Living a successful life, with progress, money, and fame can sound a bit too cliché. Not everyone expects the same outcomes from their life and the definition of success changes from person to person. This is why, instead of leading a successful life, set yourself the goal to live a meaningful and content life, which makes you feel fulfilled.
A fulfilled life sets a precedent for a balanced life, wherein your well-being is optimized to the fullest. Physical health, friendships and social life or daily life are all included in connections with others, enabling you to live a happier and healthier life. To do so, this article will give you a LifeHack to help optimize the 12 areas of your life, in order to live a life that feels fulfilling.
The 12 Pillars of a Balanced Life
‘Pillars of life’, ‘wheels of life’, or ‘dimensions of life’. Whatever you want to call it, to live a balanced life, the area of balance is divided into four areas. If you attain fulfillment throughout these areas, then it is easy to build a meaningful life, in which you find happiness and have a purpose.
Insight from the 12 pillars of a balanced life is meant to divide it into 12 categories of mindvalley. It sets a life vision or lifebook, which can help you focus on 12 different areas of personal development. A breakdown of these 12 life refers to as follows:
Physical Wellness – Your Health and Fitness Are Critical
The foremost and most obvious pillar of a balanced life is your physical health and fitness. Personal growth in other areas can only be attained with an exemplary physical health. This means being fit and free from any disease. However, if you have a long term illness, it does not mean that you cannot attain a balanced life. Instead, the physical wellness recharge requires you to be productive in managing symptoms and listening to your body’s needs.
Emotional Wellness – Find Fulfilment and Inner Peace
Among the different areas of life, emotional health that supports an extraordinary mind ensures balance in your life. Your emotional wellness pillar highlights the need for self-care, to take out time for yourself and prioritise yourself over others, who may be toxic or bring a sense of weight to your emotional health. Align your emotional goals and nurture your mind, it will shape mindful habits and help you neglect or cut off destructive habits.
Intellectual Wellness – Nurture Your Mind and Stay Curious
In various dimensions of life, growing your mind and knowledge is as important as having a content mind. Often times, we tend to oversee this pillar of a balanced life, but I am here to tell you that fostering knowledge and self-reflection is a great tool to achieve a balanced life.
However, by this, we do not mean that you should pick up that book on astrophysics. For the code of the extraordinary mind, seek clarity on topics that are beyond your understanding, learn about new things, and start reading or cultivate a variety of perspectives on topics of religion, culture, or politics.
Spiritual Wellness – Connect to Something Bigger Than Yourself
Overall well-being is also related to your spiritual life, alongside intellectual life and creative or community life. Spiritual values give people a sense of purpose and play a significant role in feeling content with where you are in life. To navigate through this material world, spiritual beliefs and values can help you develop a growth mindset that fits your needs.
Social Wellness – Prioritize Meaningful Friendships and Relationships
Humans are social beings, so being anti-social for a long time can actually prove to be detrimental on a balanced life. You need some outlet to interact with other people or the world at large. For social wellness, taking advantage of others in your life will work to make you feel better. Simply by doings acts of service, like cooking food for loved one’s and talking about a football match can help you leave behind negative notions.
Family Wellness – Invest In Your Loved Ones
If you want to achieve a balanced life by setting an equilibrium between the 12 pillars, then family life is something to think about. You must spend a significant portion of your time with your family, build trusting relationships with loved ones and inhabit a well-rounded family space to lead a content life. This means working on broken relationships and correcting the wrongs you may have done to others.
Financial Wellness – Manage Your Money Wisely
Apart from family life, financial health is also something that resonates with both personal and professional contentment. Whether you are an entrepreneur or employee, everyone has financial goals that help them lead the kind of life they want. Therefore, ensuring that long-term goals of financial needs are met, while daily habits can be supported then financial success is an important aspect.
Environmental Wellness – Care for the Planet
How can one be content, when the rest of the world is falling apart? In this pillar of wellness, you do not have to come up with solutions for climate change, rather you have to play your part in becoming a good citizen. For relaxation, good weather is enjoyed, so it becomes our duty to meditate on our role as a citizen of the world. Evidence-based research states making sustainable choices, recycling etc.
Occupational Wellness – Find Purpose and Satisfaction in Your Work
Spiritual practices, recreation and holistic personal values are all important, but at the core level, if you find happiness in your work then you are happy. So, set goals at a professional scale, find meaning in your work, enjoy it and you are leading a happy life.
Creative Wellness – Express Yourself through the Arts
Creative wellness can be defined as nurturing your inner artist. We all have creative surges, so by simply finding an outlet to be creative can ensure creative wellness. You can do some painting, pottery, writing, playing music etc.
Community Wellness – Contribute to Causes Greater than Yourself
Finally, the 12th pillar of wellness includes communal wellness. This means being content and happy as a community, without fearing any threat. Peace of mind and meeting basic needs leads to satisfactions and well-being within the social circle and has a great impact on community wellness.
Read Also: What Is The Goal of Human Life?
Optimize Each Area of Your Life for Balance
Assess Where You Are Excelling and Where You Need Work
Now that we know the 12 outlets for wellness, it is pertinent to figure out where we are lacking and what area needs improvement. Take out time and figure out areas that are exemplary and areas that are not. Meditate by VIshen Lahiani has a great strategy for figuring this out, whereby taking time for contemplation in each area helps you pin down areas that are not excelling
Set Goals to Improve Your Weakest Areas
Now that you know areas that are not in equilibrium, set goals based on ways they can reach equilibrium. It can be related to love relationships, inner peace, or social media usage inbox.
