The practice of strategic planning and goal setting provides an overview for how you want your life to look and feel. When it comes down to the action steps that will help get you there, setting personal wellness goals is the next step. In doing so, you evaluate your life holistically.
There is recognition that your professional life is affected by your personal life, which is affected by your spiritual beliefs and your financial outlook. The interconnections of your life are what drive the importance of personal wellness goals. These ideas for life goals can help you get the most out of every day.
Personal Wellness Goals Boost Holistic Health
Setting personal wellness goals is an excellent way to improve life balance. By considering the nine areas of wellness, you can keep yourself from becoming too focused on just one area of your life.
When you work towards personal wellness goals, you aim to improve yourself in a holistic way. As such, you don’t just throw yourself into your dream job or marathon training, or social growth at the expense of other aspects of your life.
Personal wellness goals are about deep, meaningful life balance. Think of these ideas for life goals as a way to guide your life holistically.
Ideas for Life Goals in the Nine Areas of Wellness
Emotional Wellness
The emotionally well person can identify, express and manage the entire range of feelings and would consider seeking assistance to address areas of concern.
If you have never really considered your emotional wellness (sometimes referred to as mental wellness) before, it’s not as scary as you might think! While some people find great comfort in working with a professional therapist, it isn’t a requirement to be emotionally well.
Personal Wellness Goal #1: Daily journaling
Keep a beautiful journal and special pen on your bedside table. Spend one minute each night before bed writing in the journal. It doesn’t matter whether you record the activities of your day or your deepest emotions. You may choose simply to write a list of things you are grateful for each day.
It is the act of writing and the ritual of holding yourself accountable to self-reflection that supports your emotional wellness. Keeping a life journal is a gift to yourself, both now and into the future.
Career Wellness
The professionally well person engages in work to gain personal satisfaction and enrichment, consistent with values, goals, and lifestyle.
Personal Wellness Goal #2: Define career success for yourself
Remember that your career is far more than your title or your paycheck. Without a sense of satisfaction and curiosity, you’re selling yourself short.
Maybe it’s time to reassess your role and finding a mentor or engaging in new training would get you where you want to be.
Or perhaps you’ve realized you’re working in a job that creates so much stress that it is affecting other parts of your life. What do you need to do to make a change? Write out a plan with baby steps to get you there. A goal-setting worksheet for SMART goals can help you along the way.
Changing your life goals regarding your career might not happen overnight, but you may as well work toward positive change!
Perhaps your job is fine and provides a good income and security for you. But you’re itching to do more. In this gig economy, can you take on a side hustle that will allow you to continue to grow your skills?
Ultimately, is your career feeding you in a way that adds to your overall wellness?
Social Wellness
The socially well person has a network of support based on interdependence, mutual trust, and respect and has developed a sensitivity and awareness towards the feelings of others.
Personal Wellness Goal #3: Foster social connections that support me every day
Beyond the bar scene of your 20s and the PTA meetings of your 30s and the cheering with other parents on the sidelines in your 40s, what does your social life look like?
Where do you feel a real connection with others? While we all need love from our families and close friends, we should evaluate if those relationships are building us up or breaking us down. Do we surround ourselves with people who are supportive of our dreams?
If you feel like you’re always a single salmon swimming upstream, it’s time to think about how you can create a better network of support. There’s no need to chase your life goals alone!
Spiritual Wellness
The spiritually well person seeks harmony and balance by openly exploring the depth of human purpose, meaning, and connection through dialogue and self-reflection.
Personal Wellness Goal #4: Challenge belief systems by learning about and working with others
In our busy society, it is easy to go about our daily lives without ever really considering what we’re really doing here. But the spiritually well person looks for ways to ask difficult questions. There is room to pause for self-reflection. Spiritual wellness is an integral part of life, not an afterthought or a luxury.
Engaging with interfaith communities gives the opportunity to see how our commonalities are often much greater than our differences. By working with others who are different than us, we build bridges of understanding on a personal level.
If that feels like too bold of a step for you, I suggest reading The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World. In it, you can read how two spiritual leaders from different faith traditions grapple with similar spiritual issues.
Asking questions and thinking about how you really feel about your purpose in the universe is a great beginner step for developing a personal wellness goal for your spiritual life.
Physical Wellness
The physically well person gets an adequate amount of sleep, eats a balanced and nutritious diet, engages in exercise for 150 minutes per week, attends regular medical check-ups, and practices safe and healthy sexual relations.
