Are you perpetuating the clunkety clunk?
You have all seen the “wheel of life” before. You know that diagram that often gets drawn at personal development seminars where you’ve got the circle, it’s got the spokes that all meet at a hub in the middle. When you do that wheel of life exercise, you are asked to fill out each of the spokes, with each of the spokes a different aspect of your life, a different role, or mission that you have. One role might be a parent, a husband. Another one might be a business person. Another one might be your career that you follow. One could be one of your favourite hobbies that you spend a lot of time on, money, health. These are all different roles (spokes) that you have in your life.
You get to rate yourself.
When you fill out the wheel of life, you are often asked to rate thate role or mission on a scale of zero to ten, ten being that the role is amazing, that you are really fulfilling that role. That you feel great about it, it feels good, that you have got joy in that aspect of their life. Zero would be that it sucks big time. You’re really not putting in any energy and effort, and it doesn’t feel good. In fact, you feel completely unfulfilled. You then go off make a mark on each spoke from 0–10. After you have done that you join the dots. The theory is that if your life is balanced then you will have a smooth round looking wheel (unlike the illistration above).
What do you like to work on?
Looking at your wheel is an opportunity to notice the area’s of you life that feel unfulfilled, that need some attention, energy, time, money and focus. Here is the interesting thing I’ve noticed people do…
When people complete that wheel of life, and I ask them, “Where would you like to work today in your coaching? Where would you like to set a goal today?”
Guess which roles they pick? They pick the roles that they’re already doing really well. The roles that might be a seven, eight, nine, or a ten out of ten. They don’t pick the roles that maybe are a three or a five out of ten. Sound familiar, ever found yourself working the area’s of your life that are already working. The reason you do this is really simple.
You see, you have great strategies, you have great methods, you have great ways of working on those roles that you’re doing really well at. But you have strategies that suck when it comes to other roles in your life, the roles that you’re not doing so well at. To work on those areas it would be tough, it would be hard. So, you don’t. You continue to work on the areas that are great, and don’t work on the areas that aren’t great. Over time the divide between the two becomes even more. And the greater the divide, the more uneven your spokes the rougher the ride.
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”
Albert Einstein
Is your life rolling well? If we looked at your wheel and we connected the dots, is it going clunkety clunk, clunkety clunk, clunkety clunk? Or it it rolling smoothly? Does your wheel feel balanced? Does your life feel balanced? When it feels balanced, you stop feeling like your life is busy. It stops feeling like it’s hard work. It feels easy. It feels like instead of doing your busy work, you’re doing your life’s work.
Time to shift your focus.
Where are you putting your focus and energy? On the areas of your life that you’re great at, the areas that you really succeeding at, and that feel good? Is it time to start focusing on the areas of your life that suck. Areas of your life that you might give a five out of ten to, or a three out of ten to. It’s not going to be easy, in fact, it’s going to be tricky.
Q: What area / role / spoke of your life has been neglected?
A: _________________________
This article is not to give you the detailed how on dealing with the area’s of your life that suck, but it is designed to get you to bring it to your awareness. So know that its there, lets have you take some action on it. Just a little in the begining then maybe build up.
You see sometimes you just need to start, you just need to get the ball rolling. So maybe have a go at my Transform In Two Method.
“Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.”
Lao Tzu
Transform In Two Method.
Its simple just decide RIGHT NOW three actions you could take…
- 2 Minutes — NOW
This is something super simple, and its got to take less that 2 mins to complete. Importantly you do this NOW! It could be a phone call you make, or a text, or email that you send. It could be something you google. A list you write out. Something you buy right now online. It’s something that you can do right now whilst you are sitting in your chair reading this article. - 20 Minutes — In the next 2 day
This is a little trickier. It might involve you getting out of your chair and doing something physical, or it could be just an advanced version of one of the above. It must take about 20 mins to complete and you schedule this to be completed within the next 2 days. Take a look at your diary and put it in at a specific time. Dont leave it till the 11th hour to be done. Schedule this 20 mins. - 2 Hours — In the next 2 weeks
So this one is a little more full-on. Its something that may take a little planning and it’s certainly something that will shift the world as a result. Again schedule it in your diary, DO NOT leave this to chance, when you remember or at the last minute.
So you only have 3 things to accomplist in the next 2 weeks. A 2 min task, a 20min task, and 2 hour task.
Example:
Let me give you an example that a client of mine did last week around working on her HEALTH ROLE…
The area of my life I have neglected and avoided is my health and fitness.
I am going to take action on it by…
Spending 2 mins right NOW, Googling local Gyms in my area.
Spending 20min on Tue at 7am, going for a 20 min walk around the block
Spending 2 hours on Saturday afternoon at 2pm doing meal prep for the week.
Action Time
In less than 30 sec, I want you to stop reading this article, do not click, tap or swipe anything, or anywhere else.
Go grab a piece of paper and write.
The area of my life I have neglected and avoided is ____________________.
I am going to take action on it by…
Spending 2 mins right NOW ________________________________________.
Spending 20min on __________ at __________, ________________________.
Spending 2 hours on __________ at __________, _______________________.
Now go do that thing that is going to take 2 mins.
I wish you all the best in getting out of the clunkety clunk, and into the vroom vroom.