The Life Wellness Wheel
A free tool you can use to evaluate your life satisfaction.
When a potential clients comes to me and tells me that they feel dissatisfied in life the first thing I have them do is to complete the Life Wellness Wheel exercise. The Life Wellness Wheel is a useful tool for helping you to bring awareness to, and create a visual of, your overall life satisfaction. Once you complete the exercise and have a clear picture of where you feel the least or most satisfied in life, the real work begins…taking action.
The Life Wellness Wheel, sometimes called The Wheel of Life, is broken into 8-10 categories representing the different areas of life that make up our wellness. It’s used by many coaches as a starting point for coaching. Some coaches break the categories down into smaller groups, often breaking relationships down into 3 categories (romantic, family, friends) or they group them a little differently than I do. Sometimes they add personal growth as a category but I believe that the term personal growth encompasses all of these 8 categories so I leave it out. I have chosen to have just 8 categories.
8 Life Wellness Categories
Health/Self-care - this is anything related to the health and wellness of your mind and body.
Work/Career - this is anything work or career related. You might even add in creativity, especially if you work in a creative field.
Fun/Travel/Recreation - this covers what you do to relax and have fun.
Personal Relationships - this includes romantic relationships as well as family and friends.
Finances - this is anything in the realm of your financial wellbeing including investments, salary, and debt, etc.
Spirituality - this covers religious practices, spiritual practices and anything else that helps you feel connected to a higher power.
Physical Environment - this covers primarily your home environment.
Community Involvement- this is anything you do that helps you feel connected to a community of others whether it’s local or on a broader scale.
Step One: Evaluate and rate your satisfaction in each of the 8 life wellness categories on a scale of 1-10. As you consider each category, ask yourself how fulfilled or satisfied you feel.
Here are a few question prompts to get you started
Health/Self-care: Are you taking care of yourself both physically and mentally? Is there room for improvement?
Work/Career: Do you feel satisfied with the work that you do? Would a career switch bring you more fulfillment?
Fun/Travel/Recreation: Are you taking time out for fun? Or, perhaps you’re spending too much time relaxing and not enough on other areas?
Personal Relationships: How do you feel after hanging out with other people? Do you feel energized and supported? Do you feel seen and heard? Are you getting what you need from the people you spend the most time with? Do you feel free to be yourself?
Finances: How satisfied are you with your finances? Do you have sense of security or are you living paycheck to paycheck? Are there changes you could make that would help you feel more secure?
Spirituality: Do you feel connected to God or your version of a higher source? Do you feel good about how you’re showing up in the world? Does your soul feel fulfilled? Maybe you haven’t thought about your spirituality at all and that’s okay. Just ask yourself how you feel.
Physical Environment: Is your home environment bringing you a sense of peace and comfort? Or, do you feel overwhelmed by clutter, chores, and projects? No judgment, simply rate your satisfaction being in your home space.
Community Involvement: Are you satisfied with how connected you are to your community? What changes would you make?
Step Two: Once you have your ratings in each category, grab some colored pencils, markers, or pens (preferably 8 different colors) and fill in the number of spaces within each category that corresponds to your rating. Each slice on the wheel contains ten spaces. You now have a picture representing your life wellness satisfaction.
Step Three: Reflect on your wheel. Use this wheel to help you evaluate which ares of life wellness may require action in order to improve your overall life satisfaction.
Now that you have a clear picture of your life your next step is to determine the action steps you want to take to bring your life into better balance. I would encourage you to look at each category and where you feel there is a deficiency in satisfaction, and then ask yourself what needs to happen to bring the rating up. Brainstorm a list of 2-3 actions steps you can implement in the next 30 days.
Remember, life is a journey and you are free to set the pace. So take the steps that feel meaningful for you, at a pace that feels good.
If you are ready to try the The Life Wellness Wheel exercise, you can download your own copy with instructions HERE.
Please share! If you decide to try the exercise, I’d love to hear how it works for you. Did you learn something new? Let me know in the comments.
If you liked this resource and would like to learn more about setting goals and actions steps, you might enjoy my ebook, Create: Tools For Creating A Purpose Driven Life which teaches how to set SMART goals and gives you a downloadable worksheet to help you set and achieve your goals. Check it out HERE.
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