If life were perfect, it would be sooo boring. There is always something to work on and to strive for.
All too often we become complacent with our lives. We believe that we don't have the time or the energy or the bandwidth to make changes. We come to believe that its just the way things are for us.
Maybe so people have a great romantic life but that's not in the cards for me until the kids are grown. Or maybe some people can have/get/create their dream job, but I'm just not that lucky.
The thing is that the people who are most successful and happiest are the ones regularly making life quality assessments and working on the areas that have fallen behind. In order to live our best, happiest lives, its important to take time to assess our current quality of life and what we need to work on.
In a recent post, I discussed goal setting and setting SMART goals. In that post I mentioned 10 areas to assess in order to determine which area needs the most improvement and therefore in which area you should set your new goals.
Today, we are really going to break down the process of assessing our lives to determine the area that requires the most growth.
The Road to Happiness
Imagine that you are a car driving down the road. Your road is made up of the following 10 areas of life:
Physical Health
Mental Wellbeing
Environment
Romance
Personal Growth
Self Care
Spirituality
Finance
Family & Friends
Work
Each area makes up a section of the road. If one area is lacking far behind the others, then you have a big pothole in your road. This can damage your car and get you off track. You want your road to be as level as possible.
In order to fix your road, you need to see it's current condition. We will use the following chart to evaluate how we are doing in each area of life. Each column is labeled with one area of life and the side is numbered 1 - 10.
The idea is to rank each life area from 1 - 10 to determine which areas are fulfilling and which need more work. Once done, you will have a graphical representation of the present balance between different areas regarding your life and be able to identify which area will most benefit you by improving.
The following are questions to help you determine how you would rate each life area on a scale of 1 to 10. Take some time to think about your answers before coloring in your chart.
Physical Health
Am I generally fit and well?
Do I eat healthily?
Do I exercise regularly?
Mental Wellbeing
Do I make time to journal and process emotions and feelings?
Do I have people I can turn to when I need help?
Do I practice gratitude and have a mindset of abundance?
Environment
Do I like the area in which I live?
Is my home comfortable, tidy and warm?
Do I keep my appearance smart?
Is my car serviced and reliable?
Romance
Do I have/want a soul mate?
Do we share values and intimacy?
Am I nurturing the relationship we have with each other?
Personal Growth
Am I continually learning new things?
Do I enjoy new opportunities for growth?
Are the things I do growing me as a person?
Self Care
Do I have fun often?
Do I know how to relax?
Do I make time for sports or hobbies?
Spirituality
Do I make time for my spiritual development?
Do I perform activities that fill my spiritual cup?
Do I have a relationship with God or a higher being?
Finance
Do I earn enough and live within my means?
Do I save enough?
Am I planning for financial freedom?
Family & Friends
Do I have/want a close circle of friends?
Do I spend enough time with family and friends?
Do I value the relationship we have with each other?
Work
Is my job rewarding?
Does it reflect my values?
Do I have opportunity for advancement?
If this were a real road, how bumpy would the ride be? What you are aiming for with your completed road is to have all segments scored evenly (or close), above 7 and as near 10 as possible.
If you have any particularly low scores its a good idea to make those areas of your life a priority. However, it’s not always cut and dry. It is necessary to investigate how different areas may affect one another in order to determine which area to address first.
For example, Self Care scoring low could be tied to a low score regarding Finance. Not having sufficient money could mean that you may be unable to engage in self care activities that have a cost associated with it. This in turn can lead to a low level of morale and lack of desire to have fun.
A low score for Finance could also be tied to the low score for Work. On the other hand, money may be low due to poor financial management.
The point here is to determine if a low score in one category is the result of other factors. Improvement in one area can and will have an impact on other areas as well.
In the above example, a career change may help in the work, finance and self care categories. Yet, at the same time, depending on the situation it could decrease time for friends or family or your significant other.
Questions to Determine Goals
Now that you can see what areas of your life would be good to work on, use the following questions to dig deeper and uncover your desired outcomes and what you can do to improve your balance.
Have you ever been higher than the number you have recorded?
What was actually happening when you were higher up the scale?
Have you ever been lower than the number you have recorded?
What did you do to move up the scale?
What have you learnt from previously being lower on the scale?
What number on the scale do you want to be?
What exactly do you want?
What actions can you take to start moving up the scale?
What will you be like when you have achieved this?
What will be the impact of achieving this on other areas of your life?
How will achieving this affect others close to you?
What will achieving this bring you that you want?
What will achieving this bring you that you don't want?
What skills do you already have that will assist you in achieving this?
What skills do you want to gain that will assist you in achieving this?
Where can you learn these skills?
What other options do you have?
What would need to happen for you to move up one point on the scale by this time next week?
How do you think you rank in the different areas of life? Want to take the assessment yourself? Just fill out the form below so I can send you a PDF copy of the questionnaire. Take some time to really think about the questions and determine what areas in your life could use a little work.
Want to talk it out? Feel free to email me at Emily@themultitaskingmomsite.net to schedule a call.
Cheers,
Emily
