
264. Building a Balanced Life: 9 Domains You Need to Know
Audio
Overview
- The 9 Life Domains: They include body, mind, spirit, love, family, community, money, work, and hobbies.
- The Importance of Integration: Who you are, how you relate, and what you do all matter. How do you hold room for each?
- How to Identify Your Growth Areas: Use the LifeScore Assessment to pinpoint your biggest opportunities for change.
- Small Adjustments, Big Impact: The secret to long-term balance is intentional, consistent action.
This episode was produced by Sarah Vorhees Wendel of VW Sound
Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Marissa: Ken, all I’m trying to do right now is stay warm. Yeah,
[00:00:04] Ken: welcome to the winter vortex, everyone.
[00:00:07] Marissa: It is currently 22 degrees. Right now in Nashville, but that is up from I think 10 degrees when I woke up this morning This is Fahrenheit for those of you in the States, but it is just cold Everywhere.
[00:00:21] Ken: I know I’m drinking tea today.
[00:00:24] Just trying to stay warm. You know, I was telling my wife I’m having PTSD from leaving Minnesota.
[00:00:29] Marissa: Oh my god, cuz
[00:00:30] Ken: waking up with these frigid cold temperatures and she’s like listen It’s going to go away in a couple of weeks. I’m like, I don’t believe you. Like, this is what we said in Minnesota all the time.
[00:00:40] Marissa: I know. I feel like the good news is with Nashville, we only have usually a few weeks of bitter cold and then it kind of moves on, but we are smack dab in the middle of that. It’s always this time of year, late January, early February is when it’s the coldest. And hopefully we will be out of this in just a [00:01:00] couple of weeks because I’m definitely my
[00:01:02] Ken: body is not.
[00:01:03] used to the cold anymore.
[00:01:04] Marissa: It’s really rough. Well, we are not here to give you a weather report, but we are actually going to be talking about building a balanced life. And this is something that we haven’t really spent a ton of time on focus on this talking about. We talk about this concept in a lot of places in full focus frameworks, but focus on this hasn’t really been one area where we’ve really, you know, dived into specifically the various parts of your life and how to bring those into balance, what this might look like.
[00:01:34] And so this is kind of a unique episode. I’m so excited to jump into this and talk about it.
[00:01:40] Ken: Yeah, let’s do it.
[00:01:47] Welcome to another episode of Focus on This, the most productive podcast on the internet. So you can banish distractions, get the right stuff done, and finally start loving Mondays. I’m Ken Freire, and here with [00:02:00] my rocking co star, Marissa Haye.
[00:02:02] Marissa: Hey! Happy Monday!
[00:02:04] Ken: Happy Monday! It’s been a January! My gosh, your best year ever.
[00:02:09] And now freezing cold.
[00:02:11] Marissa: And now just we’re cold. We’re just really cold. I know. I cannot believe every year I feel like, and I say this every month, but it just blows my mind how fast time goes. It’s like just a second ago, we were at the beginning of January setting our goals, getting excited about the new year.
[00:02:26] And maybe for those of you listening, you know, here we are, it’s the beginning of February and maybe some of that. Fresh start effect has kind of worn off a little bit, or you’re feeling like you haven’t made the progress that you want in the various parts of your life that you initially set out. And the good news is every single Monday, this is why I love our show.
[00:02:46] It’s a great day of the week to just hit the reset button and set your intentions for the coming week. And what we’re really talking about today is going to be about building this balanced life. Last month we [00:03:00] had our biggest event of the year, which is your best year ever now. It’s easy for us to say However, it’s really our first event of the year So who knows if we’ll end up topping that later this year, but your best year ever historically is always our biggest event It’s our goal setting event or goal achievement event.
[00:03:16] We have thousands of people join us virtually It is such a blast and one of the common themes that we typically talk about at your best year ever is how much people want more balance. Ken, do you feel like this is true for your life?
[00:03:32] Ken: All the time. I mean, I feel like every day I’m trying to figure out how do I integrate my life so that there’s more balance, especially at the beginning of the year.
[00:03:40] I think so many people have a ridiculously amount of goals that they want to achieve, right? They’re like, I want to do everything that they actually get pretty unbalanced really quickly.
[00:03:50] Marissa: We may think we’re just trying to look for perfect balance across the board, and that’s not always the case. It’s usually going to flux and change in, you know, different parts of the year or [00:04:00] different parts of your life.
