What does the wheel of life balance look like?
Like this:
The idea of the technique is to clearly show the difference between the desired situation and the current state of affairs in vital areas of human activity.
Ideally, all sectors should be equally fully shaded up to the 10 mark. The wheel is balanced. This means that the person has succeeded in all areas of life that are important to him, is absolutely satisfied with the result and is happy.
In fact, the sectors are painted very unevenly. Imbalance clearly shows problem areas. According to the author of the methodology, this is what should push a person to self-improvement.
Visualization of the problem motivates to eliminate the discrepancy, encourages setting goals and concrete steps.
The creator of the method, Paul J. Mayer, is the author of self-development textbooks.
Wheel of Life Balance 8 spheres
How to make a wheel of life from 8 spheres in practice? I will show you this in the next steps that I will take with you.
1. Choose 8 areas in your life that you want to focus on.
Start brainstorming and choosing 8 different areas that matter in your life. These areas can be based on: a) The roles they play in your everyday life b) Areas of life that you consider important c) Your (new) priorities in life
2. Take a blank sheet of paper and draw a circle on it.
For the exercise to work, you must be completely honest with yourself. Spend 10-15 minutes just for yourself. Start by drawing a circle, which you will divide into 8 parts. Each of them symbolizes an important area of life, without which achieving balance would be almost impossible.
3. Write 8 areas on your life wheel.
Once you have chosen your specific areas, it is time to write them into the outer area of your life wheel.
8 Spheres Life Balance Wheel Template
4. Divide each part of the circle into 10 fragments. On a scale of 1 to 10, rate how much value this area of your life currently has. Let's assume that 1 means no or minimal value and 10 means maximum. Determine your level of satisfaction for each area and mark it on your life wheel.
The center of the wheel is 0 (very dissatisfied) and the outer edge is 10 (very satisfied)
Life balance wheel template 8 spheres.pdf
Balance wheel template download excel
5. Color them
Color the box corresponding to the number you have chosen for a specific area or draw a line. The size of the colored area will indicate how that area is functioning in your life (for example, if you feel you are taking care of your health enough, but you could try to do more, check it at 8, for example). Think about what would be 1 or, for example, 10 for each area. The numbers you assign are entirely up to you and will be a subjective assessment of how you are currently functioning.
Life balance wheel example
6. Reflection
Your Wheel of Life will be complete once you have assigned satisfaction scores to all the categories that are important to you. The resulting web may give you surprisingly high (or low) scores in some categories.
Scores range from 8 to 10: You are extremely satisfied in this category. Make sure this is the case, however, there is always room for improvement. Scores range from 5 to 7: You are more or less satisfied with this category, but there is certainly room for improvement and room for further development. Scores range from 1 to 4: You are not at all happy in this particular area. You definitely need to find approaches to improve its execution.
Now look at the painted area. It rarely happens that someone can have only 10s. Usually, if we pay more attention to one area, we pay less attention to another, and this is completely natural (for example, you are having a difficult time at work and we are resting less, or you are saving on credit so you count every penny). Consider whether there is an area that you would like to pay more attention to?
The scores give you the opportunity to reflect on areas of your life that have so far gone unnoticed. The following questions will help you dig deeper.
Why did you give yourself such a low score in this category? What result would you like to get in a month, in 3 months, in six months and in a year? What is the ideal score for this particular category? Which category should you focus on first?
It's easy to be satisfied with one category, but what about the other categories?
Let's say you are completely focused on your career. This will have a positive impact on finances and satisfaction in this area. But how satisfied are you with your family, friends, and your health? By considering all aspects and honing in on how they relate to each other, you can find the perfect balance in life. This is the purpose of the wheel of life. It allows you to reflect on your current life, forcing you to think about the future, and also find boundaries that affect the expansion and development of the wheel.
6. What is your goal?
After getting the result, you should think about the level you want to achieve in each category and consider it as the ideal level. After that, it's time to build this ideal around your wheel of life to test it in the next point.
7. Take action
Setting a goal for each category means that you plan specific actions to improve a specific area. You think about how to increase your satisfaction score for each area. Taking specific actions causes the wheel of life to start turning.
Write down what the first 3 steps you will take to achieve this goal will be. Write who can help you achieve this goal.
“If you don't know where you want to go, it doesn't matter where you go.”
Who will benefit from the technique?
