Using the Wheel of Life

If you are looking to create a sense of balance in your life the ‘go to’ tool for any coach is the Wheel of Life.  The basic premise is that you use it to assess where you are at in terms of satisfaction with the most important areas of your life.  Then you can see where you need to take action.  Many books provide the six or eight categories for you to score but I find that a better approach is for each individual to select the areas that are most important to them personally.

There are several versions of the wheel that you can use and they vary in complexity.  You can download the basic six section version from here and this is the one I’m going to talk you through here.  If you’d like to know about the others please feel free to contact me.

Choosing Your Categories

What is most important to you right now?  This part of the process takes some discipline on your part.  It’s time to think about what is really important rather than what you think should be. 

The following is a list of possibilities, but remember that you can add your own categories, rename them or group some together:

You’ll notice that a lot of these look the same, that’s intentional to get you to think about which words work best for you.

You can use the numbers in the wheel to identify which segment relates to which category or you can label them (I would put labels around the edge as you will be using the middle of the wheel in a moment.

What does Perfect Look Like

Now take some time to consider each category one at a time and consider what perfect would look like and how would you know when you have achieved that.  It might be helpful to write this out on a separate piece of paper so that you can refer back to it.  With this in mind you are now going to give a score to this area of your life based on how it is right now.  You know what your 10/10 (perfect) would look like and 0/10 is when it couldn’t possibly be worse.  Use the numbers shown on the divider between sections 4 and 5 to draw a line through the segment to represent each score.  When you have done this you will have something that looks like one of the wheels below.

Balanced or not?

Imagine making a real wheel using the blue lines above as the rim.  If you were to make two and put them on a bike you would have a fairly smooth ride but if you used the red lines as your template it would be a different story.  Whichever wheel yours looks like I would imagine that your life reflects the smoothness or otherwise of your wheel.

How to Use the Wheel of Life

Now you have your first scoring it would be useful to date it.  You’ll notice in the download that you have a sheet with a space for this and eight wheels to score.  It is useful to score your wheel on a regular basis to see what is changing for you.  Just doing this is a great way to use the tool.  It highlights if you are focusing on one area of your life and neglecting the rest.  Focus on just one area can be what is needed in the short term but can prove problematic if it continues. It’s all well and good to reach the pinnacle of your career but if you have no friends or family left to share that success it may feel very hollow. 

Once you have this starting point the way that you use it to take action is completely dependant on what feels right to you.  If you have a blue style wheel the goal might be to bring the blue line out section by section until it shows a 10/10 in all important areas of your life.  If you have the red style wheel you could decide to smooth it out first by bringing the scores in categories 2, 3 and 5 out in line with the rest, or you might decide to move 1 and 4 out to match 6 first and then work on the lower scoring segments.

Getting Help

I hope that I have explained this clearly but if you need any help please do get in touch.  If you have scored your wheel and you are not sure where to start you could book an Introduction Session to see how I can help you to gain clarity around the actions that will help you to create the balanced life you are looking for.