Wheel of Life: Free Template, 8 Areas and How to Score It

The Wheel of Life is a circle split into eight areas of your life. You rate each one from 1 to 10, color it in, and the shape you end up with shows you which part of your life has been running on empty.

Below you'll find a free Wheel of Life template to print (labeled or blank), the eight categories with one honest question each, a 10-minute walkthrough and a table for reading your score. Then the part most guides skip: what to actually do about your lowest numbers.

What is the Wheel of Life?

It's a check-in with your whole life on one sheet of paper. You divide a circle into areas like health, money and friendships, give each a score from 1 to 10 and shade each slice up to that number.

You'll also see it called the life balance wheel or the wheel of balance. Same tool. Life coaches often use it in a first session because it shows in a few minutes where the conversation needs to go. You don't need a coach to do it, though.

The wheel is usually credited to Paul J. Meyer, who founded the Success Motivation Institute in Waco, Texas, in 1960 (tribute from LMI UK). Nobody has pinned down the year the wheel itself appeared.

If you searched for the Buddhist wheel of life (the Bhavacakra), that's a different thing: a symbol of the cycle of birth, death and rebirth. The two only share a name.

The wheel gives you an honest picture of where you are right now. It won't change anything by itself, and no study has shown that the exercise alone does. Think of it as a mirror: what you do after you look is up to you.

Free Wheel of Life template (PDF)

Two printable sheets, both free, no email address needed:

• Wheel of Life template with 8 areas (PDF): start here if it's your first time. The areas are already printed on it.
• Blank Wheel of Life template (PDF): eight empty slices for your own areas, for example if you want love, home or kids on there.

The rings are numbered from 1 at the center to 10 at the edge. Both sheets are A4, the size used outside the US. On US Letter paper, pick "Fit to page" or "Scale to fit" in the print dialog and it prints fine.

A black-and-white printer will do. A highlighter or colored pencil works for shading. Grab a second color if you also want to mark where you'd like each area to be (more on that below).

What are the 8 categories of the Wheel of Life?

On the classic wheel: Health, Career, Personal growth, Leisure, Spirituality, Friends, Family and Finance/Wealth. Each one comes with a question below to help you score it. Go with your gut answer, not the one you'd post.

Area	What it covers	Ask yourself
Health	Sleep, movement, food, stress, mental health	How many mornings this week did you wake up rested?
Career	Your job or your business, how you earn a living	Do you get the Sunday scaries, or are you fine with Monday?
Personal growth	Learning, reading, new skills, breaking old habits	When did you last do something for the first time?
Leisure	Hobbies, travel, rest, fun	What did you do last week just because you enjoy it?
Spirituality	Meaning, faith, quiet, gratitude, time in nature	When were you last fully present, phone out of reach?
Friends	Friendships, coworkers you like, your community	Who could you call tonight if you had a bad day?
Family	Parents, kids, partner, siblings	After time with your family, do you feel lighter or more drained?
Finance/Wealth	Income, savings, debt, how you feel when you check your account	Could you cover a surprise $1,000 car repair without panicking?

Leisure has a side people tend to forget: how much joy there is in an ordinary Tuesday. That's what the post on brightness of life is about.

How many categories should a Wheel of Life have?

As many as you need. Eight is the classic and the right number for your first wheel. Six is quicker. Ten or twelve gets more detailed, and harder to read at a glance.

Areas people often add or swap in:

• Love and romance
• Home
• Kids
• Appearance and how you feel in your body
• Creativity
• Self-worth
• Security
• Volunteering

Is one area too broad? Give it a wheel of its own. For health, that could be sleep, exercise, nutrition, stress, checkups and energy. The blank template works for that too.

How do you fill in a Wheel of Life?

Set aside 10 quiet minutes with a pen and the sheet. That's it.

1. Print the template, or draw your own (steps below).
2. Go through the areas one by one. Ask yourself the question from the table and write down the first number that comes to mind. Overthinking it won't make it more honest.
3. Score where you are today. Ignore where you think you should be or where you were last year.
4. Shade each slice from the center out to your number. A 6 means up to the sixth ring.
5. Optional: mark your target in a second color. Where do you want this area to be a year from now? The biggest gap between the two colors is your topic.
6. Circle your three lowest areas. Those are the ones you'll work with.