[00:04:01] You may put more emphasis on various parts of your life. And here at Full Focus, we call these are nine domains of life. And that’s what we’re going to be talking about today. So we’re going to dive into each of the nine life domains. And we’re going to talk about what each of these look like. And as we’re going through the various nine domains, I just want to invite you.
[00:04:23] To kind of ask yourself, on a scale of 1 to 10, how am I doing in this area? You know, do I feel like I am just 10, crushing it, like I’ve never been better, I’m living my ideal in this area, and I’m just feeling super confident and great about this, and like I have a clear path forward? Or is it, you know, a one where you are just really struggling, you’re not putting any focus on this specific domain of your life and you don’t even know what this could look like for you or how to make this part of your life flourish.
[00:04:56] And we’re going to go through this. And at the end of the episode, we’re going to actually share a free [00:05:00] tool with you. This is an amazing assessment that you can take to actually figure out. How you’re really doing in each of these domains. So make sure to listen till the end. We’ll give you that link so you can go ahead and actually know for certain how you’re doing across the board in each of these areas.
[00:05:17] All right. So first of all, we have domain number one, which is our body. Now this is your physical self. This includes things like your sleep, your nutrition, your movement. Overall, this is like your health, your wellness, when it relates to your body. So we know that our bodies are, you know, the physical starting ground for everything else.
[00:05:38] If we don’t have this in a good place, it’s very rare that the rest of the domains are going to be. At their optimal states and specifically other domains, you know, as we think about our cognition, our mental state, if our body isn’t operating in its optimal and we’re not giving our body what it needs, [00:06:00] this is often like going to ripple and affect the rest of our.
[00:06:03] our lives. As you think about your body, think about your sleep. How are you sleeping? Are you getting enough sleep? What is a quality of your sleep? If you’re like me, I wear two wearables. I have an aura ring, which is amazing. And I recently got this a couple of months ago. Um, my sister actually was using it and then stopped using it.
[00:06:23] And so she gifted it to me, which was great. And then I wear a Fitbit and both of these help me track several metrics within my body to know. how I’m doing on any given day related to my sleep, related to my movement. You know, how many steps am I getting? What kind of workouts am I getting? What is my heart rate?
[00:06:41] Um, my heart rate variability, which is one of the most important metrics when it comes to our body and knowing how we’re going to look in the years ahead, especially related to heart health. So as you’re thinking about this, sleep, nutrition, and movement are the primary areas that we want to focus on here.
[00:06:58] Ken: Now, Marissa, I gotta ask you a [00:07:00] question here. Why both? Is there like a lot of overlap from the Oura Ring and the Fitbit, or is there like one does one and one does the other?
[00:07:07] Marissa: Yeah, so there is a good amount of overlap. They both track sleep. They both track things like HRV. However, The Fitbit I find to be better for movement.
[00:07:17] So it tracks steps, whereas the Oura Ring does not track steps. My one issue primarily with the Oura Ring, I just wish they would track steps, but they don’t. And so I wear the Fitbit primarily for that. It does a little bit better on the exercise side of things too, being able to track different types of exercise, um, which the Oura Ring does just not as robustly, but the Oura Ring does have some advantages.
[00:07:41] If you’re a woman, it is able to connect with. An app, um, specifically for hormone health. And so that’s really helpful. It tracks your basal body temperature, which if you’re a woman, you may, may know about that. And that is an indicator of essentially your hormones and how those are operating. So that I find that really [00:08:00] helpful.
[00:08:00] And like I said, it goes a little bit more in depth on the sleep side. So if sleep is an area that you’re trying to focus on, I would recommend the Oura Ring because it really gives you the most robust amount of data when it comes to the quality of your sleep. And it gives you recommendations. It knows if you’re getting sick, this is so crazy.
[00:08:19] And it’ll tell you like, Hey, we’re detecting things that are off balance in your body and you need to slow down. You might need to rest extra today. Take it easy. Or it’ll be like, Hey, you’re in an optimal state. You can push really hard today. So I personally like using both. I’m a little bit of a data nerd when it comes to this stuff.
[00:08:37] However, I know several people who find wearables like way overwhelming and they get in a perfectionist mindset and so they don’t want to go there. But for me, one is not enough. I have two. So.
