Using the wheel of life for change

Get a balance between all parts of your life by remembering the wheel of life and applying what you learn from yours to improve the balance in your life.

The wheel of life is a pie-chart: a circle divided into eight segments each of which represents a different component of your life. In order to have a balanced and fulfilled life it is widely suggested that you address each of these segments and define how fulfilled each of them is for you. You give each  a score out of ten and then especially for the low scoring segments ask yourself how you could bring the score up.

How are the segments defined? This can vary from person to person. However commonly the segments would be labeled: friends and family, career, money, self care, community, spirituality, relationship, fun and recreation.

Decide how you score for each of these where a score of ten means fulfilled and is marked on the circumference of the pie to zero when you are not fulfilled at all in that area of your life in the centre of the pie chart.

When you see your scores ask yourself what has to happen for your score for those less than ten to increase by one point. While you have some parts of your life in which you feel unfulfilled there results a wheel which will give you a bumpy ride through life. Ideally you would have a balanced and fulfilled life when you feel fulfilled in each of these areas of life.

Consider on of the areas of your life which feels unfulfilled and for which you have a low score. Now decide 8 segments in relation to that part of your life. This means you can draw another pie chart just based on that area and in doing this you will be able to find out easily how to increase the score for that part of your life..

For example if you thought your family segment was very low you might think of the following example as part of the friends and family part of your life: communication, visiting,  shared history, common interests,  disagreements, reciprocity, financial issues, dependency.   Thinking of each of these in relation to your friends and family and marking their score in relation to how fulfilled you feel in that part of your friends and family may indicate  how to improve your connection with friends and family.

Coaching helps to get your wheel of life run more smoothly. Contact me about coaching.

Holidays and Stress

Are you overwhelmed with the amount of work you have to do in your day to day life as a doctor? Delegating is OK in theory but sometimes you find yourself doing jobs which are not really in your remit. It’s too easy to start to feel sorry for other members of the team who just like you are also overworked.  However you won’t be helping anyone in the long term if you help out by doing someone else’s job instead of addressing what needs to be done to change the system.

What do you do when, for example, the practice nurse refuses to take the bloods and you end up taking them all? Ask yourself: Whose job is it? Are you covering up for the inadequacies of the system by doing someone else’s job? How do other practices manage? Are you ordering too many tests?

Another practice might solve the problem by employing another person specifically to take blood. Another asks patients to come back the next day or at another time for another appointment specifically for blood to be taken  with no problem  because that’s their system and the patients know how it works.

You can introduce and put another system in place. It takes about three weeks for it to become automatic. Think of the time you spend doing things that don’t need your qualifications – and decide to put new boundaries in place.

What difference would doing this make to your life? What will you do in the time you free up as a result?