By Larry Pazier, Westview Presbyterian Church, Longmont, Colorado
When working with older adults, an important focus can be helping individuals find ways to have joy in their lives. One way to add joy to life is by continuing to pursue goals.
Throughout our lives, we have set goals to achieve things we either wanted or needed. A child may dream of being a nurse or a firefighter. A young person’s goals may include achieving higher education or getting started on a career. Goals may be focused on family life and hobbies, too.
After focusing on their ambitions over a lifetime, older adults may feel that they have moved past the importance of setting goals. This is not true!
Older adults may have miles to go on their journey. Utilizing the journey time that God gives us, we can continue to be productive in His eyes.
You may try these questions to help older adults think about setting new goals:
- When you were a child or teen, how did you think about the future?
- As a young adult, did you have a life or career goal?
- What about at mid age?
- What goals have you achieved?
- Do you have a goal now?
- Do you feel joy in your life now?
If the answers to the last two questions are no, how do you work with older adults to come up with a relevant goal or goals for this stage of their journey? You might start helping them by developing a wheel of life (WoL).
A WoL is a self-assessment tool to identify topics and possible actions that are important or beneficial in one’s life. Developing the WoL can be fun and rewarding as it reveals what is present in a person’s life. It also can illuminate a possible problem area that may be an obstacle to finding joy.
To start a WoL, ask the individual (or individuals if you have a group) to make a small circle in the center of an 8×11 sheet of paper (this could be the goal if they have one) and then display “spokes” on the wheel (to start maybe 8 spokes) off the circle. From there, ask them to make some small (two, three, or four) branches off each spoke.
Find this Wheel of Life template at anticancerlifestyle.org.
Each spoke represents topics or areas that are important to the individual’s life. A few ideas are loved ones, health, finance, leisure/fun, and spirituality. Other topics that might impact a life today could be career, retirement, where to live, environment, personal development, etc.
On the branches, the individual should enter activities that they are undertaking that fulfill that area.
Once the wheel is completed, review each spoke and discuss the importance of each topic on the spoke relevant to the individual. If a spoke is empty or only has a few activities, then the individual may have identified an opportunity for change.
Obstacles to achieving joy also may be revealed through the various parts of the wheel. Offer to brainstorm together on ways to add joy in the various areas.
A big topic will probably be diminishments. This is a good time to focus on spiritual enlightenment. Discuss the positives that are still available and how one deals with what our Lord has given us. Promote that it is a blessing to be alive. Is there something He still has planned for you?
Continue to remind the person of the importance of having fun in their life which again can promote joy. Encourage them to revisit the WoL periodically as priorities, interests, and activities change.
Always keep the focus on God throughout life’s journey. The spirituality spoken on the completed WoL can be a blessed source of comfort. After all, whose master plan are we all following?
Again, not everyone gets the opportunity to think about goals as an older adult. Rejoice and be glad!
Larry Pazier is an elder on the Spiritual Journey team at Westview Presbyterian Church in Longmont, Colorado. He lives in Casa Grande, Arizona. He has 15 years of experience working in the senior ministry arena and teaches an eight-session class called Older Adult Spiritual Journey.
This article originally appeared in the 2025 Older Adult Ministry Resource Guide.