The 5 Strands of Wellness

One of the keys to true balance will be for me to make sure to take care of myself. One way I plan to do that is to make sure to keep all five strands of my personal wellness strong.

1) Physical Wellness - I plan on doing this by continuing my physical fitness activities with Kosama, running various 5K races, and participating in other activities as the opportunities arise. I also will continue to make sure to pay attention to my nutrition and taking in the fuel my body needs to be healthy and strong. Some of my long-term physical wellness goals are: to complete the Warrior-Runs this year, to drop my body-fat percentage to 10%, to participate in a triathlon, run a marathon, and to ride in RAGBRAI.

2) Intellectual Wellness - I will continue to work on reading non-fiction books to help me be a better person in all areas of my life. I love learning new things and reflecting on my learning. It is important to me to grow personally and professionally. One of my goals with this blog is to have the ability to reflect on what I am doing in various areas of my life to push myself.

3) Social Wellness - I need to focus on this one more. I enjoy spending time with other people, but normally that has occurred through various other responsibilities and I don't schedule much time for just social interaction. One of my goals for the year is to schedule some times to get together with friends, have more date-nights with my wife and rekindle my social life.

4) Emotional Wellness - Part of this blog will be helping me focus on my feelings and having some time for reflection. Several of the podcasts I listen to and books I read also will help me focus on this strand. One of my goals is to post some thoughts on this blog at least weekly this year. Based on the success of this goal, I will decide if this blog is a long-term or short-term medium.

5) Spiritual Wellness - This has been a huge part of my life lately and I continue to plan on making it a key part. One area we are focusing on is what God says about money as we participate in the Financial Peace University course at my church. We have participated in several small group studies and plan on participating in another one this summer with the C23 (College, 20s and 30s) group at our church. In addition to what we do through our church, my goals are to continue to read/listen to the Bible daily, strengthen my prayer life and go on a family mission trip.