Life balance wheel: a description of the exercise and its application

Every person dreams of living in harmony with himself and the world around him. 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 using such a concept as the wheel of life balance.

Human life is diverse and filled with many interests and activities. But if you think carefully, then all the "content" 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 some area of ​​life begins to lag behind in development or, on the contrary, to outstrip the rest, then an imbalance arises. Thus, problems of a different nature appear.

For example, a person is very keen on building a career and devotes all his time and energy to this occupation. Of course, he has an emptiness in his personal life, since there is no time left to pay attention to relatives, friends, children. Dealing with health issues is also not always possible 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 some important project.It takes most of the time for a certain period, but with its end everything should return to normal. It’s bad if it happens all the time, systematically.

In order to understand exactly why the imbalance occurred, as well as to figure out how to put everything in order, an interesting psychological tool was once invented - the wheel of life balance (wheel of life). The idea of ​​its creation is attributed to a certain Paul John Meyer. Some sources claim that he was a therapist, others call him 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 in great demand in the field of self-development and personal growth.

If you learn how to use the wheel of balance correctly, you can see where troubles come from, analyze and assess each area of ​​your life, correctly place priorities between them, set goals and outline ways to achieve them. With the help of 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. To master it, no special training is required. The main thing is to be honest with yourself and, after thinking about it, give truthful answers to your questions. Thus, the picture of life will be drawn without embellishment, objectively. And it will become clear in which direction you need to move.

At some point, many people begin to understand that, it turns out, they have not experienced joy for a long time, do not feel the pleasure of life, that life seems to be passing by, and they are only watching it from some parallel world. And yet so many things have not been done, so many have not seen, learned and created so many goals, so many goals have not been achieved and so many desires have sunk into oblivion. Days go by in a monotonous gray sequence in the "home-work" mode. Relevant questions arise about why this is happening, what is being done wrong, how to fix the situation. But the answers are not found, and ignorance is followed by bitter disappointment and pain from the years spent aimlessly.

And all because a significant part of our life is inevitably spent on the fulfillment of external requirements, on submission to the multitude of conditions created by existence in society... After living for many years in the mode of such a "autopilot" and then turning back, we understand the value of the wasted time and we regret that:

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

Harmony has disappeared, the energy resource is depleted, the soul is smashed to smithereens. A terrible picture, depressing, even tragic, isn't it? Here is for so that you don't have to admire such a picture in the end, and a balance of life is needed. In order to do everything, so that all areas of life are fully and equally filled with each other, and at the same time you feel joy and satisfaction.

So, the wheel of life or the wheel of life balance is a circle divided into sectors (segments), each of which represents a different area of ​​our life. To benefit from this method, the wheel of life needs to be make up correctly. And, like any other exercise, it has a special technique.

Initially you need draw the circle itself, Further divide it with lines into several segments... Then identify areas of life that will be included in the segments... Later fill in the circle, assess the level of satisfaction with each area of ​​life and analyze the result.

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

There are two most common filling options.

• Classical. The segments include health, family, career, leisure, friends, hobbies, creativity, personal growth, self-education, spiritual development, business, finance, etc.
• Sphere-role wheel. It includes people who are inextricably linked with a person's life: mom, dad, wife, husband, children, colleagues, friends, girlfriends.

There are other options too, for example combined. They bring in both the spheres of life and the roles of people. You can include in the list such items as the brightness of life, energy and tone, unity with nature, self-realization and much more. In a word, take a close look at your life with your inner eye and think about what it consists of. After that, write down the points, and then decide which of the above is really important. Put this in the circle.

The sizes of the sectors depend on the number of areas of life that you wish to include in the circle to assess the balance. The more positions are selected, the narrower the sectors will 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 the following moment: for all people, each area of ​​life has its own value, its own optimal size. For someone, family is more important, someone sees a career as the goal of their whole life, and someone prioritizes spiritual development. Therefore, an individual approach is not prohibited. You can make sectors of different sizes: when looking at the big picture, this will allow you to 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 sphere of life.

