Take a Snapshot of Your Wellbeing
What’s your personal Wellbeing Snapshot?
This spring, we’ll be diving into a series on Authenticity; what it is and why it's important for each of us to cultivate. Before we dive into Authenticity and how it helps us live as our best selves, we wanted to give everyone the chance to take a “Wellbeing Snapshot” that can provide a picture of where you’re at right now with your health, happiness and fulfillment. Your snapshot will give you a baseline and context to work from as we explore Authenticity in the weeks ahead; helping you set clear goals for ways that cultivating greater Authenticity could increase your overall sense of health, happiness and fulfillment.
We’ve broken this Wellbeing Snapshot down into 4 simple exercises adapted from commonly used life satisfaction assessments. Each one looks at wellbeing in a different way, and has a score that represents your personal sense of wellbeing in this moment of life.
Four exercises to capture your Wellbeing Snapshot:
Life satisfaction
The Wheel of Life
Positive energy
Negative energy
By combining your scores for each exercise, you’ll get an overall score. Each exercise can then provide you with more details about what may be out of balance or in need of attention in your life. With your overall score and the takeaways from each exercise, you’ll get your very own Wellbeing Snapshot. Let’s get started!
Life satisfaction exercise:
On a scale of 1 to 4…
Q 1: How satisfied do you feel with your life overall, in the big-picture view?
1 - Very unsatisfied
2 - Mostly unsatisfied
3 - Somewhat satisfied
4 - Very satisfied
Q 2: Do you feel well-connected to your personal values and sense of purpose or meaning?
1 - No, never
2 - Not really, only occasionally
3 - Yes, some of the time
4 - Yes, most of the time
Q 3: How satisfied are you with what you’ve accomplished so far in life?
1 - Very unsatisfied
2 - Mostly unsatisfied
3 - Somewhat satisfied
4 - Very satisfied
Exercise 1 Score: Add Q1 + Q2 + Q3 to get your Life Satisfaction score: ______
Reflection: What’s your takeaway?
The Wheel of Life exercise:
This exercise looks at balance and satisfaction across 10 different life domains. It provides an opportunity to see which domains might need some TLC or extra attention, and which domains are serving as anchor points of your wellbeing.
Create your Wheel:
Download the Wheel of Life above, or draw your own.
At the end of each spoke of the wheel write one of the 10 domains of life listed below (feel free to rephrase these domains in your own words).
With 1 being least satisfied and 10 being most satisfied, place a dot along each spoke where it is intersected by the wheel’s scoring rings (1-10) until you’ve scored all 10 life domains.
Once each domain has a score, connect all of your dots with a line to show your completed Wheel of Life.
Take a moment to observe…What does your wheel look like?
Exercise 2 score: Add your scores for all ten domains to get your total Wheel of Life score: ______
Reflection 1: What’s your takeaway?
Reflection 2: What 3 domains need the most attention right now?
Reflection 3: What’s one action you could take this week to move the dot on one of your three lowest scoring domains, or your priority domains, up to the next ring of the wheel? I.e. moving your “Career and Work” domain dot from ring 3 to ring 4?
The 10 Life Domains:
Money & Finance
Career & Work
Health & Fitness
Fun & Recreation
Environment
Community
Family & Friends
Partner & Love
Growth & Learning
Spirituality
Positive energy exercise:
How often do you experience pleasant emotions and moods? (things that lift you up or add positive energy to your life)
1 - Almost never
2 - Not very often
3 - Some of the time
4 - Most of the time
Exercise 3 score: ______
Reflection 1: What’s your takeaway?
Reflection 2: What’s one action you could take this week to experience positive emotions and moods more frequently?
Negative energy exercise:
How often do you experience negative emotions and moods? (things that bring you down or suck positive energy out of your life)
1 - Most of the time
2 - Some of the time
3 - Not very often
4 - Almost never
Exercise 4 score: ______
Reflection 1: What’s your takeaway?
Reflection 2: What’s one action you could take this week to experience negative emotions and moods less frequently?
What’s your wellbeing score?
Adding up your scores from exercises 1-4, record your total combined wellbeing score: _______
Your Wellbeing Snapshot: Looking at your total score, your Wheel of Life and your takeaways or reflections from each exercise, how would you describe your personal Wellbeing Snapshot right now? What do you want to work on? What actions or behavior changes might bring greater health, happiness and fulfillment into your life?
Remember, it’s not about being the best, it’s about becoming better, one day at a time.
Final Reflection: What realistic action steps can you take this week to begin increasing your scores for each of the exercises above, even by 1 point? Is there a friend, loved one or co-worker who could give you support to work on these positive action steps?
Action step 1:
Action step 2:
Action step 3:
Action step 4:
Your support person/accountability buddy:
We hope this post has helped you visualize your personal Wellbeing Snapshot and begin brainstorming goals you might set to work toward greater health, happiness and fulfillment for your life. If you enjoyed this post, stay tuned for our upcoming series on Authenticity!
Sources to explore:
Mead, Elaine. “4 Scales to Measure Satisfaction with Life (SWLS).” PositivePsycology.com. 12 August, 2019. https://positivepsychology.com/life-satisfaction-scales/
Moore, Catherine. “Subjective Wellbeing in Positive Psychology.” PositivePsychology.com. 19 December, 2019. https://positivepsychology.com/subjective-well-being/
Latif, Siama. “What Are Life Domains & How Can We Balance Them?” PositivePsychology.com. 17 June, 2021. https://positivepsychology.com/what-are-life-domains/
Want to dive deeper? Or, just need to talk?
Do you need support right now? Want to explore this topic more deeply with a coach or peer group? We’re here for you! Recovery Resources offers several great ways for clients, alumni and community members to get plugged in for one-on-one support and meaningful discussion.
Our Peer Support Program gives you the opportunity to get support from those with personal lived experience navigating challenges, questions or struggles that are similar to your own. This program offers both individual talk sessions and peer groups. A trained Peer Support Specialist will be your advocate and guide as you pursue your goals. Reach out to Heather Hopper to get started: heatherh@recoveryresourcescolorado.org
Our Holistic Coaching Program gives you the opportunity to get support from a certified Holistic Health Coach with more than two years of experience working specifically with people in recovery. This program offers both individual coaching sessions and coaching circle groups. Your coach will be your facilitator and accountability partner as you identify your strengths and values so you can effectively pursue your goals. Reach out to Kelsey Brasseur to get started: kelsey@recoveryresourcescolorado.org
