So, you’ve sat down and started goal setting. Where did you start? Your monster goal of course!

A monster goal is what’s most important to you at this point in your life. That’s a natural place to start. Well, whether it’s career, family or a special relationship, are you neglecting the rest of your life in your goal-setting efforts?

I have come up with 15 areas of your life that you could consider in your goal-setting plan. This will help you to take steps to build a balanced and more fulfilling life. Here they are in alphabetical order:

1) Artistic/creative
2) Career
3) Community
4) family,
5) Financial,
6) Fitness,
7) Friends,
8) Fun,
9) Health,
10) Learning/intellectual,
11) Living environment,
12) Personal relationship,
13) Psychological,
14) Recreation,
15) Spiritual

Of course, you don’t want to create goals in every single area of your life. It would be a little overwhelming and might actually work against you. Pick 3-7 of these areas in addition to your monster goal and then do your goal-setting process. As you’re doing this, consider carefully which areas might be most important to you.

Following is a brief overview of seven of the 15 areas with a few examples for some of them.

Artistic/creative – Do you have a yen to paint or do you love to sing? Maybe you like to carve wood, make soap or play a musical instrument. Including goals relating to activities such as these can add color and fulfillment to your life in a way that other goal-setting areas do not.

Community – This area includes such things as volunteer work with local groups (non-profit or other), or political, and social activities in the area where you live. It also includes organizations you belong to such as clubs and other social groups.

Financial – This area may be obvious in some ways and can relate to your career. But you may also want to consider goal-setting relative to retirement planning, savings and investing. You might also want to add learning about retirement plans or investment vehicles as part of this area of your life.

Fitness – Good health is the underpinning of a good life. And, because exercise is a major contributor to your health, goal-setting in this area is very important. To paraphrase Tony Robbins, you can have a lot of enthusiasm for success but if you can’t get out of bed in the morning, then you’ve got a problem!

Fun – Now you may be one of those people who never misses an opportunity to “let loose”. But if you’re like most people, this may be an area of your life that you neglect. So I say, life is too short not to have as much fun as you can while doing all that other goal-setting stuff! Telling jokes, being silly and generally letting down your hair are good goals to help keep your life balanced and joyful.

Learning/intellectual – Keeping your mind sharp and youthful is a worthy goal, wouldn’t you say? A few ways to do this are to take classes in stimulating topics you’d like to learn about, read new books/magazines and play mentally challenging games like chess and bridge.

Spiritual – For some people, this may not be an important aspect of life. For others, it could be the most important. Here, I’m not just talking about religion and traditionally spiritual issues. Goal-setting in this area of your life could include writing down an intention to forgive someone, to be more loving to others or to start a new practice such as meditation or yoga.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, all 15 areas are important, I chose the ones I felt most connected with as examples. As you go through the list, figure out what will give you the most satisfaction in your life; more friends, more money, more fun, a partner or any of the other areas. One good way to help make your choice is to rank each area on it’s importance to you on a scale of 1-10 (one = least important and 10 = most important). You’ll find yourself enjoying your goal-setting experience more than ever, but most important, you’ll be enjoying your life more!