Are You in Balance?

These days, when you ask someone “How are you?”, people typically respond with “Busy.” I bet as you read this, you’re thinking, “I’m so busy, maybe I can just scroll to the end and get the gist of this article.” Being busy has become somewhat of a badge of honor in today’s society – we are all busier than each other.

Have you ever asked yourself what cost this constant state of ‘busy’ is having on your happiness, health, and overall satisfaction with life? Overall, as a country, according to the latest data, Australians score pretty well when it comes to their general satisfaction with life on a scale from 0 to 10. 

In fact, Aussies sit at 7.3 – higher than the global average of 6.5. Now, before you go and pat yourself on the back, how would you rate your general satisfaction with life? How do you even begin to answer such a tough question?

I can almost guarantee that when you tried to answer the last question, you thought about work. Did you know that in Australia, 13% of employees are working very long weekly hours (50+)? How many times have you checked your work email once you’ve gotten home, or taken a call from a client on a weekend?

While you are busy being busy, you may be focusing a lot of time and energy on one particular area of your life and neglecting others. Are you working long hours with little time left to spend on your health, with your family, or doing a hobby you really enjoy? When life becomes unbalanced, our happiness and well-being, both mental and physical, tend to suffer.

Andre’s Tips

It’s time to take a ‘helicopter’ view of your life so that you can bring things back into balance.

If you ask some people, they will tell you that life balance is a myth – that it no longer exists in the world we live in today. As a leading mindset coach, I would argue otherwise. I work with people from all walks of life to help optimize their lives – that’s what I do.

For the last three years, I have been using the Wheel of Life with my clients to help them assess their life to find out what’s ‘off balance,’ and help them to regain balance. I optimize their lives. I want to tell you about one of my clients – let’s call him Brad.

I sat down with Brad and guided him through the Wheel of Life. Brad indicated that he was getting a low level of satisfaction when it came to money and finance, with romance gaining a high rating. 

When clients are in a relationship, I also get their partners to complete the Wheel of Life, given that it takes ‘two to tango.’ Brad’s wife – let’s call her Sarah – rated high levels of satisfaction when it came to money and finance, with romance gaining a low rating of satisfaction.

Guess what? My client booked a weekend away with his wife that weekend.

So what is the Wheel of Life?

The Wheel of Life is a visual snapshot of how you’re faring overall in life and in individual areas. It’s essentially a circle divided into segments – typically eight – that represent different life areas. The fact that it is visual is important; I find it tends to hit home a lot more for my clients compared to just reading numbers on a sheet.

Figure 1: Wheel of Life

So now that you’re all excited and ready to regain some balance in your life, why not give it a go? While I find that people gain a lot more insight and are able to better reflect on their lives when they work with a mindset coach, I have outlined the following basic steps for you to try:

1. Make sure you put a date at the top of the page.
2. Use a 1-10 scale to rate your level of satisfaction in each of the eight categories on the wheel. As you do so, color in each category of the chosen number. Often, using a variety of colors is helpful.
3. Once the wheel has been completed, ask yourself, “Looking at the wheel, is there anything that stands out?” Then consider, “As my wheel is now, which area(s) would be the most important to start working on?”
4. When you have chosen an area to work on, ask yourself, “If this area is currently a 4, what number would I like it to be?” Then ask yourself, “Okay, what would need to happen to bring that score up to a 7?”
5. You now need to start developing some goals, making sure that the actions nominated are within your control or influence, and that they are SMART goals.

 Figure 2: Example of a completed Wheel of Life

For more information on the next step – the goal-setting process – why not book a session with me so we can discuss?

Life satisfaction data source: http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/

About the Author

Andre Obradovic is an ICF Leadership PPC Level Coach, A Primal Health Coach, a Certified Low Carb Healthy Fat Coach, & a Certified Personal Trainer. Andre is also a Founding member of the Dr. Phil Maffetone MAF certified Coach.

He is an Ambassador for the Noakes Foundation, and a regular subject matter expert lecturer for the Nutrition Network (a part of the Noakes Foundation) Andre has completed 16 x 70.3 Ironmans and in 2017 he competed in the 70.3 Ironman World Championships. He has completed 18 Marathons and over 30 Half Marathons. Andre currently focuses his athletic competition on Track and Field with the occasional Marathon.