The Wheel of Life exercise helps the coachee to find out how satisfied he or she is in each specific life area (finances, health and well-being, living environment, work, relationship to partner, family and friends, leisure time and personal growth) and to work on a clear vision for each life area. Strong and powerful decision making e.g. saying yes or no to a certain position can then take place.
Possible coaching questions could be:
- On a scale from 0-1, how happy are you with your life in London at this stage?
- If you look at each life area and the score you indicate in terms of your current happiness, i.e. you look at your wheel as it is now, what do you see? Can the wheel role or is it a rather bumpy ride?
- What are the top two life areas you would like to change? How much higher would you like to score?
- What can you do to get from a 2 to a 3? How would that feel, how does that look like?
- What exactly can you do to get to a 3?
How the power tool ‘Flexibility versus Rigidity’ can be applied
Applying the ‘Wheel of Life’ developed by the Coaches Training Institute, to this specific situation, can help to bring the flexibility and lightness back into Helena’s life and into her job search process. Life unfolds at its best when we focus in a balanced and flexible way on our whole life (and not only on one aspect of our life). Our career is meant to support all other areas of our life.
Coaching questions to ask:
- How can you bring the notion of ‘flexibility and lightness’ into your job search process and into your life? What is the smallest change you could make to make the job search process as easy and enjoyable as you would like it to be?
- In which areas of your life have you experienced rigidity?
- How can you adapt your job search plan and bring flexibility and lightness to your job search?
- How would things be different if you adopted an attitude of flexibility and lightness in your life right now?
- What can you do in the future to stop the cycle of allowing rigidity to govern your life ?
- Imagine you have a partner who is behaving rigidly. What would you advise him? What would happen if you surrendered and allowed life and your career to unfold?
- How would that look like?
- What can be other ways of approaching your job search at this stage? What can be easier and more enjoyable ways of finding work at this stage?
- You have found lots of jobs in the past. Tell me about a time when finding a job was easy for you.
Applying the power tool with Helena or other coaches may result in her opening up to more career options in London which will bring a lightness to the often demanding and draining job search process. What happened to Helena?
In the course of her coaching Helena realized that there are other options of approaching her job search. Her values include achievement, but also adventure, humor and deep friendships. Helena now uses her time in London to study for a diploma in communications.
After networking in her husband’s company some exciting and well paid project work comes up for her. Helena is happy. She now has a new lifestyle that really suits her. She enjoys London to the fullest, see her friends regularly and goes on weekend trips to the countryside with her husband. Helena does interesting and flexible work while studying for her diploma.
Opening up and letting lose brought fun and lightness to her job search process which resulted in a flexible way of working, studying and enjoying life in London.
References
William Bridges, Making Sense of Life’s Changes, Perseus Books Group, Cambridge MA
Laura Whitworth, Karen Kimsey-House, Co-Active Coaching, Davies Black Publishing, Mountain View, California
Byron Katie and Stephen Mitchell, A thousand names for joy, Random House, New York