Week 4 SYL Challenge: Wheel of Life

So the Week 4 challenge is pretty cool, creating my wheel of life. There are no real surprises to me here, but being a visual sort of gal, it is very interesting to see at a glance the areas of my life I feel are going pretty well, the areas that need some attention or intensive care and where a better balance can be sought.

Clearly two of the three lowest ranked categories are the areas concerned with looking after myself better. It is not that I don't want to look after myself, it is just everything else seems to come before looking after me. I need to make looking after my mind and body a priority for a change.


Money and finances are big and scary for us at the moment. We simply don't have much and we going backwards. Without going into detail, this category on my wheel is in need of urgent attention!


Quality time with my girl needs to be more of a priority. We have had lots of fun together over the holidays but when she goes back to school next week there will be much less time. When we get home after work and school, instead of doing things that can wait I need to spend more fun and quality time with her. It makes us both happy and there should be much more of it. When she asks me to play with her I need to respond more often with an enthusiastic "yes" instead of a tired "not now" or "I'm busy at the moment". She is almost seven and in a few years I will be embarrassing and she won't want to hang out me with so I need to make spending time with her more of a priority more often. 


Managing everything that needs to be done at home and keeping it neat is a juggle for most people I would think. I try to have a good balance of looking after the home along with everything else I need to do but it is difficult when our little house has a stream of people staying, coming and going most of the time: us, 6year old, Sir Eric Cat, friends, family, partner's kids, kid's girlfriend, extended family and friends of kids......... 
Now I love my little family and I love having people around, but sometimes it feels like the walls are closing in and I just want my space and for the home to look nice! Six year olds for a start make a shit load of mess. They flit from one activity to another without a care in the world. Half a dozen outfit changes in a day is not uncommon. They can't understand that glueing / painting sand art on the carpet is a problem.  The bigger kids are also challenging and can be very slothy. They sleep a lot, talk half hour showers and do a lot of laying around on couches when they are awake. Don't get me wrong, they do work and don't make huge mess but it is the lying around that annoys me. And they sit in my chair! Sounds petty I know but it really riles me! Anyway.....I think when it comes to the home category on my 'wheel of life', I have an ok good balance given the traffic and activity through our little house.  


I wont go on about my work category because when I talk about my work people do the polite "yeah sounds interesting" but their eyes glaze over with boredom. Yes I admit my work sounds very friggen boring to others but after all the shit in my recent work past it is a breath of fresh air.  I have the fortune of working part time at the moment and getting paid a lot. This situation has an end date but it means at the moment a great work / life balance for me. I expect the current 'rating' of my work category on the wheel to change (and not for the better) throughout the year.


I love spending time with my partner and connecting with my family and friends and I do a lot of it, but I need to balance this better with solo time. Left in my own company for too long is never a good idea for me but I am learning to do this more and more and that i need it for my own sanity. I try to stay busy socially and spending time with my partner and friends because it makes me feel energised and happy but I need to prioritise solo time for me more often. I am hoping to find a better balance of connecting with others and finding that self / creative time that is so important. 


Well that was a very cool challenge and it will be even more interesting to periodically review it over the coming months to see if/where there is progress.