Life Aspects
Life aspects help you to develop and focus on your goals, by helping you to break your ‘life’ up into several components. You can then consider which ones are most important to you and what you want to achieve in each of these aspects.
The most common life aspects are:
Family: The emotional core of everyone’s life and usually on the top of everyone’s list when it comes to determining what’s important in the big-picture. For you, this could be the family you grew up with or perhaps you’ve started your own with a significant other and children. The family aspect includes romance and relationships with your children and family.
Career: Whether you’re a highflying business man (or woman) or a proud stay-at-home mum or dad, your career (what you ‘do’) is probably the most time-occupying aspect of your life, and it is usually near the top of everyone’s list when it comes to determining what’s important in our big-picture. The career aspect includes career satisfaction and development, but it is important not to let it get ahead of other important life aspects.
Finance: Unfortunately, money makes the world go round and we all need enough of it to live the life we want. This doesn’t necessarily mean we all have to be millionaires (which is just well, because I’m not!), but we all want to be comfortable and not have to worry about how we’re going to put food on the table. By necessity, this life aspect is often fairly high on the list when it comes to determining what’s important, but again, don’t let it rule your life. The finance aspect includes making the most of what you’ve got, investing or maybe even earning a little more.
Health and Wellbeing: Diet, exercise, image, quitting bad habits – these are the ones that typically appear in the yearly round of new years resolutions because they are easy to target. But of course if health goals aren’t targeted correctly, little progress is made on them anyway.
Recreation: Having fun, sport, holidays, hobbies and interests – what does this one mean to you? Perhaps diversity and relaxation are more important.
Personal: Different from the health/ well-being and recreation life aspects, this one is about personal growth and development whether it is learning a new skill, being creative, self-discovery or continued learning. You are the most important person to yourself, so look after you.
Friendship: Close friends, old friends, best friends and just general acquaintances – how important are these to you and how do you want to manage these friendships?
Community: A commitment to your community may not seem very important at first glance, but you can never underestimate the satisfaction of doing something to help the planet or other people. A well balanced life will recognize community service and environmental responsibility as an essential part of living an ‘ethical’ and fulfilling life.
Household: As your largest asset (if you own your home) and probably representing the largest slice of your budget, proudly maintaining your home and protecting this asset may be of great importance to you.
Spiritual: Peace of mind, faith, resolution of the ‘meaning of life’ – whatever this means to you. Very important to some people, and not to others. You decide for yourself about spirituality and inner harmony.
So what's your 'big picture'for these life aspects?
Are there any other life aspects you can think of? Pictorially, it looks like this with each slice of the pie being a part of your life.
Life Aspect Pie Chart
I’m sure you can relate to most of these aspects, and some will be a lot more important to you than others. You’ll also realize that you spend a lot more time on some aspects than others. So realize that each slice of the pie is not the same size and probably doesn’t even taste the same! What does your Life Pie look like?
What is most important to you? Where are your efforts currently directed? How does this compare with your ranking of what’s most important?
