The Complete Guide to The Wheel of Life

Introduction

The Wheel of Life Exercise, also known as the Coaching Wheel or Life Balance Wheel, is arguably the most powerful and versatile Coaching Tool in a coach's toolbox.

We think it's the ultimate coaching tool; simple and easy to use—and endlessly flexible. You can use it with any coaching client, and if you use a blank coaching wheel you can adapt it to almost every coaching situation too!

Read on to find everything you need to know about this powerful coaching exercise, plus tips and even a tools clinic video with lots of new ideas for using The Wheel of Life in your practice!

This Guide to The Wheel of Life answers the following: What is the Wheel of Life and What does it do? Wheel of Life Definition What are the Key Categories on the Wheel of Life? The History of the Wheel of Life Different Styles of the Wheel of Life How to Fill out The Life Wheel How does the Wheel of Life Work? *NEW* Ideas for Using The Wheel of Life [VIDEO] How to use The Wheel of Life in Coaching (With 11 Examples) 11 Ways to use the Wheel of Life in your Coaching Practice Wheel of Life Coaching Questions How and Why to Customize the Wheel of Life Why Clients Love the Coaching Wheel Considerations for using the Life Balance Wheel Wrap-up

Click to see the Wheel of Life Template What is the Wheel of Life and What does it do? Wheel of Life Definition The Wheel of Life is a visual tool or worksheet used in coaching to help clients quickly understand how balanced or fulfilled their life is in this moment. The wheel consists of 8 (and up to 10) categories or areas that are important for a whole or balanced life. Clients rate their level of satisfaction with each area, then map this onto an image of a wheel. This gives them an immediate overview of their current "life balance". Crucially, the life wheel allows clients to see right away which areas of their life might need improvement.

The life wheel technique gives clients a helicopter view of how satisfied they are with their life in key predefined categories such as health, finances and relationships.

For many coaches, including myself, the life balance wheel is a central tool in their coaching practice. It's a powerful tool because it provides an instant overview for both coach and client.

Wikipedia describes the Wheel of Life as a coaching tool used in life and management coaching to assess coaching priorities. But more than just an assessment, the coaching wheel helps clients become more self-aware and more motivated to make changes and create a fulfilling life. Through self-knowledge, it empowers and gives our clients focus and direction.

Some Personal Thoughts on the Life Balance Wheel

I love the Life Balance Wheel - and believe it's essential to every coach's practice. That's why we offer a Free Wheel of Life Template.

Not only does the wheel help clients quickly assess their current levels of life balance, it can also be used to clarify priorities for goal-setting. You can also use it for a regular (eg. quarterly) coaching check-in and to review and assess progress with clients.

But don't just use it with your clients! I recommend you use the wheel for you too, because it's important that we coaches walk our talk. So I often use this wheel to check in on how I'm doing, and where I could make some adjustments to my own life balance!

What are the Key Categories on the Wheel of Life? The Coaching Wheel usually has 8 categories for life balance, although sometimes it has as many as 10. These categories can be changed and the wording customized for each client as needed. And sometimes categories are split into two for more granular scoring. Here is a list of categories and their common alternatives: Family and Friends: I usually split "Family and Friends" into "Family" and "Friends". I do this for myself, and also offer it as an option to my clients. Significant Other: Other category name ideas include "Dating" or "Life Partner". Career: "Motherhood", "Work" or "Volunteering" are alternative labels you could use. Finances: Other label name ideas include "Money" or "Financial Security". Health: The category name could be split into "Emotional" and "Physical". Home Environment: This category can change to "Work Environment" for career or business clients. Fun & Leisure: The category name could change to "Recreation". Personal Growth: The category name could be "Learning" or "Self-Development". Click to get more ideas for Wheel of Life Categories here.

A Little History of the Wheel of Life Coaching Tool

Who Invented The Wheel of Life?

The original concept of The Wheel of Life is attributed to the late Paul J. Meyer who founded the Success Motivation® Institute in 1960. Paul J. Meyer was a thought leader and coaching industry pioneer. He built many programs to help people achieve their goals, manage time and be a better leader. Over time Meyer's programs have travelled far and wide and have been translated into well over 20 languages.

