Sometimes my clients come to the coaching feeling stuck but not exactly sure about what creates that stuckness in their life. In this situation, it is really difficult to understand what is wrong and identify where to start.
In this blog, I wanted to share with you a simple but effective tool that I use with my clients to start off. I think you can use this tool by yourself and it might help you to identify the pain points in your life by adopting a helicopter perspective to look at your lives. The tool is called Wheel of Life, and the original concept is attributed to the late Paul J. Meyer who founded the Success Motivation® Institute in 1960. This wheel contains eight sections that, together, represent one way of describing a whole life. You may have other labels or categories or may wish to divide friends and family. The structure is up to you. The exercise measures your level of fulfilment in these areas on the day you work through this exercise. It is not a picture of how it has been in the past or what you want it to be in the future. It is a snapshot taken at the moment. It is not a report card on how well you have performed or what you have achieved. The emphasis is on your level of fulfilment in each area.
Steps:
- Draw your own wheel of life with 8 or more pies. You may choose to break the category of friends and family into two separate categories or wish to add a category. If so, feel free!
- Then rate you level of fulfilment in each of the area. Zero means not satisfied and 10 means highly satisfied.
- After rated each of the areas, connect the lines to form an inner wheel. This gives you an overview of balance in your life. Remember, this is not about getting 10s ! It’s about a smoother ride. If this wheel were a tire on your car, how bumpy would the ride be?
- Ask yourself below questions and take notes:
- What do you notice when you look at this wheel?
- What area would you like to work on?
- What area are you ready to make a change in?
Here, in 4 simple steps you are able to identify the reason of the stuckness… If you are willing to take one more step, why don’t you journal answering the below questions?
- How do you feel about your life as you look at your Wheel?
- Are there any surprises for you?
- How do you currently spend time in these areas?
- How would you like to spend time in these areas?
- What would make that a score of 10?
- What would a score of 10 look like?
- Which of these categories would you most like to improve?
- How could you make space for these changes in your life?
- What help and support might you need from others to make changes and be more satisfied with your life?
- And what change do you want to make first?
- What is the smallest step you could take to get started?
- If there was one key action that would begin to bring everything into balance, what would it be?