If you receive the LP Team newsletter you will have already read all about an easy way to balance your life. If you haven’t signed up to the newsletter yet (you can on www.lightningprocess.co.uk) or haven’t set your resolutions yet, then this is the blog for you! If you are ready to set your resolutions and stick to them this using a simple Wheel of Life is a great place to start.
I’ve seen a few clients lately who have felt overwhelmed by what to change in their lives first. They have benefitted from a simple tool to help them to identify priorities and short cuts (ie change one thing and it naturally impacts on other elements). So I’ve referred them to the Wheel of Life. Many /most of you will have come across this before, but its simplicity and how long it has been a coaching tool for does not negate its effectiveness. Many people find it useful to review their own wheel every three-six months to check they are on track. I do. I find it helpful to identify blindspots, things I don’t see, or issues I was ignoring – so easy to do unless we give ourselves time to evaluate our lives.
So here it is – take some time out to focus on it, or save it until the new year. Lightning Process graduates can us the LP to support yourself to make the changes you really want. Check beliefs, congruency and make your coach even more amazing for 2016.
Balancing your Life
How balanced is your life? A balanced life enables you to be free to jump at opportunities as they arise. Unfortunately many people don’t know exactly where their life is out of balance. A great starting point is to create your own personal wheel of life. Draw a large circle and divide it into eight equal segments. Allocate the eight most important aspects of your life, one per segment. These can be anything from relationships to career, family and friends to health or fun. Label the centre of the circle ‘0’ and the outer edge of the circle ‘10’. Next, thinking about how satisfied you are with the first area, give it a score out of 10 (0 being not satisfied and 10 being completely satisfied) and make a mark on the circle to reflect the score. Do this for each area.
The rounder the wheel, the more balanced your life is. Imagine how your car would travel if all the wheels weren’t round!
What are your priorities? Usually people find the results immediately illuminating. If the scores are all between seven and ten, fantastic, what would you like to work on to make them even better? If, like most people, you have some high and some low scores; the low scoring areas are the ones to focus on. Frequently, changing one aspect of your life can impact positively on other areas – so think creatively!
Mark, 45, a caring but busy dad, scored low on time with the family and low on fun & recreation. We worked out that by combining fun & recreation with family time Mark could progress in his two priority areas as well continue to improve his health and fitness, something that was important to him. To do this Mark re-allocated the two hours every Saturday morning he normally spent at the gym to playing games with his family on Clapham Common. It really can be this easy – the key is working out your priorities and seeing how they fit together.
How realistic are your plans? Goals need to be clearly defined, reasonable, feasible, motivating and important to you. When they meet these criteria, you are more likely to achieve them. Every time you set a goal ask yourself ‘what will I achieve and by when?’, ‘is that realistic?’ and ‘how will this enhance my life?’ Visualise this or use the Lightning Process if you know it. People who achieve their goals tend to imagine themselves achieving them many times. The more clearly you can see yourself succeeding, the more likely it is to happen.
Is this something you can change? Remember if you make your goals too big they will be difficult to achieve, and you may get disheartened, so it is good to create smaller ‘journey’ goals to achieve along the way. People can make amazing changes to things in their own control, but very few people can single-handedly change the world.
Many people make the mistake of focusing on what they can’t change, and this can lead to them becoming overwhelmed, depressed or simply giving up.
Finally and most importantly… Be nice to yourself It’s amazing how many apparently successful people set such unrealistic expectations of themselves. There is a fine balance between challenging yourself and being a perfectionist. Make sure that you can tell the difference, don’t be your worst critic – be your best friend instead. Start and continue the New Year by recognising what is great about. This will put you in a positive state of mind, ready to achieve all those great things in 2016.
Happy New Year,
Kate, Helen and Jacqui x