Also an entrepreneur, Meyer began and acquired over 40 other companies in a wide range of areas. These include motor racing, commercial and residential real estate, finance, printing and equipment leasing - and many more. Over half of these businesses failed, but he loved a challenge and believed, "Attitude is everything!"

Today, the Coaching Wheel takes on many different visual forms and can be completed on paper as well as online, and on mobile phone apps.

When was the Wheel of Life invented?

It isn't known exactly when the Wheel of Life was invented, but it's likely it was in the 1960s, shortly after Meyer created the Success Motivation® Institute.

Meyer's original Life Wheel concept continues to be used at Leadership Management International (another of his businesses) as part of the Total Person® Program. This focuses on goal-setting and creating action plans with the 6 categories of Family and Home, Financial and Career, Mental and Education, Physical and Health, Social and Cultural, Spiritual and Ethical.

Different STYLES of the Life Balance Wheel While there are many design variations, there seem to be only two key styles of the Life Balance Wheel. All the wheels I have seen are plotted out in one of these two ways: The "Pie" Style: The 'original' style of the coaching wheel looks like slices of a pie or pizza - and it involves drawing a line across each segment to rate each area. The "Spider Web" Style: The other key style—more often seen with online versions because it's easier for computers to draw—is what I call the "spider web" style. Here the scores are noted on the spokes for each category, rather than across the segment. And this creates a spider web effect. The instructions in this article refer to the original "Pie" style of the Wheel of Life. And I prefer this style as I think the results are clearer and easier to read for both coach and client.

How to Fill Out The Life Balance Wheel

At The Coaching Tools Company we like to get clients away from devices and distractions. We want to help clients slow down so they can connect more deeply with themselves and what truly matters.

Coaching Tip: have your client print out this exercise and fill it in with a pen, rather than complete an online version. Just holding a pen and being away from a screen will help clients have a better result.

Overview

When we score our satisfaction levels against each of the wheel categories, this gives us a great helicopter view of what is - and isn't - working for us in life.

The client rates their satisfaction with each category on the wheel by drawing a line to rate the different segments as to how satisfied they are in each area. by doing this your client will clearly see which areas of their life need attention.

Once completed the wheel will likely look 'bumpy'. The client may then choose to set goals or create an action plan around the areas of life where satisfaction is low.

You can also use this tool regularly with the same client to check in. Doing this will help you both see how your client's life balance progresses during the coaching relationship.

How to Use The Wheel of Life (Instructions) Ask your client to review the 8 categories on their Life Balance Wheel. If necessary they can split or rename category segments to add in something that is missing, or make it more meaningful for them. See this Wheel of Life Categories article for ideas and examples. Ask them to rank their level of satisfaction with each area of their life by drawing a curved line across each segment (see image for example). Scoring is between 1 (very dissatisfied) and 10 (fully satisfied). TIP: It can be helpful to demonstrate how to draw the line and add each score to their wheel. The perimeter of the circle represents their "Wheel of Life". Ask your client to look at their completed wheel and ask, "If this was your Wheel of Life, would it be a bumpy ride?" Coach your client around their learnings from their Coaching Wheel. Identify at least one action for your client to work on to improve their score in one area of the wheel - and thus improve their life balance. NOTE: These steps are based on the detailed instructions found on page 2 of our Free Wheel of Life Template.

So, how does the Wheel of Life Coaching Tool Work?

In this busy world it can be hard to know how we really feel. We may look at our lives and say, "Oh yes, I'm happy". But when we get into the detail, there are often dis-satisfactions and areas that can be improved.

This tool works because it gives a fast overview of how satisfied a client is with their life. The visual scores enables both client and coach to see which life areas the client feels good about—and which may need some work.

Ideally, the coach will then dig deeper into the results using coaching questions to discover what specifically is getting in the way of a client's ease and happiness. The next step is often to brainstorm and come up with an action plan.

Then, when action planning, a client can prioritise and begin with the areas of their life that have the lowest scores. The goal is to identify actions to raise their satisfaction levels.

Ideas for Using The Wheel of Life [VIDEO]

Watch this fun tools clinic video with lots of new and inspiring ideas for using the Wheel of Life—whatever your niche!