[00:08:48] Ken: I’m just thinking to myself, Ooh, if it’s going to tell me if I’m getting sick. It might be worth it just for that.
[00:08:54] Marissa: It’s pretty amazing.
[00:08:55] Ken: So what are some potential goals that people can have if they want to focus on the body? [00:09:00]
[00:09:00] Marissa: So this could be everything from a exercise related goal, a diet related goal, something related to your sleep or, you know, some of your rituals. So here’s a couple examples just to give you some ideas of what this might sound like.
[00:09:15] So complete my evening ritual and go to sleep by 9 45 PM every night. for 70 days starting January 7th. Now, if you’re familiar with our Smarter Framework, you will know that this meets that criteria. We’ve done plenty of episodes on that topic, so I encourage you to go back and find episodes on the Smarter Framework if you’re not familiar with how that is.
[00:09:38] But you’ll notice this is very specific. This is a habit goal, so this is time triggered. You know, we know what time you’re trying to go to sleep. We know how long you’re trying to have that streak go 70 days and when you’re planning to start it. So that is a great smarter goal related to your evening ritual.
[00:09:56] Another version of this could look like cook three meals at home [00:10:00] each week for 10 weeks starting January 7th. And I actually have a specific body related goal this quarter. So I thought I would share this. So I have workout five times a week for 10 weeks in a row starting January 6th, 2025. So that’s my current goal.
[00:10:18] You know, I’ve talked on the podcast, I’m trying to get back to consistency in my workout routine and I’m pleased to say that I’ve hit that every week since I’ve started. I’m loving it and this is what I love about the body domain. It affects every other part of your life. This is like arguably the most influential.
[00:10:37] Domain, in my opinion.
[00:10:38] Ken: So that leads to actually domain number two, right? So when we take care of our bodies, we also want to take care of our mind, right? So our mind, this is about the thinking and the emotions, right? They’re almost always tied together. How you think is going to affect how you feel. Right.
[00:10:53] And how you feel is going to affect how you act. So learning and skill development, reading, emotional regulation, all this is [00:11:00] extremely important in your mind. Some people love this domain. I’m a huge fan. I think Joel and I, Joel is our chief product officer. We like geek out over this domain a lot. I texted him this weekend about some super nerdy book.
[00:11:14] development that I was like, Oh, I wonder what would Joel think about this? You know, but it got me really excited. And I just, my wife is like, why are you so giggly right now? I don’t even know if giggly is a word, but I was like, I don’t know. I just thought about this random philosophical thing that I’m like, who could I talk to about this?
[00:11:29] Oh, Joel. Right. Uh, but that’s where it’s super important to think about, like, how are you growing? Both in your mind and in your emotional regulation is super important. Yeah. Potential goals, Marissa, for this could be, uh, like read 40 books by December 31st, right? 2025. Or complete 12 sessions with a trauma informed therapist by June 30th of 2025.
[00:11:53] Again, this is both the thinking and the emotional aspect of your life. They’re both really tied together. [00:12:00] It’s so hard to separate them, but I have found that the more you work on this area, the more you’ll find your life enriched.
[00:12:05] Marissa: This is essentially like your intellectual part of your brain and, uh, your mental health, you know, like you can kind of think of it in those two ways.
[00:12:15] And again, this is often something that maybe we put emphasis on learning or reading. And I know tons of our listeners really value growth and learning. And so that’s. Normal probably for a lot of you listening that you’re gonna say, oh, yeah I have a reading goal or something like that But I think that a lot of people miss on the emotional side and I think this is such a great area to focus on Especially if you’ve noticed yourself dragging or struggling in other domains This could be the key just similarly to the body whereas that’s about your body’s health.
[00:12:49] This is about your your mental health And this could be the thing that really unlocks the other domains for you. And I love this example of seeing a trauma informed therapist. That’s [00:13:00] such a great way to make this into a goal and to really focus on this area, um, this specific domain.
[00:13:06] Ken: Yeah,
[00:13:07] Marissa: let’s jump into domain number three spirit.
[00:13:10] So this is where you’re really connected with your purpose or something bigger than yourself. Think about this as your spiritual domain. This could be religious if that’s, you know, resonant for you, but this could just be something spiritual. So finding deeper purpose or finding meaning or awe in the things around you.