The technique will be useful if:
- your business is not going as it should;
- you feel unhappy more often than you would like;
- you have decided to help yourself become happier and enjoy life, but you don’t know in which direction to develop;
- you want to move forward faster and not miss out on important areas of life.
The wheel is used to determine the cause of failures and poor health. Understand what is missing for happiness.
Steps to Create the Wheel of Life
The Wheel of Life Balance consists of eight segments (we have already talked about them):
1. Family and personal relationships
These are relationships with husband/wife, boyfriend/girlfriend, relationships with children, parents, friends, acquaintances.
2. Business freelance career
Business is for those people who have their own business. A career is for those who work for hire. Freelance – who is a self-employed worker and provides freelance services. This refers to your position in society, where you do something to earn money.
3. Finance and income
Do not confuse this segment with business and career. The fact is that a person can formally work in a low position, but still have a lot of money. And vice versa - formally, a person can work in a very high position and have problems with money, because he spends much more than he earns.
Accordingly, this refers to the amount of money that you receive per month. Moreover, I specifically wrote specifically about income. That is, it is necessary to indicate not only the salary here. It can also be passive income from stocks, bonds, investments, real estate transactions, etc.
4. Health and appearance
This segment covers your physical condition, your well-being and your appearance (condition of hair, skin, nails, figure, weight).
5. Self-development and personal growth
This is where you develop yourself, where you learn, where you master some new things. Personal growth does not have to be related to work. This could be a hobby, a hobby in which you have achieved great heights.
6. Social activities and charity
That is, where you do something not for the purpose of generating income or profit. But because you think that this is the right way to act - in order to improve the world around you. For example, you are a volunteer for some charity organization. Or, on your own initiative, you collect things for those in need. Or just go and donate blood once a quarter.
7. Spiritual growth and inner peace
This is your sense of self, your understanding of how you are in your place in life. To what extent are you doing the right things by and large? The feeling that you are walking along Your Path in life.
8. Living conditions (Brightness of life)
This segment covers items such as: where you live, how you eat, what you wear, where you go on vacation, and what kind of car you drive. That is, the everyday, material conditions of your life.
Questions to help with the Wheel of Life
To gain a deeper understanding of what you're doing on each wheel spoke or segment, you can consider the following questions. You can rate each of these on a scale of 0 to 10, and then take the average to get your overall score for each section:
1. Family/Relationships/Romance/Significant Other
How would you rate your romance, intimacy, and quality time with your spouse/partner/significant other? How would you rate the quality and quantity of your time and communication with your immediate family? How would you rate your relationship with your children and/or parents? How satisfied are you with your relationship with your extended family? How would you rate the quality of your home environment?
2. Community/Social Networks/Friends
How would you rate the breadth and depth of the friendships you enjoy? Do you feel like you have enough quality time with your most important friends? How would you rate the time you have to socialize and make new friends and connections? How much value would you give to the support you receive from friends and your community? How would you rate your contribution to your community and environment?
3. Health/Wellbeing
How would you rate the quality of your eating habits and diet? How satisfied are you with your health and fitness? How would you rate the quality and quantity of your sleep? How would you rate your emotional health and mental well-being? How would you rate your impact on the environment?
4. Life Planning/Management/Financial Security/Money
How financially secure do you feel on a scale of 0-10? How would you rate your ability to set and stick to a budget? How debt free are you? (10) be completely debt free) How would you rate the quality of your savings, investments and pension to support you in the future? How would you rate yourself in terms of financial independence or freedom?
5. Career/Job/Vocation
How happy and fulfilled do you feel in your career or calling? How satisfied are you with your working hours? How would you rate your ability to prioritize and manage your time? How efficiently and skillfully do you perform your job? How satisfied are you with your job prospects, promotions or promotions?
6. Spiritual and Moral
How aligned are you with the overall vision, purpose, and direction of your life? How consistent are you – in thoughts, words and deeds – with your moral values and principles? How satisfied are you with the time you have offline for personal reflection, prayer, or meditation? How satisfied are you with the legacy you are building and leaving behind? How responsible do you feel for your spiritual or moral direction?
7. Entertainment/Relaxation
How would you rate the quality of time you have each week to relax? Are you satisfied with your ability to follow your passions or passions? How would you rate the time you have for fun and laughter? Do you feel like you get enough vacation or vacation time? How energetic do you feel?