How to use The Wheel of Life in Coaching (with 11 examples)

I believe the Life Balance Wheel is the most flexible tool in any coach's toolbox. It demonstrates first-hand the power of coaching. And it can also be used as a check-in tool throughout the coaching relationship.

The wheel also makes a great handout for workshops and can be adapted (through labelling the wheel segments differently, or simply asking coaching questions to delve deeper) to almost any coaching situation—and there are many more ideas below.

Here are 11 ways to use the Wheel of Life in your coaching practice:

1. With a prospective client. Often potential clients are unclear on exactly what they want a coach to help them with. Sometimes prospective clients may be shy to share personal issues with someone they've only just met. The life balance wheel is a great tool to build trust in the coaching process. It gives an overview of how satisfied the client is with their life, and also demonstrates the power of coaching and self-inquiry.
2. To set and prioritise goals. Help clients decide which areas they'd like to set goals around. These are usually, but not always, the life wheel areas with lower satisfaction scores. The satisfaction scores can also be used to prioritise which goals to work on first. You may also like this SMART Goals Special Report .PDF
3. Demonstrate progress and the power of coaching. I do a Wheel of Life with all new clients. Then I do another Coaching Wheel with them after about 3 months. The client's life satisfaction scores have almost always increased, sometimes dramatically. This makes the life wheel a great way to demonstrate progress in a coaching relationship! For more details read: A Simple 3 Step Process to Measure Coaching Progress.
4. As a Life Check-in. The Life Balance Wheel makes a great tool to "check-in" with how people are doing. This can be how they're feeling about their life today, this week or month. And once the client knows how to complete the Wheel of Life, they can use it themselves to see what areas of their life might need a tweak.
5. As a diagnostic tool to look for sources of stress or dissatisfaction. When a client feels unhappy, frustrated or down, the Wheel of Life scores makes a great start point for discovering what might be bothering them.

6. In a coaching program. Any time you start a coaching program with a client - whether it's group or individual coaching - the Life Balance Wheel is a great way to "take stock" of a participant's current life situation. For example, we use a version of the coaching wheel called "Brighten Up Your Life" at the beginning of our Renew You, Love Your Life Coaching Program.
   

   Brighten Up Your Life: Customised for the Renew You Coaching Program!

7. Use it in Workshops. The Life Balance Wheel makes an excellent introduction to any life coaching workshop. It's also a great tool to help clients understand where their stress is coming from in a stress management workshop. You may like this article that helps coaches run a short workshop using the life wheel.
8. Use the Life Balance Wheel to help a client envision how they would like their life to be. Using the 8 key Wheel of Life categories, your client can write in each wheel segment what they would like their life to look like. They could also draw or cut out and paste pictures into each life wheel segment. See more life visioning exercise ideas here.
9. Include a Life Wheel In your new client's welcome packet! The Life Balance Wheel makes a great tangible coaching tool for clients to complete before starting their coaching sessions with you. Coaches can then review the life wheel results and coach clients deeply in the very first session! That's why we include the Wheel of Life (with instructions) in our top-selling Coaching Welcome Packet!
10. The Coaching Wheel can be used as a way to "test" which goals are most meaningful for a client. Ask the client to score each of their goals according to whether it improves their satisfaction in each of the 8 life wheel categories. Learn more about how to use the Wheel to Create More Meaningful Goals here.
11. Customise the Wheel and adapt it to whatever thorny problem your client is having! Simply grab a blank coaching wheel and ask them to add the 8 biggest things stressing them out right now. Then score out of 10 how stressful each thing is. Or try asking your client to label the segments with 8 key things that make them a good mom/dad/leader/friend. Then they score themselves according to how well they think they are doing in each area, and wrap-up by creating an action plan to move forwards. For more ideas, find 12 New Ways to Use The Wheel of Life Exercise here.

Coaching Questions for The Wheel of Life

There are endless ways to explore the Wheel of Life Exercise results with your client. You could choose to look at their life overall and how it feels. Or you can delve into one or more specific segments to get to the source of any issues identified. And/or you can also brainstorm actions to raise their scores - for just a few ideas.

