As we continue our reflective December journey preparing for 2024, let’s revisit the wheel of life exercise from an earlier post.
If you already completed this assessment previously, pull out your prior insights. But also prepare to create a new, forward-looking wheel of life targeted at the next 3 months.
It’s time to re-baseline where you currently are today across the spokes of fulfillment, contribution, finances, career, health, relationships, personal growth, and fun. The wheel provides perspective on areas of strength versus gaps where you have room to grow.
With this updated self-awareness, the goal now is to get focused and intentional about measurable change in one or two key dimensions over the next 90 days.
Choosing Your Primary Focus Area
Here is the process to go through in order to choose what dimension you want to dedicate focus towards improving between now and March 2023:
Assess Your Current State: Take an honest, fresh look at your wheel of life in its current form. On a scale of 1-10, where are you truly at right now in each area? Consider not just where you’ve been in the past, but where you stand today.
Select 1 Primary Area for the Next 3 Months: Ask yourself – of these dimensions on the wheel, which one area would be most meaningful and realistic to target for tangible growth over the next 90 days? Remember, trying to focus evenly across too many spokes rarely leads to progress. Concentrate on where you can make the most impact with consistent effort week-to-week between now and March. Maybe it’s finally building financial management habits you’ve put off for years. Or perhaps it’s cultivating a personal relationship that’s been stuck. Choose one area to dedicate as your primary focus for now.
Define Realistic Impact for the Area: Given a short 3 month timeframe, reflect on what achievable, meaningful progress could look like in this targeted dimension. Set 1-3 practical, observable, tangible objectives you aim work towards here between now and March.
For example, if it’s the financial area, maybe it’s simple goals like finally creating and trying to adhere to a budget each month. Or learning to meal prep and cook at home 5 nights each week rather than eating out.
If it’s relationship focused, perhaps it’s having open, non-judgemental communication at least 1x per week. Or scheduling and committing to a fun shared activity together every other weekend. Make it crystal clear what success over the next 90 days would mean.
Embracing New Ways of ‘Being’ to Drive Change
Here’s a clue – achieving even modest goals in one area of your wheel likely requires personal shifts beneath the surface. It’s ultimately about who you need to become, how you need to be, in order to drive external change.
So also spend time getting clear on identity-level evolution that could fuel your targeted spokes:
Envision the ‘Being’ For Your Focus Area – Contemplate what qualities are most essential for you to embody consistently in order to make tangible progress on your 1-3 specific 3 month goals above? Do you need to become more disciplined, committed, focused, communicative, vulnerable, patient, trusting? Reflect deeply on who you need to be.
Outline Small Actions That Reflect This – Then make it real by identifying a few repeatable behaviors – however small – that align with and reflect these traits daily. These are small steps that over 90 days can crystallize new ways of being.
If it’s financial fitness, it may be as simple as 5 minutes reviewing expenses every few days. Or saying no to happy hours twice a week. For relationships, it could mean a brief daily meditation to cultivate patience, or writing a short caring text once a week. Start with easy wins.
In the end, meaningful change isn’t triggered by once-off big actions – it accumulates through small steps practiced over and over until new neural pathways are built. The magic is staying consistent.
Critical Steps to Actually Make Progress
Each individuals’ exact action plan will be unique based on their area of focus, but in general here are best practices:
Write Down Your Insights – Envision who you need to become, why that matters, and what daily tweaks can reinforce this over 3 months. Journaling cements clarity.
Practice Daily And Notice - If you commit to just 1 small incremental action regularly that aligns with your growth, change will happen. And pay attention to its effects.
Reflect and Adjust – Revisit your goals and behaviors every 4-6 weeks. Are your actions producing the identity-level shifts and tangible outcomes you expected? Refine your approach based on evidence of what’s working and what’s not.
The Power of Focus
Remember that meaningful, lasting change rarely happens across every dimension of life at once – it builds slowly area by area. By identifying one spoke of the wheel to genuinely improve between now and March 2023, you give yourself the gift of focus amid day to day noise.
Progress then creates momentum that leaves you feeling more empowered, resilient and capable of expanding change to other areas over time. But it starts small.
So what’s your next 3 month target on the wheel? I welcome you share your chosen area of focus and the qualities you aim to embody to drive change there. Let’s support each other in turnkey actions today that transform how we show up in 2023.