How the Lifestyle Balance Pie Can Perfect Your Career Motivation
As George Washington states during Lin Manuel Miranda’s infamous musical Hamilton, “dying is easy; living is harder.” The meaning of this quote not only exemplifies the challenges one may face in life, but expresses how life will constantly be full of hurdles one must face to survive. As a former Student Affairs professional experiencing numerous levels of graduate and post-graduate education,, this quote is representative of figuring out how to “adult” and face challenges with post-college depression, self identity, and the re-evaluation of life focuses. Many college students are already facing concerns with exploring aspects of their lives including but not limited to health and wellness, finances, spirituality, relationships, family, and more. While this can be highly common for college students, it also applies to adults in the workforce - those who may feel stressed about their current role, those who are now “open for work” due to an ever changing job market, and possibly those who feel “stuck” in their field. To help not only those who are career mapping, but to help various clients I have worked with as well, hope has been found with one of the most psychological and highly beneficial tools I have used previously as a Student Affairs professional: The Lifestyle Pie.
The Lifestyle Pie: What Is It?
Officially named the Lifestyle Balance Pie, this is a tool that mental health professionals use to help patients recover in a plethora of aspects in life in partnership with SMART, also known as Self-Management and Recovery Training. The Lifestyle Pie is a pie chart diagram divided into eight pieces or quadrants that are paired with a blank labeling region on the outside of each piece. Each pie piece has ten dash marks which is meant to create a scale of one to ten. Participants then review all of the lifestyles categories, and narrow the choices down to eight. Categories participants may focus on include the following: Business/Career/Studies, Finance & Wealth, Health & Fitness, Social & Friends, Family, Love, Recreation & Fun, Contribution, Personal Growth, Spiritual, and Self Image. After picking eight specific lifestyle areas to focus on, participants then shade (on a scale of one to ten) how focused and/or satisfied they are in this area of their life.
BEFORE
A blank template of the lifestyle balance pie participants can utilize.
AFTER
A fully-completed example of what the lifestyle balance pie would look like upon activity completion.
While this tool is meant to be a self-evaluation and reflection, some aim to rate themselves a 10 out of 10 in many of the areas. To avoid this, the following four ground rules are helpful tips and tricks to instruct participants before facilitating this activity.
Important Ground Rules
Be Honest: This tool is meant to benefit you and/or the student. While students are able to share the results and process as they must, participants should only think about their own processing versus how others will view their results.
Trust Your Initial Instincts: Gut instincts in this activity prove to be the most beneficial. The longer one thinks about their lifestyle category, the more one is able to convince themselves their lifestyle area is better or worse than it truly may be.
Don’t Be Afraid To Receive Support: Processing lifestyle categories may leave feelings of unaccomplishment or dissatisfaction for some. When these feelings arise, it is important for participants to seek support whether in the moment or beyond the activity through counseling services or additional support.
Have Fun: Looking at certain areas of one’s life should bring about a feeling of accomplishment. Do not be afraid to celebrate successes and/or accomplished goals.
This activity not only aims to induce a collaborative experience for those involved, but can also be a creative tool by centering on any individual’s passions and/or influential references one may be able to relate to.
Alexander Hamilton and The Lifestyle Pie - How Do These Relate?
At Loyola University Chicago during Winter RA Training 2019, the Lifestyle Pie was presented as a tool to help students reflect and understand their well-being or challenges in a plethora of areas in life. Myself, along with Resident Director Morgan Moss (Loyola University Chicago) re-enacted the importance of the Lifestyle Pie by intertwining an artistic passion many students have an affinity for in the Chicago area: Hamilton, the Broadway Musical.
Beyond the title including a reference to the show with the line “Not Throwing Away My Shot,” songs from the musical were related to certain lifestyle categories. For example, the category of personal growth was paired with a song from the musical called “Wait For It,” a fast-tempo ballad discussing a main character’s inability to seize opportunity in life like Alexander Hamilton has. The lyrics, along with the “feel” of the song (in other words, sound and rhythm of the music) creates a feeling of engagement that may cause a student to reflect on how their personal growth may, or may not, be at the place they want it to be.
Although some students were not familiar with the musical “Hamilton,” the pairing of songs from the musical with the lifestyle categories not only stirred an interest, but started a conversation as to how this tool can be used in other facets. For example, if a student has a passion for Cardi B, songs of hers can be selected for the lifestyle categories to help the student engage more, understand, and reflect more in a way that is more personal to their affinity. Other possible areas to relate passions and connections can include but not be limited to career fields, places of travel, sports team (based on successes and/or locations), musicals, artists, specific music albums, tv shows, tv characters, and even celebrities. Overall, the most important aspect of relating to a category is having a cemented “why” in place, meaning a specific justification to relating the passion area towards the lifestyle category and/or the activity as a whole. Without the “why,” students will not be able to reflect more directly in this activity through another resource such as art, pop culture, or personal life experience.
Additional Processing With Participants
At the facilitator's discretion, follow-up questions are encouraged to help participants process results further. Although these questions can be asked and/or created based on the group, the following are sample questions one may be able to ask:
What surprised you the most out of these results and why?
How did you feel looking at the overall pie?
What specific areas do you want to focus on from here?
How do these results relate or disregard current goals you may have for yourself?
Looking at the results, what new goals come to mind as areas you want to focus on?
Name one area whose results you are proud of and why?
Discuss the area you feel could use the most work and why?
While many of these questions have similar relations to one another, there is no right or wrong way to process these results. Participants may or may not want to discuss their results in detail. These types of questions stated above help get the conversation started. By asking “why,” participants are prompted to explain their feelings and results further, which can help create an environment of true processing.
Possible Results
While this activity can take place in less than an hour, the results may be staggering for some and may take more time to process. Offering the client or group a network of support at the end of the activity is one of the most crucial pieces. One of the networks may be yourself, but do not promise someone support if you are unable to give the time and space to support them further.
This tool is not only crucial during a career mapping experience, but at any point in a person’s life. Taking a look at these results from the start of a client experience compared to later on in their career search may help combat themselves against depression, anxiety, financial concerns, health, and more.
One thing is for sure: participants will not be able to have the whole pie shaded in, but this can be the groundwork to help someone reign in on their future goals and current ambitions. You can’t always eat every piece of the pie, but being able to focus on a few can create opportunities to eat other pieces successfully later on.
Interested in receiving consultation services for this type of activity or similar career mapping support? Please contact us under the “Service” tab to find out how we can make this activity come to life!