The Life Balance Wheel is a graphical representation of the level of development of the spheres of your life. With its help you can see if there is harmony between the sectors of work and family, how to correct imbalances in relationships and much more.
Such a visual representation allows you to better assess your life and understand if there are problems in it. Achieving balance is only possible if you manage your present and future and set your own goals, not someone else’s. The life balance wheel will tell you all about this. And we will teach you how to do it.
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What Is the Life Balance Wheel in Psychology
The life balance wheel is a technique that gives insight into the level of development of each area of a person’s life and helps to comprehensively analyze the situation. The exercise allows you to divide your life into segments, like pieces of cake. As well as evaluating each part, its importance and significance, strengths and weaknesses.
In terms of psychology, the life balance wheel is a simple and effective tool. Its purpose is to bring order to the clutter of thoughts and actions, to put everything in its place and to understand what to do and where to go next.
The definition of “Wheel of Balance” appeared in the United States in the 1970s. It was during this period that coaching was born, and the American Paul J. Meyer brought a new term to the world. Paul G. Meyer left a tremendous legacy which is still used by psychologists in various countries. He is considered the founder of the field of personal development. He worked with such deep themes as forgiveness, happiness, love and healthy codependency, harmony between work and family. Highlight Meyer’s many legendary writings in the areas of goal setting, motivation, leadership, and time management.
The spheres of human life in Paul J. Meyer’s wheel of life balance were only 6:
- Family and home.
- Finance and career.
- Self-development and education.
- Body and health.
- Society and culture.
- Spiritual development and ethics.
Over time, the balance wheel has changed and alternative ways of using it have emerged. Over half a century, the wheel has become so popular that it is now universally used in practice by psychologists, psychotherapists, coaches, consultants and interested professionals. Coaching based on the life balance wheel is quite popular these days.
Key Sectors of the Life Balance Wheel
- Family and personal relationships. In this segment, it’s important to assess how satisfied you are with your communication with your partner, the relationship in your love union and family. The answer will depend on marital status. If you are married or married, assess the level of interaction with your spouse. The segment also includes kinship ties and contact with loved ones.
- Brilliance in Life. The results of creativity, traveling, having fun and communicating with interesting people bring us joy. How many bright flashes are there in your life? Assess the presence of positivity and pleasant experiences.
- Children. Draw a separate sector in case you have children. The tool allows you to understand how you communicate with your children, how much time you devote to their education, joint leisure, and whether you participate in their lives.
- Friends. Everyone has its own boundaries with friends. Someone can’t imagine life alone and surrounds himself with people close in spirit, acquaintances, and numerous friends. For someone, it’s comfortable to be alone all the time.
- Health and sports. A great influence on the quality of life of a person has a state of health. The sector indicates the necessity to revise one’s lifestyle, eating habits, and the frequency of sports exercises.
- Career. Figure out how much you like your job, position, occupation. Ask the question if you are satisfied with everything or if it’s a good time to look at the job site.
- Finances. Material requests and needs will help you analyze this segment. This area does not require an assessment of financial capabilities. A person considers the degree of satisfaction with material goods at a particular moment.
- Hobbies and creativity. Pay attention to your creative talents, unrealized abilities, cherished desires, missed chances. For example, you are excited about dancing, but you have absolutely no free time or extra money to attend a tango studio. Remember that the realization of creative potential is necessary for development and harmony.
- Spiritual growth. Everyone understands spirituality in his own way. For some, it’s a creed, for others, it’s help and service to humanity. The sector is considered according to the principles of the worldview and aspirations of the person in this area.
- Personal growth. What is included in this concept? The acquisition of new knowledge and unique skills. Analyze whether your days are filled with a fresh breath of innovation or whether you have been consumed by a boring routine.
- Rest and travel. Think back to when you wrote your vacation request: a couple of years ago or last week? Does fatigue still not leave you? Rest is an integral part of eco-life, and travel is necessary for exploring the beauties of the world, maintaining a positive mood, replenishing energy resources.
- Beauty. The appearance of each person is individual and unique, so it is useless to look for flaws in yourself and try to change the shape of the nose or the oval of the face. In this case, beauty is self-care rituals, going to the fitness room to keep the body in shape, maintaining health, as well as controlling behavior in society.
Top 7 Mistakes When Working With the Wheel of Life Balance
While completing the chart, it’s easy to give in to self-deception and fall into the trap of your own beliefs:
- The Wheel of Other People’s Expectations. The psychology of mass consciousness warns that it can be difficult to separate one’s own desires from those of others. There is a temptation to be influenced by conventional standards of success when making the matrix. Other people’s desires take over one’s thoughts, while one’s own remain in the shadows. In that case, it will be difficult to achieve satisfaction, even if the goals are successfully realized.
- Striving to have time to do everything. Learn to set priorities. If you intend to give the same amount of time to several areas simultaneously, you are not waiting for harmony, and nervous exhaustion. Concentrate, direct efforts to improve one thing, do not disperse.
- Denial of objective circumstances. In the slightest failure, don’t devalue their achievements. For example, if your business has temporary difficulties, reduced the number of customers, don’t be in a hurry to give yourself a low score. Overall, your business is successful and profitable.
- Lack of a clear timeline for the implementation of plans. Divide your plans into immediate and distant tasks. If distant ones are in the group of nearest, a person will be disappointed. He will not have enough resources, effort and time to achieve them. This also applies to the time frame in which it’s expected to affect the situation. Give yourself at least three months to implement the goals outlined.
- Each sector must be considered in the context of the real situation. Nobody cancelled force majeure, so it’s important to consider all the details and nuances.
- Another mistake is due to the idealization of the wheel. The word “wheel” subconsciously attributes the properties of this smooth, rounded object to the flow of our lives. The pattern of the wheel of life balance is a perfect circle filled with air. We project this image onto our lives.
- Mistake with the “spokes” effect. We try to divide the circle into equal parts just as the spokes divide the wheel of a vehicle. This creates the illusion that all areas of life are equally important and valuable. For example, “Work” and “Sports” occupy equal parts of the circle. In practice, it looks like this. If we work 8 hours a day and 5 days a week, then our sports activities take up the same amount of time. At the subconscious level, we have allocated equal portions to these sectors. But the person is not satisfied, he is tormented and does not feel happy.
The right balance of the wheel isn’t 100% successful. For some people, the outside of life is more important than inner feelings. Ambitious people strive to be recognized in society, to feel superior and to dust the eyes of others. This unhealthy craving for perfection can cause depression, anxiety, and mental illness.
