Life Wheel

Self Life Coach Series #5

This is one of my favorite life-coaching exercises ever. It is called the Life Wheel and I am sure it is called other things as well. Basically it helps you look at different areas of your life and how you feel like those areas “are working for you.” For this exercise refer to the Life Wheel in your workbook on page 10. 

You know by now, I have said it enough, we are all so unique. You get to decide what the 8 areas of you life are.

Examples of Life Wheel Categories

I use these 8:

• home
• service
• finances
• personal growth
• friendships
• motherhood
• marriage
• faith

but you may also use these 8:

• environment
• career
• money
• health
• relationships
• romance
• recreation
• personal growth

or these with any combination of the above:

• work
• space
• stewardship
• passion (like calling, not romance?)
• friends & family
• spouse
• fun
• learning

The exact 8 categories you pick for your life wheel is not as important as the fact you pick 8 totally different areas of your life to represent balance. I have also broke “motherhood” down into three areas, one for each of my very different three kids.

Life Wheel

If you don’t have our workbook, picture a circle and cut it in half, then quarters, then eighths- you will have a circle with 8 pie pieces like pictured above. If you do have the free workbook use page 11 with each of your areas printed out in the turquoise boxes. Label outside of the circle each pie piece with one of your categories. Now you are ready to begin the exercise. 

Rating your Areas

The center of the circle is zero and the outer rim is a “10.”  Go ahead and rate your satisfaction for each of the areas of your life from 1-10, 10 being perfect. This is your life and if you are happy with very little money, and you have what you want and manage it well, that could be a ten for example. Don’t use this tool as a comparison to others.  As you rate each make a curved line in the pie slice to represent that area. 

Your areas could all be about mid way, some could be close to 10 and others lower. This alone is insightful for you to look at.  Are you surprised by any of the scores? Have you ever looked at your life like this before?  Is your wheel a little out of balance? It is absolutely normal for it to be out of balance.

Your perfect “10”

Ok, now for the powerful part of this exercise.  On page 12 in your workbook, write out what a “10” would look like in each of your areas in your workbook. This is your dream in that area of your life. Maybe there are some goals and dreams that you didn’t know you had? What was the biggest thing you learned about yourself by doing the Life Wheel? Take these written descriptions of the tens in your life and highlight what could be a future goal, is an unknown dream, or just something that peeks your interest.

I have been asked which areas to work on first- the higher scoring areas or the lower areas. That is truly up to you. I would say though that focusing on both the lowest and bringing it up and the highest and bringing it up with have the most impact on your day to day life. The ones that rank in the middle (and could benefit from improvement) usually don’t lead to as big of a change as picking the areas on the high & low ends.

I hope the Life Wheel is as helpful for you as it has been for me. Talk about it with those close to you. I was surprised by the slight changes my husband and I made in our marriage to take it up a few numbers. Sometimes it is just a matter of looking at things with a different focus.

NEXT Self Life Coach Series #6: Roles & Responsibilities

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