[00:13:30] You know, I know for me, this domain for me often looks like. Things like breathwork or meditation, you know, habit goals around those types of things because I know that those really fill my spirit, those really help regulate my system, help me feel connected. For instance, breathwork I find so powerful.
[00:13:50] The breath is so life giving in so many ways and so so spiritually connected. So that’s a beautiful area for me to focus on or meditation. This could be [00:14:00] prayer. This could be something specific to if you have a religious community that you’re connected with. If you have a religious text or a specific type.
[00:14:09] of study that you want to go into, this could be a great place for you. So a couple of potential goals would be something like complete a spiritual retreat at X location by July 1st, 2025, or implement morning prayer immediately after waking at 6am for four consecutive weeks starting February 17th, 2025.
[00:14:33] So those are a couple options when it’s related to the spirit domain, that it could be something again on the religious side or on the spiritual side, anything that’s going to connect you deeper to your purpose and something bigger.
[00:14:47] Ken: Yeah. And I love how we started this, right? Cause we, we go body, mind, spirit, right?
[00:14:52] Those are all about being.
[00:14:54] Marissa: Yes.
[00:14:55] Ken: Now the next three that we’re actually talking about is relational. Yeah. Aspect of it. Right. So domain number [00:15:00] four is actually love. This is what people would think about romance. It’s a partnership and this could be with a spouse, a partner or potential partner. You want to be able to figure out like, how do you grow in this area of loving?
[00:15:13] Like for me, for example, I haven’t, uh, I’ve been married for 13 years now, so it’s like, how do I continue to grow my relationship with my wife and not let it go stagnant? No, no, we’re, we’re lovers or like I, I need to romance her. So couple of potential goals here that you can think about is implement weekly date nights on Thursday nights by August 1st, 2025.
[00:15:37] Right. So it just becomes a rhythm. Now, for some of you who are listening to this and have been listening to focus on this for a while, you know, I have four kids to try to do that every week is a tremendous feat, but like, okay, let’s just try it. Let’s see what happens. Right. Better to try than to not try it off.
[00:15:51] Marissa: Totally. All
[00:15:52] Ken: right. Or another one could be go out once per month with a new guy beginning January 1st of 2025. I’m [00:16:00] not going to go out with a new guy, but maybe a new guy friend, right? Like I might be like coming up with a. New bromance or something like that. But I think that’s more for you, Marissa.
[00:16:07] Marissa: Yeah.
[00:16:08] Well, I think that this is really important and I’m grateful that we’re hitting on this because you know, whenever I do live events like your best year ever, or whenever I’m talking to our coaching clients and double win coaching, one of the questions I often get, and I’m the one that people ask because I’m single is.
[00:16:25] What do I do with the love domain if I’m single? You know, like how can I create a goal about finding a partner when I don’t really have control over that? And similarly can, you know, we hear often from people who are in committed relationships, how can I create a goal if the aspiration or the outcome I’m looking for is a deeper relationship?
[00:16:45] Like how do I create a goal? And is that a problem to try to put something on the calendar? Like does that negate the outcome I’m trying to actually accomplish? And my encouragement is it doesn’t. The beauty of setting goals and what we’re talking [00:17:00] about here, especially with the nine domains of life is it really allows you to be intentional in these various areas.
[00:17:06] So rather than just having the aspiration of, I want to find a partner or I want to have a better, deeply committed, you know, or connected marriage, you can actually create a goal. to accomplish that outcome. So there’s a little bit of a guessing game here. And obviously we don’t have full control. Part of love is that it includes another person, right?
[00:17:27] So we only have control over part of this, but creating, you know, in a, in a marriage, creating a weekly date night, while you can’t control the outcome of those date nights, you know that having that set aside time is likely going to lead to the result of a deeper relationship. Similarly, If you’re trying to find a partner, you can’t just put down like find my person by whatever date, right?
[00:17:52] That’s typically not how it works. However, there are practices, habits, or activities that you can do that will [00:18:00] likely lead to that. So going on a date once a month with a new person is a great goal. I actually did this years ago, probably two or three years ago, where I had a goal of going out on a new date, a first date every single week I think it was for like 10 weeks or something.
[00:18:16] I think I only made it through eight weeks. Honestly, it was exhausting. That just
[00:18:21] Ken: sounds like a lot. I’m like, Ooh, it was a lot.
