The Wheel of Life Keeps on Rollin'
A brutally honest mid-year audit across every corner of my life—eight categories, one truth
Six months in.
That’s where we are, people and boy, hasn’t it flown!
It feels like yesterday that I was hopping off a plane from Hong Kong after just visiting my girlfriend’s family for two weeks… and quicker than I could say “holy fucking shit it’s July”, the financial year has ended, and I am now forced to sit and reflect on how I have actually done.
Most folks wanna wait until December to take stock—if they do it at all.
The year speeds by, the reflection happens on New Year’s Eve with a drink in hand and dart in mouth, with a vague feeling that things could’ve/should’ve been better.
Me… I’d rather look now, while there’s still time to make haste.
So I’m rolling out the Wheel of Life again (pun intended)—same exercise I used at the end of 2025. Eight categories. A score out of ten. All the best bits put under a microscope.
Let’s dive in, shall we?
Friends
Score: 5/10
Summary: My social life has not really blossomed this year as I thought it might. The reality is that I am going through a transitional phase of life, lots of growth, and sometimes it is hard to prioritise everything all at once. With that said, I definitely need to start making small but impactful efforts here.
Adjustments to make: Regular calls/check-ins with my most loved ones, make the effort you want to see in others, do the thing that others may not. Where there is distance, close it. If you commit, stick to it. You don’t need to be an ultra-social butterfly, but you do have to make some effort.
Career
Score: 9/10
Summary: My career has really been on the move. In late April, I was promoted to Campaign Manager within my company, and although that asks for a lot more responsibility and work, I am happy to take on the challenge. So far, the money is not stacking up to the input, and the hours are demanding to stay on top of everything, but I am loving it. The team is full of different problems and personalities. It is forcing me to evolve and become a better problem solver.
Adjustments to make: Work/life balance will become a factor shortly if I do not improve efficiencies in my workflows and learn to get things done a little quicker. Diarising, time-blocking, tackling the hard tasks, and being better with my communication will all help.
Finance
Score: 6/10
Summary: My money habits are still not great, but there are small improvements being made around how and what I spend my money on. Slightly less reckless habits and more willingness to add to savings. Having a bit more job security and consistency with the promotion will help, but also my partner (being quite frugal and good at saving) is playing a big role and forcing me to evolve. I no longer need to rely on my commission to get through the month and pay down debts/bills, which is useful.
Adjustments to make: Cut right down to a weekly budget for ad hoc spending. It is essentially unlimited at the moment, and there is still too much leakage. I have started saving, but need to dial this up over the next 6 months if I am to hit the goal I have set out.
Health
Score: 6/10
Summary: This is the area that has probably seen the greatest improvements. At the end of 2025 and the beginning of 2026, my health was really frustrating me. I was in constant pain due to a chronic neck injury, eating poorly, not exercising enough due to pain and indulging in too many poisons (vaping/drinking/other). Moving in with my girl has had a huge impact on this. She loves to cook amazing and nutritious meals, as well as shop weekly for groceries—she trains 4 times a week and doesn’t drink. Her commitment to her health is helping pull me away from my poor habits. On top of that, a massage therapist I’ve been seeing has played a huge part in helping me recover from the neck pain. I also engaged a personal trainer to help me get some consistency back into my training and to focus on flexibility and mobility (which had been waning). I’m back training multiple times a week, enjoying saunas and overall eating much better.
Adjustments to make: There is still some work to do around snacking, random beers and vaping, but for the first time in 18 months, I am feeling confident and happy about my body and health. Subtracting the vaping/snacking/random drinking, in addition to everything mentioned above, will have me back at optimal fitness by year’s end.
Family
Score: 9/10
Summary: Not much has changed here. I love my family; they are everything to me. My Nan's passing away a couple of weeks back was a huge blow to my family, especially my Mum, who really took it hard, but the experience galvanised my family even further and proved how good we have it to be in each other’s lives.
Adjustments to make: I think scheduling time in my calendar for my family is going to make a difference. At the moment, our interactions are based on proximity or motivation, but I think we can do better than that (or at least I know that I can). Scheduling a weekly or bi-weekly check-in with everyone will make sure I get to them and continue to strengthen our bonds.
Romance
Score: 10/10
Summary: Things have been evolving really naturally and smoothly. We moved into a beautiful apartment in a great building in our favourite area in late May, and it has been a dream. Cooking together, helping each other with chores, spending quality time and going on little adventures. The more time I spend with her, the better I become as a man and as a human.
Adjustments to make: Buy a car and start going on little trips away to further out suburbs or out of town to increase novelty and fun.
Personal Growth
Score: 6/10
Summary: In the first 6 months, I have had to do a lot of hard things. The growth I have gained from these experiences has been solid, but I wouldn’t say much more than what I already knew. Although there has been a positive step forward from where I finished last year, there is always more that can be done. Between my relationship, deaths, work and creation, I have been asked to stay steady, and I have done that… but I feel like there is a lot of growth to be done.
Adjustments to make: Get back to reading and hunting for big ideas. Writing weekly is good to explore an idea, but that is one idea, once a week. I need to be on the hunt daily. Reading Marcus, studying Pressfield, unpacking great creators and digging into my own previous thoughts and creations to see what I am missing.
Hobbies
Score: 6/10
Summary: In one sense, the hobbies and creations have been great, but in so many others, it has been inconsistent and lacking. So far this year, I have managed to stay on track for my one and only real goal for 2026—to write a newsletter every week (the one you are reading). I have shipped 27 newsletters, and to be honest, I am quite proud of that, but the music creation and podcasting have mostly taken a backseat as I tried to wade through some pressure-filled periods. Thankfully, this won’t be for much longer, as I have already started batch recording podcasts and with this new role feel a little more space to create. I have also started writing my follow-up to CHAMP CAMP EP, which I will begin production on in the coming weeks (more on that later).
Adjustments to make: I have a solid foundation of knowing that a newsletter will get shipped every week, regardless of what else is going on, but I think it is time to start planning. Rather than write them weekly, maybe batch and schedule them so that I can free up some space to fire the podcast engine back up, or start recording the album.
Final Thoughts
Still not perfect. Never will be.
But if you’d asked me in January whether I’d take this position, I’d have said yes without hesitation.
Let’s take a quick look at the comparison:
You can see that most things are trending upwards.
Finance and health were a big priority this year, and those are two that are seeing the most change. The ones that have gone down are having to contend with me being hypercritical of myself, so take them with a grain of salt.
Overall, I am happier, healthier, and slowly pulling the pieces together for the life that I want.
I have a family that loves me. A partner who makes me better. A roof over my head, a career that’s moving and a body that’s healing.
Life is good. And there’s still six months left to make it better.
If you want to run the exercise yourself, I put together a free template—link below.
Anyway, that’s it from me this week, gang!
With gratitude,
SAV
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