The Wheel of Life Blog

The Wheel of Life Blog

I’m curious, would you join a company if you knew they didn’t have a vision. Or go into battle knowing the leaders didn’t have a strategy? What about a teacher teaching a class without any sort of plan or curriculum? Seems obvious the answers are no. You expect each to have a plan. And for each stage in order for that plan and strategies to be the most impactful in the least amount of time. Otherwise it would be like boarding a ship with no one steering the vessel and with no great destination. It ends up wondering aimlessly and may end up only a few feet from where you boarded the ship.

Well, after you graduated from high school or college, have you had a strategy in your life other than to make a lot of money? Or maybe it wasn’t to make a lot of money it was just to get a job and pay bills, but then what? Where to begin?

Well that’s where the wheel of life comes in. For as long as I can remember I’ve kept a journal and my journals consistently have the wheel of life as a theme throughout. What is it? Some people call it, “life balance wheel,” “the coaching wheel” or the “life wheel,” All it is is simply a visual tool many people use to identify what level of satisfaction they are in life at this moment. It’s a way to look at your life in bite sizes pieces by simply compartmentalizing each area of life into the categories. Various spiritual, philosophical, therapeutic, and coaching traditions use the wheel of life to depict the different aspects or areas of a person's life. It illustrates the interconnectedness and balance between these areas. Now how people customize the areas of life differ slightly, but essentially it’s broken up into 8-10 categories or areas of life. I like to use the following 9 areas for my wheels:

Spiritually – is a higher power important to you and, if so, how and why do you connect to that higher power?

Emotionally (Mental Wellness) – This has to do with your nervous system- are you constantly anxious, fearful, or nervous or are your thoughts happy, excited, joyful?

Physically (Health & Physical Wellness) – This refers to your body overall- from food to exercise. Are you eating and physically feel as good as you wish you were?

Intellectually or Creatively- This area is about learning or self-development and personal growth and expansion. What do you do as a hobby that maybe challenges your mind a bit?

Socially – This is all about friends and what you do socially outside of work, family, and your romantic relationship. How satisfied are you with your social relationships?

Love/Relationships – this is referring to your dating life or life partner. Are you fulfilled or maybe blaming your relationship for another weak area in your life?

Family – what is your relationship like with your children and/or parents?

Financially - money and financial security are other terms used here

Professionally or academically, volunteer work, or parenthood if you stay home with the kids can all be labels here

When you look at this circle. Each segment represents a different aspect of life that's important to us.

Then you can evaluate how satisfied or fulfilled you feel in each area by rating each segment on a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest.

How smooth or rough would your wheel ride as you travel down the journey of life? What area would or does cause disruption on your ride? Once you identify your areas of dissatisfaction you can then start to create goals and action plans for the areas that were rated low in satisfaction.

For example, "Physically." How would you rate our overall health and fitness level? What would you want to look and feel like physically? Do you have a realistic goal in mind?

Determining your goals can be daunting, which is why the wheel of life is such an easy way to break down each area of life into bite size areas or sections. It enables you to break down each area of your life so you can identify and focus and move the needle to make progress towards your goals in each area of life. In doing so you feel more balance, well rounded, and confident knowing you can have a compound effect with focus.

By focusing in on on 1-3 areas at a time you can create some momentum and eventual progress. This focuses on goal-setting and creating action plans with the each area of life not only helps quickly assess your current satisfaction or dissatisfaction in each area of life, but it can be used to identify or clarify priorities for goal-setting quickly.

When we score our satisfaction levels in each of the wheel’s categories, this gives us a great helicopter view of what is - and isn't - working for us in life.

Now, I’ve created a worksheet to help you go through each area by asking 5 questions in each area that you can download somewhere on this page.

By identifying areas where we want to improve, we can set goals and make plans to bring more balance into our lives.

With that said, if everything was rated a 5 and you’re just content, do you think you would you move down the road at an average pace, seeing average things, doing average stuff. Unfulfilled possibly, maybe content, but balanced. What could get just one notch higher in satisfaction? What would that look like in each are of life? If you immediately jump to a 10 for desire in an area? How could you scale is back just one notch, and then another, and then… well, you get the point… till your first step is realistic.

If you rated yourself a 10 professionally and financially but a 2 in your relationships or parenting, then you would surely get stuck along the way. Are you willing to make a few adjustments in your life to correct that imbalance? Or maybe you can always stay where you are in order to keep things the way they are. But could you find yourself far away from your loved ones because you focused on your career and not your relationship or family? What about the emotional or intellectual areas of your life? Are you not willing to sacrifice temporarily because it’s easier to go out to the bar or hang out with friends or go into the office to work for someone else or neglect your relationship or kids because you don’t know another way at this point?

Now you do! The Whell of Life is is such a practical tool. It helps us take a step back and assess our overall well-being. I can already see how it can lead to a more fulfilling life.

And keep in mind the wheel is an ongoing and cyclical process. As one area improves, others may naturally be influenced, and vice versa. I would encourage you to regularly reassess by clicking te link below or going onto Peak33Challenge.com and take your Wheel of Life assessment today.

If by doing this exercise you realize you want to make some changes but then not sure where to begin, check out Destination Decision Guide. It’s a way to review your past, see how it’s affecting your present, and then creating a plan for the future.

Here’s how it works, we take a deep dive into identifying what your desire and what is really holding you back, perhaps subconsciously, by looking at your past and recognizing what traumas, resentments, baggage, or beliefs your holding on to and how you are allowing them to affect you in your present. Again, in doing so to know how to create a plan for your future. This is all in what I call Destination: Decision. Deciding how you want to move forward.

What’s your destination and how are you creating a plan to achieve it? In this guide there are many different strategies, techniques, tools, and exercises that are easy to do. If that seems too heavy, although many of the exercises require markers, crayons, and drawing, then you can always check out the Tool Kit. Just as everyone needs a hammer and screwdriver, the tool kit is the essentials needs in each and every situation in life. If interested either click the link below or check out courtpotter.com for more information.

Thank you so much for your time today and I really hope this is the beginning of some beautiful changes in your future. Until next time, take care!