2022 in Life's Areas of Balance

2022 is coming to a close, and it's a great time to reflect on how it went. Now there are many ways to do this, but the one that's been working for me since 2016 might be the most well balanced (pun intended). I'll let you know how it works, and how it could help you live a more intentional life in 2023 - my WHY for reflection.

2016 is when I read "The Code of the Extraordinary Mind" by Vishen Lakhiani. In it, he wrote about 12 different areas of life and the importance of having balance between them, saying - "Too many people live lives lacking in balance. They may have great wealth but lousy relationships with their family. Or they may be incredibly fit and healthy but struggle with debt. Or they may have a career filled with achievements but feel heartbroken and lonely. An extraordinary life is balanced on all levels." You can see what the 12 areas are in the graphic above. It's worth noting that Vishen appears to have updated a few of the 12 in a newer edition of his book in 2019, but I personally prefer the original set we have here. Let's use these to make 2023 a year to remember. Step 1: For each of the 12 areas, rate your life on a scale of 1 to 10

Once you've done this (or even just looked at the graphic for 30 seconds), did you find that you are stronger in certain areas than others? Did it make you remember intentions you've had but have put off, or maybe you thought of new intentions that you didn't know you had? That is what I love about this process, that it can help with discovery of intentions, and we can use those to improve and create more balance going forward. To do that, move on to step 2. Step 2: Prioritize the areas you will focus on For this, you don't have to follow your ratings as the only input. As a close friend of mine used to say "I prefer 'data informed' over 'data driven'", implying that there can be other factors used in a decision than the data alone. For instance, you may have rated your love relationship relatively high compared to some of the others, but right now you've determined it's still the most important category for you to improve in, for reasons only you know. But in general, it's a good idea to prioritize areas you've scored low in to remove an imbalance that could negatively affect all categories. Also, just because you prioritize one over the other, it doesn't mean that category is more important to you, it simply means it's a priority of yours to focus on improving right now. For example, if you put something like "Family Life" lower on the list, that doesn't mean family is less important than whatever you put above it, it just means that perhaps you're currently in a good place with your family life and have multiple habits formed that are able to keep it there. Once you've ranked and prioritized (top to bottom), it may look something like this -

I hope this tool can be as useful for you as it has been for me to discover intentions. If you want to hear more about why being intentional matters, and steps on how to align your actions to your intentions, see my previous article on the subject here - How to Be More Intentional and Why it Matters Three simple steps, with examples.medium.com

Lastly, the screenshots in this article are actually designs for an app I'm working on to help people, including myself, get clear on their intentions and align their actions (to-do's) to them. Follow me to hear more on the subject, as well as updates on the app. Thanks! Be intentional. Align actions. Buckle up. 🚀