The Wheel of Life -- With a Difference

You may have come across the Wheel of Life.

It is a very useful tool used in Life Coaching. The idea is that it gives a graphical representation of life, or more specifically our view of our own life.
The wheel is made up of spokes and each spoke represents a particular attribute of our life that we feel is important enough to be included in the picture.

A typical Wheel of Life will have spokes made of such things as: money, job, relationships, family, health, home, spirituality, education, etc.
The spokes are drawn, and concentric rings -- numbered 1 to 10 -- are added. Each spoke is scored, subjectively, according to how satisfied we are with that aspect of our lives; a point is marked on the wheel. By joining the dots we get to see how round our wheel is -- how rounded we feel too. If our wheel ends up looking a bit square, or maybe flat on one side, then we are in for a bumpy ride.
If we were completely satisfied with every aspect in our life then we'd have a nice big, completely round wheel (and I'd probably suggest that another spoke was added, that of growth). Probably though, we will see certain spokes less well developed than others. For instance, we might see a bit of a wonky wheel because the spoke relating to family is a bit short. We might have a really well established business and a secure income, but our family life has suffered at its expense. We can quickly see that we should devote some attention to the family spoke, to get it more closely matching the others -- if we don't it might snap off altogether.

We are not limited to just one wheel though, we can have two, three, four or as many as you like. You might think that your health needs a wheel of its own, and its spokes might be called such things as fitness, diet, insurance, weight, booze, etc. There are no rules, you have as many wheels, with as many spokes as you want, and you can call them what you want; whatever is important to you.

So what about your job? If you work for someone else, very often some of the spokes are outside of your control; no matter what you do, you can't make a round wheel. Your bumble along, frustrated and literally careering out of control. If you work for yourself, then hopefully you are in more control. You really can craft the spokes as you like. An example work wheel is shown below.

Of course, your wheel might look a bit different. For instance, there is no spoke on this wheel that represents work environment. I say that because I've just looked around and noticed how untidy my office is. A minor point perhaps, but sometimes it is not until you carry out an exercise like this that you become aware of the need to address something.
Returning to our work environment for a moment. If we did put that spoke in our wheel, then, for a moment, we've got to ask ourselves a question: how content are we with our work environment? Perhaps, we are not really that happy about working in the chicken shed anymore and that maybe we'd be more effective working from a comfortable, warm office (the chickens might prefer it too). So the wheel of life is like having someone looking over our shoulder and just askingoccasionally, for instance: is this really the best place for you to be working? And if not, how about making a little effort to improve things.
This really is very powerful, our motivation (like most of our mental attributes), is determined by our subconscious. For instance, we might be struggling to get enthusiastic about our work, and blaming that on the work we do. Now, after digging around, we've found out that the real problem is the thought of spending another few hours in that smelly shed (apologies to all the clean chickens out there).
This is what makes working for yourself so good. Ultimately, you are in control, and usually, whatever you want (or even need) to change, you can. It's not just about money, we all know people who have loads of it and are still unhappy. It's about us, retaining control is one of the most important factors that determines our happiness and in turn, our success.

The Wheel of Life, or in this case, the Wheel of Work, is a very useful tool to use not just once but as a constant reference to keep us on the right track.

If you want help with its application, just get in touch.