Today I'm going to share a quick self-coaching tool that will help you gain clarity on what area or areas of your life could do with more focus and attention. It's called the Wheel of Life, or some people call it a Balance Wheel. You basically look at 8 areas of your life, rate them from 0 - 10, where 0 is not going well at all and completely unsatisfied and 10 is fantastic and exactly how you want your life to look. You assess how your life looks and how you're doing in each area and then you can clearly see what areas of your life need attention.
This tool will give you a snapshot of where you are in your life right now, identify what needs your focus and what's going well and then you can track your progress by repeating the exercise the following month, every quarter or twice a year - it really depends on the areas you have chosen to focus on. If it's a general life balance wheel, which is what I will talk you through today, I like to revisit this every 6 months but again this is personal and depends on how much you are moving forward and what you are focusing on.
Draw a circle and divide it into 8 sections. At the centre of each circle is 0 and each outer edge is 10.
Next, you need to name each section of your wheel to represent 8 areas of your life. I will list the 8 general life areas that coaches often use when they are using this tool to assess their client's life balance but you can tailor these to be more specific or relative to you. It all depends on what's going on in your life at the time you are completing the exercise. You might be planning a big event, for example, and decide to dedicate a section to that to help you keep on track of it.
The 8 areas are:
1. Family and Friends (sometimes people like to break this up into two sections, so they will either have 9 sections or they may remove a section that is going really well for them. I personally think 8 is a good number, 6 can work too but I feel 10 is a lot.)
2. Relationships (or you can call this Love)
3. Fun and Recreation (some call this Leisure, Free Time, Hobbies, use what resonates with you the most.)
4. Health (think of your energy levels, fitness, sleep, diet, self-care and medical health here)
5. Money/Finance
6. Personal Development or Personal Growth
7. Physical Environment or Home
8. Career
As I've said, these can be changed to whatever is taking up space in your head right now, like that event, a home improvement project, work project or maybe you are looking at making a change of career.
Okay, you have your wheel and your section titles. Now its time to score yourself, very honestly, from 0 to 10. When you are scoring yourself, do so based on your current reality. Ask yourself, "How satisfied am I with where I am today?" You want to get an accurate picture and feel motivated to make change. When you have rated each area, stop and have a good look at each score. Where are you doing well? Where are your strong points? What areas feel successful to you? Where do you think you need to focus your attention? Look at where you have scored yourself in each section of your life and ask yourself, "What would 10 look like?" Then ask yourself, "What would it take to get me one step closer to 10?" Don't rush this exercise, trying to get from a 5 to a 10 is a big leap and will more than likely just add more stress to your already busy life. This is about getting one step closer. So think about moving yourself from a 5 to a 6. What would get you that one step closer? Make a next step plan for each area, focusing first on those areas where you didn't score very high. If you scored very highly in any section, then commit to carrying on doing what you are doing to retain that high score and focus your attention on those low scoring areas. It's a good idea to look at your high scores and what's working well and ask yourself why they are working so well. Maybe you can take something from this and apply it to those sections where you didn't score so highly.
Repeat the wheel again in a month, 2 months or whenever you feel is right to see how you have progressed and don't forget to celebrate that success.
This exercise also works well when you have a work project and maybe you don't know where to start and feel totally overwhelmed. Just by breaking things down into separate areas, and looking at how you can move forward one step in each area, you will find some focus. It can be a wonderful self-coaching tool when you are experiencing a sense of overwhelm or a complete lack of work-life balance.
It may seem strange to hear a coach tell you to focus on the weaker, lower scoring areas of your life. It's in our nature to focus on strengths and successes. Focusing on strengths when you are being coached around very specific goals can be the route to success. But here we are looking at the broader areas of your life and we also want to challenge people's thinking so this wheel is a great visual tool to make you do that. You may have ignored these weaker areas but seeing how you scored yourself forces you to address it, think about it deeply and do something about it. This is a great way to take a quick snapshot of your life and assess how you can make positive changes in those areas that may look quite negative to you. If you leave things as they are, you will find yourself feeling more and more negative and this will sap your energy. It's draining when areas of your life are going really badly and you end up not being able to focus on anything else. With a little effort around thinking how you can move yourself one step closer to feeling completely satisfied, you will find yourself entering a flow of constantly moving forward. How can I get from 5 to 6? Then 6 to 7 until you find yourself at 8 and things are looking up!
Don't forget the popular saying - "You get what you focus on, so focus on what you want." The areas where you are doing well are generally going to be the areas you are focusing on. This Wheel of Life tool can be used as a gentle nudge for you to focus on those other areas, too.
I'd love to know if you have tried out this tool and how you found the exercise. Please share your experience in the comments!
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