Finding clarity through the Life Wheel Tool
If you’ve been around here awhile, you may know that my go-to coaching tool is the Life Wheel. I use it with brand new clients and typically sneak it into my group coaching workshops a few times a year. The concept? It’s a wheel divided equally into 8 pie slices. Each pie slice is an area of your life. It covers everything from your faith to career to relationships to how you feel about the level of fun you’re having. When using the tool, each participant is asked to rate how they feel about each area of their life on a scale of 1-10. Ideally, you would use a marker to color in the levels and look at your wheel. Here’s why I love it. In a short 15 minute span, it helps us get a birds eye view of where we are thriving, where we are striving, and what is calling for our attention in our life right now. And whether you have a blank life wheel worksheet handy or not, there’s some great principles that we can incorporate in our everyday rhythms as we invite God into our everyday lives.
Pressing pause is always a good idea
True confession? I’m really bad at this one. As an Enneagram type 3, I always has somewhere to go and something to do, so pressing pause can sometimes feel like an obstacle I just want to detour around. It’s far easier to keep moving forward and work on something. But…there is value in the pause. Whether you’re always ready to tackle the next challenge or if you feel like you move slow and get hung up on a decision — the truth is that intentionally pressing pause can reap endless benefits. Pressing pause allows us to invite God into the process. Pressing pause allows us to gain insight into what in our lives is running on all cylinders and what needs our attention. Pressing pause allows us to ask ourselves what matters most in this season of our lives. One thing to do while your pressing pause intentionally? Taking inventory. Sit down with a coaching tool designed for this or even with your journal and take stock. Get a 50,000 ft view of your life and partner with God to determine what comes next.
Seeing things from a different view
During my coach training, one of the tidbits that surprised me was the idea that our thinking and doing can change when we change positions. Our trainers literally had a get up from our comfy chairs and move so we could see things from a different angle. I spent most of this exercise side-eyeing the trainers until it actually worked. From my new vantage point, I was able to observe different things than I did from the first angle.
Sometimes that looks like moving away from your recliner and getting outside. Sometimes it means moving your work from your desk to the kitchen table. Whatever the move is, we want to take it to gain new insight. The Life Wheel tool? It helps us do that. It helps us to look at our lives through different lenses and find clarity on where our focus should be right now. And who doesn’t need that?
Focusing on one baby step at a time
I say this a lot in out group coaching workshops, but the reality is there is science behind it. If you are a multi-tasking human being, then this next part might sound familiar. Our tendency is to look at our lives and come up with 5 goals that we intend to work on at the same time. Everything from eating healthier to getting that promotion at work to investing in our faith or friendships. But there’s a problem with this tactic. It rarely works.
If you’re thinking “well that’s disappointing”, then you’re not alone. The science behind this idea is that what propels us forward is not a little improvement in every life area. Our brains just can’t wrap themselves around too many directional goals. Instead, we build more momentum by narrowing down to one singular focus and taking small steps. The little wins along the way propel us to add on and keep moving forward.
The Life Wheel tool helps us do that. Once we’ve completed our wheel, we can see that area that matters most to you. We can start to see where we’re most motivated to make some progress. We can see where to invite God into the process and experience one small win at a time. It’s genius really.
Taking the Life Wheel Assessment
Here’s the real truth: the Life Wheel is just a tool. The Bible still trumps coaching tools every time. But these tools can help us see where God is working in our lives. They can help us press pause in achieving and focus more on what we’re becoming. They can help us reconnect with the story that God is writing in our lives and be intentional with our next steps.
Want your own Life Wheel worksheet? Simply google Life Wheel or if you’d like a little more insight, my Confident Clarity Assessment is based on the life wheel and it’s FREE! Just take the assessment and I’ll send you your life wheel results and a couple of extra tools so you can process what you learn.
