Life Balance
Reflect. Explore. Shine
Have you ever started setting goals without first taking a moment to look at where you are right now? I certainly have. We often think about what we want to change before looking at our life as a whole. But setting meaningful goals becomes much easier when you understand your starting point.
That's why I love the Wheel of Life. It's a well-known coaching and self-reflection tool that gives you a visual snapshot of the different areas of your life and invites you to step back and see the bigger picture. Because the different parts of our lives don't exist in isolation. We can work incredibly hard and neglect our relationships, give everything to our family and forget about ourselves, or leave too little room for fun and adventure.
Find Your Star is my take on the Wheel of Life. Drawing on this well-known coaching concept and research into wellbeing and quality of life, I've brought together eight areas
that can help you look at your life as a whole:
Body & Energy | Calling & Work | Finances | Love & Connection | Parenting & Family | Growth & Learning | Adventure & Play | Soul & Spirit
Rate how satisfied you feel with each area right now, from 1 to 10. Plot your answers and you'll get a snapshot of your life today — what's going well and where you might want to
give a little more attention. But this isn't about scoring a 10 everywhere. Life changes, and so do our priorities. What matters is whether the picture you see reflects the life you want to be living right now.
Want to find your starting point?
Grab a cup of coffee, find a quiet corner, and give yourself ten minutes. The Life Balance Worksheet will help you map where you are today and explore where you'd like to go next.
Goal Setting
Dream. Define. Do.
A meaningful goal doesn't begin with a to-do list. It begins with knowing where you want to go — and why you want to go there. Start with the bigger picture. What would you like to change, create, experience or become? Why does it matter to you? And how does this connect with your bigger vision for your life?
Decades of research by psychologists Edwin Locke and Gary Latham have shown that clear and appropriately challenging goals can improve motivation and performance compared with vague intentions. Commitment and feedback matter too — as does taking the complexity of the goal into account. In simple terms: make your goal clear, make it meaningful, let it stretch you and give yourself a way to see whether you're moving forward.
But knowing what you want isn't always enough. Practical obstacles, inner conflicts, habits, fears and long-held beliefs can influence what happens when we start moving towards a goal. Recognising what might get in your way can help you understand where you may need a different approach, more support or simply a little more time.
Once your goal is clear and connected to your bigger vision, the next step is to turn it into action. Research on goal setting also shows the value of breaking larger goals into smaller, more immediate steps. Rather than focusing only on the distant outcome, create milestones along the way and bring them gradually into your everyday life:
VISION → GOAL → MILESTONES → MONTH → WEEK → TODAY
You don't need a rigid five-year plan to move towards the life you want. You need enough direction to take the next meaningful step — and then to notice what's working, learn and adjust along the way.
Ready to get started?
Our Goal Setting Worksheet gives you a structured space to explore your goal, your why, what might get in your way and the first steps you can take.
