What is a "Well Rounded Person?"

I’ve developed a self-assessment tool to demonstrate and visualize this concept. First consider that we all have a dozen or more “—AL” aspects of life, like physical, financial, emotional, intellectual, professional, marital, etc. If we take “zero development” as our state at birth, we can compare our personal development with “world-class” (best of humans) development on each dimension and display that on a radar chart. You can also chart, somewhere in between zero and ten, what your personal goals are.

This is a great way to check your annual growth, your current profile and where if at all you want to make changes, “rounding out” your profile in the coming year—a more careful New Year’s Resolution process.

Here’s what a chart might look like:

We can also cluster and divide the —AL aspects into Professional, Personal, Social, and Societal sectors.

Here’s a link to the tool which you can download for free. Self-Assessment and Career Management Tools See the “Balancing Your Life” spreadsheet on the menu.

You can enter your self-assessment of your current development and enter your goals for each dimension and the radar chart will automatically appear. Again, the origin/center of the diagram is all of our states at birth—zero development. “TEN” represents world-class development on that dimension. World-class financially, for example is Bill Gates (~$150b in 2020) or V. Putin (~$200b). World-class spiritually would be (pick your favorite —Pope? Dalai Lama? ) World class physically would be Olympic Gold Medalist or World Record Holder. You can add YOUR goals in the second column—so you can see how you compare to other humans and to your own preferences.

NOW, a ROUND PROFILE is not necessarily the desired result. In fact, a round profile might suggest one is a “jack of all trades, master of none.” A colleague of mine once said, “Excellence is a neurotic lifestyle.” By which he meant to be really good at something one has to specialize. Many world-class performers were decidedly NOT well-rounded. Athletes, financiers, doctors, artists, etc.

So, put in your preferences and don’t let society’s definition of “well-rounded” confuse your goals and desires to be really good at something. Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hour guideline bears here—to be good at something, one has to focus and invest intensely.

“Well Rounded” might mean physically and emotionally “healthy,” a societal contributor/voter, a caring spouse and parent, and financially self-reliant. Where we all land on those dimensions over the course of our lives is a function of our weekly choices. Every week, we allocate our 168 hours and “demonstrate” our chosen “balance.” We can’t do that every day. And if we only exercised once a month, that wouldn’t work. So the WEEK is the BUILDING BLOCK OF LIFE.

The Balance Wheel tool will help you see and choose what kind of life you want. And what “well rounded” means to you.

Enjoy.