Most of us have heard of these four:

1. Spiritual
2. Physical
3. Social
4. Intellectual

And those are awesome, but I wanted some more detail. So I came up with the following list:

1. Spiritual
2. Physical
3. Emotional
4. Marriage
5. Family and kids
6. Relationships and service
7. Education and learning
8. Career, contributing, creating
9. Home and garden
10. Finances
11. Leisure

I don’t think one category is necessarily more important than another category, but I did put them in a specific order. Starting with the spiritual gives you a good foundation and guidance for everything else. Then I need energy and physical health to be able to do everything I want to do, and putting my physical body in order helps with my emotions and focus. I have to take care of my mental health and make sure I’m functioning well inside before I can start looking outward.

I feel like building up a better marriage is one of the most important relationships I have: having a good marriage enables me to be a better mother. And I need to take care of my kids and my own family before I can look outward.

But then I do try to look outward and be a good friend and neighbor and help other people. And I want to learn and educate myself, both to be an example to my kids, and to be able to help other people. And because learning is just awesome. With everything I learn, I want to build up a career and create things that help contribute to the world and make it a better place.

I also need to build up a good foundation in my home, keeping it clean and fixed up and functional for my family. And I need to make sure that my finances are in order so that I am prepared for whatever happens in life.

Finally, I listed leisure time, because it’s good to be intentional about free time, and to spend time playing and doing things I enjoy.

Sometimes I just write to-do lists. But I improve more when I use these categories to intentionally set goals and take care of myself.