When we are very busy or devote all our energy to one project, it is very easy to lose balance and not pay enough attention to other significant areas of our lives. Of course, staying focused and motivated helps us achieve our goals and excel, but if we take that level of focus and effort too far, we can end up experiencing intense stress from an imbalance.
When we dedicate a lot of time and effort to some areas of our lives, such as work, we end up neglecting other equally important areas, such as rest, leisure or even the relationship with our partner. If that happens, we are likely to end up leading an unbalanced life which will, sooner or later, take its toll on us. The Wheel of Life can help us detect these imbalances to end them before it’s too late.
What is the Wheel of Life?
The original Wheel of Life concept was created by Paul J. Meyer, one of the pioneers in the coaching world, around the 1960s. Its main goal was to help people set new goals and action plans in key categories of his life.
Indeed, the Wheel of Life is a psychological technique that is used in coaching processes to evaluate each vital area and identify those that are out of balance, so that the person can pay more attention to them. It generally has 8 categories or areas which are considered essential for leading a balanced life.
What is the Wheel of Life for?
The Wheel of Life is a powerful and useful tool because it provides a very explanatory visual representation of what our life currently looks like and allows us to compare it to how we would like it to be. The Wheel of Life technique brings out those discrepancies and gaps.
This psychological technique helps us to be more aware of ourselves and of the habits we have put into practice over time. Indeed, it helps us to see our life from a broader perspective and to understand how its different facets are interconnected and influence our well-being. Therefore, it is a self-knowledge tool that also motivates us to make the necessary changes to achieve a fuller, more balanced and more satisfying life.
How to do the Wheel of Life?
The first step is to create your Wheel of Life. The most used basic categories are:
- Health, which includes physical and mental health and general well-being
- Relationships, whether as a couple or with family, friends or work colleagues
- Social, covers all group activities, such as religious, spiritual, or other activities
- Economical, refers to the ability to earn money and manage it effectively
- Work, includes professional career, business and occupation in general
- Personal growth, indicates the level of satisfaction with life and self-realization achieved
These are the main categories of the Wheel of Life, but you can also include other areas that are important to you, such as attitude, spirituality, creativity, leisure or sports. It’s important to make sure you include not only the areas where you feel comfortable and take up a large part of your day, but also those that can help you balance your life and achieve greater well-being, even if you’ve neglected them.
Wheel of Life model
Once you’ve identified the major categories of your Wheel of Life, you can visualize them as different slices of a pie. The full circle represents your life as a whole, and each piece represents a different area of focus.
You will need to rate your level of satisfaction in each area, using a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest score. In each segment, ask yourself: How satisfied am I with this area of my life? The best thing is not to think too much, go with your instincts and respond quickly. Write that number on the Wheel of Life template. When you’re done, connect the dots and you’ll quickly see the areas you’re neglecting and the areas you’re paying too much attention to.
The next step: implement all the necessary changes
Now that you have an overview of reality, it’s time to act. Where are your biggest shortcomings? What imbalances worry you the most? Are there areas of your life that get more attention than they deserve? What are you currently doing little that you would like to do more? What are you doing too much currently that you wish you were doing less? What would you like to start doing? What would you like to stop doing? What works well? What gives you satisfaction? What makes you feel bad?
Then, set new goals for each area and plan for changes you can implement to achieve greater balance and satisfaction in your life. Obviously, these changes will involve making decisions and setting certain commitments because your time, energy and resources are not unlimited. Then, establish two or three actionable actions that will help you get closer to where you want to be, and start by taking baby steps.
The coolest thing about this technique is that you can use the Wheel of Life from time to time to evaluate your progress or identify areas that need to be corrected. In fact, it can become a sort of vital compass that prevents you from leaning too far in one direction.
Of course, there will be times in life when we need to put more attention, time and effort into some areas. It’s normal. However, we must prevent these areas from engulfing other equally important aspects of our lives.
To conclude, it is important to be aware that we tend to spend more time in areas in which we feel more competent or which require our attention “urgently”, neglecting other areas in which we may not feel comfortable or which we may relegate to the background. We need to make sure we correct these imbalances from time to time to lead a fuller all-around life.