[00:18:23] Marissa: But what it did was it really helped me. It pushed me to get out of my comfort zone and get in the habit of meeting new people and connecting and trying to learn. What do I want and what do I don’t want?
[00:18:36] Another great one if you’re single would be to start working with a dating coach. Um, I have a friend who did this a couple of years ago where she was kind of struggling in her dating life and she decided, Hey, I’m going to start working with a dating coach. And so I think she worked with her for three months.
[00:18:51] So your goal could be to hire a dating coach or if you’re married, maybe it’s working with a marriage therapist. You know, something like that, [00:19:00] again, you can’t control necessarily the outcome, but you can control the contributing behaviors, you know, will ultimately lead to that outcome. So I’m grateful that for the love domain, you know, if you’re partnered up, if you’re in a relationship, amazing, and if you’re not and you desire to be, that’s okay too and you still can set goals in that area.
[00:19:20] You ready to move on to domain five? I’m
[00:19:22] Ken: ready. Okay.
[00:19:24] Marissa: So, domain five, family. This could be a family that you’re actually from, like blood related to, or a family you’ve built. So we know that this looks different for so many different people and this should really be inclusive of whatever type of family that you have in your life.
[00:19:41] And ultimately, it’s the same goal as the love domain. It’s really helping you to thrive in these relationships. So a couple of potential goals that you could focus on for family is to complete a weekly phone call with your mom or your dad beginning January [00:20:00] 1st, you know, for a certain amount of weeks, if that’s a habit that you wanted to install.
[00:20:04] Just a quick note, we’ve talked about this before, but the idea that you can install a habit within 21 days is Total myth. It is unfounded in science and research. And so what we actually recommend is something closer 90 days of habit. And so you want to look at maybe three months of a weekly phone call.
[00:20:27] And that could be a really good habit goal for you to create here. Another one, and Ken, I think you’ve done something similar to this, would be to define your family values and mission by March 31st.
[00:20:41] Ken: My wife and I just did this using actually our, our product, the Life Focus product to create our family core values.
[00:20:48] And now this quarter, what we’re doing is every week teaching or training our kids on different aspects of each core value. So we’re going to try to do this for the first two quarters of the year.
[00:20:58] Marissa: I love that. That’s such a creative way [00:21:00] to like get. Your kids, and you have young kids. It’s not like they’re like teenagers.
[00:21:04] So that’s really awesome that you guys are going to be involving them and, and working with them.
[00:21:09] Ken: I’ll give you a great example. So our first core value that we’re doing, one of them is do hard things. Like we want to be a family that’s used to like just doing hard things, having a growth mindset. But each week we’ve broken it down and said, what are the things that we want to teach?
[00:21:21] So, uh, last week we cut out no media. So for everybody in the family, there was no media and then like the week before, there was like no extra sugars or sweets, right? This week, I don’t remember what this week is, it’s like, oh, independent play for them. Like they have to do everything as independently as possible, right?
[00:21:38] So just forcing them and teaching them like to push themselves. And it’s just a fun way that we’re going through our core values.
[00:21:43] Marissa: I love that. That’s so creative.
[00:21:45] Ken: Which leads to then the final relational domain, which is domain number six, community. And this is like our wider community. So this could be your friends, your neighbors, your coworkers, the wider community within your, you live in.
[00:21:59] Right. [00:22:00] And this also includes like advocacy, volunteering, investment into the people you care for, or that you really have a heart for. So like, for example, uh, me, I have a real big heart for young men. Right? That they’d be growing, loving Jesus, loving their families, and sometimes they don’t have a mother or father around.
[00:22:21] Right? So, I want to be able to help them. That’s a huge part of community for me. Now, potential goals in this regards, right? Number one, execute fun friend Friday night. Dinners for six weeks, beginning of March 1st of 2025, or volunteer twice per month at a nonprofit that you like for three months, beginning April 1st of 2025, but the whole goal again, is to just keep building these relationships and being intentional outside of just your immediate family or your spouse and looking at the broader horizon and say, how do I want to impact those around me?
[00:22:54] Marissa: And I think one thing to note here is you can have goals that hit on multiple [00:23:00] domains. So. This is a great example of this. You might have a goal, and this was a goal for me at the beginning of last year was to create a book club with my neighbors. Um, and we’re proud to say we’ve done it for a year. I think we missed one, maybe two months last year, but I actually have our next one happening this week and I’m hosting excited about that, but that is a great.
