clarissa.cabbageWelcome back for day 13 of my Happy.Healthy.Whole Project (HHWP). Lucky number 13! I have now passed the halfway point of one of my October goals – to blog for 25 days straight!
Another one of my October goals for my HHWP is to complete the “Wheel Of Life Assessment”. This is a short-term goal for one of my longer-term goals which is to “Achieve Life Balance”.
Life balance is sometimes also known as “work-life balance”.
According to Stephen Covey, who was an American businessman and author of the best selling book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People:
“The challenge of work-life balance is without question one of the most significant struggles faced by modern man.”
– Stephen Covey
In today’s post, I will be exploring this struggle of work-life balance by looking at the consequences of not having work-life balance on both happiness and health. Then, I will introduce the Wheel of Life Assessment and how to do it, and finally, I will share my results of the Wheel of Life Assessment with you!
So let’s get to it!
What is Work-Life Balance?
According to Business News Daily, “Work-life balance is the state of equilibrium where a person equally prioritizes the demands of one’s career and the demands of one’s personal life.”
To lead a full and happy life, we need balance between our career, and all other aspects of our life. Without balance our quality of life will suffer.
How Does Work-Life Balance Affect Happiness & Health?
Entrepreneur.com made a fantastic infographic about work-life balance that I would highly recommend checking out!
According to this infographic, 66% of Americans strongly believe that they do NOT have work-life balance.
As a consequence of poor work-life balance, people report the following problems in their home-life:
- 33% of Americans say they regularly work weekends and holidays.
- 38% of Americans report a lack of focus or engagement when they are at home due to distractions or worries about work.
- 40% said that work calls, emails or texts regularly ruined time spent with friends and family.
- 51% of Americans reported that they missed important life events because of work.
That’s not great. According to these statistics, 2 out of every 3 Americans are taking work home with them, and it is disrupting their home and family life in a big way.
Since this is part of my Happy.Healthy.Whole Project, let’s also look at how the lack of work-life balance affects happiness and health.
According to the research, people that work more than 55 hours a week are:
- 66% more likely to have a heart attack or stroke.
- 66% more likely to suffer from depression.
- 74% more likely to suffer from anxiety.
So it seems pretty clear that the lack of work-life balance has serious, long-term, negative consequences on both happiness and health.
Introducing The Wheel of Life
In one of my favorite quotes, John Wooden, the legendary UCLA basketball coach said:
Don’t let making a living prevent you from making a life.
– John Wooden
To put this simply, there should be more to life than work.But what else is there you might ask? That’s where the wheel of life comes in.
There are a number of different wheels out there with slight variations, but the one I’ve included here is pretty standard.
The image below shows the 8 sections of the Wheel of Life.
How To Measure Your Level of Work-Life Balance Using The Wheel Of Life Assessment
I will be completing this assessment myself, but I will also give you guys directions so that you can do it too if you’d like!
In order to achieve work-life balance, you must be able to understand what portions of your life you are satisfied with, and which you are not.
For this assessment, consider the 8 areas of life and how satisfied you are with each. After consideration, you will be asked to give each wedge on the wheel of life a score from 0 to 10, where 0 means you are completely unsatisfied, and 10 means that you are completely satisfied, and couldn’t possibly be any more satisfied.
For each wedge on the wheel of life, take the following questions into consideration before giving each wedge or area of life a score.
Note: you don’t have to answer each of the questions below (unless you want to). They are more to help give you an understanding of what each of the 8 wedges of the wheel of life is about.
Career
- Do you find fulfillment and satisfaction in your job?
- Do you work reasonable hours?
- Is there room for advancement?
- Do you feel that you are making a difference through your work?
- Do you feel appreciated at work?
Security
- Do you have financial security, or are you living paycheck to paycheck?
- Are you able to afford a home which provides a safe physical environment for yourself and/or your family?
- Do you have the food and basic supplies you need to live?
Morality & Values
- Do you feel that you are living up to your own core values and standards?
- Do you feel that overall you are a “good person”?
- Are you living your life with integrity?
- Are you doing right and helping others to the best of your ability?
[Related: How Making A List Of Your Core Values Can Make You Happier and
The Integrity Report: A Big First Step To Loving You For YOU]
Physical Health
- Are you free of disease, or do you suffer from health problems?
- To what degree does your health affect your quality of life?
- Are you reasonably physically fit?
- Do you eat a fairly healthy diet most of the time?
- Are you getting enough sleep?
Mindset
- Do you suffer from depression, anxiety, or other mental health issues?
- Do you like who you are as a person?
- Are you typically a positive and grateful person?
- How is your self-esteem?
Relationships
- Do you have good relationships with your family?
- Are you often lonely?
- Do you have friends that you can talk to and count on when you need them?
- Are you able to spend enough time with your loved ones?
- If you have a significant other, are you happy with the quality of your relationship?
Personal Growth
- Do you have the time to pursue your passions?
- Do you feel that your life has stagnated, or are you moving forward?
- Do you take the time to learn or read new things?
- Are you working towards anything like a personal project or goal?
Fun and Recreation
- Do you have time to do the things that you enjoy such as travel, adventure, or hobbies?
- Are you able to find time to relax and unwind?
- Do you laugh often?
Now that you have considered each of the 8 areas of life, use the following table to give each area a score as to how satisfied you are in that area of life.
Use a 0 to 10 scale where, where 0 means you are completely unsatisfied, and 10 means that you couldn’t possibly be any more satisfied.
See my example of the wheel of life activity below. Note that I gave a brief explanation for each of my lower scores.
When you are done filling out your table like the one above, add up all your scores from each of the 8 areas of life.
0 is the lowest possible overall score, and 80 is the highest possible overall score (note: I made mine out of 70 because the career area of life is not applicable for me right now due to my current circumstances).
