Throughout the myriad of posts I’ve seen on social media, I’ve noticed that people are eager to figure out what matters. But what does that actually mean? Is that some sort of conceptual thing we feel good thinking about, or is there a way to actually measure that and make changes?

This past year I found a tool in a book called Your Best Year Ever by Michael Hyatt that provides a bit of insight into this question. One of the things he emphasizes is looking at life holistically. The health of each facet of life inevitably affects all the others!

Do yourself a favor by taking his short two minute quiz on the 10 domains of life. This test helped me open my eyes to the fact that having a healthy life means creating goals in a lot of different areas, not just my job or financial goals.

Our hobbies, spiritual lives (whatever that means to you), marriages, friendships, jobs, and family relationships all create the tapestry of what our lives look like as a whole. This quiz is a good way to figure out what you need to be focusing on during quarantine, but also after the quarantine is over.

Here are a few things I learned after taking my quiz:

I figured out that I don’t set aside a lot of time for hobbies and therefore I don’t tap into the creative part of my brain very often. That could be unimportant to some, but as someone in a creative industry, it’s essential to keep my mind open to inspiration and giving myself an outlet to grow as a person.

So instead of focusing a lot of my time and effort on creating goals for my business, this past January I kept thinking about the hobbies that actually bring me joy and the hobbies that enable my mind to find rest after a day of work and will inspire me to keep moving forward.

My recommendation to you would be to take this short quiz and look at what domain in your life is suffering the most and create goals during quarantine to focus on making that part of your life better. If that’s focusing on family relationships, maybe that means teaching your parents and grandparents how to use FaceTime and being more intentional about spending time with them. If it’s about your faith, maybe that means exploring books, exploring the Bible, or exploring meditation techniques. I would love to keep the conversation going about this because I believe it so important to look at life in a holistic way. It keeps our eyes open to what actually matters and what we may need to set aside!

A few additional tips found in Your Best Year Ever:

1. Take time to point out what is a limiting belief and a liberating truth in whatever aspect of life you’re focusing on. Take a piece of paper and split it down the middle to write out your thoughts. Your “liberating truth” side is what you need to be saying out loud each day!
2. Think backward and use regret as a tool – not a source of shame.
3. Use gratitude as a means of empowerment. Write down three things you’re grateful for each day. Gratitude and joy keeps us strong.

What were the results of your quiz?!