[00:23:22] example of a goal hitting on more than one domain. So for instance, this definitely hits on community. That was my primary intention was to connect with my neighbors on my block and the women on my block. But this also feeds into the mind domain. And so because it’s a book club and because we’re connecting over You know, reading that also hits on that, you know, for instance, if you wanted to have where you’re volunteering, maybe at your church or at something religious or spiritual, you know, center or something like that, or community that could both hit on community and spirit.
[00:23:57] So just keep that in mind as you’re setting your [00:24:00] goals. You don’t only have to choose one domain, you can choose multiple and it’s often that they do feed into multiple domains.
[00:24:06] Ken: Yeah. And the more you can integrate. Multiple domains, the better. So like, I actually started a book club and it was a lot of community, mind, and spirit.
[00:24:14] All three are together.
[00:24:15] Marissa: Yeah. Right?
[00:24:15] Ken: And I was just like, okay, cool. Like, I’m excited. I’m leading it and, and it’s going to be fun.
[00:24:32] Marissa: Now we’re going to go into kind of the circle of doing. So we’ve talked about the circle of being, which was mind, spirit. And body and then the circle of relating which is love family and community and now we’re talking about the circle of doing So the first domain within this is money saving money Spending money giving money or planning money So anything related to your finances or even a [00:25:00] work financial goal could fit into this and we’ll talk about work in a minute so how you want to align your resources with Ultimately, your vision for your life.
[00:25:09] That’s kind of what you’re thinking and asking here. You know, we find that a lot of our clients end up setting money goals because this is a big focus. This is another one of those domains that really has a trickle down effect into the rest of your life. If you’re super stressed financially, it’s very rare that you’re going to be able to thrive in the rest of your domains.
[00:25:31] So this could look like. Set up auto draft to deposit 20 percent of my paycheck into savings by March 1st, or buy a house in X neighborhood by December 31st. I have a goal, uh, this quarter. I have a credit card that I am ready to be done with and am planning to pay that off by the end of this quarter Currently on track and excited for that So you may have a debt goal that you’re trying to work through some debt or a savings [00:26:00] goal Maybe this is you want to implement a budget or a budgeting system into your, you know, finances, or this could be giving an X amount of your money to organizations that really resonate with you.
[00:26:13] Um, so again, this could be a money goal that also bleeds into that spirit goal or a money goal that ends up leading into a hobby goal, which we haven’t talked about. But if it’s something like saving up for a vacation or a specific, you know, thing like that, that could bleed into a few different areas.
[00:26:30] Ken: As we do domain number seven, right, and you start to save, spend, give, we actually go into domain number eight, which is work. And we’ve purposely separated this because many times people think, Oh, work is where I get money, but no, actually work we want you to think about is includes your performance, your wins, your satisfaction, and it’s where you spend most of your time.
[00:26:52] That’s the way I want you to think about work. So for example, a stay at home mom. Right? She’s working. She might not be financially contributing, but she’s [00:27:00] working, right? Or someone who’s retired, they might be volunteering a lot of their time in a certain place, right? But they might not be getting a financial compensation for it.
[00:27:09] So this is all about performance. So I want you to think about that. And you want to think about in this domain, this is why we exist for the most part, right? Is that a lot of times people can overwork in this one domain and honestly just focus a lot of their life on this domain. And we are more complicated creatures than we think we are.
[00:27:31] So we want to make sure that we have the proper amount of balance in the work domain. So a couple of potential goals that you may want to add here is number one, you leave the office by 5 PM every day for 60 days straight. Starting February 1st, 2025, or that you generate 350, 000 in sales by December 31, 2025.
[00:27:53] Now that one, like we said earlier, Marissa and I talked about has that component of the financial domain and [00:28:00] the work domain, right? Cause you’re trying to generate revenue, but you want to make sure that as we think about work. It’s not just the financial piece. It’s what brings life to you and what do you want to help create and cultivate to make a bigger impact in society?
[00:28:15] Marissa: This could be something, you know, like professional development, like you want to attend a specific conference or retreat or join a mastermind, you know, or a coaching program to really grow in the work domain. Uh, that would be a great goal to have related to work, or maybe it’s a specific degree or certification that you want to accomplish.