Simply use your coaching skills to coach your client more deeply around their answers. It can be helpful to use the GROW model. Ask your client for a G - Goal for the wheel segment/area you want to improve. Then explore the R - Reality of that situation. Next brainstorm some O - Options and finally agree what the client W - Will Do. You may also like our Complete Guide to the GROW Model for Coaches (with PDF).

Here are 12 Wheel of Life Coaching Questions to Help: How do you feel about your life as you look at your Wheel? Are there any surprises for you? How do you currently spend time in these areas? How would you like to spend time in these areas? What would make that a score of 10? What would a score of 10 look like? Which of these categories would you most like to improve? How could you make space for these changes in your life? What help and support might you need from others to make changes and be more satisfied with your life? And what change do you want to make first? What is the smallest step you could take to get started? If there was one key action that would begin to bring everything into balance, what would it be?

How and why to customize the Life Balance Wheel?

Often what holds our clients back is a lack of conscious awareness about a situation. This might be how they feel or how they're getting in their own way. So, while the Wheel of Life Exercise is usually used for life balance; a blank wheel can be used to understand almost any situation more deeply. And once your client is more aware of how they feel - and the factors at play in their current situation - you can coach them to identify actions or goals to improve it.

How to Customise the Coaching Wheel:

1. First get yourself a brandable, free version of the customisable Blank Coaching Wheel.
2. Next, decide the topic you'd like to explore with your client.
3. Then, using a blank coaching wheel, ask your client to add a title to the top of the page eg. My Stress Wheel, Leadership Wheel, (Find a) Relationship Wheel etc.
4. Then ask your client to label the 8 blank wheel segments according to their topic. Some ideas include:
   • The 8 most important things to remember in this situation.
   • The Top 8 contributing factors to the situation.
   • 8 outcomes they are hoping for.
   • The 8 areas they need to—or would like to work on.
5. Then ask your client to rate each segment. What they rate will depend on the topic - some ideas include the level of importance/satisfaction/dissatisfaction/comfort/progress etc. with each of the 8 areas.
6. Then choose an area to explore more deeply, or brainstorm actions with them to move forwards with.

3 Specific Examples of How to Use the Coaching Wheel Differently

1. Promotion Wheel: Help your clients get that promotion!
   • Ask your client to identify 8 key areas they need to get their promotion.
   • Tip: Your client may need to do some pre-work to identify necessary skills/knowledge. For example, online research, talking to their boss or reviewing the job specification.
   • Next ask your client to score how close they are to being seen as fully competent in each area.
   • Then help your client devise an action plan to
     • Raise their competency levels in the areas they fall short and
     • Highlight their competence and strengths in areas where they already excel.
2. Stress Wheel:
   • Help clients identify their sources of stress by labelling the wheel with 8 sources of stress in their life.
   • Next ask your client how much out of 10 each area "stresses them out".
   • Finally, wrap-up by brainstorming an action plan, or identifying 1-3 actions they can commit to, that will reduce their stress.
3. Parenting Wheel: Help clients prioritise which areas of their parenting to focus on.
   • Ask clients to label a blank wheel with 8 things they consider important to be a good parent.
   • Then ask them to score how well they are doing in each area.
   • Finally, develop an action plan starting with those with the lowest (or even boosting the highest first!) scores.

Some other Coaching Wheel Customisation Ideas

• Evaulate Relationships: Use the coaching wheel to raise awareness of what qualities matter most in a potential partner. You can also use it to evaluate a current relationship or discover who energises and drains us. If this interests you read 3 Ways to Use the Wheel to Evaluate Relationships!
• In Career and Executive Coaching: Help clients make a decision, get stronger after a disappointment or gain deeper understanding of a situation! Read 3 New Ways to Use the Wheel of Life in Career, Executive or Business Coaching!
• And for even more ways to customise the Coaching Wheel: See our extremely popular article: 12 Awesome New Ways to Use The Wheel of Life Exercise in Your Coaching Practice.

So, that's just a few ways you can customize the Wheel of Life Exercise for specific types of clients to get the most from this incredibly powerful tool!

Why Clients love the Coaching Wheel

The wheel is a powerful and ancient symbol - deeply embedded in the human psyche. It suggests movement, the cycle of life, change, the opportunity to steer our life, balance, sustenance and more. And I believe this symbolism runs deep in our consciousness.

