How To Use The Life Balance Wheel

To make this easy for you I created a Life Balance Wheel worksheet that you can copy & paste to get started. You can also draw your own Life Balance Wheel in your journal or wherever else you like. Do what feels best for you. All you have to do is draw a circle and divide it into 8 equal parts. Then, label each section with a life area. This is where this gets totally customizable. The life areas I focused on were:

Feel free to use these or switch them up and make it your own. You may have something in particular that you want to work on that you’d like to add on your wheel. You don’t need to use all 8 sections either. I’ve seen some versions of the wheel where there are only 6 parts. If you cannot think of 8 different areas you’d like use, or if 8 just seems too overwhelming, try starting with 6 instead. Just make sure that all of the categories you choose are meaningful to you so that you can create meaningful goals through your reflections.

Other possible life areas:

As you can see all of these categories can fit within the broader categories. It really depends on how specific you want to be.

            2.FILL OUT YOUR WHEEL & CONNECT THE DOTS

     

Now it’s time to think about how fulfilled you are in each life area. Draw a dot between the center, and the outer edge of the wheel to indicate how fulfilled you feel in each life area. The center of the wheel represents 0% and the outer edge represents 100%. Make sure you put a lot of thought and reflection into this process to create the most accurate representation of your life balance. After you place all of your dots, connect them all together in a circle. Basically, once you connect all the dots, you form your wheel (which isn’t exactly shaped like a wheel, but you get the point). It’s totally okay if you’re looking at a crazy shape when you’re done. That’s normal! Your wheel is unique to you, which is why it’s so helpful in setting meaningful, personalized goals.

Here are some questions to ask yourself when deciding where to draw your dots:

3. REFLECT AND SET MEANINGFUL GOALS

Look at your completed wheel and focus on its shape. How can you create a more evenly shaped wheel? Which life areas require more of your focus right now? In my opinion, it’s actually a good idea to start from the outside edge of the wheel (your highest points) and work your way towards the middle (your lowest points). It’s less overwhelming this way and gives you a chance to reflect on your strong points and the growth that you’ve already made.

Now it’s time to set goals for each life area. Yes, you can even set small goals for those areas where you rated yourself very highly, because there’s always room for growth! Here are some ideas/examples to get you started with brainstorming:

 These goals aren’t super specific (most of them anyway) but they’re designed to get you thinking and brainstorming about goals for your own life. I know it helps me personally to see examples in order to inspire my own ideas.

You can complete the Life Balance every month and track your progress that way. You can even do it on the same sheet of paper but using a different color for the updated wheel. That way your progress will be reflected all in one spot and will be super easy to see! Yay for tracking progress!