8. Personal Growth/Learning/Development
How would you rate your further education and personal development? Are you satisfied with the time you have to read, listen and study? How satisfied are you with your opportunity to build on existing strengths and learn new skills? How effective are you in setting and achieving personal goals?
How to make a balance wheel yourself
You can draw the form for drawing up the Wheel of Balance yourself or print it from the Internet. For example, you can use this one.
To measure the current state and the desired result, a scale from 0 to 10 is drawn inside the circle. The image of the ideal result will correspond to 10 points. Subsequently, the scale will help evaluate progress.
Next we have to seriously work on the picture. Prepare simple and colored pencils and an eraser. You will have to do a lot of drawing, erasing and painting on the form before it turns into your unique and inimitable life balance wheel.
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.
How to choose spheres for “pumping”
Self-improvement requires effort in analysis and practice. Choose 2-3 hours of free time and a place where no one and nothing will disturb you. Maybe it will be your favorite office or a cozy chair in the living room. Or maybe you’ll start drawing up a program for living in the garden, in nature, by the river. Surround yourself with a pleasant, calm atmosphere.
Now you are ready for introspection and choosing areas of self-development.
Before you start drawing on a piece of paper, just dream. Imagine your ideal future in 10 years. Your home, the family and friends who surround you, the friends you would like to see nearby. Imagine your ideal job. Who are you, what do you do, what do you look like, what are you wearing.
Determine what life is filled with in your wonderful future. What areas of life surround you. Write these areas down on your form. It could be Health, Luck, Business, Family, Hobbies, Leisure, Money, Friends. Divide the circle into as many sectors as you see fit. In your ideal future, you have everything you want today. This is your 10 out of 10 in every area of your life that matters to you. Your perfect balance.
Which areas to choose
All people are different. What is important to one person may be completely unnecessary to another. Therefore, when filling out the life balance wheel, be guided solely by your values and preferences. The list of areas of life suitable for the diagram looks like this:
- What surrounds you. This includes the situation at work and in the team, housing, the city and even the state.
- Family, social circle. What influence do these people have on you? Are they helping you move forward or are they pulling you back? Would you choose these people as friends, making a conscious choice, having the amount of knowledge and experience that you have now?
- Romantic relationship, love. More often than not, women choose this field. For them, reliability and trust in relationships are additional strength and motivation for action. For women, order in their personal lives gives them the opportunity to implement creative and successful ideas.
- Children. Someone will want to connect this area with one of the previous ones (family, relationships). But for some women this is a separate facet of the balance wheel. This is especially true for mothers of many children or women on maternity leave.
- Health. Here, too, there are questions about the wheel of life balance. Think about what condition your body is in? Which habits will help you maintain your health, and which, on the contrary, will ruin your health?
- Beauty, external attractiveness. Can be combined with health. But still, this area includes much more than good health. These are gestures and facial expressions, gait, manner of communication.
- Rest, vitality. The frantic rhythm of life deprives many people of proper rest and even sleep. This is bad because mental harmony, happiness in relationships, and productivity depend on it. Ask yourself: Do I have time in my schedule for sleep, relaxation, going out with friends, reading, and other enjoyable activities?
- Money. Is the money you have enough for the essentials, major purchases, and fulfillment of desires? Can you make your dreams come true?
- Career, place in society, success. It all depends on your aspirations and what you consider success. For some, this is a position. A woman can consider herself a successful housewife and a good mother.
- Hobbies, interests. Do you have an activity that consumes you completely? Do you make time for it?
- Personal development. Are you setting new goals? Are you developing any qualities or habits?
- Spirituality. Do you know the meaning of life? Do you realize why you live? Do you know the purpose of existence?
Choose the areas that are most important to you and fill out the life balance wheel.
How to make a self-development plan
You have to make a plan to move towards balance.
Think about what you need right now to be in your ideal world.
State the goals for each area of the wheel and write them down on the form.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- what areas of my life are most “vulnerable”;
- what area do I want to fix first and why?
- what will improve the situation in each specific area of activity give me?
- what will I have to give up on the way to my goal and am I ready for this;
- what actions will help me achieve what I want faster;
- what can be done today to bring the result closer;
- what character strengths will help you achieve life balance.
Write down the first 2-3 steps that will lead to change. Try to do something on the path to self-improvement today.
