There are 6 Key Areas of Life that I have captured in this image.
Using these key areas, I want to share a coaching exercise that will help you to identify some of the areas that are most important to you.
This exercise is for you if:
- You find yourself feeling like there must be more to life than where you are right now.
- There’s a particular area of your life that you feel is lacking, but you can’t quite pinpoint what’s off.
- You want to start making some changes but you have NO idea what to start with.
- You feel overwhelmed.
To start I like to use the KISS principle (Keep It Simple and Savvy).
These areas can be broken down further, there are many that break them into 9 categories.
Once you have gone through the process you may see changes that you want to make to the areas so that they resonate more with you.
For our purposes we will use Spiritual, Career, Wellbeing, Health, Financial and Relationships as the jumping off point.
Keep in mind that balancing these 6 Key Areas of Life is truly a personal path. What you may feel is balance won’t necessarily look that way to someone else.
To start you’ll need a blank sheet of paper and a pen or pencil.
Draw a circle that fills most of your paper. Split it like a pie into 6 equal parts.
Now, label each section Spiritual, Career, Wellbeing, Health, Financial and Relationships
Rate your level of satisfaction with each of the 6 key areas by using a scale of one to ten with ten being the highest or equal to the most satisfied you can possibly be.
If you rate one of the 6 Key Areas a 10, you are saying everything is as it should be, it couldn’t get any better, and you are perfectly satisfied with everything that falls within that area.
On the other hand, if you rate one of the key areas a 1 you are experiencing some major challenges with things that fall within that area.
Let’s start with “Career”.
How would you rate your career or professional life from 1 to 10 with 10 being perfect? Okay, write that number in the “Career” section of your circle.
Do this for each of the remaining key areas.
Now, I want you to imagine that the circle represents a bicycle wheel and the six lines coming from the center are the spokes.
Draw a straight line that divides just the “Career” section from spoke to spoke.
Before you start, here is an example:
If you rated your “Career” as a 5, the straight line would divide that section, from spoke to spoke, at the halfway point between the center of the wheel and outer edge.
If you rated the “Career” section a 9, the straight line would divide the section, from spoke to spoke, and be much closer to the outer edge of the circle.
Now, imagine that what you have drawn represents a wheel on your bicycle.
If you had rated all 6 Key Areas of Life as a 10, the wheel would be perfectly round and you would experience a smooth ride.
If you rated all 6 Key Areas of Life as a 5, you might have a fairly smooth ride but you would have to peddle like crazy because you would be half out of air.
Look at what you have drawn on your paper, what do you see?
What do you think about your wheel? Think about the kind of a ride will you have.
What area is most important for you to start improving today?
Reverse engineer your goals, look at where you want to go, just like when you’re riding a bike.
Map out the baby steps that will take you there.