Importance of the big picture
Everyone has heard, that having lots of money doesn’t bring happiness. But why? Once again we have heard the answer million times. We can’t just buy most important things. So, if we have money, it doesn’t mean we’re happy, healthy and so on. As you can see the balance of life is most important thing, because besides money we still need friends, health, love and many other things, which you can’t get in exchange for money.

I made a template, where life is divided into 6 areas. Every area consists of some components. In life, every area should be not left behind or too far from others (it means, that all areas are left behind except one). You can find template here.

Evaluate every component from 1 to 10. Area average is calculated automatically. And average of all areas is written at the end of the template.

Purpose of this template is to be filled every year, because it lets to observe progress in your life.

Balance
For visually seeing your life balance, I made life circle template. Just take assessments of every area of your life and write them here. Now connect assessments with circle, which should be round as much as possible. Large dents shows that your life is out of balance. By looking at the circle, you can tell the first area where you need to start improving your life.

Final thoughts
No matter how it’s important to plan and measure, only action makes difference. So, don’t take too long and take some actions.

Summary
The most important thing in your life is balance.

Life areas evaluation template here.
Circle of life template here.

Where are we now? If you changed one aspect of your life, how would you measure you are moving forward or backward? We need to have starting point.

Why starting point matters?
First reason is to know whether we are moving forward or backward. For example, if you now are saving 2000$ per month instead of 1500$, it doesn’t mean you are at better situation. Maybe, you are living at the cheaper and worse flat, which cost less. In short period it has almost no meaning, but in be long run it can cause worse health, bad mood or other things. To conclude, we must evaluate life using list of most important spheres. So, only average of all important life spheres can tell, that we are moving forward.

Second reason is very simple: if we know where we are, then it’s easier to say, where we want to go. Most important, we know how to travel there. Imagine, that you are in unknown place, but have a map and want to go to Washington. How would you travel? First of all, you’ll need to find out where are you. Later you’ll decide, it’s possible to go on foot or you need a plane.

Two months ago, I was doing “general cleaning”. I threw out lot’s of rubbish. Things to remember thoroughly put to boxes. By doing it, I found some papers with my goals. Every paper was written with at least one year difference. I was surprised to see, that half of goals were accomplished, despite the fact, that I always stopped using them after a few weeks. The quarter of goals doesn’t matter now, because I changed my mind about them. So, only 25 % of goals are waiting to be achieved. You may now ask, what’s the connection with evaluating your life? The answer is very simple – it’s very pleasant to remember and feel, that you accomplished, what you wanted, what looked so impossible. You have it now.

In my opinion, it’s worth to evalute your current situation and achievements every year. Don’t wait, start now and find out where you are now. And it would make easier to go where you want to be.

The next article will present some templates for faster life evaluation.