How Full Are Your Buckets?

When we wake up each morning and go about our day, it’s easy for other people’s priorities or the daily grind to become a way to please or stay busy. At some point, you look in the mirror and ask yourself “how did I get here?”. Or perhaps there’s a part of your life that just never feels fulfilling or seems missing. That’s often because you’ve been living by default, not by design.

So, we created a bucket exercise to help you assess which parts of your life need a little more attention…and we call this exercise the Life Wheel.

It’s time to get shading

• Carve 15 minutes out of your day to find a quiet space where you will not be disturbed.
• Reflect upon the following “buckets” in your life.
• Shade in how you rank your current satisfaction related to each of these buckets.

Reflect on these ‘buckets’

Look at the areas you’ve shaded.

• Are there any categories that feel ‘full’ and overflowing to you?
• Are there some that feel like they could use a little attention?
• Are there other categories that currently feel empty and when you look at the score, it hurts a little bit?

This might get a bit uncomfortable. It’s okay. Take all the time you need.

There is zero judgement here. It’s common for some buckets to be filled and others to be really empty. That’s okay. We’re going to spend some time here.

Have a think about why these buckets are currently empty for you. Pick one bucket and write down some of the things that, if you had them in your life (again or generally), you feel like it would refill that bucket.

You might write down something like this:
“When I had more __ previously in my life, my __ bucket felt more full
“When I spend time doing ___, I feel happier with this bucket.”

Ask yourself WHY those things are important to you. Is there a common thread or trend here? You should start to see an idea of your core life values.

For example. if your “Family and Friends” bucket is low, you might reflect and think “when I had more BBQs and spent time connecting with Ben and Jamie, I feel happier”. When considering why that’s important to you, you might uncover that having meaningful conversations with people you trust makes you feel safe and accepted.

Translated into a value, you might realise that deep relationships with a few trustworthy people are important to you.

Explore the bucket

We now need to assess what makes it harder for you to:
a) fill up this bucket in the ways you’ve identified in Step 2 and
b) stop it from draining so quickly.

Ask yourself “is there anything that stops me from doing the things I know I need to fill this bucket?”. Or another way to prompt the thought exercise is:

“what behaviour or thought pattern makes it harder for me to nurture a deep relationship with Ben and Jamie?”

Write this down. Stay curious and continue to ask probing questions. Try to connect to your body as you dig deeper. Are there any words or labels about yourself that pop into your mind? Write them down. No matter how uncomfortable it may get. Park that for now. When you’re ready, move onto the next bucket. We’ll work through this together tomorrow.

To view and download this breakout worksheet, click here.

Example Scenario

Here is an example of a previous #ttwr tribe member’s Life Wheel, shared with approval.

This man had some financial challenges and didn’t feel like his bucket was full in that category. He was also dissatisfied with his physical fitness.

Working with one of our life coaches, we helped him understand where that bucket was leaking (for both categories) and what actually helped to ‘fill them up’. Long story, short he realised he tended to just distract himself through drinking, dinners out, and social activities to manage stress…which worsened his financial position. 

Lastly, we identified that he didn’t enjoy movement because of an old injury and we were able to help him fix that.

Working with him over a few months, he was able to find comfort through meditation and self-care practices and we gave him tools to help fill the buckets that were empty and eliminate pain…which resolved many of this issues.