If there is a designer, then I have to believe that the design for my life is different then the design for your life. Therefore the things that allow me to stay on track mentally, emotionally and relationally will automatically be different then the things that keep you on track.
I can represent my life by a set of fuel tank gauges. Each gauge is a half circle with an “E” on the left side meaning Empty. And an “F” on the right side, meaning Full. A red needle that floats back and forth to tell me where I’m at, at any given moment in that certain area of my life. I have a Relational Gauge, a Financial Gauge, a Physical Gauge, a Spiritual Gauge and an Emotional Gauge.

My Relational Gauge would represent how full my relationships are, how well they are going, how intimate they are, how much pain is involved there, how much struggle is evident, how much stress is underlying or apparent, etc… Am I caring for people in my life properly and being cared for properly? My happiness in life depends on that relational tank being given attention and the needle staying on the right side of the gauge towards full. What is it that I can do throughout my life to make sure that my relationship tank stays full?

Another tank I have is a Financial Fuel tank, based on where I am financially, income level, debt level, and personal goals, will effect where the needle in this tank will be fixed.

Interestingly the level of one gauge will have the power to raise or lower the level of others. For example, if your relationships are not going well and the needle on that gauge is heading toward empty, that will affect your emotional gauge and your ability to stay focused on the job, causing the financial gauge to lower.. Or the opposite might happen, you throw yourself into work because a relationship is bad and you begin making more money. You may increase your spending of money in order to bring a good feeling or a new feeling, and then you end up with more debt. Spirituality may increase with the hope that it may fix your relationship, or your spirituality might decrease because you think, it’s no use of believing in something that will never work.

Since we are all so different from one another, it would be impossible to make determinations about what exactly will happen to each gauge when one gauge is completely full or completely empty. The complexity of each of us combined with the combination of levels on the gauges prohibits any type of generalities being used here to determine outcomes. That is why the amount of honesty and authenticity you allow yourself to use in the upcoming questions and worksheets will have a great determination on the accuracy of the results and the help you receive from these postings.

We also have a Spiritual Gauge. This gauge monitors our belief system, moral code, and connection with God, strength of faith and hope. If you believe that God is intimately acquainted with everything in your life and watching over you, and you feel close to this higher Power, this level reflects that. On the other hand, if you feel like God isn’t necessarily working on your behalf, protecting and providing a way for you in your life, that would be reflected on this gauge. Also, our involvement with serving others and being involved in things that are bigger than ourselves is reflected as well as integrating spiritual disciplines like prayer, quiet time, meditation, service, scripture input and being guided by biblical teachings in the life decisions that come our way. This area may include worship, church, or synagogue attendance. These are the things that would be associated with the Spiritual Fuel gauge. The Spiritual Tank has a lot to do with how we navigate through life, relationships, and decisions, and how we relate to friends, handle finances, resolve conflict, and treat those less fortunate than us.

So far we’ve discussed the Relational Fuel Tank, Financial Fuel Tank, Spiritual Fuel Tank and now we come to the Physical Fuel Tank.

The Physical Gauge is important because, like all the others, it has the ability to affect all the others depending on where the needle is pointing at any given time. How are you doing physically? Some negative things that may be affecting you in this area may or may not be your fault. They may be physical maladies that you’ve inherited or because of the random unfairness of life, you’ve been stuck with. On the other hand, most of us have control over the choices we make in this area. Are you physically fit and taking care of yourself? Or are you indulgent in anything you want to eat or drink without regard for consequences?

Do you take care of yourself by some type of consistent physical workout, or is there NO physical activity built into your weekly schedule? Do you have aches and pains that drag you down, or do you feel great most of the time? This gauge has tremendous influence on the status of the others. For example, if you often feel Physically depleted, it will get in the way of relationships, finances, emotions, and depending on whether or not you feel like God is in control, helping and understanding what you’re going through, it will cause the spiritual gauge to head toward empty.

When you feel lousy physically, life seems lousy. It’s hard to enjoy life when you’re under the weather or you lack stamina to make it through the day.


The last fuel gauge or tank that I want to talk about, and the one we will spend the most time discussing will be the Emotional Fuel Gauge. I’m sure that we could come up with many other types of gauges and sub-categories of gauges, but we will limit our discussion in this blog to these five.

Where are you emotionally right now? Are you drained or are you full up and stable? Are you emotionally worn out or at the top of your game? My contention is that even though the position of the needle on each of the gauges will tend to make the others rise and fall, this gauge has the largest impact on all of them and therefore the largest impact on the outcome of your life and mine. Unfortunately, we often ignore this gauge more than the others.
Where are you emotionally? What is going on in your life that causes you to be where you are emotionally?

Let’s take the time to assess how full or empty all your tanks are. Use Picture of the fuel gauge at the top of the page to help you draw five more. Use these hand drawn gauges to draw a line to indicate for each category where you feel you are right now. Remember there are no right or wrong answers. Just be honest and authentic.

RELATIONAL
FINANCIAL
SPIRITUAL
PHYSICAL
EMOTIONAL


What is going on in your life that causes you to be at the different levels in each of the areas that you just evaluated yourself in? What causes you to be relationally at the level you drew in? What would have to happen in your life right now in order for the gauge to read higher or lower than it is presently? Same question for the financial gauge. What has been the reason why it is where it is? Remember, we’re looking for honesty, not blame. What is within your power to move it higher or lower?

Same with the Physical Gauge and the Spiritual Gauge. The more authentic the answers, the closer you are to changing life for the better.

Back to the emotional gauge. Often this area of dealing with our emotions is the area in which we feel we have the least amount of control. Relationally, we get to control choices about how we respond to people, interact with them, or ignore them. You and I are as close to people as we really want to be. Financially, it seems like our choices are limited, but our earning, spending and saving habits give us choices over the outcomes of this gauge. Spiritually we make choices to have a growing spiritual life or not. Physically, the same is true. Even though some struggle with things that are out of their control. In the area of emotions, there remains an enormous amount of control resulting in powerful consequences.
The problem is that we allow ourselves to be slaves to our emotions throughout the day or week. We let emotions dictate our actions and what we say and how we respond.

The needle on the emotional Gauge can change drastically throughout the day and if we’re not prepared to deal with it, our lives will be continually out of whack.

If I ask you, what do you consistantly engage in to control your emotions or to refuel yourself emotionally, you would most likely not have an answer for me? It is about this dilemma that I am most concerned. How to help people move from emotional depletion to emotional refueling. Most people when asked this question will pause and then refer to a vacation, or time away from the kids, or this job or whatever is causing them stress at the moment. But so many of us come back from time away and very quickly, if not immediately, find ourselves emotionally depleted once more. If you do not understand what has emotionally wiped you out or what emotionally keeps your tank full, you will never be able to maintain it no matter how many vacations you go on.

The key for emotional balance and refueling is different for each person and absolutely vital for each person.

I want to help you identify the causes of depletion as well as understand what you personally need to refuel yourself emotionally throughout the day, week, month quarter and year. Finding this will change your life forever.