This exercise helps highlight and prioritize areas in your life to focus on for further development, and it may help your therapist understand which areas you can work on together in therapy.
All life domains are interrelated. If you are not doing well in one domain there will likely be effects that spill over into other domains. For example, if you are not doing well in the domain of psychological / emotional well-being, then your physical health and social relationships are likely to be affected as well. With deficiencies in any domain we can imagine certain spill-over effects into other life domains.
A person with a well-formed, round wheel is likely to feel a sense of life satisfaction, contentment, or general well-being—whereas a person with significant deficiencies in some domains may feel discontentment or like they are dissatisfied with their life.
Often we do better in life (achieving our overarching goals) when we focus on building up the domains we have deficiencies in, rather than when we simply desire or aim at our overarching goals. The idea is that our goals will follow naturally from the process of bettering our overall life, whereas focusing on a goal without building up these foundational domains can be counter-productive.
Instructions:
Print out this handout. For each domain rate your level of fulfillment by shading in. The concentric lines indicate 1 – 10. For example, level 1 (only shaded up to the first line) means you feel like you are not doing well in that domain; level 10 (the whole domain shaded in) means you feel very well about how you are doing in that domain. If a certain domain does not apply to your life, or you are not comfortable exploring it right now, simply put an X through that domain. When you are all done, prioritize the domains you have deficiencies in to help create a plan for addressing the areas that need attention most urgently.
Domain ratings — 1 (poor) to 10 (excellent)
Social (friendships; opportunities to socialize):
Family relationships:
Intimate relationships (very close or romantic):
Sexual wellness (sexual health and satisfaction):
Psychological/emotional well-being:
Physical health (diet, fitness/exercise, adequate sleep, etc.):
Recreational (opportunity to do enjoyable activities):
Self-care:
Financial security:
Environmental safety & comfort:
Career satisfaction:
Intellectual growth/education:
Existential or spiritual:
Freedom in life:
Prioritization of deficient domains: