Purpose
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to describe the structure and purpose of the Wheel of Life assessment tool.
Lesson Explanation
The Wheel of Life is a visual self-assessment tool, typically dividing life into 8-10 key areas (such as career, health, relationships, finances, personal growth, and recreation), with each area rated on a scale — commonly 1 to 10 — for the client’s current satisfaction.
The specific purpose of this tool is genuinely diagnostic, not motivational: it helps a client see, at a glance, which areas are genuinely lagging behind others, sometimes revealing an imbalance the client hadn’t consciously registered — for example, someone deeply satisfied with career (rated 9) might discover their relationships area is rated a 3, a gap that wasn’t obvious before seeing it laid out visually.
A genuinely important, specific follow-up step: completing the wheel is not the endpoint — the coach then asks questions about the gaps, connecting directly to the GROW model’s Reality stage (Part 3, Lesson 1). A common, specific coaching question after completing the wheel: “Which one area, if it improved even slightly, would have the biggest positive effect on the others?”
A genuinely common mistake: treating every low-rated area as equally urgent to address immediately, rather than using the wheel to identify which specific gap is actually worth prioritizing first.
Practice Questions
1. What is the Wheel of Life?
View Answer
A visual self-assessment tool dividing life into key areas, each rated for current satisfaction.
2. Roughly how many life areas does the Wheel of Life typically include?
View Answer
8-10.
3. What scale is commonly used to rate each area?
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1 to 10.
4. Is the purpose of this tool primarily diagnostic or primarily motivational, according to this lesson?
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Diagnostic.
5. What can the Wheel of Life reveal that a client hadn’t consciously registered?
View Answer
An imbalance between areas, such as high career satisfaction alongside low relationship satisfaction.
6. What earlier framework and stage does the follow-up questioning after completing the wheel connect to?
View Answer
The GROW model’s Reality stage (Part 3, Lesson 1).
7. Give an example of a specific coaching question asked after completing the wheel, from this lesson.
View Answer
Something like: “Which one area, if it improved even slightly, would have the biggest positive effect on the others?”
8. Is completing the wheel itself the endpoint of this exercise, according to this lesson?
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No — the coach follows up with questions about the gaps.
9. What is a genuinely common mistake when using this tool, according to this lesson?
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Treating every low-rated area as equally urgent, rather than identifying which gap to prioritize first.
10. If someone rates career a 9 and relationships a 3, what does this reveal, according to this lesson?
View Answer
A significant imbalance between life areas that may not have been obvious before.
11. Name two life areas commonly included in the Wheel of Life, according to this lesson.
View Answer
Any two of: career, health, relationships, finances, personal growth, recreation.
12. Why is identifying which gap to prioritize considered more useful than addressing every low-rated area at once?
View Answer
Because it focuses effort on the area likely to have the biggest positive effect, rather than spreading focus thin across everything at once.