Lacking Parts

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There's this very common tool out there called the Wheel of life. It asks you to evaluate separate areas of your life, e.g. "family", "health", "finance", "personal growth" etc. You give each area a number ranging from 1 to 10, creating what is basically a chart of your life.

Here's an example from this site

While overall this tool is certainly quite useful (it definitely is very popular), I think that this two-dimensional approach might not be very sustainable. See, the Wheel of Life promises balance, and sure, it's pretty good way to show where you lack, and where you exceed (which, as concepts, are not very convincing to me).

But, this dichotomy between good and bad, between lacking and exceeding can be quite misleading. The Wheel of Life encourages focusing on everything, because, maybe unconsciously, we all want to reach a 10 in all areas. Or, at least, not go below 5 in any one of them.

For me, the tool lacks a third dimension: depth. Something that signifies not only how good you are at something, but also how much you care about something. A marker that determines your areas of focus.

Focusing on everything is like focusing on nothing.

Balance is not just juggling parts of life, and trying to keep everything together. It's dance, steered by your core values, that goes in all directions; sometimes stopping, others accelerating.

Never disregard the depth.