Write the date on the back. Next time, you'll see what moved.

No printer? Draw it yourself

1. Draw a circle. Tracing a dinner plate works.
2. Draw four straight lines through the center, like cutting a pie. That gives you eight slices.
3. Write one area next to each slice.
4. Divide each spoke into ten equal steps from the center to the edge and number them 1 to 10.
5. Connect matching numbers into rings, or just put one dot per area at your score and connect the dots.

How do you score and read your Wheel of Life?

Look at each number first, then at the shape. The number tells you how one area is doing. The shape shows how the areas compare.

Score	What it means	What to do
1 to 3	Something basic is missing.	One small first step this week. This area goes on your vision board first.
4 to 7	It works, just not the way you want. Most areas land here.	One specific goal. No need to overhaul anything.
8 to 10	Solid. You're happy here.	Keep it up. No need to optimize.

Then the shape:

• Small and round: Everything scores low. That often happens during a hard stretch of life. Pick one area to work on, not eight.
• Big with one dent: Almost everything works except one area. You know what to focus on.
• Lopsided: Two or three areas score high, others much lower. Often one part of your life is eating into the time for the rest.

A perfect 10 everywhere isn't the goal. Different seasons of life have different priorities. With a new baby or in the first year of a business, there won't be much leisure, and that's okay as long as you chose it.

Example: Career 9, Leisure 3

Here's what a filled-in wheel might look like: Career 9, Family 8, Friends 7, Personal growth 7, Finance/Wealth 6, Spirituality 5, Health 4, Leisure 3.

It's lopsided. Work is going great, and that's exactly where the time for rest and exercise goes. The three lowest areas are Leisure, Health and Spirituality.

Three questions per area are enough. Here's Health:

Question	Example answer
How do you want this area to feel?	I get through the afternoon without crashing.
What's one first step this week?	A 20-minute walk at lunch, three times.
When will you check in again?	In four weeks: same question, new score.

A feeling and a first step will get you started. If you want to make it measurable, try SMART goals.

How do you turn your Wheel of Life into a vision board?

Your three lowest areas become the three areas of your board. Give each one three to five pictures and one sentence in your own words, which keeps the whole board at 9 to 15 pictures.

Most coaching guides end the wheel with "now set goals." A vision board turns those goals into pictures you see every day. For ideas on what goals fit each area, see these vision board goals by life area.

That's what the Wheel of Balance Board is for: a vision board template built on the areas of the wheel, free as a printable PDF and in the VISIYA app. You don't have to fill every box. Start with your three.

The worksheet and the board group the areas a little differently:

On the Wheel of Life worksheet	On the Wheel of Balance Board
Health	Health
Finance/Wealth	Finances
Career	Business and career
Family	Family and friends
Friends	Family and friends
(not on the worksheet)	Love and relationships
Personal growth	Personal growth
Leisure	Fun and recreation
Spirituality	Spirituality

So the worksheet splits family and friends, and the board puts them together and adds a separate area for love and relationships. Count your partner under Family on the worksheet, or give love its own slice on the blank one.

In VISIYA, one board is free with no time limit: your own, or one of the free templates, including the Wheel of Balance Board. The app doesn't score your wheel; that's what the worksheet is for. Once you have your numbers, you fill the board in the app with pictures, notes and links for each area, and mark what comes true as fulfilled. VISIYA is available for iPhone and iPad.

If you want to build a vision board from scratch, here's the full guide on how to make a vision board.

How often should you redo the Wheel of Life?

Take a quick look once a month and fill in a whole new wheel every six to twelve months.

• Monthly, five minutes: Only the three areas you're working on. What number would you give them today?
• Every six to twelve months: A fresh sheet. Score every area again without peeking at the old wheel. Then put the two side by side.
• On a set occasion: your birthday, New Year's, or a big change like a new job or a move.

I take stock every year around my birthday, not on January 1, and that's when I make my new vision board. The wheel is a good first step for that. If New Year's is more your moment, the 2027 vision board guide walks you through planning the year.

Don't wait for the perfect moment, though. Ten minutes tonight is enough for your first wheel.