Do you ever feel that your wheels aren’t turning smoothly? That your life is a little unbalanced? We can sometimes find that our day-to-day existence is biased heavily in one direction, while other areas, also important to us, suffer or even get overlooked or ignored.An obvious example of this may be work. Someone focusing intently on their career or financial goals may unintentionally let other aspects of their lives fall by the wayside perhaps their health, their relationships, family or other interests. We often hear of this dilemma and the desperate search for that elusive work/life balance. But the same potential imbalance is possible for any goal we are single-mindedly driven to achieve.Of course there are times when we need to prioritise, when important things demand our almost full attention for a while. But we are all multifaceted individuals. We each have several different aspects of ourselves that we consider important for a fulfilling life and these need to be recognised and nurtured. Each may even need to take priority along the way for us to experience that fulfillment, that balance we feel when we are well rounded and our wheels are rolling smoothly.The Wheel of Life is a tool I use with virtually all my personal coaching clients. It creates a visual depiction of where we are now as compared to where we want to be in each of these important areas to us. It also helps us to prioritise as needed and is a reminder so as not to let any of these aspects slip through the cracks or be forgotten.The wheel itself is just a circle, split like a pizza into eight (plus or minus one) pieces. Each calibrated with markers from zero in the centre to ten at the circumference. And here is what we do with it, and how to make it work for us:Step 1: Take time to think about what areas are important for you, to make up a really fulfilling, balanced life. What are the core components you need to be satisfied with your life on all levels? These might include things like, work/career, health and wellbeing, having a creative outlet. It could include family relationships (you might include intimate relationships in that or have it as a separate one), friends and socialising, spirituality, social contribution, your home, travel, personal development etc. Ask: What is important to me? What do I value in life? What am I perhaps not getting enough of now?Find your own words for them and come up with about eight top things you value. Write one in each slice of your wheel. It’s important to remember these are what matter to you not what you think you should have in your wheel.Step 2: Choose a slice to work on. Think now what it would be like if that area of your life was 10/10 exactly as you’d want it to be. Set aside any current situation or circumstances for the moment. Just imagine with a wave of a magic wand it can become just as you want it to be. What does that look like for you? Complete these sentences:l In this area when everything is 10/10, exactly as I want it, I will be doing…l Which will give me…l I will be seeing…l Which will give me…l I will be hearing…l Which will give me…l I will be feeling…l Which will give me...l People will be telling me…l I will be telling myself…l I will spend… (time) doing this per day/week/month/yearl I will be doing it with…l In this place…The more specific a picture we can paint with our description here, the more our subconscious mind has to work with in helping us make this our reality. By highlighting what each element will give us, establishes our motivation and also helps us recognise other possible ways of fulfilling that need.Step 3: Repeat step two for each piece of your pie until you have a fairly comprehensive description of our ideal life as you’d like it to be.Step 4: Now imagine that 10/10 is right there at the outer edge of the wheel.Where are you now?If the centre of the circle is zero, for each slice mark where you are in that area of your life on the scale from zero to ten by drawing a line across the piece. It’s important to be realistic here. I was doing this exercise with a client recently and at this stage, working on their intimate relationship, they said, “But I don’t even have a boyfriend yet, I guess I’m at zero”. I reminded her that she’d spoken of some pretty successful relationships in the past. She had identified what works and what doesn’t. She’d just come up with a great description of what she’s looking for and who she wants to be in a relationship and what that means to her… Surely that’s not nothing? She proceeded to put herself at a three in that slice.Where are you?Step 5: Repeat this process for each section of your wheel so that, while around the outside you have your ideal 10/10, your inner wheel is a snapshot of where you are now in each area. Join up all those lines to make a circle, possibly a higgledy-piggledy circle. Depending on what you’ve found for yourself, if that wheel was the wheel on your car, would that make for a smooth journey? This is a diagram of why our lives can feel a little out of whack, a little off balance.So now we know where we want to be, and where we are, the question to ask is: What’s it going to take to get from a three to a ten? What has to happen? How will I know when I’ve reached a four, up just one notch? What can I do to get there?Using our goal-setting tools to bridge that gap, we can work on each important area of our lives, creating and taking small and consistent actions towards our ideals and our fulfillment.We can choose to concentrate on one slice at a time or be working a little towards all of them. This is where we discover our priorities and can at least make sure we are always acknowledging these other various aspects of ourselves that make up the unique and special individuals that we are.Step 6: Revisit the wheel. This is a working document to check-in, change and update as goals are achieved and priorities alter. Record changes and achievements along the way to goal success and celebrate each.Why not try taking these steps to see how smooth your wheel is running, and where you can address the balance in the strive towards your greater success?Julia Pitt is a trained success coach and certified NLP practitioner. For further information telephone 705-7488 or visit www.juliapittcoaching.com.