{"id":65235,"date":"2019-05-15T19:06:51","date_gmt":"2019-05-16T03:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/?p=65235"},"modified":"2019-05-18T19:00:04","modified_gmt":"2019-05-19T03:00:04","slug":"how-to-self-evaluate-the-4-parts-of-your-life-that-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/how-to-self-evaluate-the-4-parts-of-your-life-that-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Self-Evaluate The 4 Parts of Your Life That Matter"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

How is your life going over all?<\/span><\/p>\n

If I asked you that in person, you\u2019d probably give me a standard, \u201cFine,\u201d answer, you wouldn\u2019t likely self-evaluate, and certainly wouldn\u2019t do anything to make your life better. \u00a0It would be an entirely pointless interaction.<\/span><\/p>\n

Well fortunately, we\u2019re not talking in person. \u00a0I\u2019m some dude on the internet, and I\u2019m not interested in your pleasantries. \u00a0You don\u2019t have to worry about starting to cry in public when you think about everything going wrong in life, and making me and the waitress at this Applebee\u2019s feel super awkward, so don\u2019t worry about that. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So instead of the canned answer, look within, and really ask yourself: <\/span>How is your life going over all? <\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a tough question, right? \u00a0Your life is so massive, and complex, and all-encompassing. \u00a0You have between 60,000 and 80,000 thoughts a day, thousands of those thoughts contradict each other, the vast majority get buried deep in your subconscious, and they bring up a massive variety of emotions, and you don\u2019t know how to wrap all of that up into any kind of coherent, or accurate answer.<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019re so close to our own lives, that when we try to evaluate them, all we can see is this massive ball of atoms running into each other, and it\u2019s really hard to make sense of it all. <\/span><\/p>\n

The result of this is that we\u2019re really bad at evaluating our lives, which means two things: 1) We\u2019re not conscious or grateful of the amazing things in our lives, and 2) We\u2019re really bad at fixing all of the stupid, awful parts of our lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

So here\u2019s my very simple, but effective idea: We take time <\/span>every single day<\/b>, and consciously evaluate our lives in 4 key areas: <\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Psychological<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Physical<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Interpersonal<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Occupational<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    And in each of these areas, we ask ourselves two important questions:<\/span><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. What are the awesome parts of this that I should I be grateful for?<\/span><\/li>\n
    2. What are the sucky parts, and how do I change them?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      How do we self-evaluate in each category? Let\u2019s dig in:<\/span><\/p>\n

      Psychological<\/b><\/p>\n

      Nobody–not even people who read sites like this–check in on themselves and how they\u2019re doing mentally enough. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      This goes beyond just happiness, although that\u2019s a part of it. \u00a0It\u2019s about checking in on how your feelings are impacting your decisions, your ability to think coherently, and how often you go to Taco Bell. \u00a0It\u2019s about checking in on your total brain functioning.<\/span><\/p>\n

      You can\u2019t fix your brain if you\u2019re not aware of what\u2019s broken in it, and so we don\u2019t. \u00a0Instead, we usually just get frustrated by the broken parts, and yell at them which is, you know, ineffective.<\/span><\/p>\n

      So instead of doing that, take a few minutes every day. \u00a0Look into your soul for a bit. Practice gratitude for the strengths in your current mental state, fully become aware of the times when you\u2019ve felt like crap recently, and ask yourself what you can do to make them feel better.<\/span><\/p>\n

      But spoiler alert: the answer may be in making improvements in the other three categories.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Physical<\/b><\/p>\n

      The good news is that checking in on your physical state is a lot more cut and dry than your psychological state.<\/span><\/p>\n

      The bad news is that, like, ugh. \u00a0The solution to make things better often involves moving and not eating mozzarella sticks, and that sucks.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Fortunately, that\u2019s not the only part of checking in on your physical state. \u00a0It\u2019s also about noticing when you feel good physically, and practicing daily gratitude for that. \u00a0If you feel good physically every day, and you\u2019re not feeling any gratitude or joy as a result, what a waste that is. \u00a0You\u2019re just throwing joy down the toilet, and that\u2019s awfully stupid of you.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Of course, this is also about checking in on our negative physical feelings–whether it\u2019s hating our bodies, or feeling lethargic, or that feeling we feel after eating a big bowl of pasta–and asking ourselves what the root cause is of all of the, and what we can do about it.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Interpersonal<\/b><\/p>\n

      Your interpersonal check-in is also pretty cut and dry. \u00a0How are things with your spouse? Your long distance college friend? \u00a0Your mom? <\/span><\/p>\n

      Do you two have a real relationship? \u00a0Or is every conversation surface level and pointless, and about the neighbor\u2019s dog eating her azaleas? \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      Take time every day, and think about the status of your relationships, or maybe your lack of relationships. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      Think about the best relationships you have, and what makes them so great. \u00a0Take time to recognize how amazing they are, and how lucky you are to have them. <\/span><\/p>\n

      Then look into what you can do to improve your weaker relationships.\u00a0 Self-evaluate.\u00a0 How can you reach out? How can you put yourself out there more? How can you get your mom to talk about, oh, literally anything else?<\/span><\/p>\n

      Occupational<\/b><\/p>\n

      You might already have a rough idea of how you feel about your job. \u00a0However, you might not be thinking about the <\/span>specific<\/span> pluses and minuses associated with your job, and what to do about them.<\/span><\/p>\n

      If you do like your job, or even like parts of your job, that\u2019s awesome! \u00a0For many it\u2019s 40 hours a week of pure hell, so take some time, and practice yourself some gratitude for having a boss that you <\/span>can<\/span><\/i> stand, or to be doing something for money that doesn\u2019t make you hate yourself!<\/span><\/p>\n

      If you don\u2019t like parts of your job, then it\u2019s time to brainstorm. \u00a0What can you do differently? How can you move to another company, or increase your productivity rate so that you can relax a little more while at work, or manage being around your awful coworker who smells like feet? (My suggestion: a pine scented air freshener can be easily hidden in any desk.)<\/span><\/p>\n

      Take time every day and think about these key four areas.\u00a0 Self-evaluate.\u00a0 Live consciously. Examine what you know is there, and figure out what the hell you\u2019re going to do about that big ball of atoms.<\/span><\/p>\n

      \n

      Will Penney is a reality TV producer by day, and comedic self-help writer also by day (he likes to get his 8 hours at night.).\u00a0 His site: BeBetterStupid.com<\/a> is constantly growing, and making lives across the world less stupid every day.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      How is your life going over all? If I asked you that in person, you\u2019d probably give me a standard, \u201cFine,\u201d answer, you wouldn\u2019t likely self-evaluate, and certainly wouldn\u2019t do anything to make your life better. \u00a0It would be an … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14673,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[21,6],"tags":[4641,66,4629,7057],"yoast_head":"\nHow to Self-Evaluate The 4 Parts of Your Life That Matter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Instead of the canned answer, look within, and really ask yourself: How is your life going over all?It\u2019s a tough question, right?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" 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