This Paul J Meyer tool is wheel good for a snapshot of your life

How the finished wheel might look.
by Mervin Straughan
September 2021

If you want to bring about major change in your life, there are two fundamental questions that need to be asked: 

    1) Where am I now?

    2) Where do I truly want to be?

Each of these questions is a meaty one. For this post, I'm going to focus on the where am I now? and what's prompting the need for change.

Some people seek out a life coach to help them to recognise and realise their potential; others will do so because they feel that they've lost control of their life. They feel that their life is out of kilter.

Often there's an obstacle – or obstacles. It's also common for hidden issues to emerge as the life coach takes the client through a process using a combination of skilled questioning and a set of tools and techniques. Sometimes pressures are being brought to bear from particular areas of life.

One of the quickest and most effective ways of gauging how well we're managing the various aspects of our life is to use the Wheel of Life, developed by Paul J Meyer, the founder of the Success Motivation Institute. It takes only a few minutes to complete but gives an at-a-glance appreciation of how well you're doing. 

Here's how it works. 

  • Draw a large circle on a piece of paper.
  • Divide it up into eight, roughly, equal segments. You can do this by dividing it with four lines.
  • Mark zero at the centre and 10 on the outer line of each segment. 
  • Label the eight segments as follows:

    - Career
    - Family and loved ones
    - Finances
    - Friends and social
    - Health
    - Hobbies and pastimes
    - Home and surrounding areas – and this includes your neighbourhood
    - Personal growth – in this segment, it's important to include time alone; that's for recharging your batteries. 

  • With our markings of zero to ten, put a line across each segment to represent how satisfied you are in this particular element of your life and work. For instance, if you're feeling so-so about how everything is in the hobbies and pastimes category, that scores a five, the half-way point of the segment. 
  • When you've completed all the segments, use a thick marker pen to join all your satisfaction lines so that the overall shape really stands out. 
  • What does the final shape tell you? Which areas have scored well and which are buckling? Often, a single segment will be drawing upon your energy, having a detrimental impact on other segments of your life.
This tells you where the action plan needs to focus.

I'll conclude by posing two questions regarding your observations:

1. What's the PRIZE for taking action?

2. What's the PRICE for failing to take action?