Finding the Right Work-Life Balance
- The Wheel of Life exercise is a simple but powerful coaching tool that helps you find work-life balance and increase your level of personal satisfaction.
- In one hour, you will have a snapshot of the areas of your life that are in balance today and an action plan for creating the changes you wish to make.
- Consider doing the exercise periodically to benefit fully from it.
How to complete the exercise
- Select eight "areas of life" from the examples on the next page that you would like to explore.
- Write the name of each area on the outer ring of a segment of the Wheel of Life.
- Indicate your current degree of satisfaction with each area of life (1 = very dissatisfied, and 10 = fully satisfied) by connecting the numbers in the segment to form a wedge.
We suggest you print out the pages. Doing the exercise on paper will have more impact than simply thinking about it.
Balance is personal and unique to each individual. What may be satisfying or balanced for one person may be stressful or boring for someone else.
Your Wheel of Life
Examples of Areas of Life
- Achievements
- Career
- Children/dependants
- Contribution to society
- Environment
- Family
- Fun and leisure
- Health/fitness
- Money/finances
- Parents
- Personal growth
- Relationships
- Self-care
- Significant other
- Spirituality
Feel free to rename any area to make it meaningful to you.
Exploratory Coaching Questions
- How do you feel about your life as you look at your wheel?
- Is there anything that surprises you?
- Which area do you tend to neglect or avoid? What impact does that have?
- Which of these areas would you most like to improve? Why are they important for you?
- Who are you becoming and who do you want to be?
- Which area is a source of stress and how does it affect your overall life satisfaction?
- To be able to say "yes" to your priorities, you need to say "no" to other things. To whom or to what should you say "no"?
- If you approached this situation with courage, what could you do?
Taking Action
- How could you better integrate your areas of life to improve your work-life balance?
- If there were one key action that could bring everything into balance, what would it be?
- What are you willing to commit to doing, trying or changing (and by when)?
- What support might you need from others to make changes towards greater satisfaction with your life?
Designed for executives by CSPS Executive Learning
If you have questions or comments on this activity, please contact your Executive Learning Concierge: executivelearning-apprentissagepourlescadres@csps-efpc.gc.ca.
