How to Create the Wheel of Life: A Step-by-Step Guide

Want a tool that turns a vague sense of "something's off" into a clear, honest picture of your life? The Wheel of Life does exactly that — and the good news is you can build your own in just a few minutes with nothing more than a pen and paper.

The central idea of the Wheel of Life is the search for balance. If you want your life to feel full and harmonious, you need to avoid lopsided distortions and keep a healthy balance across every area. But for the wheel to become a genuinely motivating tool for improving and planning your life — rather than just a formality — it's essential to divide it into the right sectors from the start.

Choose the Areas That Matter to You

To work out which areas your wheel should be made of, start by reflecting on what a happy life actually means to you. Are there areas your life simply wouldn't be possible without? Which areas have to be present in your ideal life for you to feel completely satisfied?

You can also zoom in and take a single area on its own for a more detailed breakdown, then build a separate wheel just for it. Say you want to explore health more deeply — you could split that circle into sectors like nutrition, movement, wellness, mental health, lifestyle and energy.

One rule matters above all: don't rely on ready-made templates filled with areas someone else invented, unless you're free to change them — because there's no universal template for happiness. Build your own personal balance chart instead. If you'd like a starting point you can fully adapt, our printable templates and this free printable Wheel of Life template are designed to be reshaped around your priorities. Not sure which areas to include? The guide to the eight areas of the Wheel of Life is a good place to begin.

Making Your Own Wheel of Life

Ready to draw it? Here's the whole process, step by step:

1. Draw a circle.
2. Make several straight lines through the centre of the circle, like slicing a cake. Each sector represents one area of life.
3. Label the resulting sectors with the life areas you've chosen.
4. Put a zero in the centre of the circle.
5. Divide each axis into 10 segments, then draw small circles through them. Number the intersections of the radii and the small circles in order from zero to 10, starting from the centre of the circle.

Fill In and Read Your Wheel

Once the drawing is ready, it's time to fill it in properly. Shade in each sector to create a graphic representation of how satisfied you are with that area of life. A zero stands for complete dissatisfaction — an unquestionable failure — while a 10 means unconditional satisfaction. The key here is honesty: assess each area of your life as objectively as you possibly can.

Once your scores are in, connect the dots around the circle and you'll get a diagram. It's the same technique used in sport to map a player's characteristics and reveal the weaknesses they need to work on — except instead of speed and stamina, your axes are family, work and the other areas that matter most to you. The shape you end up with shows at a glance where your life is thriving and where it's asking for attention.

From here, the natural next step is to turn what you see into action — assessing your life balance and working to improve the situation walks you through exactly that.