Thursday, July 7, 2011

What would it take?

In April I attended some wellness coach training sponsored by my employer. It was a good coupla days, and I got to spend some time wandering around the Mall of America during the off hours.
During the coaching sessions, one of the tools presented was the old "scale of 0 to 10" questions. We've all heard them, right? But what caught my attention was the follow up question, that I'd never heard of....but I'll get to that in a moment.
What brough this to my mind was a posting that I read yesterday over at http://www.counselormusings.blogspot.com/. I really like her site, and she is very personable on Twitter as well. She introduced me to a Wheel of Wellness, created by Myers, Sweeney, & Witmer. It takes the notion that wellness isn't just about fitness, or spirituality, or food choices, or...any one thing, really. To quote the Counselor Musing blog:
"A wheel doesn't function well when a part is broken. It gets lose, wobbles, and eventually can no longer function properly. Overall wellness is important, and is made up of many smaller parts. Even if some of these parts are working well, if there's a part that's broken, that will decrease the overall wellness of the whole."
Here is what it looks like:

If you can't see the spokes, they say (clockwise from top) Cultural Identity, Sense of Worth, Sense of Control, Realistic Beliefs, Emotional Awareness & Coping, Problem Solving and Creativity, Sense of Humor, Nutrition, Exercise, Self Care, Stress Management, and Gender Identity. It is easy, even for ME, to see how different things can impact the whole. I don't necessarily agree with the naming of the spokes or the parts, but that isn't what's important. The idea that if you need work in any area and chose to IGNORE it, eventually the wheel will break. I printed the wheel and then grabbed a pencil. My first instinct was to rename the parts, but I didn't. I kept it as is, and did the following: I shaded in each spoke to the level that I thought I had reached. Huh? Let's take Gender Identity. I am secure with that, so I shaded in the entire spoke. Emotional Awareness & Coping? Let's just say I didn't need to sharpen my pencil after shading that one! This exercise gave me a visual sense of where I think I am with respect to these components of wellness. I love it!
How does this tie in to my original thoughts about the 0 to 10 scale? Simply. Here is my suggestion:
Take an aspect of your life. For my blog's purpose, I'll use running as an example, but it could just as easily be work, golf, bowling, underwater basket weaving, whatever. Yes, "running" is a broad topic, so...let's narrow that down to...consistency of training. Ask yourself, "on a scale of 0 to 10, where would you rate yourself on consistency with your training?" I will answer 4. Here's the amazing follow up question: What will it take to get you to a 6? Amazing, isn't it? Think about your answer, and then...DO IT.
Implement the changes that will get you to that 6!! And then, when you get to 6, ask yourself both questions again! Repeat as necessary.

Wow. Amazingly simple, but I think that you will find it very effective, if used with HONESTY and no BS.
Hit me up with some comments. I can take it!

Be Well,
Nomorebs,
Gene

1 comment:

  1. I love this wheel and idea!!! I am going to use it for my next goal thanks for posting

    ReplyDelete