Category Archives: State of Being Calculator - A simple tool that allows tracking of aspects of life that impact on mental wellbeing.

State of Being Calculator – Overview and Instructions

State of Being Calculator – Overview and Instructions

Life satisfaction tends to be the resulting combination of different aspects of life that we find important. Health, wealth, Family and friends, among other aspects of life, will all impact on our mood and general well-being. By identifying each of those aspects of our lives, we can gain insight into different things that make us happy or sad and we can typically identify actions that can lift our mood when required. It can also help us safe guard against over focusing on just a few aspects of our lives at the cost of other important areas. Neglecting family to focus on work, for example.

Different flavours of this approach or ‘technique’ has been advocated by various self-help authors. One such author is ‘Susan Jeffers’ who discussed this approach in her book ‘Feel the fear and do it anyway’. She points out the importance of diversifying your focus in life so as not to be overly reliant on one area. Focusing on just a few aspects in life leaves us psychologically vulnerable to negative outcomes in those areas. For example, if someone focused solely on work, they are likely to be hard hit if their work ended abruptly. A healthier approach is to draw happiness from multiple areas in life. In that case, we are less likely to be rocked by singular events or even one aspect of our lives turning to muck.

I have used this approach myself at times. It pops into my mind when life satisfaction takes a dip and sure enough, when I peruse the areas in my life that are important to me, I tend to find I’m neglecting some.

The ‘State of Being Calculator’ uses nine measures to gauge our overall life satisfaction.  By considering each factor separately we can narrow down potential actions we can use to improve life.  If you would like to use the tool to track progress over time, you can register to record your changes and past scores.

How to use:

Note: To record any changes to the default factors or to record scores over time, an account is required. 

  1. Using the default information, edit each factor to match your own values.

State of Being Calculator

Acknowledgement: This tool, I believe, took shape after reading of similar approaches from others. I am yet to find all