Life-Balance Wheel

In this busy world it can be hard to know how we really feel. We tend to look at our lives and say “Oh yes, I’m happy”. But when we get down into the detail there are often dissatisfactions and areas that can be improved. The Wheel of Life is a great tool to help people understand which areas to work on – and which are already great.

The Wheel of Life is a way to take a good, hard look at each facet of your life, and rate its relative quality level, so you can uncover which areas need more attention than others. Consider each area like a spoke of a wheel, when one of the spokes is shorter than the others it can throw the whole thing off balance. By getting this ‘helicopter’ view of your life, you can identify where you are excelling and where there is room for improvement – to discover where the gaps are between where you are today and where you want to be.

This tool works because it gives a fast, visual overview of how satisfied someone is with their life. The scoring for each segment on the wheel enable both client and coach to see which life areas the client feels good about – and which may need some work.

“We are seeking progress… not perfection!“

Ideally, the coach will then dig deeper into the results using coaching questions to discover what specifically is getting in the way of a client’s ease and happiness. The next step is often to brainstorm and come up with an action plan.

Then, when action planning, a client will usually prioritize and begin with the areas of their life that have the lowest scores. The goal is to identify actions that will raise their satisfaction levels.

The most common subdivisions are:

1.) Health: How do you feel about yourself? Are you satisfied with your current health status? How much do you invest in your health? Do you regularly exercise? How is your energy level? How about your sleep routine? And how healthy is your current diet?
To understand and estimate all of these things can help your clients to identify their current level of health

2.) Environment: How do you feel about your environment, both at home and at work? Does it give or take energy? Does it cause stress? Think about relatives, colleagues, neighbors.

3.) Career & Business: How satisfied are you with your current career? How are you performing at your daily duties and projects? Some other things you might consider in this category: Career strategy, Work-Life Balance, Time investment, and Sense of Purpose.

4.) Relationships: when it comes to identifying the balance in the relationships, you have to identify how fulfilled and satisfied you are with the people around you. How is the quality of your relationship(s)? And how you are managing them in your life? Do you spend enough quality time with your family, partner, kids, friends?

5.) Personal growth: How important is the process of self-development for you. How satisfied are you with the level of your personal growth? Do you invest enough time in it? Some other aspects you can include in this investigation are education, training, coaching, reading.

6.) Money: How important is money for you? Are you satisfied with your current financial status?

7.) Creativity: What you are doing to enhance the level of your creativity? Are you utilizing it in a proper way? How could you become more creative?

8.) Fun & Recreation: How satisfied are you with your current work-life balance? Do you have enough time for your hobbies? Do you take time to nourish and renew yourself. Is there anything important to you that you would like to do that you haven’t yet?

Sample Life Balance Wheel

Some other Wheel of Life categories:

• Attitude
• Mental State
• Lifestyle
• Creativity
• Recreation
• Spirituality
• Life Vision
• Emotional Well-being
• Contribution to society

Reflection

Your wheel of life is completed once you’ve assigned satisfaction scores to all the categories that matter to you. The resulting spider web might be surprisingly high (or low) values in some categories.

Scores ranging from 8 to 10:
You are extremely satisfied in that category. Ensure this is maintained; however, there’s always room for improvement.
Scores ranging from 5 to 7:
You are more or less satisfied with this category; however, there is definitely room for improvement and an opportunity for further development.
Scores ranging from 1 to 4:
You’re not happy at all about this specific area. You definitely need to find approaches to improve the fulfillment here.

The scores offer you the chance to think about areas in your life that have been overlooked so far. The following questions should help you to dig deeper.

• Why did you give yourself such a low score on this category?
• What score would you like to accomplish in the following month, following 3 months, following half year and following year?
• What is the perfect score for you in that exact category? Not everyone even wants a 10 in certain categories in order to be fully satisfied.
• Which category would you want to focus on first?

It’s easy to be amazingly satisfied with one category, however what about the other categories?

Life balance is when you are satisfied with your life dynamics

Satisfied means you are satisfied with the current situation and the pace of its development. If you are upset by the current situation, but notice that things are moving up — it is better to calm down and enjoy the rise.

Assuming your client’s focus is completely on his/her career. This will have a positive effect on finances and satisfaction in this category. But how satisfied is he/she in terms of family, friends, their health?

By looking at all the aspects and knowing that they are connected to each other, it’s possible to find more balance in life. That is the purpose of the wheel of life. It enables our clients to reflect on their current life, encouraging them to think ahead as well as find the limits, which influences the life wheel roll more smoothly.