The Balance Wheel Exercise
Getting Started
All about you, your life, what your day to day life contains, balancing your world with your ambitions, fears, issues or problems.
If you weigh up the balance of activities in your life in the present, you can begin to assess both whether it is how you want it now and how it is likely to stack up over time. In the context of Onion Therapy, how you are living now, especially the emphasis or proportion of your time you are giving to the HEALTH area of your life, this exercise will help you identify where you can change what you do to realign where you are going – so that you give yourself a more balanced and healthier lifestyle.
Write your name at the top of a sheet of plain paper in front of you.
Now think for a few moments about your life. What drives you? What irks you? What do you want to change in your life?
Close your eyes and think about this for a couple of minutes, then when you’re done write it down. Also, consider and answer these three questions:
What percentage of your whole life, at this time in your life, do you give to what you want to be and how you are going to get there?
What percentage of your whole life would you like to give to the two parts of that question?
If there is a difference between answers one and two, what is stopping you giving what’s needed to what you want
Take about ten minutes in total.
Exercise:
If the centre of the Balance Wheel is 0 (zero) and the outer edge is 10, just draw a line across each category area that you have chosen as your eight most important areas of your life that reflects the satisfaction with this area of your life right now
In a perfect world, balance and fullness would perhaps go together, and you would want 10s all round your wheel. The reality is probably rather different. Remember, this is not what you would like to be the case, it’s a pictorial representation of what the reality is for you right now.
Here’s a scan of what one client’s Balance Wheel looked like:
If you viewed this as one of the wheels in a persons vehicle of life and it was set running, the rider would be in for a bumpy ride!
Other people saw this guy as very successful but he didn’t feel happy with his life. Once his wheel was drawn it wasn’t too hard to see why. Immediately he could see what he needed to do. As soon as he started to give some attention to his personal life, he began to feel much better very quickly. To be out of balance is to be at odds with oneself. So moving from, say, a 2 to a 4 in any area invariably produces an increase in overall satisfaction levels greater than the 2 out of 10 increase might suggest, leading to a general sense of improved well-being.
Here is a sample of section labels that have been created by other individuals: Personal Growth, Money, Health, Friendships, Family, Work/Career, Physical Environments (home, office, etc.), Significant Other/ Romance, Fun and Recreation, Spiritual Life, Use of Time.
You can create a balance wheel for any part of your life, separating out the various elements of each part in order to get more clarity and focus to make effective changes in those chosen areas.
Making Changes to Your Life Balance
This is surprisingly straightforward. It all hinges on asking yourself some simple questions and then committing yourself to living the answers.
- Ask yourself “What do I want?”
- 2. Now doublecheck: Ask yourself “Is this what I really want?” Often, the answer will differ—perhapsa lot. One person might first of all answer “I want a promotion at work.” Asking themselves what they really want however, they might answer: “Actually, what I really want is to get out of the rut that I feel I am in, and have a more interesting job.” Being promoted is not the only way to achieve this
- Ask yourself: “What am I not paying attention to in my life right now? What am I not honouring as much as I could?” If the answer to this question affects your answer about what you want, take time to make any adjustments, or to modify the goal you started with. For instance, if you say you want more free time but have a longstanding habit of taking on new projects because you get excited by the possibilities they offer, it could be that you are not paying attention to the consequences of this behaviour. You could keep stopping yourself having what you say you want.
- Ask yourself: “What is the easiest step I can take right now, today, or this week in the direction of what I want?” Having identified it, make an agreement with yourself that you will do it. If you have a diary, put it in. If you work on lists, put it on your to-do list. If you like to quietly imagine ahead, imagine when and how you will take that step. If you find yourself with reasons why not, check what your objections are seeking to achieve for you. You need that information in order to distinguish the goal from possible routes you might take towards it. If there’s a problem with the first route you thought of, be flexible and create another route to get to the same goal. If that’s a step that needs repeating, imagine the next few times you will take it, and how you will feel as you begin to recognise that it is becoming habitual and its effects cumulative. How will you feel a week from now? A month, a year or five years from now with this step just effortlessly a part of how you do what you do, and then imagine how you will appreciate the difference this change has made to you life as the future unfolds.
- Make an agreement with yourself to review your personal balance from time to time, whether or not there is any feedback that suggests you need make adjustments or realign your goals. Perhaps you might do it every month, or six months or each year on an anniversary. Making regular reviews of how things are is part of forming the good habit of regularly checking in with yourself. The more ready you are to check in, the more information you will have access to. It’s another habit that builds and becomes more effective the more you repeat it. Doing this will allow you keep on track to creating and maintaining the life you have chosen for yourself and, more importantly perhaps, the life you deserve.