This is never a bad thing, is it?
Have you ever heard anyone say, Gee, I wish my life were really out of balance right now?!
Of course not! That’s ridiculous!
The short tale of how this gem fell in my lap is Noom. That deserves its own blog post – and will definitely get one. For now, I can just say, Thanks, Noom – for this and so much else!
Funny things happen when our lives are out of balance and all akimbo. Probably the most tangible thing is, we just aren’t happy. And that simply isn’t how I want to live. I want to strive to find and then keep happiness and brightness in my life.
Trust me, this past year with as many curve balls as have been thrown, happiness and balance has been a struggle.
Circle of Life
If you start hearing the Lion King or start humming, that’s okay, the same thing happened to me.
Though the concept came to me through Noom, it certainly is out and about in the bigger universe. Just do a web search for “Circle of Life” or “Wheel of Life” balance exercise and you’ll see it’s a tool used far and wide by coaches, therapists, mental health professionals, and apparently diet apps!
At first glance I thought it was a little hokey. I’m all for self-reflection but how is a simple circle going to help me? Ya feel me? But then my next realization was that I was scared. I was scared to do the exercise because I understood, once I revealed how my life was out of whack, it was up to me to do something about it. So I hemmed and I hawed. I procrastinated, bargained, and tried to forget it. But it kept pulling me back.
The Exercise
The process is pretty simple, though I’m sure if you have done it or want it to be more dramatic, you can certainly find people to help deepen the process or add gravity to it.
Essentially, you start with a circle, divided into sections that represent aspects of your life. Those circles are further divided into concentric rings so you can pick a color and use it to represent how fulfilled you feel in each aspect of your life. Then color! Inside the lines, outside the lines, you do you. I don’t judge.
I’ve created my own to avoid stepping on anyone’s copyright, but feel free to either pull a copy of this one for reproduction or drop me a comment and I’ll figure out how to get you a clean copy.
Outcome
I thought some examples might be helpful so I recruited my partner to do one for himself as well. Here are our wheels side by side.
You can see there are both differences and similarities in our wheels. I guess that’s good for people in a relationship, but I’m not sure I’d read too much into it. It’s clear in my mind that if you did this exercise daily, your wheel could change based on what’s happening in your life at that moment.
That’s something I really like about the exercise! It grows with you. It’s a tool to help you see your life in a glance so you can decide what to focus on.
Bonus: When we did them together, it gave us new vocabulary about how to work on aspect in our wheels. He’d say “A hike would hit several parts of the wheel – like health and recreation – and I know that’s important to us both – which also crosses into romance right?” Obviously we shouldn’t count on someone else to help balance out the imbalance for us, but it’s nice if you can share in some overlap in those areas.
For me, it’s focused my attention on how to get those family/friends and fun/recreation slices bigger. I’m not surprised they are rather weak and anemic after last year, but they are definitely worth my laser focus to grow them into a bigger section. And romance is an area we both agree we need to work on – and it was a recognition that happened through observation so it side-stepped any awkward conversations.
Extra, Extra
Would I be me if I didn’t throw a gadget into the mix? Nope. The answer is No!
As I was searching for reasons to procrastinate doing this exercise, I stumbled across Iris by Maker’s Cabinet. You are already familiar with my love of gadgets and trinkets, but I have a special soft spot in my heart for meticulously engineering TOOLS. This beauty has an aperture opening like a camera that allows you to easily draw concentric circles.
Hey, wait! Didn’t I mention concentric circles before?
This stunning piece of workmanship will set you back about $127 but since I see myself repeating this process frequently and I’m still occasionally working in my Bullet Journal, I though the investment is really part of the ritual I’m creating to pause and take stock of my life balance periodically. The inner stand (shown on the left) can double as a straightedge to section off the circle and if you look on the right, easily visible markings help you create the circle gradations you need as the base of your ranking.
Do you NEED the Iris? Certainly not. But will you WANT one? Oh yes. I think so.
I hope you find this exercise as interesting as I did. And I hope you find it as useful – as a touchpoint and even as a communication exercise with friends and partners.
Did this capture your attention? Leave me comments – and tell me if you want me to send you a printable version of the blank circle!
