We are living in a world today that does not feel enough; there’s always a better career, better car, better relationship that we are constantly chasing for. The Wheel of Life is how you stop and look.
Why balance slips without you noticing
Nobody decides to give up their evenings. It happens one late meeting at a time. A report runs over, a call moves to the evening, and the gym bag stays in the car for another week.
By the time you notice, it isn’t one bad week. It’s a shape your life has quietly taken. A holiday rarely fixes it, either: you come back rested, and the same calendar is waiting.
Question here is, are we happy with our life? How do we live a more fulfilling life?
What the Wheel of Life is
The Wheel of Life is a circle split into slices, one for each area of your life. You score how satisfied you are with each slice, join the dots and look at the shape.
In my workshop, we go through 8 elements to get a “helicopter view” of your life. You see the areas where you’re doing well and the gaps you can work on, side by side, on one page.
That’s the useful part. “I’m tired” is hard to act on. A slice sitting near the centre is something you can point at.
How to read your wheel
Don’t panic at the low scores. A dip isn’t a failure. It’s information.
- Look for the slice that lifts the others. Ask which one, if it went up by two points, would pull others up with it. That’s often a better place to start than the lowest score.
- Notice where work shows up. Career might score high while family and fun sit near the centre. That’s not a verdict on your job. It’s a hint about where your hours go.
- Pick one slice, not eight. Trying to fix everything at once is how the wheel ends up the same shape next month.
Start. Stop. Continue.
Once you’ve picked your slice, write three lines. It’s the format my workshop breakout groups use, and it works just as well on your own.
- Start: one thing you’ll begin doing. A walk after lunch, or a call to a friend on Sundays.
- Stop: one thing you’ll drop. Checking email in bed, or saying yes to every optional meeting.
- Continue: one thing that’s already working and deserves to stay.
Small and specific beats big and vague. “I’ll exercise more” is a wish. “I’ll walk after lunch on Tuesdays and Thursdays” is a plan.
Then put a date in your calendar to draw the wheel again. Same slices, same honest scoring. The goal isn’t a perfect circle. It’s seeing whether the slice you chose has moved, and whether another one slipped while you weren’t looking.
Make it visible with a vision board
A wheel on paper is easy to lose in a drawer. In the workshop we also do Vision Board Mapping: images and words that show what each slice looks like when it’s working. Put yours somewhere you’ll see it every day, next to your desk or as your phone’s lock screen.
It is time to create a map of your own & live your life!
Bring the Wheel of Life to your team
Teams drift out of balance too, often after the same busy stretch. If you’d like your people to map their wheels together, I run Wheel of Life: Finding Balance in Life as a half day workshop. It includes Personal Wheel of Life mapping, Vision Board Mapping, breakout groups on Start. Stop. Continue. and actionable take-home materials.