Personal Growth: Where Do I Start?

People talk a lot about personal growth. But, personal growth can be a bit confusing in the beginning, especially if you’ve never taken the time to think about it. I’m sure if I asked you what you wished was better in your life, you could come up with a very long list. But where do you start?

I’d like to humbly present to you the Wheel of Life. This is a fun (to me) exercise that helps you sort your thoughts and help prioritize what you find most important right now. This is a condensed version just so you can get a taste of the exercise. Below are five categories and questions you can ask yourself to to define them:

Financial: How satisfied are you with your relationship with money, how much money you make, and how much money you have in the bank account?

Professional: How fulfilled are you with your profession/career?

Romance: How fulfilled are you with YOUR OWN behaviors when it comes to love and romance?

Physical: How fulfilled are you with your health, vitality, and energy?

Social: How satisfied are you with the quality of your friends and your social network?

So here’s what you do. You rate each category on a scale of 1-10, 1 being it sucks, 10 being it can’t be any better. How would you rate those 5 categories for yourself right now?

Here are a few things to consider. First, let’s actually imagine a wheel and each of these categories is a spoke. If the spokes are varying in length, you’re in for a bumpy ride. If they are even, it’ll be relatively smooth, even if you’re not going very fast. Said another way, if you have a large differential between your categories, life probably feels a little crazy and wild. On the flip side, even if the categories were rated low, but the numbers are closer together, life feels pretty stable.

Here’s what I want to know: If you could raise one of those categories by one point, which category would give you the biggest boost in your quality of life? Then, what would you need to do to achieve that? Let me know!

Kevin Koo is a professional coach who specializes in personal, business, and leadership development. Contact him at kevinkoocoaching@gmail.com