It's easy to get engrossed in one area of our life or to feel like something's missing, but not be able to pinpoint what needs attention. Or worse, to try to fix everything at once and end up overwhelmed.
The 10 Dimensions of Life framework addresses all of the above. Building on Aristotle's foundational work on human flourishing, I've expanded his four dimensions — physical, emotional, mental, and social — to include six more that capture how we actually live and thrive today.1
If our Momentum Planners support you with figuring out how and when, the 10 Dimensions help you figure out the what and why.
The ten dimensions are:
Physical
Emotional
Mental
Spiritual
Play
Professional
Romantic
Family
Financial
Community
The first five can be grouped as “self-focused” dimensions and the second can be grouped as “relational-focused.” I want to be clear about this demarcation, though: it’s not true that the self-focused dimensions are divorced from or independent from the “relational-focused” ones or vice versa.
For instance, the Family and Romantic dimensions heavily influence most people’s Emotional dimensions. Similarly, most people’s Emotional dimension influences their Family and Romantic dimensions.
In another example, people’s Financial dimension may influence their Play dimension, at the same time that, for other people, the Community dimension has more influence on their Play dimension.
Ten different dimensions may seem like a lot or too many. What I’ve found is that, in the effort to make fewer dimensions, some dimensions get lumped together. For example, the Financial and Professional dimensions are often lumped together because our jobs and our money is usually so intertwined.
Keeping them separate, though, might help one be satisfied with their job separate from their satisfaction with their financial dimension. It could also help retirees or near-retirees separate how their desires to continue working (or not) relate to where they are financially.
This is thus a case where, though I’d prefer an easier-to-remember framework with 4-7 dimensions, 10 is actually more useful for us and better captures the tension of being human. Our reach exceeds our grasp.
So with that overview out of the way, let’s move into how to apply it using the Wheel of Life Worksheet.