12 Life Goal Categories

Goals help us to see a bigger picture, to achieve or maintain balance, to be focused, or to be happier or more successful.

We hear and read about goals all the time, but how often are we taught to create our visions and goals in a way that achieves balance in EVERY area of our lives, not just a select few?

I have spent a large bulk of my time the last few months learning, training, questioning, and searching within myself to make sure that I am doing what I want with my life and heading in a direction I am truly happy with in each area of my life. I think this is mostly due to my pregnancy- a true incubation period. But as the baby prepares to emerge, new ideas, projects, and goals are surfacing as well.

I stumbled upon the goals techniques taught by Jon Butcher.  Jon’s company Precious Moments has done $10 billion over the last 30 years with it’s best year at $600 million. He used to have this big notebook with 12 categories in it. Within each category, he had photos, images, ideas, etc. as his personal vision board. His technique was so powerful for himself, that he launched a project called Lifebook that allows all of us to establish our own life vision through these same 12 categories. This is a very powerful technique because it helps us create a vision while in balance in each important areas of our lives.

Let’s briefly explore these 12 categories in which to map out our life goals and a couple of prompts to help get your brain juices flowing and help you pinpoint or visualize the balance you want to achieve.

1. Health and fitness– What do you want to weigh? How do you want to feel? When do you want to complete your first marathon?

2. Intellectual life– What or how many books would you like to read this year? What seminars would you like to attend? What skills would you like to attain? What classes would you like to take?

3. Emotional life– Where would you like your energy and happiness levels to be? How would you like to feel throughout your day (including the afternoon time when a lot of us normally feel a “slump”)?

4. Character– What do you want to stand for? What values do you want have? What level of integrity would you like to operate at?

5. Spiritual life– What personal spiritual practices would you like to maintain or begin? How often do you want to pray or meditate? How often do you want to visit church, a meeting, a service, etc.?

6. Love relationships– Who do you want to be with? What kind of partner do you want to be? What type of life do you want to live with your partner? Where do you want to vacation? Where do you want to live?

7. Parenting vision– How do you want to parent your children? What values do you want to instill in them? How much time do you want to spend with your children each day/week?

8. Social life– What types of friendships would you like to establish? What kind of friend would you like to be? What types of activities would you like to experience or enjoy in your social life?

9. Financial life– How much money would you like to make or save? How would you like to see money flow to you?

10. Career- What positions would you like to fill? What skills would you like to elarn or attain? What types of projects would you enjoy working on? Where would you like to work or be employed?

11. Quality of life- Where would you like to live? What would you like your home or car to look like? Where would you like to travel? How does your daily life look?

12. Life vision- What do you see as your grand contribution to yourself, your community, or your planet?

After taking time to work on this exercise (which can take days or weeks), how do you feel? Did you discover something about yourself you were unaware of before? Did you find some clarity in an area of your life? We would love to hear from you in the comments.