The main purpose of this exercise is to assess how successful you feel in all areas. The assessment 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 border of the circle.

When everything is ready think how well or, on the contrary, poorly developed each of the selected areas, give your assessment. Then paint over the sector up to the division you graded the sphere. The end result should be a true picture of your life.

While it shouldn't be difficult to fill the circle, some people still make mistakes. Consider what might be going wrong.

1. Using a wheel template with ready-made sectors. Better not to. 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 anything at all, you need to have an idea of ​​both unsatisfactory and excellent results. For example, what should be in your understanding of personal life, so that it can be assessed by 10 points. Or what health, career, hobby should be. You need to clearly understand what exactly will make you a happy person. And already from this start, giving an assessment of the present state of affairs.
3. Lack of definition of real terms for achieving new goals. It is important here to rationally and soberly assess your capabilities and objectively relate them to your desires. Make sure to plan what you want to do and when. But the time frame should not be extended too much or too narrowed.

The main step in this exercise is analysis (interpretation) of results, the purpose of which is to determine how imbalanced your life is, and in trying to understand what and how to do to restore balance... The following questions are appropriate here.

If you have judiciously and honestly evaluated all sectors and gave an objective score, then you will immediately see in which area there are problems and what needs to be paid attention to. And this is where 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 not be superfluous to be glad that such areas exist. This is already a good result. Perhaps when you begin to adjust 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 from each other, while others are closely intertwined. But all aspects of existence are still interconnected, because life is a single whole. By improving one area, you will undoubtedly see positive changes in other areas. For example, your wheel ranks low on finance, health, and leisure. As finances increase, new opportunities will open up. 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 that can be put in order 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 in six months, then in a year.

This is a very crucial moment, especially if many areas of your life "sagged" and did not score more than six points. Coaching professionals claim that much it is better to actively engage in strengthening several sectors related to each other than to work through all of them separately. The advantage of this approach is the absence of monotonous activities that quickly bore people.

But we must remember that the resource of energy, strength, inspiration, opportunities and abilities is different for everyone... For a period of time, things will advance on the outbreak of a desire to change everything for the better, you will be proactive and full of enthusiasm, 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 complete the job as quickly as you wanted, and you will feel dissatisfied.

To prevent this from happening, you need to outline the three most important and simple tasks and plan the necessary steps to solve them. Describe everything in detail, assess each action sensibly and soberly. Only in this case it will be possible to implement the entire plan as a whole: both for the near term and for the long term. As a result, bringing the wheel of life's balance back to normal will not seem so scary and difficult.

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, it means that the person has enough time for almost everything.In this case, the "with the world on a string" method may be suitable. That is, you need to look and think about what exactly is missing in each of the spheres of life and try to fill the gap, and immediately after that, start realizing the potential of your personality where you consider it necessary.
2. Those who is weak in one area of ​​life, it is recommended to strengthen 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 that are most important and promising for youand then concentrate your efforts on working with them. Thanks to this, it is quite possible to temporarily reduce attention to the rest of the strongest sides. For example, a person who is doing great at work may not spend a lot of time on empty vacations, but to do in his free time realizing his creative ambitions or his favorite business, hobbies, pleasant hobbies.

For self-realization, you must immediately identify for yourself the areas that need to be improved so that they do not interfere with this process. This can be done as follows.

1. Determine which of the areas has the biggest dip. It is he who can pull all other spheres of life to the bottom.
2. Think about what area of ​​life hinders your self-realization.... Maybe you are paying too much attention to something that would contribute to the realization of your abilities and capabilities. Maybe we need to pay less attention to one area and more to another.
3. Understand which of the areas most affects all the others. Perhaps, having made a bet on it and intensifying your efforts in its development, you can quickly and imperceptibly enter the path of self-realization. For example, you do not have enough money to start developing your own business. This means that all attempts 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.