Don’t Neglect Your Strengths While Working On Weaknesses
To ensure success in this endeavor, it is key to focus on your gains and do not spend too long on misses. Therefore, focus on your strengths to motivate yourself
Evaluate Your Progress and Adjust Accordingly
To meet the established goals, conduct self-reflection monthly or bi-monthly.
The Lifebook Method – A Holistic Approach
Lifebook Helps You Map Out 12 Key Categories of Your Life
Mindvalley will help you navigate the 12 dimensions of your life, to point out weaknesses and strengths. You can follow recent posts on creating a unified vision for your life. Lifebook simply forces you to ask some very important questions, like:
- What is my story?
- What do I want to be known for?
This question, as per the Lifebook, is not asked on the whole. Instead, each area is analyzed separately and the same questions are repeated 12 times. This helps you realize what elements constitute wellness for you, gaps in existing practices, and strategies to fulfill the goals across each area.
It Guides You to Set Goals and Take Action in Each Area
The 12 areas go into depth on what you must be doing and what establishes a content life. Through this in-depth guide, you can figure out what needs to be done for the future. Lifebook takes matter into three areas for goal setting:
- Envision
- Plan
- Achieve
However, it is important to mention that focusing on all 12 areas of life at the same time can be a tiring process. For some, focusing on specific areas of life in a year works much better. For instance, you can have a year of working on your physical health, which enables you to develop good habits.
You’ll Gain Insights about What Really Matters Most to You
The course by Lifebook will help you align goals with the reality, and give you a tangible plan to follow for a content life. It works by forming a Lifebook, containing major life events and dividing it into 12 areas to establish a vision and improve a certain area of your life.
Recent Posts on Living a Balanced Life
How to Stop Living Life Out of Your Inbox
Sometimes work can become so intrusive that it invades even your living room and bedroom in the time you get to spend with your family and other loved ones. Constant checking of the emails even outside of work is what is called living inside your inbox
To avoid this, set a time schedule and it is very important to follow it. Set boundaries at work and for yourself to not check emails after a certain time. There are app timers on your phone help you with this scheme also
7 Ways to Bring More Friendships into Your Life
- Change your routine from normal things. Going out and trying out new things will bring you to new people
- Make it a habit to get out of the house, even if it is for a small walk round the block
- Do not shy away from striking a conversation. In whatever setting you may be, a simple conversation started will help you interact with new people
- Enroll yourself in a class. It can be related to a hobby at home and bring you closer to people who share the same vision
- Joining a health club may also work. Following an exercise goal as a team will help you bond with new people
- Volunteering in your neighbourhood also works. Irrespective of the kind of volunteer work, when you volunteer, you are working with new people and interacting with new people as well
- Finally, you have to be authentic through all these situations. You cannot lie or cheat your way through adult friendships because most of us do not have the time
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Keeping a journal!
It has changed my life and it can change yours too. A simple journal to write in at the end of the day about goals, activities and progress has helped me better prepare.
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Move out of your comfort zone. Even if you have to, force yourself into new social situations and explore new hobbies or activities. It will reduce stress and inject excitement into what may seem like a mundane life
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Life after college is bound to follow a routine that lasts you well into the time of your retirement. To make it count, do not stop learning new skills or improving your knowledge post-college. Take up classes, activities and enroll in clubs to keep your mind sharp
3 Tips to Nurture Deeper Connections with Interpersonal Intelligence
- Be empathetic! There’s no better way than to force yourself into thinking from another person’s perspective
- Learn to decode non-verbal cues within a conversation. From the body posture to hand gestures, body language can give you more in-depth connection with another person
- Active listening is the key. Instead of forcing others to listen to you, force yourself to listen to others
FAQ’s:
What are all categories of life?
| Physical Wellness | Family Wellness | Financial Wellness | Creative Wellness |
| Emotional Wellness | Social Wellness | Environmental Wellness | Character Wellness |
| Intellectual Wellness | Spiritual Wellness | Occupational Wellness | Community Wellness |
What does all areas of life mean?
All areas of life correlate to numerus outlets of your life and ways in which you can feel content. For instance, the love wellness area looks into your need for an intimate partner
What are the four Lifebook questions?
- What is your belief?
- What do you want?
- Why do I want it?
- How can I achieve it?
Do you take time to meditate or pray?
Yes! Taking out time for spiritual wellness is key to living a balanced life
How does your daily life look?
According to the strategy of living a balanced life, your routine looks pretty swift. You take up work, spend time with family, focus on your hobbies, but ensure that you are not over-burdened
Does your job align with your personal values and long-term goals?
Your job should not only be a means to pay the bills. In order to make life more meaningful, your job must become an outlet to give meaning. This is only possible when your job resonates with your personal values
What types of friendships would you like to establish?
Friendships must be based on trust, empathy and support. Whether as adults or children, a friend can be supportive or judgmental. Make sure you go with the supportive one
What types of activities would you like to experience or enjoy in your social life?
For social wellness, there are a range of activities to follow. You can go out hiking, volunteering, cycling or even join book clubs. It all depends on your needs and ways in which you live your life that determine the kinds of activities you want to pursue.