Visualization is a very powerful cognitive tool. Not only the world around you, but also yourself. It’s not for nothing that they say: “It’s better to see once than to hear a hundred times.” With this in mind, we have already introduced you to the method of mental maps by Tony Buzan. Today we will talk about another visual tool - the wheel of life, which everyone can use to analyze their life from the point of view of balance - the balance of its individual aspects.
We also invite you to our online program “Self-Knowledge”, where, with the help of psychological tests and exercises, you will find out what you really want in life and understand your strengths and weaknesses.
The “Wheel of Life Balance” method
To achieve balance in life, you need to put all sectors of your life in order. To assess the state of the parts of your life that are important to you, use this exercise.
The Wheel of Life is a technique for analyzing and planning life. [1]
We print out a template picture or calculate the “wheel” online. We divide the circle into 8 sections, like a pizza. Each sector is one area of life. You can choose your own or those described above.
Rate the current state of each area from 1 to 10 points (1 – terrible, 10 – everything is wonderful). 1 – inside the circle, 10 – on the outer circle. As a result, you get a wheel of vital balance of your life.
The Wheel of Life Balance is an example.
An area of life that scores low is the main source of dissatisfaction in life. By improving it, you improve your overall feeling of well-being.
The exercise can be done once every 1-3 months to see progress.
Analysis and planning of your own life
Most people - probably about 80-90% - live with their heads down, so to speak, and do not see much of what is happening around them. Because of this viewing angle, their sphere of interest is quite narrow. In fact, all they care about is work and personal life, and often it is not about involvement in the process, but about the so-called “serving a number.”
In other words, every day a person wakes up in the morning and goes to work simply because “it’s necessary.” The longer he works in the same place, the less often he thinks about the fact that he could do something else, reveal himself in some other area. The main goal of life for many is to provide for themselves and their family, but in the pursuit of money, people lose the most important emotional connections and find themselves locked within a single sphere of life - the material.
The technique that we will consider in this article will help you raise your head, look around, see new horizons and reformat your life - not the way it’s “supposed”, but the way you want it.
This technique is called the “Wheel of Life”.
The dangers of misinterpretation are important
The Wheel of Life is just an exercise. The power is in the clarity of comparison with a physical wheel, but the same comparison is misleading.
No need to deceive yourself:
- Wheel of Expectations - a more accurate name for this technique.
Some people feel disappointed at the sight of their crooked wheel and think: “You can’t go far on such a wheel!” The name “wheel of life” suggests that on this wheel you roll through life, that this is your life.
But that's not true. When filling out the wheel of life balance, you take the ideal as what you think your life should look like, not what it is.
Remove expectations and idealization of your life, and your wheel will be perfectly smooth - that's exactly what you'll be rolling on.
Our life is already great. We are so used to good things that we have stopped appreciating them. And we pay attention to what we don’t have.
- The trap of idealizing the wheel. The word “wheel,” automatically and imperceptibly, attributes the properties of a physical wheel to the flow of our life.
Instead of the “wheel of life,” the brain draws the image of a car wheel – perfectly round, smooth, full of air. All. This image immediately idealizes your life.
Even when all areas have 8-10 points, it is still not ideal and annoying. We picture it as a “flat tire on a car” - you can’t even drive it out of the garage, let alone accelerate over 100 km/h.
- The Comparison Trap with Wheel Spokes – another, erroneously transferred, property of the physical wheel.
They depict the “wheel of life”, dividing the circle into even sectors. The illusion is created that all sectors are equally important. And what is more important, it seems that all categories occupy the same importance in life.
“Work” occupies a sector, and “creativity” occupies the same sector. If you work 8 hours a day, then you also have to do creative work for 8 hours a day?
We do not realize this mistake, but the subconscious saw the sectors as equivalent. This equality of spheres of life is already tormenting a person. You need to catch this moment in time and not sweat it.
- Wheel size misconception.
The method offers ratings from 1 to 10 points. If you are very dissatisfied with your health and gave 1 point (for example, you got a bad back at the age of 23). The “life balance wheel” will show that you have only 10% health. This assessment is fair for an 85-year-old man, but not here.
The method does not take into account the scale of your life. If you rate everything on 3-5 points, it’s easy to fall into the illusion that your life is insignificant.
It is more correct to set from 91 to 100 points. This way it will be clear that life is great, there is everything to enjoy it now. And in order to feel 100, you can strain yourself.
- Wheel of life in the moment.
Today, when filling out the life balance wheel, you are unhappy that there has been no promotion at work for a whole year - you put a mark of 3. A week later you are promoted, you already put a 10. Growth by 7 points in a week!
The test program does not show the dynamics, take it into account yourself.
- Wheel of an Ideal Life.
When composing the wheel of life balance, you can set your “expectations” from life and get upset. For a positive-minded person who has already worked with this test more than once, and more than once reached 10 points in all areas, this method is transformed into the “Wheel of Approaching an Ideal Life.” An example - to a perfect day.
