Wheel of Life – Self-Reflection Method

Updated on 04 Jan 2024 • 5 min read • posted by Maria H

Work and career, friends, finances, social media, kids, pets, aging parents, and a long list of other aspects of life are constantly vying for our attention.

It's simple to lose the balance we need in our fast-paced culture. As a result, it's simple to overlook crucial areas of our life that provide us satisfaction and significance. We can benefit from the Wheel of Life in this situation.

What is the Wheel of Life

The Wheel of Life (also referred to as the Life Balance Wheel) is a great aid for self-reflection and end-of-year reflection. As a powerful self-assessment tool, the life balance wheel allows you to evaluate and understand how balanced your life is in different aspects, adjust and lead a successful and happy life.

How does the Wheel of Life Work

The methodology is designed around key areas that are important to you as a person, and that will help you assess your current life as well as the life and well-being you’d like to create in the future.

The idea is for you to draw a wheel divided into eight categories. Then, you’ll need to look at these eight different areas of your life and assess how you’re doing for each of them, ranking them between 1 (being "not satisfied at all") and 10 (being "very satisfied").

Wheel of Life Categories

The wheel consists of eight categories into ten slots (from one to ten) and ranks each area by adding a dot on the relevant number for each category. One will be close to the center of the circle, and ten will be at the edge of the circle.

Segment names vary, but the themes are usually similar. Here is an example of eight different areas, in no particular order:

Business and Career

Looking at the wheel and the Business and Career category that you will have split into ten different parts, you’ll need to assess on a scale of one to ten how satisfied you are with your career right now. As a result, you’ll first need to ask yourself some questions such as:

• Is your career where you want it to be right now?
• Are you passionate about what you do?
• Are you going in the right direction?

Finances

To assess how satisfied you are with your finances, some of the questions you can ask yourself include:

• Are you earning enough money to satisfy your current needs?
• Are you financially set for growth and wealth in the future?

Family and Friends

In this section, you’ll need to ask yourself questions such as:

• How are your relationships?
• Are your friends and family supportive?
• Are you regularly engaging and socializing with your friends?

Health

• When it comes to your health, ask yourself:
• How physically healthy are you right now?
• Are you satisfied with your level of fitness?
• Are you satisfied with your diet?

Romance

The romance category is all about how satisfied you are with your love life:

• Do you feel loved?
• How often are you expressing your love?
• Are you happy with the way things are between you? Or are you satisfied with not being in a relationship?
• Are you regularly socializing with others together or doing couples’ activities?

Fun and Recreation

Working and being productive is all well and good, but ensuring you’re having fun and spending some time doing recreational activities is equally important to live a happy, successful, and balanced life.

• Are you enjoying your life?
• Are you having fun in your life?
• Are you satisfied with the level of activities that you do?
• Are you happy with how you spend your time off?

Personal Growth

If personal growth is essential to you, some of the self-reflection questions to ask yourself include:

• Are you satisfied with your personal growth?
• Are you satisfied with your progress?
• Are you continuously trying to grow?
• Considering your daily routine, how far will you get in five years?
• What should you spend more or less time on going forward?

Physical Environment

The physical environment refers to your surroundings. This might be the house you’re living in or the community you’re evolving in:

• Are you happy living where you are?
• Do you enjoy being in your house or apartment?
• Do you like your neighborhood?
• How satisfied are you with your neighbors?

Note that the categories and questions mentioned above are just an example. Therefore, the name and number of the areas or categories can change and vary based on your priorities and what areas are most important in your life.

Once you’ve reviewed the wheel as a whole, join the dots. This will give you a snapshot of your life, allow you to identify your weaknesses, draft a plan of action to create a more balanced wheel, and track your progress.

How to Use the Life Wheel

The balance wheel of life is a simple way to self-reflect. To create the life balance wheel, follow the next steps:

Identify Categories

Below we presented eight areas that are commonly used for building the wheel of life. You should determine the most important areas of life for you and those that you consider a priority.

Create the Life Wheel

Once your categories have been chosen, you may draw a diagram of your wheel of life and label each spoke. Consider including color or graphic design components to make your wheel more aesthetically attractive. Nowadays, there are many ways to visualize the wheel of life, you simply can use our wheel of life template.

Rate Each Area

Evaluate each category to see how much focus you are presently giving it. Give each category a score between 0 and 10, with 0 representing the least attention and 10 the most. Write down the score for each category when you have determined it, and then indicate the spoke where it belongs.

Analyze The Result

Mark each score on your wheel of life connecting dots. After, you can compare how each area stacks up to each other and decide whether your wheel looks balanced. You may determine the areas in your life that require more time and attention by using this visual tool to discover the gaps. There might be certain things to which you believe you can't provide the proper level of attention.

Choose an Area and Set Goals

After reflecting, think about the plans, methods, and actions you can start implementing to achieve where you want to go. Don't confuse the seeming simplicity for ease, though. On the wheel, start by concentrating on one aspect of your life. Consider what steps you can take to improve that aspect and establish some goals.

To come up with a relevant plan of action that will contribute to your success and happiness, ask yourself some of the self-reflection questions below:

• When you look at the shape of the wheel, how do you feel?
• How would you like to change the shape of the inner wheel?
• What surprises you the most?
• Which category would you most like to improve?
• What category would you like to start with?
• At the moment, how do you spend time in each area?
• What do you need to do to improve the score in each area?
• What small steps would have the most significant impact on your satisfaction?
• Could a single action improve more than one area?

Once you start answering these questions, you’ll be able to take action, move toward your goals, and live a more balanced and fulfilling life.

Importance of the Wheel of Life Work

We usually say we're "happy" or "okay” but there's more going on beneath the surface than we think.

The wheel of life comes into play as a timely tool that offers a comprehensive snapshot of different parts of our life. Each slice represents something important – like work, family, or health. You can easily spot the bigger and smaller slices just by looking at the chart and see what might need a bit more attention.

From there, create an action plan. That means that if one slice of your life pie seems too small, you can focus on making it bigger and feel better overall.

Wheel of Life Template

If you want to create the life wheel, you may use various methods that are quite handy.

With the Wheel of Life Template PDF, you may jump right into self-reflection.

P.S. check out the collection of well-being templates by Productive Fish team.

Get Started

Take the opportunity to reflect your life generally so that you can comprehend how the various facets of your life interact and affect the overall quality of your existence. You may use this to establish balance and focus on developing successful goals.

You may take steps to make the life you've always desired a reality if you have a grasp of the larger picture.