Balancing The Wheel Of Life by David Ledoux

Have you ever done the "Wheel of Life Exercise"? It's a favorite staple of the coaching industry. You take a blank piece of paper, and draw a large round clock on a page. You know, big circle, center point, arms from the center point to the outer circle like the numbers on a clock.

It almost looks like a big apple and rhubarb pie sliced into 12 pieces.

How did you do? I got a 'B' in art class. I hope you followed my wonky directions!

Each slice of the pie represents a key area of your life. I have my coaching clients label each piece with titles meaningful to them. Popular examples are "health, wealth, recreation, family, relationships, spirituality, charity, education, career, etc." Try this for yourself.

Now imaging that the center of the pie represents ZERO, and the outer edge of the circle represents that area of your life as a perfect TEN. You then rate each area of your life based upon your current satisfaction level with that area. For example, maybe your relationships are a 6, your health is a 7, your income is a 4, your career is a 5, your spirituality is a 8, etc. Make a little mark on each slice to represent the score for each area.

Then join each mark together to get a weird blobby shaped Wheel of Life.

I may never have met you, but I'm pretty sure that you didn't score yourself a perfect TEN in each key life area. If you did, then send $10,000 to your favorite 5 charities....good for you. In 15 years of doing this I have yet to meet a perfect TEN in each area!

Obviously a Wheel Of Life that is out of balance will crash at any speed above a slow crawl. That's why often our lives seem so crazy the minute we start moving in any direction quickly. It's like the proverbial shopping cart at the grocery store...one bad wheel causes accidents!

Many of us are acutely aware that our lives are out of balance. The big question is, "What do I do about it?"

That's where Strategic Thinking plays an important role. It is critical that you take time each and everyday to do nothing but just think. Here's what I do.

I get up at 7 am every morning Monday to Friday. I put on jeans, a sweatshirt and an old baseball cap to cover my bed head. I pop on the headphones with some relaxing instrumental music on my CD and start walking. I walk 30 minutes away from my house, then turn around and walk back. That's my hour walk each morning.

On the walk I focus on my breathing for 5 minutes, just quietly waking into the day. I then do 3 minutes of listing everything that I am grateful for. Then I visualize my day, week, month and year for about 7 minutes. By then I have been walking 15 minutes, I am wide awake, energized, and then I focus the next 45 minutes on Strategic Thinking.

This has worked wonders for me! I have created business plans, new products, goals, trips, and had amazing creative ideas on these walks. One of the patterns that I have begun to do is to break Key Life Areas into Areas of Improvement. I'll give you an example, Health.

For years I had no definitive strategy when it came to my Health. I ate relatively well, exercise occasionally, kept my waistline under 32, and was managing fairly well with stress. With no focused goal for my health, it pretty much coasted along. Once I started Strategic Thinking, everything changed.

I first broke Health into sub-categories so I could focus my improvement. I now work on Flexibility, Strength, Cardio, Diet, and Stress Management. I found books related to each sub-category, and began to self-educate. I sought out the best experts in each field to learn their strategies. Within weeks I was making significant progress in each area. With an actual goal to shoot for my energy levels, flexibility and strength and body fat levels have all improved.

So here's my challenge to you. Take a minimum of 30 minutes each day at least 5 days a week just for yourself for the next 21 days. Give yourself the gift of personal quiet time so you can practice Strategic Thinking on all of the important areas of your life. Separate yourself from the masses that live from crisis to crisis in reaction mode from dawn 'til dusk. Watch the amazing changes unfold in your life!

I believe in you!

David Ledoux