There is always talk on priorities. The truth is, as any one of us, there are at least 7 areas we need to prioritize.
Zig Ziglar has the wheel of life
Paul Batz speaks on 7F's similar to this
Oola is doing great work in this area
There are many other examples out there
Regardless of how you divide them and what you call them, these are areas of utmost importance in managing our lives. I consider these the areas everyone must manage at the minimum. You cannot just say "Faith is most important". If you focus only on your faith and you lack doing a great job with your family or your finances - or even getting time for fun, I would argue you are failing - even failing in your faith. These are the minimum areas.
Zig says that when one or more of these areas are out of balance, it is like running your wheel of life with a flat tire.
ba-dump,
ba-dump,
ba-dump...
In the illustration above, there are sub-categories as well. For example, you score well in that you have an excellent relationship with your spouse but your relationship with your teenagers is suffering. That affects the overall score in the family category.
Here is an explanation of each area:
FAITH
Personal: How is your personal walk of faith? Whether Christian, Buddhist, Karma or other.
Mission: Are you doing what you want to in order to share what you believe?
FAMILY
Spouse: How is your relationship with your significant other?
Dependents: How is your relationship with those who may depend on you?*
FUN
FIELD
Career/Business: Is your business or career doing what you expect from it?
Personal Development: Are you learning and growing at the pace you ought to be?
FITNESS
Exercise: Are you keeping your body in shape for the marathon that is life?
Nutrition: Are you feeding your body the fuel you need to keep it running well?
FRIENDS
Serving: Friendship is a two way street. Are you meeting your friends needs?
Relationships: Are the relationships in your life with friends fulfilling?
FINANCES
Breathing Room**: Do you have margin or are you operating outside a sustainable level?
Baby Steps: This is a plan anyone can do to get to financial freedom. How are you doing?
*In each of these, if it doesn't apply, consider your score the maximum number.
**I will write again on breathing room but essentially, it is the difference between your capacity and the level at which you are currently running at.
You can score yourself out of 10 on each of these areas. In either of the tools below, you will be able to see if your life is smooth running or has "flats" in certain areas.
If you have a flat in one or more areas, devote a little more energy in that area to shore it up to be balanced with the areas in which you are doing well. Do not neglect the other areas, just put your shoulder into that one area a little more until you feel confident it is where it needs to be.
As you grow, grow evenly. Keep each area in balance. I would suggest reviewing this along with your life plan and buckets each quarter.
You can score yourself on this with my Excel tool here. A pretty good example of pushing Excel to it's limits too, I might add.