The 10 Life Arenas: A Self Assessment

Here we are, 2 days away from the summer solstice and our summer schedule (or lack there of) is rocking in its full glory. I know I’ve said before how much I love seasons, but I need to double down on it because I really do. The rhythms that ebb and flow with each one keep things fresh and right now I’m loving the lower number of commitments and looser feel of summer.

Yesterday I drove to Charlotte to get a mole taken off my face. I’ve had a million biopsies over the years being that I’m fairly spotted and have a family history of melanoma. At my latest dermatology appointment my doctor recommended this slightly suspicious one be taken out. A plastic surgeon is recommended for anything on the face to minimize scarring and I should get the pathology back in about a week. So that’s how I spent a large chunk of my day.

I didn’t mind too much though, as it gave me a chance to catch up on Marco Polos with friends, listen to the news, and listen to books. One I’m about halfway through right now is Brendan Burchard’s High Performance Habits. I’m a nonfiction/self development junkie so these books inspire and motivate me.

The chapter I listened to yesterday included a 10 category self evaluation. As we are at the start of a fresh, new season and I’m getting my feet back under me from Scotland, I thought a little (public?) self evaluation would be fun. Please join me and evaluate your life, too! As my dad always said (ok, I think Socrates said it, too), the unexamined life is not worth living.

The 10 Life Arenas by Brendan Burchard

Health – physical and mental wellbeing

I guess let’s use a numerical scale on these. For health right now I’d give myself a 8.5. Things going well include regular exercise (strength and lots of walking), cooking most of our meals using fresh foods (some even from the garden and adding fresh herbs to almost everything), and getting good sleep (typically 9:30/10:00-5:30 AM for morning workouts with David).

Things I could do better include drinking more water (though the lemonade LMNT is helping) and figuring out how to get a breast MRI. I have dense tissue and have heard it’s possible to get insurance to cover the cost of MRIs for this reason in lieu of a mammogram. Anyone have success with this?

Family- relationship with family members

A solid 9, I’d say? Under my roof, it’s great. The girls are 13 and 11 and I’m really enjoying this stage of their independence and capabilities but also still being plugged in and able to guide them. Our days are a fun blend of together time and them taking off to play together or with friends. It feels like a sweet spot. For family not under my roof, well, I wish I was able to see them more often! Looking forward to seeing a bunch this weekend at my cousin’s baby shower.

7. I stay plugged in with my friends from our former town and am working on deepening friendships here in our new town. I really love being home and happily get caught up in hobbies and tasks. Because of this, I don’t do well reaching out and inviting people to do things. I’m working on it. I invited a friend to come over today to see the chicks and invited a friend and her family to come over for dinner tomorrow night. I usually love social time once I’m in it, but need to work on staying more consistent with reaching out.

Intimate Relationship- romantic relationship or marriage

8. I want to give us a 10 because we are so solid and enjoying our little life together here so much, buuuuuttttt we’re both so task oriented that we’ve been checking things off in other life categories (extended family, house projects, work travel) and it hasn’t left a lot of time for us to prioritize just being together. More consistent date nights or evening walks or maybe even an overnight together would be so good!

Mission- purpose, career, or life work

4. Maybe a 3. I have grand ideas for blogging, my newsletter, sharing these things on social, keeping my affiliate links easily accessible and helpful, but most of the time it feels like playing whack-a-mole. Am I trying to do too much? Am I just not organized enough? Is it a life season where I just have to accept that it’s not possible to make all the things I want to do happen? I’ll have a bit more of an organized routine when we start our fall schedule and I’ll be curious how that impacts my ability to work on these things.

Finances- financial health and management

9. Remember when I released The State of the Family forms and got David more involved in our State of the Family Facebook group? We tried to do weekly videos together talking openly about financial strategy, best practices, investing, etc. I would love to bring that back in more depth one day, not because we are experts, but because we’ve worked hard at learning strategies and reaching goals over the past 16 years of our marriage and have learned so much we’d love to share. We are in a spot right now of enjoying some of the fruits of our labor and I’m proud of our combined efforts that helped us get here.

Adventure- fun, travel, spontaneity, and exploration

9. Scotland was a grand adventure and I’m still flying high from it! I don’t know so much about spontaneity, but exploration and travel, yes. I feel like the next five years with the girls are some prime travel years and brainstorming and researching places we’d like to go is fun.

Learning- personal growth, education, and skill development

8. I was leaning 9, but to achieve that I’d really like to cut out some of my Tiktok scrolling. Even if it’s just 30 minutes-ish a day, and highly enjoyable to be honest, I don’t think it’s bringing much value to my life.

But outside of that, I’m really leaning into hobbies! Gardening has been such a joy with its hands-on learning. I also want to dive deeper into bread making and cooking. I ordered this sourdough cookbook to help develop my baking skills and this Ina Garten cookbook that I plan to slowly cook my way through (maybe Sunday afternoons?) to expand my skills and repertoire. I’m also finding a lot of joy in personalizing the house. We just hung some picture frames, got wallpaper, added some plants. I consider this a hobby and owe you some updated pictures of these updates 🙂

Spirituality- connection with a higher purpose, meaning

6.5. We are wanting to get back into a good rhythm with going to church, but haven’t been great at it this summer. I know my relationship with God isn’t dependent on attendance, but it does help me stay anchored. I pray and talk to God often, but could do better with digging more into the word.

Emotions- emotional well-being, control, and resilience

9. I am feeling a good mix of all the things- peace, joy in everyday tasks, motivation, hope, and staying busy without feeling overwhelmed.

Ok, that was a great therapy session for myself; how about you? 🙂

This practice is supposed to be able to help us focus in on what we’re doing well and create goals for areas we want to improve upon. However, I believe the intention is to create awareness around where our time and energy is going currently. Then we can adjust areas to reach a level of harmony that we desire. The goal is not to make every category a 10 (impossible), but to live a life that feels in balance.

If you feel up for sharing, what category is a strength for you right now? Which category would you like to adjust and make stronger? Do you feel in balance? Why or why not?