Last week, we took a 30,000 foot view of setting and achieving goals by exploring the concept of the Wheel of Life. (in case you missed it, here you go!) It’s a great way to keep a healthy perspective on why we should even bother with all this goal-setting business. This week, let’s dive deeper and set you up with some ways to use the Wheel to set better goals.

With yourself at the center, imagine a circle around you. As you turn around inside your circle, you see that it is divided up like a pie with seven slices. Each slice represents a core area of life. They are:

1. Personal and Social
2. Work and Career
3. Family
4. Spiritual
5. Financial
6. Mind/Intellect
7. Physical/Health

Once you take a quick assessment of each area, it’s easy to see where you need to focus some attention. The idea is to balance your Wheel. When any one area (work, for example) gets all of your energy for too long, the other areas start to suffer.

And when too many areas of your life suffer for too long…you begin to suffer.

Side note: There may be times when one area needs to eat up an unbalanced amount of your time and attention. However, like a sprint, it can’t go on for too long before you drop the pace back down and get on with the marathon.

This goes beyond simple “work/life balance” (an overused phrase) which implies that “work” and “life” are two different things. (As if you stop living when you clock in for work?) I like the idea of a wheel because the reality is that work is part of your life right along with the rest of the seven areas.

Even though we’re an accounting and payroll firm, we think your life and your business are more than just numbers and reports. So we want to help you put the seven “spokes” on the Wheel of Life to work in a practical way so you can set killer goals in all areas of your life.

This can be done in a matter of minutes on something as simple as a plain sheet of paper. (The stuff we used before tablets? Remember?) Go ahead…find a piece. We’ll wait.

Ok, ready?

• Number the page 1-7 down the left margin, then draw lines down the page to make four columns.
• In the first column, next to #1, write the first category you want to set a goal for. (For example, Work and Career)
• In the second column, write out a specific goal.
• In the third column, list two or three action steps you need to take to get to that goal.
• In the fourth column, set a target date.
• Rinse and repeat for the remaining six life categories above.

There! You’ve done it.

By jotting down a few simple things, you have set a very basic plan in motion that can (if you focus and follow through) help you begin to achieve dramatic results which will lead to a balanced and fulfilling life!

Not a lot of time involved, and no fancy software needed. (Although, we reviewed some great tools here to help you take this further.) And what you’ve done fits right in with the best method we’ve found for setting and achieving goals. As we’ve covered before, goals that get done are:

• Specific – You did that in column two.

• Measurable – That’s the action steps in column three.

• Achievable – You probably wrote things that are practical. If you listed “Partying with Richard Branson on my own private island”…you might need a few more sheets of paper.)

• Relevant – What’s more relevant than goals for a life you’re already living?!

• Time-Sensitive – That’s the target date in the last column.

At Patrick Accounting, we love coming alongside small business owners like yourself to help you win in life and their business. As you can see by the amount of time we’ve just spent here writing about goals and wheels and Death Star kitchen timers, we realize that real success is about a whole lot more than just balance sheets and P&L statements…although we’re really good at those too.

To find out more about bringing us in partner with your small business, contact us through our website or on the phone at 901-755-5858 in Memphis or 501-834-5757 in Little Rock. Let’s see what you can achieve!