Personal Wellness Goal #5: Schedule your annual check-up
You may be surprised that someone who has worked as a health coach for more than 10 years is not suggesting getting more exercise or eating more vegetables as a physical wellness goal.
The truth is unless you are getting regular medical check-ups, you lack important objective data from which to set other personal wellness goals for your physical fitness.
So go do it. Now. Schedule your annual exam. You’re worth it!
Financial Wellness
The financially well person is fully aware of the financial state and budgets, and saves and manages finances in order to achieve realistic goals.
Personal Wellness Goal #6: Know your bottom line
The harsh reality is that many people don’t have a good grasp on their financial wellness. The problem with this is that it is a major source of stress. That stress can manifest itself in physical health problems, strained relationships, and career stagnation.
While many people were raised with a hush, hush attitude toward money, knowing your bottom line puts you in a position of power. Taking the time to review your accounts is an investment in your future. Knowing exactly how much is coming in and going out– and where it’s all going– allows you to make informed choices in the future.
But it all starts with sitting down and facing the reality. If doing that makes your head spin and you don’t know where to start, Personal Finance for Dummies gives you an easy, workable blueprint. Imagine how much better you’ll feel when you’re finished.
Intellectual Wellness
The intellectually well person values lifelong learning and seeks to foster critical thinking, develop moral reasoning, expand worldviews and engage in education for the pursuit of knowledge.
Personal Wellness Goal #7: Read more books
It is well documented that the most successful public figures are avid readers. The thirst for knowledge as a mind-expanding exercise fuels an inner drive for greatness.
Whether you are already an avid reader or haven’t touched a book in ages, set a realistic goal to read more in the coming year. For example, I read 59 books this year. My goal for the coming year is 62. It’s not a huge increase, but it will take effort!
Also, don’t feel like every book you read has to be about personal development or wellness. (Though you should check out my Top 5 Wellness Books for Women— they’re all a good place to start!) If you like fiction, you’ll enjoy the escape into another world. That has great stress-busting benefits for you, too!
Bonus points if you step out of your comfort zone to join a book club. Giving yourself a place where you can share your ideas and learn from others will further nurture your intellectual wellness.
Creative Wellness
The creatively well person values and actively participates in a diverse range of arts and cultural experiences as a means to understand and appreciate the surrounding world.
Personal Wellness Goal #8: Nurture a creative outlet
For those of us in midlife who are busy with work, family, aging parents, and the logistical complications of taxiing children to multiple activities, it’s easy to blow off activities we enjoy. But that’s precisely why nurturing a creative outlet is so important!
Creativity as self-care allows us to reconnect with that part of ourselves that craves a break in routine. It develops new neural-motor pathways. And it’s just plain fun!
Maybe you can take those tap dance lessons you couldn’t afford growing up. Or perhaps you’ve been meaning to get back to playing the piano after many years away. For some people, taking up a handicraft like knitting, sewing, or even cake decorating feeds a creative spirit.
Don’t have the budget for classes or lessons? Shift your social outings away from dinner and movies and try something new. There are a lot of low-cost art exhibitions, plays, and concerts you can attend. It may take a little time to find them, but it’s worth it.
What can you and your friends teach each other? Setting up a monthly creativity night can serve to learn new things, experiment with what other people think is fun, and develop your social network.
Environmental Wellness
The environmentally well person recognizes the responsibility to preserve, protect and improve the environment and appreciates the interconnectedness of nature and the individual.
Personal Wellness Goal #9: Opt outside
As someone who regularly touts the health benefits of hiking, I love to be outside. And as a woman in her 40s, this desire to escape to nature is stronger than ever.
When we can recognize that so much of our everyday lives are dependent on the environment, we are more inclined to appreciate and protect it. Maybe you can opt for alternative transportation to work or school every once in a while. Or you can be aware of the environmental impact of your meals. Or even plan your next vacation to a national park. (It’s budget-friendly!)
Raising your environmental wellness makes you a better steward of the earth and allows you to feel the interconnectedness of humanity and the environment.
Reaching your personal wellness goals
If the idea of approaching wellness holistically appeals to you, I welcome the opportunity to work with you through virtual health coaching. It will guide you to consider your holistic health by considering ideas for life goals based on your personal wellness needs.
