you how long you can sustain change before something has to give. For all of the following scenarios, note your months of runway:

• If I changed nothing about my spending:

• If I cut non-essential expenses:

• If I took a part-time bridge job or freelanced:

Your realistic runway is: ________ months.

Now answer these:

• What would you need to earn monthly to sustain your experiments without stress?

• What's your minimum viable income during a transition?

• Is your runway long enough for the experiments you're considering? If not, what would extend it?

Exercise 3: The resource gap

Pull up your vision work from Stage 3 and map what it requires against what you actually have. The gap column is where the real planning starts.

What your experiment needs:
What you currently have:
The gap:
How you could close it:

Look at the "How you could close it" section and ask yourself which gaps are closable in the next 30 days. Highlight those as they are your first moves.

Exercise 4: Hidden resources

Most people have more than they realise. Spend 10 minutes with each prompt below. Write quickly without filtering.

Skills you use for free that others would pay for

Think about what friends ask you for help with. What colleagues come to you for. What you do effortlessly that other people find hard. These are skills with market value that you've been giving away.

Relationships you haven't activated

People you know who could help, introduce you to someone, give feedback, or collaborate. You haven't asked because it feels awkward, or you forgot, or you didn't think it counted as a "resource." It does.

Time you're spending on things that don't serve your vision

Be honest. Where does your time go that produces nothing you actually care about? Scrolling, overcommitting to other people's priorities, meetings that could be emails, projects you should have quit months ago.

Knowledge from your career that transfers

Every job teaches you something, especially the ones you hated. What did you learn about systems, people, communication, problem-solving, or industries that you could carry into your next chapter?

Physical resources and access

Do you have a workspace? Equipment? Software subscriptions? Tools or materials? Access to facilities or spaces? Things you already own or have access to that you're underusing.

Reflection

Answer these after completing the exercises:

• Looking at your full inventory, what surprised you? What did you have more of than you expected?

• Where are you richest in resources? Where are you thinnest?

• Which resource gap is the biggest obstacle to your next experiment? What's one concrete step to close it?

• Are you protecting your current resources well, or are you bleeding time, energy, or money on things that don't matter to you?

• Who could you ask for help that you haven't asked yet? What's stopping you?

• If you had to start your next experiment with only what you have right now (no new resources), what would you do first?

AI companion (optional)

How to use: Complete exercises 1 through 4 first. The more specific your inputs, the better the AI can spot gaps and hidden resources you've missed. This works best as a conversation, so follow up on anything that surprises you.

Copy and paste the prompt below into Claude, ChatGPT, or any AI assistant:
I'm doing a resource audit as part of a life design process. I want you to help me map my resources honestly and find what I'm overlooking.
Here's my situation:
- My vision/direction: [paste your vision or describe where you're heading]
- My current resources: [paste your inventory from exercise 1, or describe what you have across time, money, energy, skills, relationships, and knowledge]
- My planned experiments: [describe 1-3 experiments you're considering]
Please help me:
(1) Identify resource gaps between what I have and what my experiments need
(2) Spot hidden resources I might be undervaluing or overlooking
(3) Suggest creative ways to close the gaps using what I already have (bricolage)
(4) Flag any risks where I might be overestimating what I have
(5) Give me a realistic assessment: can I sustain these experiments with my current runway?
Be direct. Don't reassure me if the math doesn't work. I'd rather know now than burn out later.