Do you ever find yourself thinking about your life and feeling like something is off? You know you want to change something, but aren’t really sure what it is. Honestly, before we started this blog, that is where we were. We both had everything we needed in life, but we knew something was missing. We didn’t know about the life balance wheel at the time. But if we had, I am sure, it would have been easier for us to pinpoint what exactly was bothering us.
Because what happens is we get so caught up in the everyday craziness we don’t see the big picture anymore.
When you start feeling out of balance, it is good to take a step back and look at your life from a distance. Getting a general idea of where you are in the most important areas in life can help you understand, which areas you are flourishing in. And, maybe even more importantly, which areas need some work. This is where the life balance wheel can help.
What is the life balance wheel?
The life balance wheel (or the wheel of life) is a powerful self-assessment tool and a great foundation for goal setting. It helps you reflect on the areas in your life that you find most important and assess how satisfied you feel with your current situation.
The idea of the life balance wheel originally comes from Buddhism. However, the two concepts are not to be confused. In Buddhism, the wheel represents existence as the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. It focuses more on awareness of your mental state.
The modern version, created by the life coaching pioneer Paul Meyer, uses the circle as an illustration of you as a whole. The different parts of the circle represent different areas in your life. To put it simply, if you want balance in your life you need balance among your chosen areas.
Understanding the life balance wheel
The wheel is a circular diagram, divided into 8 equal parts. Each part represents one of the areas in your life that you find important. These can be different for each individual, as every one of us has different values, different things that define us.
Inside the wheel and every individual part is a scoring scale. Using the scale, you assess how fulfilled you feel in each chosen area. The scale goes from 1 (the center of the circle), meaning very unsatisfied, to 10 (the outer edge of the circle), meaning very satisfied.
Now that we have a basic understanding of the element of the life balance wheel, let’s get right into making one! I suggest you make a nice cup of tea or coffee, sit back and get ready to start exploring.
Making your life balance wheel
To help you make your life balance wheel, we have made a free printable. You can download it by following the instructions at the end of this article. If you want, you could also draw the diagram yourself (but the printable is just too pretty!). Basically, you need a circle, divided into 8 equal parts. And then start filling it out…
1
Choose meaningful areas.
Our free printable (you’ll find it at the end of this article) includes two versions: one with suggested (more general) areas in life and the other one blank.
As I explained earlier, the areas you wish to include in your wheel are completely up to you. The choice depends solely on which categories you find important and what you feel defines you.
For a more general version of the wheel, you could use areas like:
- Health & Nutrition
- Activities
- Relationships
- Family
- Finance
- Career
- Joy & Happiness
- Self-Image
However, depending on what you want in life, you could be much more specific. For example, you could have categories like:
- Body Image
- Marriage
- Writing etc.
2
Reflect on each area and assess it.
Each of your areas is a whole on its own so it doesn’t matter where you begin. Focus on one area at a time and take time to think about it thoroughly.
Generally, I like to begin by asking myself questions like:
- What is my current situation like?
- How does it make me feel?
- What drives me, keeps me going?
- What do I miss?
To help you dive deeper into each of the suggested areas, here are some other questions you might want to explore:
- Health & Nutrition: How do I feel throughout the day? Energized, tired, sluggish? Is the food I eat good for my body? Do I take time to exercise regularly? Do I spend enough time out in the fresh air?
- Activities: What activities fulfill me? Do I enjoy my free time? Do I have a creative outlet? How often do I do what I really love?
- Relationships: Do I have people I can trust in my life? How sincere are my relationships?
- Family: Do I talk openly to my family members? Can I trust them completely? How often do I spend quality time with them?
- Finance: Am I happy with how much money I make monthly? Am I saving money for the future? How comfortable am I in my current financial situation?
- Career: Do I love what I do? Am I proud of what I do? Is it hard for me to get up in the morning, knowing I have to go to work?
- Joy & Happiness: Do I live a full life? Do I celebrate my victories? Do I envy other peoples’ lives?
- Self-Image: Do I feel good about myself? Do I feel people respect me? How do other people see me? How do I look physically?
Make sure to take enough time for this process. Try to get a very accurate assessment of where you are.
Once you have done that, place a dot on the scale for each of the categories. 1 means you are feeling very unsatisfied, not happy about the area at all. And 10 means very satisfied, you feel like this is it and things could not be any better.
3
Connect the dots.
After evaluating all of the 8 areas, connect the dots you have drawn. This will form a closed shape, your wheel if you like.
Now, look at the shape. Is it more or less evenly shaped or is it completely uneven? Whatever it is, it is normal and a representation of you and you only.
If you can see obvious gaps, this means there are certain areas that require attention. Those are the areas that you feel most unhappy about and that might be keeping you from moving forward.
On the other hand, if your wheel is pretty even already, that’s great! But it doesn’t mean there is no room for improvement. Unless you assessed all of your areas with a 10 (which I am guessing you didn’t), you can slowly start working on improving each category. This way your wheel will slowly move towards the outer edge.
But remember, having perfect 10s is not what you are striving for. It is first and foremost a balance between the categories we are after.
Setting goals
You have now made your wheel of life and it has hopefully helped you identify the areas in your life you should try improving.
To get to where you want to be, you can think about what you want to change. What can you do to be more fulfilled? How do you feel now and how do you want to feel in three months? These are excellent starting points for setting goals.
If you are ready to start this process, I suggest you read our articles about setting goals and achieving them.
But before you start your goal setting adventure, take another look at your wheel and say yes! I did this. Because you just took the first step on the journey to reaching your ambitions.
I suggest you write a date on your life balance wheel and keep it somewhere safe. Then, after a while, repeat the process, and see if you have made any improvement. Seeing how much more content we feel is a great motivation to keep striving for more in life.
Now it’s your turn. Have you ever made a life balance wheel? If so, has it helped you identify the areas to work on? And has it helped you take the steps to get closer to where you want to be?
If not, do you feel it could be a helpful tool for you? What areas would you include? We would love to hear your thoughts!
Download your free life balance wheel printable!
Fill out the form below to get the download link.