Last year, my daughter took health class in her public school in the 9th grade. She had to begin the semester by writing an essay assessing her health. She asked me to review what she wrote.
The assignment required that she assess herself according to the “Six Types of Health,” those being:
- Emotional
- Environmental
- Mental
- Physical
- Social
- Spiritual
This list and the assignment of assessing yourself with it took me aback. I don’t put much weight into these types of school exercises and classes; I’m much more interested in her learning chemistry and math and world history there. I love the numbered lists and study guides she brings home in those classes.
And here was a nice, neat numbered list … about life.
And here was my beautiful 15 year old daughter’s intelligent, measured assessment of herself in all these areas with real do-able action items for each.
My first thought was, “They need to get all the parents into this class STAT. Starting with me.”
These days, so much of everything in life seems to be about financial health, but that’s not on this list. Worrying about and working towards financial health makes you forget about many of these other areas of your life. And yet, financial health won’t make all the parts of your life work. Far from it, in fact, just based on personal observation and tabloid headlines. That’s not to say you should ignore your financial health. If you are destitute and stressed, it’s tough to keep the other areas of your health going strong.
But money isn’t everything. In fact, there are many things on this very list that money can’t buy.
Not only can I assess myself with this scorecard, I can set goals as well. When was the last time you set an emotional goal for yourself? What a wonderful idea!
I’ve said for years that I’m “keeping score with a different scorecard” but I didn’t really have one. Now I do.