The First Step to Creating the Life of Your Dreams

2020 took us for a whirlwind, but in 2021 (at least after that first week)? We’re taking our lives back.

Living in a busy, fast-paced world makes it easy for us to get consumed by work, society, and everything else.

If 2020 taught us anything, it’s that we all need to take a moment, slow down, and consider what’s important to us.

You want to create the life of your dreams, but how do you get started? What if I told you that you could create the life of your dreams by doing one exercise, routinely? And no, I’m not talking about doing push ups or cardio - although, that could be part of your plan! ;)

I’m talking about the Wheel of Life.

What is the “Wheel of Life”?

The Wheel of Life exercise encourages you to reflect on eight categories in your life and evaluate your level of satisfaction at a given time. This exercise was created to promote self-awareness and balance. Balance is personal, and looks different for every person. 

Understanding the areas in which you are satisfied (or dissatisfied) allows you to focus on where you’d like to improve and grow.

While the Wheel of Life is typically split into eight categories, you are more than welcome to change up the categories to what relates to your life.

A Step-by-Step Guide for the Wheel of Life

For this exercise, you’ll need:

• Writing utensils

• A piece of paper OR this printable worksheet

• Coloring utensils (Optional, but recommended!)*

*I recommend coloring your wheel because it allows for creativity, drawing, and even color-coding. Coloring can be therapeutic, as it helps reduce stress and anxiety.

Have your materials ready? Let’s take the first step in building the life of your dreams.

Step 1: Create your wheel by drawing a circle and dividing it into eight equal segments. For each segment, label it with the following categories (or use your own):

1. Family and Friends

2. Love/Significant Other

3. Career

4. Finances

5. Health

6. Home Environment

7. Fun and Leisure

8. Personal Growth/Spirituality

Step 2: Think about what success or satisfaction would feel like for each area. What would make you happy in this part of your life?

Step 3: Rate your level of satisfaction between 1 (very dissatisfied) to 10 (fully satisfied) in each category by drawing a line across the segment. 

Optional: Label the segment with your rating. Color in the segment while reflecting on your satisfaction.

Example: If you rate “Family and Friends” a 5, draw a line about halfway into the segment, and label it “5”. 

Step 4: Review and reflect on the new perimeters and look at your Wheel of Life. Ask yourself, “Is it a bumpy ride?”

Step 5: Dig deeper and ask yourself the following questions:

1. How do you feel about your life as you look at your Wheel?

2. What would a score of 10 look like in each area?

3. Which of these categories would you most like to improve?

4. How could you make space for these changes in your life?

5. If there was one key action you could take that would begin to bring everything into balance, what would it be?

Step 6: Take action. 

Choose three areas of the Wheel you want to work on and decide on one thing you can do this week for each area. If that’s too much, choose one that will help you feel best about your overall satisfaction.

Step 7: Do this exercise routinely (I recommend once a week) and see how you grow over time.

The results of the exercise are completely up to you! If you’re a fan of the book High Performance Habits, you’ll know that Olympic athletes, superstars and huge entrepreneurs use this weekly exercise to get a grasp on what’s going on in their lives first before doing the work to make it better.

Knowing what your life looks like and understanding how satisfied you are with it is the first step to creating the life of your dreams! 

Try this Wheel of Life (or “balance wheel”) exercise and you may discover that you’re much closer than you think!