The Eight Spokes of a Balanced Entrepreneur’s Life Assessment
How balanced are you as an entrepreneur? Most successful entrepreneurs I know sit down at the beginning of January to work out their goals for the coming year. The general idea is to ascertain where you are right now and where you want to be at the end of the year. As a general rule, all the good intentions are thrown out of the window by February, and March is just one big rush to get things done!
Do you know what the eight spokes of a balanced life are? We looked at the sacrifices of an entrepreneur in last week’s blog article and compared well-known entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk, Richard Branson & Warren Buffet. Is it possible to have a completely balanced life and achieve massive success? The answer is very debatable indeed.
We often forget that a balanced entrepreneur life does not merely revolve around money, a good diet, and maybe some exercise. Anything is better than nothing, but ideally, you should include all the aspects of your life when planning. You could even draw up a vision board that includes images of every goal you plan to achieve. But more about the vision board later.
I was introduced to the Eight Spokes of a Balanced Life some years ago and found that this breakdown works exceptionally well for me. Remember that we are individuals with individual traditions, passions, and beliefs. What you add under each spoke remains entirely up to you.
The premise on which the wheel of life is built is scoring yourself out of ten on each leg of the wheel. A vehicle can’t run on spikes, and essentially, your wheel of life should be as close to runnable as possible.
Below is what I would add to my eight spokes of the ideal balanced life. Please remember that this is my version of the ideal. No one person is the same, and no one person is perfect. The last thing that I want you to feel is that you are not nearly there. This is only a framework. After all, if we fail to plan, we plan to fail!
The Eight Spokes of a Balanced Entrepreneur
The eight spokes of the life of a balanced entrepreneur includes:
- Spoke 1: Spirituality
- Spoke 2: Health & Wellness
- Spoke 3: Family Relationships
- Spoke 4: Finances
- Spoke 5: Fun & Recreation
- Spoke 6: Personal Development
- Spoke 7: Friends & Social Interaction
- Spoke 8: Career
We will be standing still at each spoke going forward, but for now we could summarize each spoke as follows:
Spoke 1: Spirituality
Spirituality includes my relationship with God, whoever I choose to believe in. Where I come from, my relationship with God should take a pivotal position in my day. Whether or not it happens and how to fix it is a conversation for another day.
Morals & Ethics, stewardship, and my church affiliation are the other elements that reside under this spoke.
Spoke 2: Health & Wellness
Maintaining physical fitness is crucial to sustaining energy levels. Regular exercise combined with a healthy diet is the cornerstone of my health. Remaining grateful for the privilege to be healthy and well does, however, fall back into the spirituality spoke and my relationship with God.
Apart from eating well and doing regular exercise, stress management should be a priority, together with staying hydrated and getting enough sleep.
Spoke 3: Family Relationships
Believe it or not, entrepreneurs are human, and challenges on the home front often present major stumbling blocks. Your relationship with your spouse, partner, children, siblings and parents could make or break you.
Spoke 4: Finances
Financial management and planning sound like they should receive top priority in any entrepreneur’s life, but this is not always the case. I am a big fan of frugality. That is just the way I was raised and raised my children. It does not help that you are earning a solid income. If you cannot manage what is coming in, you will have a serious problem in the future.
I come from a family that rents out very basic flats and townhouses, and it breaks my heart to see entrepreneurs in their old age who have to look into the eyes of their children to help pay the rent of a basic flat. When all their Mauritius holidays. expensive cars and fancy houses have eaten up all their savings.
Spoke 5: Fun & Recreation
Do you have time to participate in hobbies after a long day at work? Switching off and turning your mind to something completely different is not just good for you, it is essential!
That could include sports, arts, music, literature, home improvement and gardening or even constructive travel that involves learning and broadening your horizons.
Spoke 6: Personal Development
It is all good and well to participate in church activities, do sports and spend time with the family, but what are you doing to invest in your self-esteem, lifelong learning, or even reading?
I often hear clients comment that they do not have time for reading or learning. A very sad situation, but I do not want to preach to the converted. If you are reading this right now, you are probably not part of the percentage of entrepreneurs who do not participate in personal development.
Spoke 7: Friends & Social Interactions
Can you imagine a life without friends. The best part is that you do not have to be in each other’s space all the time to benefit from a friendship. Some of my best friends live far away and we seldom speak, but if we do it is as if no time has passed.
The sad part is that friendships need time to develop. And yes, one can make friends at each different interaction that you are involved in. This could include friendships from church, the athletic club, the speakers association or whatever other club or association you are involved in. You could even have special friends from work.
Spoke 8: Career
Having a clear career plan helps set the direction of your entrepreneurial endeavors.
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