Image by Vinotecarium from Pixabay


How BLIC is your life?


A friend of mine who knows a thing or two about wine recently explained how the experts assess quality using the BLIC test. It comprises Balance, Length, Intensity and Complexity.   

Imagine your life is a house with several rooms, one each for your work, family, friends, yourself (me-time) and the community. How are you spending your days in this house called life? How lived-in and loved by you do those rooms feel?

Take the BLIC test. You can give points from 0 to 10 (0 being very poor and 10 being the best).  

Balance: With wine, we're looking for levels of things such as acidity, tannin, alcohol etc. In life, it is about time spent in each room, and the quality of time spent. To attain balance, you don't need to spend equal amounts of time in every room. Instead the time spent must feel worthwhile, or indeed be made worthwhile, by you being truly present.

Length: When assessing wine, length is the time the flavour lingers in your mouth after you've sipped it. In terms of life, I like to think of length as the impression and impact we leave on the people we come into contact with. When a life is lived well, the person is said to leave behind a legacy that lasts long after they have gone. How will you be remembered?

Intensity: In wine, this denotes the strength of the flavour - strong or subtle. There's no right or wrong intensity. It is the same with life. The key to a fulfilled life is to experience the range of emotions, positive and negative, in a healthy way. How the intensity is perceived and received depends on the circumstances around it, and so discernment is key.

Complexity: There is no simple way to measure this and it must surely be down to personal taste. In life, I see complexity as a measure of how you have lived, the experiences that have shaped you, the many motivations and idiosyncratic variations that make you unique. It can come down to self awareness and right action. Do you know what makes you unique?

How BLIC is your life? Want help figuring this out? Use this link to book a coaching conversation with me.