What is Wheel of Life? And why is it the great tool for goals setting?
Wheel of life is a great exercise and an amazing self-assessment tool to help you better examine each area of your life and assess what is off balance and identify areas that need more attention. This technique is used widely in life coaching. It is also a great starting point to goals setting and reviewing your priorities.
How do you use Wheel of Life
The purpose of Wheel of Life is to identify how you are currently dividing your time between different things and how happy and satisfied you are in the those spheres of your life. Ideally we would like to have a balance between different areas of our life but it is not always a case. So many of us spends too much time at work and there is not enough time left for family pleasures or simply me-time, etc.
Here, during the exercise, you will be able to assess for yourself all important spheres in your life. Each area of your life is mapped on a circle, like the spoke of a wheel.The Wheel of Life gives you a visual representation of the way your life is currently and can give you some kind of reflection about the way you would ideally like it to be.
5 steps of working with Wheel of Life
You can draw your Wheel of Life yourself or use templates available to download from the internet. If you would like to print out your template, you could use this link to download one. Otherwise you could search for other template available from the net.
1. Set up your Wheel of Life.
Usual categories used in Wheel of Life are: Friends and Family, Partner, Career, Money, Health, Personal Growth and Learning, Fun & Leisure and Physical Environment. You can change, split or rename any category of the Wheel of Life so that it’s meaningful and represents a balanced life for you.
2. Brainstorm your life areas and score them.
After you choose the areas you want to focus on, do some brainstorming. Think about each category and ask yourself relevant questions which would help you to better assess your satisfaction in given category.
For example:
- Is your career where you want it to be?
- Are you earning enough income to satisfy your current needs?
- Are you satisfied with your level of health and fitness?
- Do you feel loved and you can can express your love?
- Are you satisfied with your personal growth?
- Do you do things for fun?
Your aim is to get the honest score that will represent how happy and fulfilled you are in this area of your life. This step is to assess the amount of attention you’re currently putting to each area. Think about what success feels like for you in each category. Remember that everybody is different, so your ideal scores per each area would be different then other people. This exercise is for you to realize where you are now and what you potentially would like to change.
3. Complete the Wheel of Life.
Next, taking the center of the wheel as 0 (very dissatisfied) and the outer edge as 10 (fully satisfied), rank your level of satisfaction with each area out of 10 by drawing a line across each segment (see example below).
4. Reflect on the results. Think about your ideal levels.
You completed your Wheel of Life. Have a look at it and reflect on what you see. Is it balanced in all areas? If it is unbalanced- what categories stand up? Any surprises?
Look at your wheel and think if it would give you smooth or bumpy ride…
Think about the score in each category which you would consider as ideal for yourself. How far from it are you at this moment? Even if it is far from ideal, it is no time to panic and get depressed. Rather opposite- it is time to take some action and set up new goals.
5. Take corrective actions. Set your new goals.
Now, after some contemplation about each category, you will have some kind of idea what score you will call good for yourself. Think about any actions you could potentially take to make yourself more satisfied in the selected areas of life. Those areas with lower scores are actually full of opportunities. You can grow the most in this area as you haven’t explore or the options in these areas yet. Focus on setting up new goals to achieve better outcome. Commit to make some good changes for yourself and enjoy your journey of personal growth!
If you need some help with process of setting goals, check my related posts
- Power of daily rituals. Why we need habits?
- How to set goals- The art of making your dreams come true!
- Self improvement tips- personal development HOW TO
It is probably a good idea to revisit this exercise every few months to check how your priorities and scores changed and if you are more balanced in your life. Good luck!
How did you like this exercise? Any surprising results? Please leave me a comment below 🙂
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I love this. It is right up my alley. A straight forward process to help simplify my life. I will have to give this a try. I also love that you believe that low scoring areas offer enormous opportunity for growth.
Definitely give it a go Tony! It is really simple but also very powerful exercise! Good luck!
I must admit, I could do better in career, money and health. Life is always about balance. If it were only balancing a couple of things then it’s easy. But in reality we are wearing different hats and has the expectation to do well in any aspect. I was first exposed to the Wheel Of Life by a friend. I think it’s a good method for us to get the balance in our life only if it is followed by action.
You are right Kenny Lee, it’s a good method for us to get the balance in our life only if it is followed by action. Wheel of Life should be only this first step, to point to you and examine each area of your life. it suppose to give you indication of which categories need more work. Now, the next step is to feel motivation to set up goals and work towards them. It is not always easy but if one sits always in comfort zone, then there is no growth and changes.
Never heard of the Wheel of Life before. Its an interesting goal setting concept. I like how it forces you to think reflectively and honestly on your whole life and shows you what areas of your life you need to work on compared to other areas. Great post!
Thanks Matt! Wheel of Life is very helpful in visualizing imbalance in our life. That is why it is so widely used in life coaching process to encourage you to set new exciting goals.
What a simple yet thought-provoking tool this wheel of life is. I’m assuming the one in the post is yours right? Mine is strikingly uneven. Some wedges were empty! I would think ‘money’ is a common empty one though! I realize I need to make some changes, even though it looks hard. I’ve made efforts to move out of my comfort zone, but looking at my wheel, it’s clear I’m not trying hard enough.
Thanks for the motivational article Elektra! I’m definitely gonna keep this wheel in mind.
As you said it is a thought-provoking tool and it should make you reflect on your life. Moving from comfort zone is a good beginning as in comfort zone there is no growth. Good luck with good changes in your life 🙂
Love the wheel of . I am going to use it myself , Thanks Lee
Thanks for your comment Lee! Give it a go, it is very powerful exercise!
Excellent! I’m so glad I found your site. We’re kindred spirits, I believe.
The “Wheel” reminds me a a little bit about the Three Circles of the Hedgehog Concept in “Good to Great.” I love how you’ve gone through it and have bookmarked your site. Very much looking forward to reading more!
Best wishes,
Kevin
Thanks Kevin! I’m glad you liked it! I’ve haven’t read “Good to Great”- will definitely check it out 🙂
I’ve seen different takes on the Wheel of Life before. In fact, I began using some of the techniques when I became self employed again. As an entrepreneur, I’m in charge of everything. This is and is not a good thing sometimes. I wouldn’t have it any other way though. Thanks for this useful technique. I downloaded the Wheel from your link and will get on this today ! Thanks again,
Let me know after you try it how you liked it. Were you surprised with the results? Good luck with your entrepreneur way of life George!!!
I have never heard about the Wheel of Life, but it sounds like a simple way how to find balance in our life. Thank you for a great article!
It is simple and very effective. Try for yourself and you will see 🙂