After finishing university and winding up out in the “big wide world” and undergoing a period of massive change, metamorphosising from a student into… well, a non-student, I realized life had come to another standstill. Things were not really advancing as fast as I hoped. I’m pretty good at noticing when things aren’t going the way I want them to.

I’ll admit that life is never perfect and there’s always something that could be better. But some of life’s deficiencies we decide to accept and live with, while others we really don’t want to do without. So, on the recommendation of somebody who has taught me a lot over the past few years, I decided to hire a life coach. Not knowing what to expect, I approached the spending of money on a phone call with caution. But having gone through a few weeks of the program by now, I thought I’d share with you some pretty cool things I’ve been learning.

Taking from the teachings of Buddhism, my coach told me that a fulfilling life comes as a balance between several key areas of life which come together to form the Wheel of Life.

In short, if you are really unhappy with your life, the source of unhappiness most likely comes from bad results one of these areas, and if your aim is to be happier, the wheel helps you to identify and isolate any problems you have so you can begin goal setting and working to change whatever you want to improve upon.

The Segments & Why They’re Important

Health – Our physical and mental state of wellbeing. Do you feel well? Do you think properly? The importance of this cannot be overstated and I don’t think it needs further explanation.

Wealth – Love of money might be the route of all evil, but according to research, lack of money and financial difficulty is one of the most common reasons for suicide.

Family & Friends - I don’t have to tell you how important family and friends are. After health, I’d say they’re the most important thing in the world.

Playtime, hobbies and fun – Too much work and no play make Jack (or Jake) a dull boy. Play, have fun, you need to!

Relationships – If we’ve been hurt we try to deny it, but we’re all happier if we’re in a great relationship.

Career/Job – As much as many of us think that we’d be happy if we never had to work again (I might just stress that I’m not one of these people), we really wouldn’t. In fact, depression is far more abundant in the unemployed than the employed. Our jobs and careers form an important and, according to the wheel of life, essential part of our well being. They give many people a sense of purpose that is often difficult to find in other parts of life.

Personal Space – Everybody needs some “me” time.

Contribution/Spirituality - This does not only apply to religious people. Getting what you want makes you feel good. Making other people feel good feels even better. And it’s important that we do. That’s why so many wildly successful people feel the need to give back.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve found this very useful in re-evaluating my priorities and really figuring out how I can make my life better.

It helps me to deal with the actual problem rather than trying to over-compensate for an inadequacy in one area by trying to excel in another. Excellence in one area will not solve a problem in another.

It also highlights the need in life for balance. All parts of the circle are important. The lack of any of them leads to deficiencies in willbeing.

The Exercise

1) Think about each of the mentioned areas of your own life and rate them on a scale of zero to ten, zero being totally dissatisfied, ten being happy as Larry. Think carefully about them.

2) Take the ones with the lowest marks and then let yourself dream. Imagine what the perfect ten would be in that area of life.

3) You’ve essentially figured out where you are and where you want to be. Next comes the journey plan. Figure out and write down achievable goals that will gradually lead you from where you are to where you want to be. That’s the hardest part and the part your coach will help you with if you can’t do it yourself.

A few notes:

1) Degree of success with each goal should be measurable. ie. there needs to be some quantifiable unit. For some things it will be easy. e.g. You either did or did not do something. But sometimes it’s more complicated. e.g. if you aimed to run 10 miles, you may have run 7 in which case you didn’t achieve you goal, but you know how close you were to it.

And that’s it! Enjoy! And change your life!