Wheel of Life Balance: Description of the Exercise and its Application

Everyone dreams of living in harmony with themselves and the world around them. And for many it is very important that their goals and desires come true. However, this is not always the case. Let's try to figure out what are the causes of such problems and how they can be solved with the help of such a concept as wheel of life balance.

Human life is diverse and filled with many interests and activities. But if you think carefully, then all the “contents” of our existence can be conditionally divided into several areas in which we will inevitably be involved. It is very important that these areas are in harmony with each other, maintain balance. If a certain sphere of life begins to lag behind in development or, on the contrary, is ahead of the rest, then an imbalance arises. Thus, problems of a different nature appear.

For example, a person is very passionate about building a career and devotes all his time and energy to this occupation. Of course, he has a void in his personal life, as there is no time left to devote attention to his relatives, friends, children. Dealing with health issues also does not always work out on time. Gradually, this leads to a whole set of unsolved problems.

It’s not scary if such a situation arises for a while. For example, if you urgently need to complete an important project.It over a certain period takes most of the time, but with its end, everything should return to normal. It’s bad if this happens all the time, systematically.

In order to understand why the imbalance occurred, and also to figure out how to put everything in order, an interesting psychological tool was once invented - the wheel of life balance (the wheel of life). The idea of ​​its creation is attributed to a certain Paul John Meyer. Some sources claim that he was a therapist, in others he is called a psychologist, and somewhere it is said that Meyer specialized in coaching. But this is not the most important information. The main thing is that the tool he invented and the exercise of the same name really work. And now they are very much in demand in the field of self-development and personal growth.

If you learn to use the balance wheel correctly, you can see where the troubles come from, analyze and evaluate each area of ​​your life, correctly prioritize them, set goals and outline ways to achieve them. Using the wheel of life, it is possible to identify the strengths of the personality, as well as weaknesses that require more attention, additional development and adjustment.

This method is very simple. For its development does not need special training. The main thing is to be honest with yourself and, having previously thought, give truthful answers to questions. Thus, the picture of life will be drawn without embellishment, objectively. And it will become clear in which direction to move.

Many people at some point begin to realize that, it turns out, they have not experienced joy for a long time, they do not feel the pleasure of life, that life seems to pass by, and they only observe it from some parallel world. But there was still so much that they didn’t do, so much they didn’t see, they didn’t recognize and did not create, so many goals were not achieved and so many desires vanished into oblivion. Days go in a monotonous gray sequence in the "home-work" mode. Corresponding questions arise about why this happens, what is being done wrong, and how to rectify the situation. But there are no answers, and after ignorance comes bitter disappointment and pain from aimlessly lived years.

And all because a significant part of our life is inevitably spent on fulfilling external requirements, on subjecting to the many conditions created by existence in society. Having lived for many years in the mode of such an “autopilot” and then turning back, we understand the full value of irreplaceable time spent and regret that:

• our children grew up so quickly and somehow imperceptibly, and most importantly, without us;
• husband / wife live for many years without our love, attention and affection;
• parents died, and did not wait for the moment when their son / daughter will have free time for communication;
• so many development opportunities have been missed;
• the desired education has not been received;
• so many ideas did not translate into reality;
• so many books have not been read;
• so many cities and countries have not been seen.

Harmony has disappeared, the energy resource has been exhausted, the soul has been smashed to smithereens. A terrible picture, depressing, even tragic, isn't it? Here for so that you don’t have to admire such a picture and you need a balance of life. In order to keep up with everything, so that all spheres of life are fully and equally filled with each other, and you at the same time experience joy and satisfaction.

So, the wheel of life or the wheel of life balance is a circle divided into sectors (segments), each of which denotes different spheres of our life. To benefit from this method, the wheel of life is necessary correctly compose. And, like any other exercise, it has a special technique of execution.

Initially necessary draw the circle itself Further divide it with lines into several segments. Then identify areas of life that will go into segments. Then fill a circle, evaluate the degree of satisfaction with each area of ​​life and analyze the result.

The most important point when composing the wheel is choice of life spheres. Here it is necessary to take into account all the basic aspects of life without overloading the circle with insignificant nuances. It is recommended to select 6 or 8 spheres, as the existing wheel patterns have so many segments. But if you need to expand the list, for example, to 10-12 spheres, then you can draw a circle yourself, without using a template.

There are two most common fill options.

• Classical. The segments include health, family, career, leisure, friends, hobbies, creativity, personal growth, self-education, spiritual development, business, finance, etc.
• Wheel of sphere roles. It includes people inextricably linked with a person’s life: mom, dad, wife, husband, children, colleagues, friends, girlfriends.

There are other options, for example, combined. They bring in the spheres of life, and the roles of people. You can include in the list such positions as the brightness of life, energy and tone, unity with nature, self-realization and much more. In a word, carefully consider your life with an inner eye and think of what it consists of. After that, write down the points, and then decide which of the above is really important. Add it to the circle.

The size of the sectors depends on the number of spheres of life that you want to add to the circle to assess the balance. The more positions are selected, the sectors will already be. If there are few positions, the areas will be wide. Usually they are made equal to each other, like chamomile petals.