In fact, a person understands that life is wonderful and he really loves to develop, set new goals and achieve them. In this case, scores from 1 to 10 will reflect its approach to goals in all categories.
An important difference: a person already feels like a top ten! But he wants more, so he can put a mark of 6, where it would have been worth putting 16 a long time ago.
Man has seen from his own experience all these dangers of interpreting wheel size. He understands that the circle has long grown, but his demands have grown along with him. We need to come to this.
What to do next
So, you have analyzed the results. Don't think the job is done. Now you need to learn how to maintain a balance in life. How to do it?
Make connections
Think about how the spheres of the wheel of life balance are connected. Perhaps changes in one will provoke changes in the other. Try to find keys that will open doors in several directions at once.
Look to the future
What do you expect from life in the coming years? Surely, everyone wants to fill the balance wheel with 10-point marks. But look at the environment realistically. It will not be possible to achieve high performance in all areas at once. In any case, something will have to be postponed until later or pushed into the background.
Let's say you are planning a child. Needless to say, his career rating will go down with his appearance? Or, for example, rapid advancement up the career ladder will undermine your health.
It’s worth thinking about what the life balance wheel will look like after 6 months, a year, 2 years. Which areas to pay more attention to and which ones to leave as they are. Mark your wishes and preferences with a dotted line.
Set the right goals
Identify a few areas that need to be addressed. Set goals for them. They have 3 requirements:
- Wording in a positive way. Tell me not what you are running away from, but what you are going towards, what you want to achieve.
- Specific result. Don't write in general terms. Instead of “improve your health,” it is better to indicate the exact desire to “lose 5 kg” or “have vision correction surgery.”
- Deadlines. Write exact dates.
How to work with a wheel
Bringing your life into balance, prioritizing is a major step towards a happy, self-controlled life. You cannot improve those aspects of your life that you do not consciously attend to.
As a rule, life becomes distorted due to the fact that we ourselves tilt it in a weaker direction every day. We strengthen our already strong sides, or we pay attention to things that do not bring satisfaction and growth.
The purpose of the exercise is to highlight in your mind the priority aspects of life for elaboration . To organize your life, you need to start with one area. If you learn to increase your satisfaction in one part of your life, it will be easy to transfer positive experiences to other areas.
Life balance wheel - helps you set priorities.
The next step after identifying a priority area is to understand what exactly does not satisfy you. Then make a plan and set goals to get things in order.
To the main questions “How to work with him?”, “How to achieve harmony in life?”, there is only one answer: you need to get closer to managing your life every day.
Is it possible to adequately evaluate your life?
It is possible, but it is not as easy to do as it seems. Remember that feelings and emotions often cloud the mind. Imagine a situation where a woman had a fight with her husband. Naturally, the technique for assessing the family sphere in the balance wheel will change. This time the estimate will most likely be lower.
A piece of advice will help you avoid bias: take into account your goals for the coming years, for example, 3-5 years. Let's say you were able to achieve them, raised your business, built or strengthened your family. Tell us, without leaving out any details, what your life looks like. And then compare it with how you live now. In which areas of life is everything going according to plan, and which need to be changed?
Analyzed? Now give your grades and move on to the results.
Useful materials
Download test template:
- Picture/photo templates for printing:
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.- Exercise designer in Excel format, PDF #1 – editable, PDF #2.
- Coaching template in Word #1 format. Template in Microsoft Doc #2.
- PowerPoint template. Presentation - How to Fill a Wheel in PowerPoint #2.
- Application. Life balance matrix – “Full F”. R. Gandapas.
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Books about the exercise:
- R. Gandapas - “Full F: life as a business project.” Audiobook.
- N. Mrochkovsky - “Breakthrough! 11 best personal growth trainings"
- Technique of the wheel of life balance in coaching: I. Pintosevich - “Act! 10 commandments of success"
Video:
- R. Gandapas - About the wheel of life in business.
- N. Mroczkowski - How to create a “Wheel of Life” diagram.
- How to make a wheel of life in Excel.
Life is not one sector
What is life balance? It is satisfaction with life as it is. It is diverse, there is no need to reduce it to smooth and beautiful sectors.
There is no point in devoting an equal amount of time to each area in the pursuit. You need to devote so much so that this area does not bother you, and ideally makes you happy. Even if you have no intention of improving anything in it, because there are more interesting things to do.
Often there is one main sphere of the wheel of life, a man has a family, a woman has a family, and everything else revolves and is stuck around this basic sector.
Life looks like this picture.
Life balance is when you are satisfied with all areas of life and their dynamics. Satisfied - means that you are satisfied with the situation today and the pace of its development. If you are upset about the current situation, but it is clear that things are going up, it is better to calm down and enjoy the rise.
Balance the wheel of life, but remember: a perfect circle, perfect sectors - only in an ideal world.
