How Balanced is My Life ?
Answers from the Wheel of Life
When life is busy (when it is ever NOT busy ?) it happens all to easily that you get swallowed by the wave of day-to-day pressures or one particular part of your life such as work, while other important things get left behind. Staying in this state for too long causes stress and frustration. What you need is more balance to make you more content, more alive and to enjoy again what you are doing.
The Wheel of Life is a widely used, very simple, yet powerful coaching tool to assess your current life situation and life balance. It is an easy tool to use at home and in this article I am inviting you to use it right now. I will explain how to use it, where it’s advantages and limitations lie and give you an interpretation of your results. Enjoy !
The Wheel of Life is a visual tool which represents the different aspects of your life in eight core sections: Career, Family & Friends, Significant Other/Romance, Fun & Recreation, Health, Money, Personal Growth, Physical Environment (you could adapt it to have more). It asks you to rank your level of satisfaction with each life area and allows you to draw a visual representation of your life balance at present. This is very insightful. For many people, it is the first time, they ever look at their whole life in one go, rather than working on a specific problem e.g. career, relationship in isolation.
Why is this important ?
You might have noticed this already, each area of your life influences all others, whether we like it or not. When you are hugely satisfied with your job/career, you might see implications in money, personal growth, health…. when you are hugely dissatisfied with your partner/romance you might feel it in fun & recreation, career etc. Looking at the whole picture, gives you an indication which areas are most out of balance and allows you to reflect on how each area affects the others. Often people just get a feeling that things are not working well, the power, however, lies in becoming conscious of the whole life situation. Once you have awareness - always the first step in any change - you can take action and work on your chosen area to re-create your balance.
How exactly do I use the tool now ?
Print off the wheel of life above and have it in front of you. The eight sections in the Wheel of Life represent different aspects of your life. Seeing the centre of the wheel as 0 and the outer edges as 10, rank your level of satisfaction with each life area by drawing a straight or curved line to create a new outer edge. The new perimeter represents the wheel of your life. It this were a real wheel, how bumpy would the ride be ?
I have done my Wheel of Life - how can I read it and what can I do with it ?
First of all, look at the shape of your personal wheel.
Does it look round meaning that your life areas are balanced ?
If it does, how big or small a circle does it make ? If your circle does not extend beyond 5 o 6 around the center, ask yourself why you are playing small ? What is holding you from being fully satisfied ? If, however, your circle fills the full wheel of life, congratulations, you are living a very fulfilled life at the moment. Notice what is going so well for you and think about what needs to stay in place for this to continue. This will be a very valuable exercise, which will give you the power to pull yourself out of a low when you have one.
Does it have dents meaning that your life is not in balance ?
Which specific areas are you least satifisfied with ? Start with the area you are least satisfied with and ask yourself the following questions:
- What is important to me about becoming more satisified in this specific area in particular ?
- How important is this in my life right now ?
- What would I see, hear, feel, have if I was fully satisfied in this area ?
- What is one thing that, if I did it, would get me one step closer to satisfaction ?
- Which resources (what / who ) would I need to get me going ?
- How specifically would I know that things have improved ?
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