But you can take into account such a moment: for all people, every area of ​​life has its own value, its optimal size. For some, the family is more important, someone sees a career as the goal of his life, and someone puts spiritual development as a priority. Therefore, an individual approach is not forbidden. You can make sectors of different sizes: when considering the whole picture, this will help you understand which areas are your priority. But in the end, the main role will be played not by the size of the sector, but by the scale of assessment of each life sphere.

The main goal of this exercise is to evaluate how successful you feel in all areas. Evaluation is carried out on a scale from 1 to 10. We place the zero in the center of the circle, and divide all the rays-lines dividing the wheel into sectors into equal segments, moving away from the center to the boundary of the circle.

When everything is ready Think about how well or, conversely, each of the selected areas is poorly developed, give your assessment. Then paint over the sector to the division on which you rated the sphere. The result should be a true picture of your life.

Although filling the circle should not be difficult, some people still make mistakes. Consider what could be done wrong.

1. Using a wheel template with pre-made sectors. It’s better not to do this. It would be wiser to create your own wheel and divide it into as many sectors as you need.
2. Lack of criteria for the highest possible score. In order to evaluate something at all, you need to have an idea of ​​both unsatisfactory and excellent results. For example, what kind of personal life should be in your understanding, so that it can be estimated at 10 points. Or what should be health, career, hobby. You need to clearly understand what exactly will make you a happy person. And already build on this, giving an assessment of the current state of affairs.
3. Lack of definition of real terms for achieving new goals. It is important to reasonably and soberly assess your capabilities and objectively correlate them with your desires. It is imperative to plan what and when you want to do. But you should not expand the time frame too much or narrow it too much.

The main step in this exercise is analysis (interpretation) of resultswhose purpose is to determine how unbalanced your life is, and to trying to understand what and how to do to restore balance. Here it will be appropriate to ask the following questions.

If you reasonably and honestly evaluated all sectors and gave an objective score, you will immediately see in which area there are problems and what you need to pay attention to. And here it is just necessary to correlate this assessment with the criterion of the highest score. It is important to understand what exactly could correct the picture and bring this sphere closer to the ideal.

It will be useful to be glad that such areas exist. This is already a good result. Perhaps when you start adjusting other sectors of your life, this will serve as a source of your strength and add motivation to your efforts.

Some spheres may be far apart, while others are closely intertwined. But all aspects of existence are still interconnected, because life is a single whole. Having improved one area, you will undoubtedly notice positive changes in other areas. For example, in your wheel finances, health and rest are low rated. When finances increase, new opportunities will open. You can solve urgent health problems, relax, take a vacation, go on a trip, go to the cinema, to a concert.

Initially, you need to pay attention to areas in which order can be put in place in a short time and with the least effort. For example, identify the first three areas in which you can fix something in a week or two, then six months, then a year.

This is a very crucial moment, especially if many areas of your life have "subsided" and have not scored more than six points. Coaching experts say that a lot it is better to actively engage in strengthening several sectors related to each other than to work it out individually. A plus of this approach is the absence of a monotonous activity that quickly bothers people.

But we must remember that the resource of energy, strength, inspiration, capabilities and abilities is different for everyone. For a period, things will advance on the outbreak of a desire to change things for the better, you will be proactive and enthusiastic, but sooner or later you will get tired anyway, then the process will go slower. As a result, you will feel guilty for not being able to finish the job as quickly as you like, feel dissatisfaction.

To prevent this from happening, it is necessary to outline the three most important and simple tasks and plan the necessary steps to solve them. Record everything in detail, soundly and soberly evaluate each action. Only in this case will it be possible to implement the whole plan: both for the near future and for the long-term. As a result, bringing the wheel of life balance back to normal will not seem like such a terrible and difficult task.

The use of this exercise for self-realization can take place in several ways.

1. If in the resulting wheel the gap between the areas is small, then this means that a person has enough time for almost everything. In this case, the “with the world on a thread” method may be suitable.That is, you need to look and think about what exactly is missing in each of the areas of life and try to fill the shortage, and immediately after that begin to realize the potential of your personality where you consider it necessary.
2. Those one area of ​​life is weak It is recommended to strengthen the work with her, especially if her score does not exceed one point.
3. When, if most of the areas are in good condition, then you can choose two or three of the most important and promising for you, and then concentrate on working with them. Thanks to this, it is quite possible to temporarily reduce attention to the remaining strengths. For example, a person who has everything perfectly at work may not spend a lot of time on an empty vacation, but rather, in his spare time, realize his creative ambitions or his favorite business, hobby, and pleasant hobbies.

For self-realization it is necessary immediately identify areas that need to be improved so that they do not interfere with this process. You can do this as follows.

1. Determine which of the areas has the biggest failure. It is he who can pull to the bottom all the other spheres of life.
2. Think about the realm of life that impedes your fulfillment.. Maybe you are not paying too much attention to what would contribute to the realization of your abilities and capabilities. Maybe we should pay less attention to one area and more to another.
3. Understand which of the areas most affects all others. Perhaps by betting on it and strengthening your efforts in its development, you can quickly and quietly go on the path of self-realization. For example, you don’t have enough money to start developing your own business. Therefore, all efforts must be made to improve the financial sector.

Then you can easily and without problems move in the right direction without being distracted by trifles.