Life Balance Wheel – A great tool for balancing your life.

Introducing an easy to use Life Balance Wheel. You may never have heard of a Life Balance Wheel, but I am going to introduce you to a simple but very effective strategy that might even change your life forever. We all have a dream of living a balanced life, yet most of us don’t accomplish this or even know what it is. Our Life Balance Wheel may just surprise you.

“A balanced wheel gives you a smooth ride.  A Balanced life gives you the pleasures of life.

An unbalanced wheel gives you a rough ride.  An unbalanced life gives you the griefs in life.”
― Dilan De Silva,

We all have our own idea on what living a balanced and successful life it and we want to live a life like that.  Our idols look impressive to us, so we desire to be like the people we admire, we have put them on pedestals in our own mind, we look at them and see their success as easy, lucky and just handed to them, this is what we desire.  But is this what we really need?  (We don’t often consider this and the Life Balance Wheel I will show you will give you some hints for your life.)

What is a Life Balance Wheel ?

Imagine riding a bike that had wheels that went in and out, wheels that weren’t perfectly round, that didn’t flow easily, we would be getting bumped up and down as the wheels turned.  Well this is the life of our emotions when we don’t get it right and we neglect certain areas that keep us unhappy.

A life Balance Wheel may show the areas in our life that we enjoy the most, because we are full in these areas, they are often the areas we may concentrate most of our efforts so they will show up as being closest to ten out of ten.  Life Balance Wheels also show the areas that we are neglecting most in life as those areas are the areas which quite often are under performing and we are dissatisfied with.

“Success in life is useless if you don’t have a balance of happiness, peace, hope, and optimism.”   ― Germany Kent

Life Balance Wheel and the Appearance of Success

We all have idols who we look up to, these are the people who we think have it all and we wish we were like. In reality, although they look great, our idols are probably meeting their own success life balance needs and desires, (but maybe not in all the areas as there maybe some areas of their life which we are unknown to, which maybe deficient).  Our idols appear to have it all because of the success we see in them and they got this way because they are so focused, self-driven and have a dream, goals and they work hard towards them, but the reality of their whole life might be very different as they struggle with other areas which we can’t see.

Our idols might not be living a balanced life though, if they were to fill in our Life Balance Wheel, you may be surprised to find that although they have areas of life that are ten out of ten, they may be lacking in other areas which don’t even rate.  So although they appear to have it all in our eyes, the reality to them may be very different  and there could be areas where they are mightily unhappy.

Our lack of effort may even be purposeful as we neglect these areas or we may be totally unaware of the lack of balance in these areas of our lives.  Good examples of this may be highly successful people who only concentrate on what they are good at, John Paul Getty is a great example of this as he spent most of his life concentrating on business and making money, but the relationship with family aspect of his life was lacking.  High level sportsmen/women can also neglect their personal life as they dedicate all their life to practicing and playing sport ignoring relationships, home and family to the detriment.  Hugely successful musicians and actors also fall into this category as they neglect their health and self-care practices, their career maybe 10/10 but their happiness is 1/10.

Using a Wheel as a self-assessment.

If you use a Life Balance wheel as a self-assessment to show you how balanced and fulfilled your life is and as a visual assessment showing the satisfaction you have in each of the areas of your life, on reflection you can quickly identify which areas of your life you need to concentrate on, areas you can put less effort on and other areas that you can continue as normal with, it gives you direction of what you need to concentrate on.

  How to use a Life Balance Wheel

1. Think about each segment of the wheel and ask yourself on a scale of 1-10 what your satisfaction in this area of your life is. Let the number flow from within and don’t overthink it, your soul will know the answer.
2. Mark the segment to the correct line and colour in your answer.
3. Continue with each area of the wheel until complete
4. Review your results. There may be areas of life you wish to work on and others that aren’t rating well that you have no desire to work on or improve.
5. Take action. If there is an area of life that rates low or an area that you are unhappy with the results of, then this is the area that you need to work on to improve.

Improvement always depends upon your choices and the actions you take which can be immediate or take time depending upon the size and determination for change.  If you add daily tasks to your to-do list you will always get improvement faster because of the determination and action rather than adding weekly or monthly steps to your program, but in the end everything you do towards achieving your end result will move you towards satisfaction in the long run.

Active example of a Completed Wheel

I have included an example of my completed wheel below, as you can see I don’t have a life partner, so this area is very low, and due to covert, the fun an leisure section is lower than it normally would be, but as travel is my greatest pleasure and having two overseas trips cancelled this year due to covert and interstate travel still being up in the air, I am very happy with my 60% satisfaction rating.

I know I need to work on my fitness and movement this year, which was highlighted in the wheel, so I have included daily activities into my to-do list.  I have been working on money so I’m very happy with the improvement I have made in this section.  My focus and direction in regards to career has changed and I am happy with the improvement I have made in this area too.

A Life Balance Wheel will never be 100% in every area of life and that is not what we are striving for, but the increase in improvement and satisfaction is what we desire.

A closer look at my Life Balance Wheel

If you look at my wheel and the 5% satisfaction I have in my love and romance area, I have taken this to mean my relationship with another person, because that is what I desire in my life for the future, but if I had rated this as my love I have for myself and the happiness I have being on my own, I could have rated this as 95%, and that would have been perfect, but as I do want someone in my life, then it is only 5%.  You need to rate things as you see them with regard to what your desires are.

My wheel has led me to make changes in my life, with the inclusion of daily walks, joining of a local club, concentrating on writing more blogs for this website and with the help of my coach all these things will be added for more satisfaction to my daily life.

“Balanced Life Is About Quality of Time At Work, Quantity of Time At Home And Staying Connected To God All The Time!”
― Jaachynma N.E. Agu, My Heritage

Use this wheel as an assessment of your life.  If any of the areas I have included don’t resonate with your life, change them to something that is more appropriate, just remember to keep it balanced over all areas.  Have fun.