With 5 quick questions, you can get a scientifically validated score which represents how satisfied you are with your life. Do you think you’re more satisfied or less than most, or do you think you fall about on the average? Answer the questions and find out!
Instructions: Below are five statements that you may agree or disagree with. Using the 1 – 7 scale below, indicate your agreement with each item by placing the appropriate number on the line preceding that item. Please be open and honest in your responding.
7 – Strongly agree
6 – Agree
5 – Slightly agree
4 – Neither agree nor disagree
3 – Slightly disagree
2 – Disagree
1 – Strongly disagree
____ In most ways my life is close to my ideal.
____ The conditions of my life are excellent.
____ I am satisfied with my life.
____ So far I have gotten the important things I want in life.
____ If I could live my life over, I would change almost nothing.
Add up your five scores and see where your score falls:
31 – 35 Overall, you are extremely satisfied with your life. Your life isn’t perfect but you love it.
26 – 30 You are satisfied with your life. It’s possible that there are one or even two key areas that you’d like to improve.
21 – 25 This is the category of slight satisfaction and according to research, most people land in this category. From day to day, you are probably generally satisfied yet there are areas of your life that you’d like to improve. In this instance, it is likely that rather than being one or two big areas you’d like to work on, your life satisfaction might benefit from small improvements to many areas of your life.
20 Neutral. You may not be full of satisfaction, but you also aren’t miserable or dissatisfied.
15 – 19 This is the slightly dissatisfied category. There are two likely possibilities for people in this category: 1) there are several areas of life that could use some improvement or 2) there may be one area of life which is causing deep dissatisfaction. If you are in this category, are you able to identify what in your life needs improving?
10 – 14 This is the dissatisfied category. This could indicate significant dissatisfaction with multiple areas of your life, or it could indicate two or three areas that are particularly dissatisfying for you. One question to ask yourself is if these feelings are the result of or recent event or situation (which may be temporary and thus resolve on its own) or is this a score reflecting that you are not living the life you want?
5 – 9 Scores in this range represent extreme dissatisfaction. Although it is possible this score can be the result of a major adverse experience (such as the death of a loved one), it is more likely a reflection of a general dissatisfaction across the areas of your life.
January 1st is just around the corner. Instead of making hasty resolutions which aren’t likely to last through February, spend some time thinking about your life satisfaction score and what changes you might want to make in your life to increase your overall life satisfaction. Then when the annual time of resolutions arrives, you can make one or two which you are really committed to carrying out.
If your life satisfaction score isn’t where you’d like it to be or you are struggling to identify where in your life work could be done to increase your score, give me a call at (816) 226-4678.
This scale is used by permission of its authors: Ed Diener, Robert A. Emmons, Randy J. Larsen and Sharon Griffin.