[00:28:37] So this doesn’t just have to look like. Putting boundaries around your work or how you want to work, but it could be about leveling up and really growing in this area as well. And again, you know, this can bleed into other domains, but one of the things is that we often find that the majority of our clients specifically, which includes all of you who are listening, is that this is a [00:29:00] domain that people over index, they end up setting the majority of their goals or putting the majority of their focus and time onto this domain.
[00:29:08] And so that’s really why at Full Focus, we believe in the double win. We preach the double win and we teach the double win, which is to win at work and succeed at life. We’re no longer looking to just say, Hey, we want to succeed at work. We really want you to be flourishing in all of these nine life domains.
[00:29:28] Because that’s when we see most people just thriving in their life. If you’re only trying to look at the work domain, whether to grow or to combat that domain, uh, but you’re not focusing on the other eight domains, it’s rare that you’re gonna be living a well rounded, balanced life. And so that’s why we have the nine life domains and work is only one of them.
[00:29:52] So let’s talk about the last domain, which is This is arguably my favorite domain of [00:30:00] all. I love this one because it’s the most fun. It’s the most, this is where you get to play. You get to grow, you get to learn, you know, I like to think of a hobby of your learning, but you’re also just doing this for the Sake of fun.
[00:30:15] For the sake of pleasure, for the sake of joy. This is something that lights you up. It feeds your soul, it feeds your heart, and gives you creativity and excitement for the rest of your life. So I love hobbies if you can’t tell, I have a very strong. Enneagram seven wing. Um, I’m an Enneagram eight, but my seven wing is very strong and alive.
[00:30:39] So here’s a couple of potential goals that you might have for hobbies. So this could be like install a kitchen garden by August 31st. So gardening maybe is something you want to cultivate and you want to install a kitchen garden. Or complete 20 mandolin lessons by November 1st. [00:31:00] So this could be something like a new hobby that you want to learn.
[00:31:03] This could be a hobby that you want to install into a daily habit. Or you just want to get outside of your comfort zone. I’ve talked on here that last quarter in Q4, I took up salsa dancing lessons. That was a hobby that I wanted to learn and grow in. You know, I also love, um, traveling. Travel would fall under hobbies for me.
[00:31:25] Hiking would fall under hobbies and body. That would be kind of a both and. Um, I went on a hiking trip retreat last year and that fell into the hobbies and the body domain for me. So there’s a lot of ways to think about hobbies and I want to give you a quick little tip here. If you’re struggling in this area, if you think to yourself as you’re kind of rating yourself, you know, as we’ve gone through these, maybe hobbies is an area where you’re like, I’m like a two.
[00:31:48] You know, on a scale of one to 10, I’m just not thriving in this area because I just don’t even know what to do. Like, I don’t even know where to start. I want to encourage you, go to chat GPT. [00:32:00] If you’ve been listening, we did an episode a couple of months ago where we talked about using AI for your goals, and this is a great use case for this.
[00:32:09] When you’re kind of just brainstorming or you’re struggling to figure out where you can thrive, AI can come in and really be an asset to you. So as you think about hobbies, Maybe you want to give a chat GBT a little background on who you are, typically maybe some past hobbies you’ve done or what you, you know, about your personality or things like that or some skills or whatever, and just say, help me create a list of 20 potential hobbies I could create this year.
[00:32:39] And it’s going to just spit out 20 ideas and maybe three out of the 20. You’re like, Oh, that’s interesting. I haven’t thought about that. So. AI is a great option if you’re struggling to think about ideas, especially with hobbies. Uh, I find it really useful.
[00:32:53] Ken: Yeah. And Marissa, I have a confession to make.
[00:32:56] Marissa: Yes.
[00:32:56] Ken: As you were giving the examples, you, uh, you’re [00:33:00] like, what is he about to say? I had no idea what a mandolin was. So I had to search it while you were talking.
[00:33:05] Marissa: Oh my gosh, Ken.
[00:33:07] Ken: She’s like, complete 20 mandolin. I was like, did you mean Mandarin? Like I genuinely was like,
[00:33:13] Marissa: and okay. To that point. A new language would actually be great to do here.
[00:33:19] You know, a hobby could be you want to learn a new language and that can be a hobby plus a mind goal. So, certainly learning a new instrument would probably go under hobby and mind as well. So, I love hobbies. This is one that high achievers tend to put on the back burner. I think that it’s really interesting.
