December’s come around quickly this year and I’m thoroughly looking forward to my annual review.
In fact, next week is the Annual Review Virtual Summit, where some brilliant people share how they close out the year and plan the next.
Throughout the year I try to keep equilibrium with various frameworks but I’ve never found one that clicked. Here some frameworks and models that people use to give structure to the things that matter:
The Wheel of Life. You rate eight or so areas of your life from 1 to 10 and see how lopsided the wheel looks. It's simple and visual, and a bit confronting. Its weakness is that it treats every area as equally important.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. This is the famous pyramid: body, safety, belonging, esteem and self-actualisation.
The Four Burners Theory. Picture four burners for family, friends, health and work. To be really successful, you turn one off. This is more about trade-offs.
The Good Life Buckets (Jonathan Fields). There are three buckets: vitality, connection and contribution. They all leak, and when one runs low, everything else suffers. I like how simple it is, and the idea that your lowest bucket quietly limits how high the rest can go.
Gallup's five elements of wellbeing. Career, social, financial, physical and community wellbeing, all backed by research across many countries. It was also a useful reminder that money and community deserve a seat at the table.
PERMA (Martin Seligman). Wellbeing comes from positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning and accomplishment.
Self-Determination Theory. People thrive on autonomy, competence and connection.
Ikigai. Purpose lives where what you love, what you're good at, what the world needs and what you can be paid for overlap.
Covey's Big Rocks. Put the important things in the jar, or your calendar, first, or the small stuff fills it.
I find all of these useful but I wanted to better categorise each of the things that matter to me (in no particular order): health (mental, physical), friends, family, work, spirituality (by which I mean purpose and meaning, not so much religion), hobbies, physical space, money and finances, community [beyond my close friends], creativity, rest and play, and how I handle time.
The arrangement that I’ve landed on swaps out categories for questions:
How do I feel? Physical health, mental and emotional health, and rest
Who am I with? Partner and romance, family, friends, and community beyond close friends
What do I do? Work and career, intellect and learning, creativity, hobbies and play, and adventure
Why does it matter? Spirituality, meaning and purpose, and contribution and giving back
What do I have to work with? Money and finances, physical space, and how I handle time
This framework doesn’t have to be an acronym, nor does it need to be contained in a shape to work. It’s not even technically a framework but I do think these questions capture everything that matters.