The wheel is also a client favourite because it gives people an instant helicopter view of their life. This knowledge allows people to see for themselves which areas of their life feel good - and which need working on. And this is empowering! It allows our clients to make different choices as to where they focus their time and energy for a more satisfying life.

Considerations for using the Life Balance Wheel

Life Balance is personal and unique to each individual; what may be satisfying or balanced for some may be stressful or boring for others. Crucially, the Wheel of Life Exercise raises a client's awareness. And it's this that allows the client to plan a more satisfying life that's closer to their own unique definition of balance.

It's also helpful to assess balance over time. A regular check-in (eg. with this exercise) can highlight useful patterns and help your clients learn even more about themselves. You can do this with them, or recommend they do it for themselves.

But remember that balance is rarely achieved for long - as life shifts and changes often. It's helpful to remind clients that the goal is not to "achieve" life balance. Instead, the idea is to ensure they are moving "towards" rather than away from it.

Balance and self-care are under-rated skills in our society. As coaches we are therefore perfectly positioned to help clients take better care of themselves. For more on this, you may like Balance & Self-Care: Are We Doing Enough For Our Clients?

What if the Client has done the Wheel before?

This is a question I am often asked (probably because I'm so enthusiastic about this tool!). Because it's such a familiar tool to us, we forget that most people have probably never even seen it! And if our client has seen the wheel before - that's great! It means they already know how to complete it, and you can spend more time delving into issues and brainstorming actions!

Another important thing to remember is; even if your clients have done the coaching wheel before, their answers will be different today than when they completed it 3 months ago. What the Life Balance Wheel does is provide an snapshot of people's life satisfaction. And this changes over time - sometimes from one week to the next!

So, your client has seen this exercise before? Great! Just make sure you're clear why you're using it with them now. This means ensuring they know WIIFM (What's In It For Me!).

How can I use the Wheel of Life Exercise with Online or Phone-Based Clients?

At The Coaching Tools Company we want to get people off devices and using pen and paper. So although we've looked at creating an online version of the wheel - we don't want to! This is because people already spend so much time on laptops/tablets and phones. An online version would keep people connected online when we want them connected to themselves!

So, what's the easiest way to work with paper-based tools if you're working with clients over the phone?

1. Email the tool for your client to print out.
2. Once they've completed the form, whether during the session or as homework, ask your clients to take a picture with their smartphone.
3. Lastly, they can message, text or email the picture of their completed form back to you. Simple!

This is an easy solution because people are now used to using their phones for everything. This has worked like a charm for me, and gives the best of both worlds!

Lastly, another idea is to send in the life balance wheel via (snail) mail in your Welcome Packet. This is what I did when starting out with my new clients - see 7 Suggestions For a Client Enrollment Process that Rocks for more ideas.

Wrap-up

The Wheel of Life Assessment is an extremely powerful and flexible tool. However you use your wheel, it gives your clients an insight into themselves. And this understanding gives people clarity - and motivation - to make changes and improve their lives.

And what turns the life wheel into a power tool is when a client is coached to explore their results more deeply. This means asking those questions that raise a client's awareness about how they feel - and what matters most to them. And importantly, where they sabotage themselves. Then when coaching expands to include brainstorming and committing to actions - a client feels powerful, motivated and like they are in control of their lives!

Using the coaching wheel can be just the beginning of a long and meaningful relationship between coach and client! And it's a great tool to kick-off the relationship as you mean to continue - powerfully!

PS. Did you know we also have the Wheel of Life Exercise available FREE in Spanish? No hay necesidad de reinventar la rueda - get *La Rueda de la Vida* Con Instrucciones

For other Wheel of Life uses, see the Buddhist Wheel of life (disambiguation)

Did we miss something? Is there a question you'd like answered about the Wheel of Life Exercise? Comment below!

If you liked this article all about the Life Balance Wheel, you may also like:

For a comprehensive overview of coaching tools you may also like our Complete Guide to Coaching Tools.

• How to Run a Workshop Using the Wheel of Life (in Under an Hour)!
• Coaching Tools 101: The 9 Coaching Exercises and Templates I Would Not Be Without
• Our Life Coaching Welcome Packet which includes the Life Balance Wheel Template