It’s getting to the end of 2022! l How do you feel? Physically, I’m still dragging from dark days and a slow, but improving outlook post-Covid. Last weekend I pulled out a wheel of life. A Wheel of Life is one of the most basic tools you’ll see used in coaching. It takes a circle or pie and divides it into 6, 8, 10 sections or slices that correspond to various dimensions of your life. It’s a highly subjective tool and one that there is no right answer for and it may change week over week, or sometimes hour over hour even! It’s great for capturing how you feel over time. This last week, satisfaction and motivation for myself was low—and it was nice to see that externalized. I can stop arguing with myself about how I feel.

Paul J. Meyer, one originator of what is now known as life coaching and the founder of the Success Motivation Institute, developed the Wheel of Life’s modern-day version in 1960. I’ve seen wheels used for various aspects of jobs, work/life balance, etc. You can find many online or make up your own categories.

The benefits of filling out a Wheel of Life include getting an overall sense of how satisfied with other areas of your life. You can visualize where things feel out of balance. Identifying where to shift doing something. It’s fast. You can’t do it wrong. It’s visual. It’s not complicated but can convey a lot of information.

What to do after you’ve filled it out? Seeing one or two areas you’d like to improve helps create and identify more specific areas of focus. If you can figure out where you’re stressed, picking a smaller set of actions is more doable instead of trying to do all the things. We like to do all the things at once. If you’re testing the effectiveness of one or two actions, it’s easier to evaluate if they’re creating the impact that you want or not. If they’re not, it’s easier to tweak or drop. It can be easier to create criteria for success and evaluate the impact.

Download the Wheel of Life and fill it out and look at it. What do you think? Are you happy/satisfied overall? Would you want to shift your balance? How might you do that in the next week? Questions or thoughts? let me know? What I can see for meis that for now community and Joy are two areas I can have some impact over.

If there’s interest (send me an email) I’ll set up a date and time to talk about them via Zoom.

Download: Creative Catapult Coach Wheel Of Life.pdf​

Resources:

Covid has been annoyingly slow to get over. I went to a conference right before Thanksgiving and I knew the odds were high I’d get sick with something. I’ve had the covid boosters, a flu shot, but there’s a saying about conferences and the circulating ConCrud that happens when you put hundreds of people together from around the world. More than just great ideas get shared!

I met some lovely people, heard many great sessions and came back inspired and ready to hit the ground running. My immune system waylaid that plan almost right off the bat. My energy and motivation have been on a downward trajectory for about 3 weeks now. I think I’m coming down the other side, but having to watch my energy closely again here are a couple things that I’ve found some enjoyment and inspiration while my energy dwindles:

Pink martini Christmas from 2015/npr Pink Martini’s Joy To The World: A Holiday Spectacular : NPR​

I’ve loved Pink Martini since I was in college and never seen them live. In early December, I was gifted fabulous tickets from my local buy nothing group- (front row, center stage—although I didn’t know that at the time!). I’d been dragging and wondered if the energy to go downtown to a show was worth it. It was. This entire series of serendipitous events reminded me of the magic when we let our guard down and sometimes give up control, something I’ve been fighting to regain since I got sick.

Christmas Joy: Easy Daily Joy in the Simple Things. How to Be Happy.

​https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B0BNPR4M2S​

Kindle Vella is a series of brief episodes or stories meant to read on your phone. Not one of the Kindle blockbusters, yet, but this is an Advent Style release that one of my colleagues, Kathy Miles Wheeler has released as a test of the platform. Each “episode” covers 3 days/ideas to try and is about 600 words. Seek and experience joy. It can make a difference, especially when overloaded!