This week's task will be familiar to those of you who joined me in Life Circle at the end of last year. I make no apologies for this. I said we would return to it because it really does help to draw lines in the sand occasionally, so we have a starting point if you're new but also to review our progress if you've done it before. If you really feel it's not appropriate for you to repeat the task, then sit it out this week and come back next week for the next one, but I would really recommend you do as it will give you an idea of what to tackle next.
We're going to revisit the Wheel of Life.
It's a simple and effective task. Actually, it looks simple but it is very thought provoking. It allows you to assess your life as a whole and to compare how you feel about the competing aspects of your life and it makes you realise how interdependent all the different areas of your life usually are. Very few of us lead compartmentalised lives where the different areas of them are completely independent of each other. For instance, money problems or worries often impact on the fun in our lives, limiting other opportunities to keep up with friends and family, and sometimes impacting on the relationship with our partners.
So here is what you do. The Wheel of Life is divided into 8 sections, representing the 8 major aspects of your life. Score your life out of 10 for all 8 areas. The score should reflect how satisfied you are with that aspect of your life. Once you have scored all 8 areas, do a quick double check comparing them and adjust any scores you feel you have scored incorrectly in light of the other scores. Mark your score on the lines between the segments - 0 is in the middle and works outwards from here - and join all the scores together (Either take the image above and print it, edit it on a PC, or grab another image of a wheel of life and use that, some are simpler than others) Look at the shape you have created by joining together all your scores - if it were a real wheel, how smoothly would it turn? How does that reflect on the way your life runs?
Consider each score and ask yourself why you gave it. What factors influenced that decision? What other aspects of your life have affected that score, whether their impact is good or bad? Would you have given yourself the same score 6 months ago and how would they have been different? If you did do this back in October, how has this score changed and why?
Then, write your post about the results. As I have said before many times, share as much as you feel comfortable sharing. It's up to you whether you give a full breakdown of scores and how you arrived at them all, or you can give an overview of the scores and which areas it has highlighted needs most of your attention. It's really up to you. At the very least, I'd like you to identify one or two areas of your life that you are most dissatisfied with, and why that might be.
Remember, this exercise is about being objective rather than self-critical. What won't matter is how you got to be there - what will matter is what needs some work and what you do to improve those scores. Don't be afraid to celebrate the good in your life. Feeling positive about yourself will help you to make progress.
Don't forget to come back next Thursday when I will publish the linky. If you can, it would be lovely if you could try to visit 2 or 3 other blogs and comment, offering support and helpful comments. It won't be necessary to comment on all of them, it's just to get the sense of community, or creating our Life Circle. If you can visit more, then all well and good. If you can't due to time pressures, don't worry.
I look forward to reading your posts next week.