How bumpy is your ride?
Overview
Often, we think of our life into two parts, work and then everything else. In reality, there is a lot more than that. The Wheel of Life is a resource that is used widely to help people gain more insight into the various areas that our lives encompass. If you think of a wheel, when it is large and smooth, it gives a smooth ride (think of a large tyre). If a wheel is small or out of shape, the ride is no longer smooth, rather it becomes bumpy and uncomfortable (think of the pesky castor wheel on the stock trolley). The same goes for our lives. The greater satisfaction we have across all areas of our life allows for a smoother ride. While, if we have areas of dissatisfaction or have lower satisfaction over all segments, this can make our life a bit bumpy.
In the Reignite Kit, you will use the Wheel of Life tool to help gain insight into how balanced your life currently is. Remember, in this section, you are building a more detailed picture and a deeper understanding of where you are currently. It will encourage you to think about opportunities for pivoting or adjustment that will be continued to be built upon further as you progress through the course.
The ‘Wheel of Life’ works as follows. It is broken up into seven segments; Health, Career, Home Environment, Fun & Leisure, Finances, Friends & Family and Personal Growth, as you will see below. For each segment, it requires you to think about what a satisfying life might look and feel like then consider your current level of satisfaction and assign a number of one to ten. One is very dissatisfied and ten, fully satisfied.
So let’s get to it! Read the instructions below and print out the Wheel of Life worksheet in the materials section to complete it.
Variations
You may find that the words around the wheel don’t resonate well with you. You could consider changing the segments to the following:
Family & Friends – Split ‘Family and Friends’ into separate categories
Career – Could be renamed to ‘Work’ or ‘Business’
Finances – Could be changed to ‘Money’, ‘Financial Security’ or ‘Financial Wellbeing’
Health – Could be split or changed to ‘Emotional’, ‘Physical’, ‘Fitness’, ‘Spiritual’ or ‘Wellbeing’
Fun & Leisure – Could be called ‘Recreation’
Personal Development – Could be renamed to ‘Learning’, ‘Self Development’ or ‘Spiritual’
Instructions
Part One – Exploration
- Review the 7 Wheel Categories – think briefly about what a satisfying life might look like for you in each area.
- Next, draw a line across each segment that represents your satisfaction score for each area.*
*Imagine the centre of the wheel is 0 and the outer edge is 10
*Choose a value between 1 (very dissatisfied) and 10 (fully satisfied)
*Now draw a line and write the score alongside (see example above)
IMPORTANT: Use the FIRST number (score) that pops into your head, not the number you think it should be!
Part Two – Reflection
We can learn and explore until the end of the earth however if we don’t stop to reflect on what we find, the magic doesn’t have time to happen. Complete page two of the Wheel of Life Materials to reflect on what you identified. There are some questions to prompt your reflection and space for your own thoughts.