The Wheel of Life - A Preamble

I first encountered the Wheel of Life in the late 1980s or early 1990s. I then started working in a corporate office in the training and development department, taking courses, developing courses, and delivering them.

At the time, I was a single mother of a six-year-old going through a challenging divorce, and I was commuting 45 minutes from home to a new job. I felt all sorts of ‘feels’ and knew I had to change things to survive all the chaos and unbalance and learn to thrive. But I didn’t know where to start. The wheel helped me.

I drew a Wheel of Life to map out important suggested areas. Filling it out was fun and thought-provoking and became an eye-opener for me. It was a straightforward visual representation of how balanced my life was. Spoiler: My life and I were very wobbly.

However, completing the wheel started a long healing journey and introduced the idea of learning to live my life with intention. In addition, it was a powerful tool I loved sharing with people in my training sessions.

What is the Wheel of Life?

If you do a cursory search on Google, you will see many images and articles on The Wheel of Life. Here is one:

This representation shows the idea of segmenting your life into categories. It also quantifies your satisfaction with each category on a scale of one to ten. The use of colour helps to “see” things in a very visual way.

I used paper, pencil, and markers for my first Wheel of Life. I not only coloured in each segment but also added patterns to make it fun and visual. I remember using the categories that were already suggested. Now, I understand myself and my life better, and I intentionally choose areas that fit things as they are now and areas I want to concentrate on growing.

It is crucial to do some work to understand the imbalances in our lives and see the big picture. But it is fun work, and the rewards are immense.

I found a great site that explains the Wheel of Life and suggests ways to draw it for ourselves. It is from Indeed.com. The article is “Wheel of Life:  What it is and How to Use it to Find Balance.”  You can also go to Noomlii.com and take their free online interactive assessment, “The Ultimate Wheel of Life Interactive Assessment.” Click the links for more information.

Loops Can Cause Unbalance - Short-term or Chronic

Being out of balance is just a part of being human. Big and small things can throw us for a loop. Sometimes, it is easy to make adjustments, and it helps if we see changes coming that could cause us to feel wobbly. Living with intention means anticipating the changes and planning strategies to mitigate adverse effects.

An imbalance can be a temporary, short-lived, and expected state that we must navigate, such as when moving houses. We know we will eventually pack up all our boxes and belongings and move them to the new place. We will unpack our things, unload some unwanted stuff, and buy new things to make our new house our home. We will learn where the light switches are, what our neighbourhood is about, and meet our new neighbours. Eventually, we will feel at home in our new place.

But sometimes, things get askew without us realizing it. It happens as we navigate our lives. For example, when we fall in love or have a baby, things can get crazy - until we adjust. Life can get out of kilter when we move to a new home, city, country, or job. It can happen when we experience a sad event like the ending of a relationship or the death of a person. We can become unbalanced when a dream is shattered or fades away.

Life can become chronically unbalanced, and we may not even realize it. We try our best to cope, and we may even do that for years and years and years. But the strain will get to us and affect our health in big and small ways.

It becomes essential to step back, take many deep, cleansing breaths, and take a straightforward reading of where we are at one moment. Negative self-judgement is not allowed. Of course, this activity involves a lot of thinking, but it also teaches us a lot about our patterns. By completing a Wheel of Life, we can learn where we can make adjustments to create an intentional, balanced life in the way we want to live it.

Remember, travelling down our path on a wobbly wheel is difficult. We may do it for a while, but eventually, we are likely to crash.

Using The Wheel of Life as a Ladder

If we want to live our lives with intention, we must pull tools out of our toolboxes and put them to use. The Wheel of Life is a great tool when things feel “off” and when we want to move forward to match what we want to happen.

It helps us visually see what areas of our lives are out of balance and what areas we are satisfied with. It quantifies or assigns a number to essential segments of our lives and helps us see where we can correct the imbalances. It is a snapshot of how things are for us at present.

Back then, I was beaten down, confused, exhausted, and out of my element. But I was determined to have a better life. I had a few things going for me. I had a fantastic daughter for whom I wanted to be a role model. I was in therapy. I grabbed onto every rung on a ladder I could and took every step I could to move forward to a better life. If I were going to get kicked up the growth ladder of life, I would find a way to climb out of the massive, loopy spirals I had been drawn into.

A Challenge for You:

1. List the categories that are very important to you in order to live your best life. They will depend on your current circumstances and your hopes and dreams. This step requires the most thought.

2. You can create your Wheel of Life in any way that feels right for you—by hand, using a template, or completing it online.

3. Evaluate the results based on what you see and how your actual wheel compares to your ideal wheel.

4. Make plans to correct the imbalances slowly and follow through with those plans. The idea is to intentionally create a life you are proud of and happy to live.

5. Schedule a time in the future when you plan to draw a new Wheel of Life so that you can see your progress and make further adjustments.

6. Enjoy! And Good Luck!

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