Using the wheel of life

…for perspective, reflection, clarity and action!

What is the wheel of life?

You may or may not have come across the concept of the wheel of life, but even if you have, I encourage you not to discount it as a meaningless exercise – if you haven’t done one for a while you might be surprised at what it reveals to you. And as with most of these things, it’s what you do with this information that counts!

I like it because it gives you a chance to have a very visual representation of your current reality of different aspects of your life. When everything stays in your mind, like a large melting pot of life, relationships, work and so on, it can be very hard to decide what exactly to focus on – or even recognise what might require some of your attention.

Many coaches may discuss the wheel of life with clients, and it is popular for a reason as you can see a picture of your life and make grounded realistic decisions from what it reveals. You draw and populate a ‘wheel’ of life to reflect your satisfaction with different areas of your life (you choose what these are) – and don’t be alarmed if you have a ‘wonky wheel’, that’s very normal!

How to complete the wheel of life

You’ll need paper and a pen or you can probably find a blank template to print if you prefer. It’s not about perfection, either in its production or about what you wheel shows, it’s about honesty and awareness.

Firstly, choose areas of your life that matter to you. These will become ‘segments’ on your wheel so you probably want to choose at least 6 areas, typically 8 or 9 (there are no rules, it’s your wheel!). To give you an idea of areas you might choose, here are some suggestions:

·        Work / career satisfaction;

·        Physical health;

·        Family / home life;

·        Friendships;

·        Personal development;

·        Mental / spiritual wellbeing;

·        Financial / security;

·        Community / belonging;

·        Love / intimacy;

·        Leisure / recreation

You can choose, add to, or amend these as you see fit. However many areas you choose will need to be the number of segments on your wheel. If you are drawing this freehand rather than using a template, you’ll want a fairly large circle on your paper which you’ll then segment (like cutting up a cake into a number of pieces). Each piece now represents one of those life areas.

Using the example picture below, which is ready to include 9 life areas (with 9 segments), you’ll see that there are 10 rings from the centre of the wheel to the outside. The darker outer ring is to use for your life area label for that segment, e.g. ‘work / career satisfaction’.

Work your way around each segment, and mark off a score on that segment to represent your satisfaction right now with this life area (your current reality, not what you think it ‘should’ be). The closest ring to the centre is level 1 (high dissatisfaction), the ring closest to the outer edge is level 10 (deeply satisfied).

As you mark it off, it may look something like this:

Once you’ve marked off each segment, you’ve completed your wheel and it gives you a snapshot overview of your current reality (and as I said, it is probably wonky!). But that’s really just the start.

What to do with your wheel of life

Firstly, as a snapshot overview, is there anything that stands out to you from your wheel and the scores you’ve given? You might also notice if any part of it is a surprise to you, or perhaps as you expected.

Perhaps you are drawn to some of those segments in particular, is it because they scored low (or lower than you anticipated) or because they are the segments that matter most to you now, at this stage of your life? Can you recognise why segments that are the most important ones to you are at their current score levels?

Notice what is working well for you in your life right now, i.e. where your scores are higher. It’s easy to get drawn into focusing on the negative and overlooking the positives!

Can you identify a segment or two that you know you’d like to improve? How might you add 1 to that current score level?

These are just a few ideas you could journal on or work through on your wheel of life. There are many more questions you can use to understand, and act on, your wheel and it’s exactly this kind of work that is really beneficial to do with a coach. Everyone’s wheel is inevitably different, and of course it is something that is likely to change over time too, whether that is different segment choices or because your scores have changed (in either direction!)

Why do the wheel of life exercise?

There isn’t a magic bullet solution to how we navigate life, and no tool in isolation will give you all the answers (sorry!). But doing an exercise like this, and revisiting it periodically can give you honest insights and a grounding from which to identity some ‘+1’ moves and ideas that feel achievable and actionable straight away.

If we just complete it arbitrarily and never examine it, question it or make choices from it, then yes it probably is pointless!

I’d love to know if you give it a go, if you revisit it in 3-6 months’ time and notice what has shifted (and perhaps what hasn’t), and most importantly of all, if you’d like support in deciphering your wheel, or even choosing what should go on it in the first place, then please do get in touch, this is exactly the kind of thing that I support my clients with: kathryn@kbmindfulcoaching.com.

NB if you sign up to my mailing list here you’ll also never miss any special offers that I have for my coaching – my aim is to make life coaching as available and beneficial to as many people as possible, and I am here ready to support you!