The Wheel of Life

A simple exercise to assess balance in important areas of your life.

One of the first exercises we sometimes use with clients is to evaluate their levels of satisfaction in various parts of their life with the Wheel of Life. This exercise, which is quite well known as a coaching tool and has many forms, can help clarify priorities for goal-setting and allow you to plan so that your life is closer to your definition of balance.

Balance is personal and unique to you and is something to be assessed over time. A regular check on how balanced you feel in important areas of your life can highlight useful patterns, help you discover more about yourself, and help you make any desired changes.

Review the eight areas on the Wheel of Life in the model below. The Wheel should be a view of a balanced life for you. If necessary, split categories to add in something that is missing, or re-label an area so that it is more meaningful for you. Common areas to consider are:

• Family/Friends
• Partner/Significant Other/Romance
• Career
• Finances
• Health (emotional/physical/fitness/nutrition/wellbeing)
• Physical Environment/Home
• Fun/Recreation/Leisure
• Personal Growth/Learning/Self-development
• Spiritual well being
• Others could include: security, service, leadership, integrity, achievement, or community.

Think about what success feels like for each area.

Rank your level of satisfaction with each area of your life by drawing a line across each segment. Taking the center of the wheel as a 0 and the outer edge as a 10, place a value between 0 (very dissatisfied) and 10 (fully satisfied) against each area to show how satisfied you are currently with these elements in your life. (See the example for what this could look like on the left.)

This new perimeter of the circle represents your ‘Wheel of Life’. What is the ride like with wheels like these? Is it bumpy or smooth?

Looking at the wheel, answer the following questions in a journal:

• Are there any surprises for you?
• How do you feel about your life as you look at your wheel?
• How do you currently spend time in these areas?
• How would you like to spend time in these areas?
• Which of these elements would you most like to improve?
• How could you make space for these changes?
• Can you affect the necessary changes on your own?
• What help and cooperation from others might you need?
• What would make each section have a score of 10?
• What would a score of 10 look and feel like in your life?

This is an exercise that is worth checking in on every quarter. As a form of personal check-in, it can help you see ways the quality of the ride of your life has shifted.

NAME: _______________________________ DATE: ________________