“Whatever you vividly imagine, passionately desire, sincerely believe in and enthusiastically strive for must inevitably come true.”
Paul J. Mayer
Serious and thoughtful analysis
Just putting together the wheel of life is half the battle, and the main work is only ahead. When the chart with the shaded degree of realization of each area of your life is ready, you need to carefully study it and reflect on the following questions.
Which areas turned out to be the most “sagging”?
They're probably worth paying attention to first, since they're the ones you gave the least points. To make it clearer, dream on the topic: “If this part of my life were 10 out of 10, what would it look like?” This way you will quickly figure out what exactly you want.
Which areas received the highest scores?
First, you can be happy and praise yourself for doing well with them. Secondly, find in this a source of strength (and even, perhaps, ways to solve problems) to “pull up” less successfully implemented categories.
What connections are there between different areas of life?
Since all of these are different areas of one life, they do not exist in isolation from each other. The connection between some of them may be distant, but between others it may be very close. And it is quite possible that if you “pull up” any one category from this bunch, then the realization of other areas will also increase, improving your life balance.
Let's give a simple example: let's say you gave a not very high rating (4-5 points) to finances, and at the same time to health, as well as entertainment. But if you increase the level of your material well-being, then you will have money for a good examination and effective procedures, and at the same time - to travel more, go to interesting events, attend concerts, theater productions, etc.
What can be done to improve the implementation of “sagging” categories?
There are usually quite a lot of variations on this question, here are some of them: the first three steps; what can be done within one, two or three days; what can be done in six months; what can be done in a year. It is most effective to choose options focused on starting action in the near future. Even if these are the simplest steps, which will be the very beginning of a complex and long journey, write them down and complete them. Behind them are the next simple steps, and so on. There is no other way, alas.
How to evaluate results
Setting goals is useful if the results can be verified.
Return to your picture after completing the first outlined steps. Evaluate achievements, analyze failures. Think about whether there have been any positive changes in lagging areas of life. What other actions need to be taken to consolidate the positive result?
Adjust your Wheel of Life Balance 3-4 times a year. Record changes, try to constantly “align” the wheel. You may have to lower your grades in areas that are doing well in order to find the time and energy to make progress in areas that are lagging behind. This is fine. The main thing is to strive for balance.
Making a chart
Once you have decided how many areas of your life you want to add to your life balance wheel and what they are called, it’s time to create a template. You can do this manually, or you can use any of the many computer programs that allow you to draw pie charts. The main thing here is the following:
- The circle should be equally divided into the same number of segments as the number of areas of life you have identified. That is, all segments should be the same size, because all of this, although in its own way, is equally important for you. You should not deprive any area of life or, conversely, give it too much weight.
- Each segment of the life balance should be divided into 10 divisions of equal thickness. You can see a visualization of this point in the photo, but its essence is that one division is one point.
- The name of each life area should be written either next to the corresponding segment or in an additional division. That is, you don’t need to make your “pieces of the pie” each divided into 10 parts, and in the tenth you enter their names. Either write them side by side, or divide the segments into 11 divisions, and write the names of the points on the very last parts.
Where else is the technique used?
In the process of working with the Wheel of Life Balance, you may need to understand in more detail the problems with individual areas of life.
The technique is also used in narrower areas for in-depth analysis and understanding of problems.
Business wheel
Helps to understand the problems and shortcomings of business organization. Used to develop a new strategy and create a productive management team. Helps resolve conflicts and disputes.
Wheel of Family
Created to solve problems in family relationships. Helps to understand mutual demands and grievances, improves the quality of life together.
Wheel of Values
It is used to deeply understand oneself, search for true values, and analyze one’s own interests.
Each of the sectors of the Wheel of Life Balance can be turned into a separate wheel. For example, the wheel of Health, Welfare, Development or Learning.
Segments of the Wheel of Life Balance
Another way to use the Wheel of Life is to think about aspects rather than roles in life. These usually include:
✔ Family/Relationships/Romance ✔ Community/Social Media/Friends ✔ Health/Well-Being/Fitness ✔ Life Planning/Management/Financial ✔Security/Money ✔Career/Work/Calling ✔Spirituality/Morals ✔Entertainment/Recreation/Leisure ✔Personal Role st/ Development/Training
You can follow the same steps as for the roles in the previous section, but replace the roles with 8 key areas, using the words that resonate most with you.