[00:33:37] You know, when we think about hobbies, this is an area of our life. Not only, like I said, that adds that sense of joy and play and pleasure and all of that, but it actually makes us more interesting people. And so when you think about those domains of relating to others, think about the people that you find most interesting in your life.
[00:33:56] It’s usually people who have hobbies who are out there [00:34:00] doing really cool Inspiring things that you’re like, Oh my gosh, how cool, how interesting that you do that in your spare time. So this is a great area. If you’re, if you’re looking to become more interesting, more well rounded, this is a great area to focus on.
[00:34:13] Ken: Yeah. And for all of you who are listening, know that in the background, I am trying probably on a weekly basis to convince Marissa to try jujitsu. And I’m going to encourage all of you to try jujitsu. I know that that’s my soapbox, but here’s, here’s the reason why I love it. It actually hits on four of the domains.
[00:34:31] Right? Because it hits on the body, it hits on the mind, it hits on the community, and it hits on the hobby.
[00:34:35] Marissa: Yep.
[00:34:36] Ken: Like it hits on all four, so I find it very invigorating in that way. Uh, so. If you guys are nervous about it, just try it like any other hobby, if it’s not jujitsu, it might be mandolin, you’re gonna be bad at it at the beginning, but the point is not to get become an expert.
[00:34:51] The point is to find life and enjoy it. As we wrap up this conversation. If you were listening to Marissa, she was talking about [00:35:00] like, rate yourself one to 10 on all of these domains. And when you think about the nine domains. It can feel really overwhelming and you don’t know where to start and like, you’re like, how do I prioritize all these things?
[00:35:11] So I would actually encourage you to take our life score assessment. So if you go to a full focus dot co forward slash life score
[00:35:19] Marissa: dot co not dot com full focus dot co
[00:35:23] Ken: dot co forward slash life score. You can take our life score assessment and then it’ll kind of give you a rating on where you’re at. On all the nine life domains.
[00:35:30] And then from there, you could windle it down to say, Oh, you know what? These two, I really want to focus on this season. Or you just may know that you are in a crazy season. You can’t add a lot of hobbies to your life. That’s okay, right? You really need to focus on money. Or you need to focus on your spiritual life.
[00:35:48] Whatever it is. Right. At least it’s a great diagnostic tool because sometimes we can fall into the trap of not knowing where we’re at. So we just stay in paralysis. We want you to move forward, take action. And the best [00:36:00] way to do that is start with the LaxCore assessment.
[00:36:02] Marissa: Yeah. And I think that, you know, ultimately what we’re advocating here is a more well rounded.
[00:36:07] balance life. Now it’s going to be impossible for you to score, you know, a 10 for instance, in every single domain. That’s not actually the outcome we’re looking for. What we’re looking for is where you feel like you’re thriving, where you feel like you have the capacity to invest in these domains in your day to day life.
[00:36:26] One thing that I think is important to say is that you should not have a goal for every single domain at any given time. Our full focus system, we preach that you should only have two to three goals that you’re focusing on each quarter. Now you may be saying like, that’s not enough and I need more. And we know, and that’s why we have this because we know that you won’t be successful if you’re focusing on more than just two to three.
[00:36:51] So for instance, just as example here, my three goals for Q1, I have one that is body, one that is money. [00:37:00] And then one that is work. And that changes throughout the year, you know, based on my life score assessment results and based on what I’m really trying to cultivate more of in my life. So as you’re thinking about creating a well rounded, balanced, flourishing and thriving life, I want you to consider all of the nine life domains.
[00:37:20] And again, just like Ken said, money. Take a few minutes after listening to this episode and take the life score assessment to determine how you’re really doing in each of these areas and where you might need to put a little bit more focus. And you can do that at fullfocus. co slash life score.
[00:37:37] Ken: All right, and that’s a wrap for this conversation.
[00:37:44] Thanks for joining us on Focus on This.
[00:37:47] Marissa: This is the most productive podcast on the internet, so please share it with your friends and be sure to join the Full Focus Planner community on Facebook so you can benefit from the creativity and encouragement of people chasing [00:38:00] big goals just like you.
[00:38:01] Ken: And we’ll be here next week with another great episode and hopefully warmer weather.
[00:38:07] Marissa: I wouldn’t count on it. Until then,
[00:38:09] Ken: stay focused.