What is the Best Way to Get Your Life Back on Track?

Life Crises Handled: Stop Spinning Out of Control!

A common problem that everyone faces is feeling out of control. This feeling is usually a result of not having a good balance in our life. Visualize a car moving forward with a flat tire – it struggles to make progress and stay on track. The trick to avoid feeling out of control is making sure you have air in your tires and you are rolling right along – living in balance.

The quick fix for getting your life back on track is to do a personal inquiry to find the source of the air, a.k.a. energy, leak. There are many tools out there, but one of the favorites in coaching is the wheel of life. The wheel is based on a mandala which is prevalent in many cultures for depicting cycles of life. In coaching, the wheel of life is used to divide our life into important areas. All of these areas together allow us to feel like a whole balanced person.

Generally, when someone feels out of control, it’s because there is an area in their life with a puncture that’s zapping their energy and throwing them out of whack. Let’s take a look at how we could use the wheel of life to diagnose where you are out of balance. Here are five simple steps to help you diagnose where your energy (air) is being drained:

1. Draw your wheel. Identify all the key areas in your life that are important to you. Let’s use an imaginary character named Anne as an example. Her wheel is divided among family, work, community, and fun.

2. Choose one area. Pick the one area of your life that if you would make a change it would have the most impact in your life. In this example, let’s say that Anne picks family.

3. Personal inquiry. Ask yourself what things you could do to substantially improve the one area you picked. In Anne’s case, we’d ask what one thing she could do that would improve the family area? Let’s say Anne said she wanted to spend more quality time with her kids.

4. Developing a plan. The last step is to ask yourself what one to three actions you could do that would help you achieve your goal? In Anne’s case, she says that there are three things she could do. We’d then ask her to prioritize one out of the list and then commit to a date to complete the action item. When she’s done, she’ll either move on to the next action on her list or see how things feel overall. She will keep on working from her list until the hole is patched.

5. Moving to the next area. The nice thing about the wheel is that about 90 percent of the time addressing one issue will end up resolving other areas in our life. It’s why the visual depiction is a wheel since all the pieces are connected. For example, Anne may find that she has less stress at work once she addresses quality time with her child. If you still feel out of control, then repeat steps one through four all over again.

The wheel is such a great tool. I like to think of it like the tire patch kit in your car. Keep it around so the next time your wheel loses some air, you can use this patch kit to make some diagnoses and fixes. Keep any worksheets you’ve written over time together since the “how to fix” directions in an area are likely to apply in the future.

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C.J. Liu is a Seattle-based career coach with over 15 years experience in helping people achieve happiness at work. She takes a holistic view of her clients needs and seeks to ensure they feel good physically, mentally and spiritually in their work. Check out her site, to learn more about C.J. Liu.

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