Introduction
The Wellness Wheel (also called the Wheel of Life) is a powerful diagnostic tool because it provides a comprehensive, data-driven snapshot of your current state across key life dimensions. For high achievers who are used to metrics and performance indicators, this creates an essential baseline from which to build.
I have been using this diagnostic tool for at least a decade and I still use it in my iNFINITE iMPACT Mentoring Program and for my online courses. Despite being such a simple tool, it’s stuck around for good reason – it taps fundamentally into the way we experience life.
Think about how we naturally tend to hyperfocus on one area of life that’s either going really well or really poorly. Maybe work is booming, but you haven’t seen your friends in months. Or you’re crushing it at the gym but your finances are a mess. The Wellness Wheel forces us to zoom out and see the whole picture.
What makes it especially powerful is how it exposes the ripple effects between different areas of our lives. Like when improving your health gives you more energy for work, or when strengthening relationships provides emotional support that helps you take bigger risks in your career. These connections aren’t always obvious until you see them mapped out.
I find it particularly valuable for successful professionals because it challenges the “success at all costs” mindset. It’s like having a dashboard for your life – you wouldn’t drive a car just staring at the speedometer, right? You need to watch the fuel gauge, engine temperature, and other indicators too. The Wellness Wheel shows you where you might be redlining in one area while running on empty in another.
The visual nature of the tool is key too. Our brains are wired to spot patterns and imbalances in visual information much faster than in raw data or text. When you see that one area is consistently scoring low while others are high, it’s hard to ignore. It makes the abstract concept of “life balance” tangible and measurable.
Want to know what I find most interesting about it? The Wellness Wheel often reveals that the areas we’re neglecting are actually the ones that could provide the leverage we need to achieve our goals in other areas. It’s like finding the missing piece that could make everything else work better.
How to Use It
Take stock
Are you completely satisfied with the state of your health, career, finances, relationships and spiritual development? No? So in which areas are you currently thriving and in which areas could you use some improvement? Are you on your way to financial freedom, but you hate your job?
Aim for Equilibrium
The Wheel of Wellness is a practical way to take a good, hard look at each area of your life, decide how satisfied you are with that area and uncover the areas that need more attention. Assume each area is the spoke of a wheel: When one of the spokes is shorter than the others, it throws the whole wheel off balance. Taking this quiz can help you to identify where you are excelling and where there is room for improvement – and to discover how you can get from where you are today and where you want to be.
Choose Your Life Dimensions
First, identify 8 core life dimensions to assess. Standard choices are:
- Career & Work
- Financial Security
- Health & Vitality
- Personal Growth
- Relationships & Family
- Community & Social Impact
- Physical Environment
- Life Vision & Purpose
For each dimension, rate your current satisfaction level from 0 (center of wheel) to 10 (outer edge). Be brutally honest – this is about gathering accurate data, not judging yourself.
The power of this exercise lies in:
- Pattern Recognition – The visual representation instantly reveals imbalances and opportunities. You’ll spot where overinvestment in one area may be limiting growth in others.
- Strategic Gap Analysis – By comparing your current state to your ideal state, you identify the highest-leverage areas for improvement with precision.
- Systems Thinking – The wheel format forces you to examine how different life domains interact as a dynamic system rather than in isolation.
Download your own Lifewheel to do this exercise. Click here to print it out and complete it: Wheel of Wellness
If you have booked a mentoring session in addition to your course, we will discuss the outcome of your Wellness Wheel in more detail together by looking at the following questions:
- If your Wheel of Wellness was the front wheel of a bicycle, what sort of ride can you expect?
- On which area has your focus been and which areas have you been neglecting? How is this affecting your life?
- How important are the areas you have been focusing to you and why?
- What are the most important changes you would like to make?
- What has stopped you/is stopping you from making these changes?
- Finally, how will not making this (these) change(s) impact your future?
Key Metrics
Not everyone is into metrics, and you don’t need them to do this exercise, but if you find them useful, here is the list I use below:
Life Dimension | Key Metrics |
---|---|
Career & Work | • Revenue/income growth rate YOY • Impact metrics (team performance, project completion) • Weekly deep work hours • Key skills acquired per quarter • Professional network growth rate |
Financial Security | • Net worth growth rate • Passive income as % of total income • Emergency fund coverage (months) • Investment portfolio diversification ratio • Debt-to-income ratio • Progress toward financial milestones |
Health & Vitality | • Sleep quality score • Weekly exercise hours • Resting heart rate and HRV trends • Annual health screening results • Daily energy levels (1-10) • Recovery days per month |
Personal Growth | • Books read per month • Learning hours per week • New experiences per quarter • Comfort zone challenges taken • Mindfulness practice consistency (%) • Progress on personal projects |
Relationships & Family | • Quality time with key relationships (hrs/week) • Meaningful conversations per week • Group/family events per month • Response time to important messages • Regular check-ins with mentors/mentees |
Community & Social Impact | • Volunteer hours per month • People directly helped/impacted • Community leadership roles • Charitable giving as % of income • Environmental impact metrics |
Physical Environment | • Workspace optimization score (1-10) • Home improvement projects completed • Clutter-free spaces (%) • Time spent in nature (hrs/week) • Daily environment satisfaction score |
Life Vision & Purpose | • Activities-values alignment (%) • Progress on bucket list items • Personal mission statement clarity (1-10) • Frequency of purpose-driven activities • Legacy project advancement |
Conclusion
The Wellness Wheel isn’t just another self-assessment tool – it’s a powerful catalyst for intentional living that has stood the test of time. For high achievers who are accustomed to optimising and measuring progress, it provides the perfect blend of analytical rigour and holistic thinking. By transforming the abstract concept of “life balance” into concrete, measurable dimensions, it creates a foundation for meaningful change.
But perhaps its greatest value lies in its ability to reveal the interconnected nature of our lives. Just as a wheel can’t roll smoothly if it’s out of balance, we can’t reach our full potential when we’re overinvesting in some areas while neglecting others. The insights gained from this exercise often challenge our assumptions about what “success” really means and where we should focus our energy.
If you are embarking on a journey to design your life purpose, remember that the Wellness Wheel is more than a snapshot – it’s a compass. Use it not just to take stock of where you are, but to illuminate the path forward. After all, true achievement isn’t about excelling in one dimension at the expense of others – it’s about creating a life that’s both successful and sustainable across all domains.
The question isn’t whether you’re moving forward – successful professionals are rarely standing still. The question is whether you’re moving forward in a way that enriches all aspects of your life. Let the Life Wheel guide you toward an answer that’s uniquely yours.
If you would like to increase your resilience in 5 minutes a day, I invite you to complete my free online mini-course How to Survive a Life Quake.
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“I am an experienced medical doctor (MBChB, MRCGP, NLP master pract cert, Transformational Life Coach dip, Counselling cert, Med Hyp Dip and EAGALA cert) with a special interest in stress management. I may have an impressive number of letters after my name, and I may have more than three decades of professional experience, but what qualifies me to excel at what I do is my intuitive understanding of my clients’ difficulties and my extensive personal experience of managing major life changes using strategies I developed over many years” Dr M Montagu – iNFINITE iMPACT
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