“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”– Confucious
I think we can convince ourselves at times that the word ‘simple’ is synonymous with ‘boring’. And no-one wants a boring life, right? So what do we do, we fill our day with numerous ‘tasks’, be it in the physical sense or simply just in our own heads! We tell ourselves we have to do more, to be more in order to achieve success (in whatever sense this means personally) for us to lead happier lives.
Tell me you too haven’t lay in your bed at night only to start plotting world domination instead of counting sheep. ‘Humans and our neverending quest for intangible happiness’ – sounds like my next bestseller and surefire dinner table conversation starter. For it really is that ‘thing’ we’re all after – happiness. Social media has convinced us to some degree that: the money, power and respect triangle should be sought after, and the daisy-chain makers say the opposite: relationships, simplicity and living in the moment equal a happier and more fulfilling life.
So who’s camp should we sit on? What is happiness to us? And how do we achieve that happiness?
*Try Google because I don’t have the damn answers!!
But what I would like to show you is the following, ‘the wheel of life’ (courtesy of the Federation of Entertainment Unions).
‘It allows you to gain a snapshot of where you are in all aspects of your life.’
When things get overwhelming, and you’re trying your best to juggle numerous elements of your life, perhaps resorting to the following method may grant you some relief and order:
I have given this a go in the past, and seeing the various elements of my life visually represented gives me some sort of clarity. Is this diagram super detailed? No. But it’s a good starting point nonetheless, a springboard for you to figure out what areas of your life perhaps you’d like to work on and which areas you feel comfortable with at the moment.
Sometimes, I feel we can get so in our heads, and feel like there isn’t just eight or ten elements in our life which we are trying to juggle, but twenty or thirty. If that’s the case maybe try drawing out multiple wheels, maybe you’ll find that you can remove some elements completely or mesh some together etc
You may realise that you can prioritise the things which matter most in your life and delegate more time to those and let ad hoc tasks be secondary.
Anyhow, I just thought I’d share this method with you which has given me a bit of a helping hand at times when I feel life is being too hard on me! This quick and easy method allows me to get a ‘bigger-picture’ view and refocus myself. So hopefully it could help you to in yours!
Why is life so hard? It’s as hard as we make it in our own minds!
The Neon Squid 