Hello and welcome to Right Bus Life Coaching Channel.
If you want to bring about major change in your life, there are two fundamental questions
that need to be asked: 1) Where am I now? and 2) Where do I truly want to be?
I'll be back after the opening titles to explain more.
In the meantime, are you on the right bus?
And welcome back. So, here we are talking all matters life coaching.
My name's Mervin Straughan, creator of the Three Journeys Life Coaching System, and I'm
also the author of the self-help guide 'Imagine Life As Three Bus Journeys.'
In the opening sequence, I suggested that before you initiate any major change in your
life, there are two key questions that need to be answered. 1) Where am I now? and 2)
Where do I truly want to be?
Each of these questions is a meaty one and merits a video of its own.
So that's exactly what we'll do. For the purpose of this video, I'm going to focus on where
am I now and what is prompting the need for change?
Some people will seek out a life coach to help them to recognise and realise their potential;
others will do so because they feel that they've lost control of their life. They feel that
their life is completely out of kilter.
Often there's an obstacle – or obstacles – that are impeding the progress of the
client. The client might have an idea as to what the issue is but sometimes, once the
life coach has taken the client through a process and used a variety of tools and techniques,
other issues emerge.
In a few moments, I'm going to show you how you can gauge your own levels of satisfaction
and understand which parts of your life are going well and which others need addressing.
Stewart Friedman, the founding director of the Work Integration Project at the University
of Pennsylvania, has a lot of expertise in this area.
Indeed, he has advised several leading business and political figures. Friedman helps us to
compartmentalise our lives by using what he identifies as The Four Domains.
These domains are – WORK: and this is what you do to earn a living and what steps you
take to advance your career. The next one is HOME and this is about family and the daily
tasks that you carry out to keep it running as smoothly as possible.
Then there's COMMUNITY and this is about your neighbourhood and the wider world as well
as your social life and the friends with whom you spend time.
Finally, we have the SELF and this is about our private identity as well as the wellbeing
of our mind, body and spirit.
Friedman tells us that the aim is to achieve harmony and distribution of time and dedication
across these four domains.
And that we should consider them each time we're planning our priorities.
Now, one of the quickest and most effective ways of gauging just how successful we are
in managing the various aspects of our life is to use the Wheel of Life, developed by
Paul J Meyer, the founder of the Success Motivation Institute.
It takes only a few minutes to complete but gives an at-a-glance appreciation of how well
you're doing. Here's how it works.
First, draw a large circle on a piece of paper. Then, you divide it up into eight, roughly,
equal segments. You can do this by dividing it with four lines.
Mark zero at the centre and the number 10 on the outer line of each segment. Now, label
the eight segments as follows: "Career", "Family and loved ones", "Finances",
"Friends and social", "Health", "Hobbies and pastimes", "Home and surrounding areas" – and
this includes your neighbourhood. And, finally, "Personal growth" – now in this segment,
it's important to include time alone; that's for recharging your batteries.
With our markings of zero to 10, put a line across the segment to represent how satisfied
you are in this particular element of your life and work.
Then, work your way around. For instance, if you're feeling so-so about how everything
is in hobbies and pastimes, that scores a 5. It's the half-way point of the segment.
Once you've done this, use a thick marker pen and join all your satisfaction lines so
that the overall shape really stands out.
Now, what is jumping out at you? Which areas are the ones where you're scoring well and
which are the ones that might be buckling?
Often, a single segment will be drawing upon your energy and having a detrimental impact
on other segments of your life.
Now, before I wrap up this video, I'm going to pose two questions and it's back to your
Wheel of Life.
1. What is the PRIZE for taking action and 2. What is the PRICE for failing to take action?
Well, that's all for this latest video. I will keep them coming. In the meantime, do
press that 'subscribe' button and, remember, enjoy the journey.