Ah the new year. Blank slate. New possibilities. Everyone starts the new year with fresh hope, new challenges and bounds of productive energy. Then the disappointment. Most new year resolutions are usually long forgotten by March/April. Been there done that. But it doesn’t always have to be that way.
Most new year resolutions fail for one reason. They’re just too vague. It’s easy to say ‘I want to be more fit and healthier’. Don’t we all? But how do you actually achieve that goal? If you have no milestones or no set action plan then you’ll likely lose motivation and give up before you’ve even started.
That’s why instead of one big resolution, I like to set multiple resolutions that are small and achievable.
Related: Organize Your Life For The New Year
THE WHEEL OF LIFE
The Wheel of Life is perfect for creating small goals that focus specifically on the important areas of your life. It has 10 categories which you can fill in areas that are relevant to you. Some examples are:
- Family
- Personal Development
- Spiritual
- Career
- Finances
- Social Life
- Creativity
- Fun & Recreation
- Health
- Relationship
HOW DOES IT WORK?
You’ll notice that the Wheel of Life has 10 lines running through it. These 10 lines represent the amount of attention you are giving to this particular area of your life, on a scale of 0 (low) to 10 (high). 0 starts from the inner line and works its way out.
Grab a colouring pencil, we’re going to start by shading in how much time you currently dedicate to this area. You may be spending a lot of time working over-time (even if you don’t want to) so make sure your dimensions reflect this.
Next, now that you can see how your time is currently being spent, you need to consider the ideal level of attention you want to give to each category. It’s important to remember that a balanced life isn’t having a 5 in each dimension. More areas require more attention whereas others may not require your attention at all – you may not have a significant other for example.
Plot your ‘ideal’ scores around the circle by shading the lines in and join them up again to form a circle.
USE YOUR RESULTS TO CREATE YOUR NEW YEAR GOALS
Now that you see which areas in your life you are neglecting you can use these results to help you to create new year resolutions. Add these to your Wheel of Life.
Try to think of one or two small goals for each area that will improve your score. For example, if you want to get fit and healthy then one goal could be to ‘have a drink of water first thing in the morning’ – you can use a habit tracker to track your progress.
If you want to make more of an effort with your friends (life can just get too busy) then one goal could be to make sure that you make time to meet up at least once a month.
Come back to your Wheel of Life in a month or two and see how the circle has changed!
GET YOUR FREE WHEEL OF LIFE TEMPLATE
Use this free template to evaluate your life and create realistic goals. Unlike the example in the photo, this one is blank so that you can add your own categories. You can see that my ‘spiritual’ area is blank as this is something that is not relevant to me.
I’d love to see how your freebies work for you! Share the love by taking a pic of your wheel of life and tag PaperScribblesCo on Instagram.
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