Passionate People = a Profitable company.
—Ann Rhoades

Knowing what you’re passionate about and making the time to experience your passion is critical for success both personally and professionally. Even when well-intended, making the time, and having balance, can be difficult.

Doug Gray, coach, speaker, and author of Passionate Action – 5 Steps To Creating Extraordinary Success In Life and Work, created a balance wheel designed to achieve success.

He suggests our “wheel” consist of 8 parts:

  1. Personal Growth
  2. Significant Other
  3. Health
  4. Friends/Family
  5. Recreation
  6. Money
  7. Career
  8. Other (something critical and personal to you)

Using a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being extremely happy and satisfied with each category, how balanced are you? What categories are you satisfied with?  Are there any you’re dissatisfied with?

Your categories may not be balanced and don’t necessarily need to be.  What’s important is that you recognize all imbalances and decide if you’d like to change the balance.

Here are some questions which may help:

What will this cost me if I do not change?  Compared against:
If I make this change how might it improve my life?

What will I regret if I do not make a change?  Compared against:
How might this change make me feel?

How are my familiar habits limiting me physically, emotionally, mentally or spiritually?  Compared against:
What else could I accomplish if I made this change?

What are my beliefs preventing me from doing physically, emotionally, mentally or spiritually?   Compared against:
How will my family and friends (and co-workers) feel towards me if I make this change?

What is lost if I don’t make this change now?  Compared against:
What is gained if I don’t make this change now?

These questions are worth investing the time to realistically assess where you are now and where you want to be.   Re-visit your areas of dissatisfaction – were you just having a bad day when you rated each category or are there areas in your balance wheel you’d like to change?

You’re in control! What can YOU do to increase your passion, have a better-balanced wheel, and obtain desired results?