This should give you a general satisfaction rating for your life, and allow you to see which areas of your life which you are least satisfied in.
Low satisfaction scores indicate that there may be a lack of balance in these areas of your life.
For example, my wheel of life activity indicates that my physical health, fun and recreation, and family relationships might be a little out of balance, mostly due to restrictions from my injury and Covid-19 it seems.
Conclusion
This Wheel of Life activity is the first small goal on the path to achieving one of my longer-term goals of achieving life balance.
[If you’re interested, here are the other goals I’m pursuing in October for my HHWP]
As I continue to progress through my Happy.Healthy.Whole Project in the coming months, I plan on creating more short-term goals to help me reach this long-term goal of life balance and lasting happiness.
So stay tuned, more to come on the topic of work-life balance. In the meantime, I hope that you have found value in the wheel of life activity for assessing where your life balance is currently at.
I’d love to hear your experiences with life balance!
- Have you suffered from some of the consequences listed above from overworking?
- Do you think the wheel of life activity would be useful for you?
- What areas of your life seem out of balance right now?
Let me know in the comments!
Until tomorrow,
~Clarissa
The wealth of information I have been getting from this project of yours is amazing and full so many greats topics to learn from. Work life balance is not easy at all and it something we have to work on daily in order for that equilibrium to not shift. Thanks so much for sharing
Awwww thanks so much Rebekah! I think you may have made me blush just now. Haha. But I am so glad you are learning so much from my project. It is my hope that my own project may grow and expand to inspire others as well. Thanks for tuning in!
What a great idea to evaluate your life! 😀
Thank you Rachel! I think it’s an important thing for everyone to do no matter where they are at in life.
Wow this is actually pretty perfect for me – getting a good work-life balance is so important and it’s something that sometimes I struggle with. It’s something which I make sure to work on everyday. I’ve recently just quit my job and have a perfect new job (exciting times) which is way better suited to my needs for a happier life. It’s going to be a big change, but I can’t wait 😀
Wow, that is fantastic news, congrats on the new job! 🥳
I absolutely agree with you that work-life balance should be a priority and that it is something we have to consciously work towards each day of our working lives.
Thank you so much for stopping by and reading, and I wish you all the best in your new career!
This is so interesting and important. I think sometimes you forget about a healthy life balance, especially when you begin to get super busy in work. I am guilty of over working, so will definitely have to use this to try balance it out!
Thanks for sharing!
Aimsy xoxo
https://www.aimsysantics.co.uk
You and me both on the overworking Aimsy! That’s actually one of the big things that spurred me into starting my Happy.Healthy.Whole Project. I don’t want to get to the end of my life and realized that I’ll I’ve got to show for it is work!
Thanks so much for stopping by to give this a read. I hope that you will find the wheel of life assessment as helpful as I did!
This is excellent Clarissa. I agree that we too often prioritize work over other aspects of our lives. I remember someone once told me “If I dropped dead tomorrow, my employer can replace me, but my family can’t”. Those words have really stayed with me over the years.
I’m really enjoying your challenge this month. Thanks!
Awww thanks so much for following along with the challenge Michelle! It makes me so happy to hear that you are enjoying it!
I absolutely love what you said about your employer being able to replace you, but your family can’t. I would 100% agree with that.
So often it seems that we give the companies we work for so much of ourselves, but that they are not nearly as loyal to us as we are to them. That’s not to say all companies (some do a fantastic job of taking care of their employees), but unfortunately, I believe that this is the exception rather than the rule.
This was a thought provoking read – thank you. The stress that people are under is worrying where family/personal time is invaded by work issues. The wheel of life Assessment is interesting and a great way for people to re-evaluate their work/life balance. I could have done with something like this at my most stressful working time – looking back now, I realise how work was taking over my life. Thanks for the insight.
You are welcome Luce, thanks for giving it a read!
I haven’t been working for months now due to covid-19 and an injury at work that required surgery, but work was absolutely taking my life. I’m trying to make some changes now that will prevent that from happening in the future when I’ve been cleared to work again.
Work life balance is difficult and not doing it can have severe consequences on someone’s mental health. This post was super informative and I learned so much,
That’s fantastic to hear Seriah! If I have taught someone something today, then I consider today a success! Thanks so much for reading!
I’m definitely the kind of person that prioritises work, but I’m getting better at making a better work life balance!
Love, Amie ❤
The Curvaceous Vegan
I definitely prioritize work as well Amie, I’ve always been the type of a person that is a “worker”. And I really don’t think that that is a bad thing – in fact diligence is one of my core values – but with that being said, I need to prioritize work-life balance by giving my work an ending time each day so that I can enjoy the rest of what life has to offer!
It can be tough, but I do think it’s possible to have both a flourishing career, and work-life balance.
The questions for each area you included have really got me thinking and looking to assess where I’m at in general. Really useful — thanks for sharing!
You are welcome Molly, thank YOU for reading! I am glad you found the questions thought-provoking. 🙂
Very thought-provoking post. I definitely need to find balance. Thanks so much.
You’re welcome Sue, thank you for reading, and best of luck in your search for balance! I plan on doing a lot more posts about life balance during the course of my Happy.Healthy.Whole Project, so stay tuned!
Hi, Clarissa! My fun/recreation score is kinda low. Yikes! My day job is definetly impacting my time and overall mood. I’m working on creating some alternatives to my traditional work to help alleviate my stress. Thanks for another great article!
You are welcome Ebony! I’m sorry that your day job is stressing you out. I hope that this wheel of life assessment will help you to see where those balances are so you can even them out a bit. It sounds like you’re on the right track! Thanks so much for following along with my project!
This is a helpful post. Thank you for sharing your tips and information.
Thank you, I’m glad you liked it Lauren.