How to create a work/life blend right now

Work/Life Blend.

Today, I’m going to show you how to create a work/life blend right now.

Work/life blend is something you have been doing already. You just don’t know it.

Work/life blend is when you blend your work and your life to create a cohesive life experience.

Most of us need to work or we want to work for a multitude of reasons.

If a client tells me they want more work/life balance, what that tells me is that one area of their life is taking up way too much time and they are unhappy about it.

And yes, it’s usually work related. They have thrown their life out of whack. The best way to get it back to rolling smoothly is to blend in more of what they are missing and/or wanting.

By the way balance as a noun means an equal distribution. And in our lives, we rarely have an equal distribution of the areas in our life. Another important reason for blending in what we really want and need to be happy.

Examining the Wheel of Life

A tool we use in coaching is what is called a Wheel of Life. You rate on a scale of 1-10 your current level of satisfaction in specific areas.

It’s a big circle with specific life categories. After you rate your categories (more on that in a minute), you can see how life is a little (or a lot) bumpy. 

It’s a great tool to see where to put your attention to first and blend that area into your life for a smoother ride.

Here are what is on a traditional Wheel of Life:

• Family/Parenting
• Personal Development
• Health & Wellness
• Spiritual Awareness 
• Relationships
• Personal Finances
• Fun & Enjoyment
• Career/Profession

Keep in mind that each of those areas, can have their own separate wheels to use as well. For now though, just focus on the Wheel of Life in regards to helping you create a nice work/life blend.

Using the Wheel of Life.

If you have found yourself wanting more “balance” in your life, take each of the above categories and rate them. 

On a scale of 1-10, 1 being you are unhappy with where you are and 10 being you are ecstatic.

After you have rated all of the areas, look at what area of your life you scored the lowest in. That is a place for you to blend into your life. 

To give you an idea of what a Wheel of Life Tool looks like, below is a Wheel of Life image courtesy of iPec Coaching. iPec is where I received my professional coach certification. All Rights Reserved.

How to blend what is missing into your life.

I’ll give you an example from my own life.  You may be able to relate. I love my work and can spend hours in my office.

Yet, I was noticing I didn’t have much down time and began feeling frustrated. The story I was telling myself was that I had too much work and so I had to stay and get it done.

By doing that, I compromised my fun and enjoyment category because, well, I wasn’t having any. 

Enter the Wheel of Life and discovering my Fun and Enjoyment rating was at a 1. That was great information for myself.

Next I went about seeing how to blend in fun and enjoyment into my life.

I started slow.

I decided that each day I would read 15 minutes of a book I enjoyed. Then I slowly moved that time to 30 minutes until I got to spend an entire day reading.

I’ve got to tell you that initially, even though I wanted to read more, the idea of spending an entire day reading was so foreign to me. It didn’t feel good and it certainly didn’t bring any feelings of fun.

And now, it’s something I thoroughly enjoy and have fun doing.

Your turn: go back to the list above and rate where you fall. Take the lowest number and figure out how to begin to blend it into your life right now.

Or if there is an area that has a pretty good level of satisfaction and you want more, start there.

Need help?

Do you want some help? Sometimes trying to figure out where to start is a stumbling block. Let’s clear that up for you. Schedule a free 30 minute complimentary session. Click here to schedule now. We can go over the Wheel of Life together or any part of your life to create a work/life blend that feels good to you.