Rock-Life Balance: The Climbing Wheel of Life

Do you ever feel like rock climbing is taking over your life? Or that there isn’t enough time to fit climbing in between work and your other commitments? Have you ever thought “I could never date someone who doesn’t climb” or catered your job search to allow for easier access to climbing?

As a life coach who works with rock climbers, I know that many climbers struggle with how to balance rock climbing and the rest of life. And I’ve been there. 

I spent more than a few years making climbing the central focus: working as little as possible and sleeping in the back of my Prius so I could take month-long trips to climb in Utah or Yosemite. Delaying any type of career ambition so I could train twice a day in the gym and project outside on Wednesdays. Spending all of my money - yes, all of it! - so I could travel to southeast Asia and live on ten dollars a day to rock climb in Laos or Thailand.

There have also been times when it feels like I just can’t squeeze enough climbing in. Like last year, when I was living in Santa Cruz and weekends felt like a constant tradeoff between jetting off to Yosemite and staying in town to spend quality time with my fiancée. Or the many times when I’ve taken on a big work project and long hours at the computer mean I’m too tired to train at my best. 

Sometimes it feels like I’ll never find the perfect rock-life balance. And I start to question - as I think many of us do - whether it’s possible to have it all: climbing, an engaging career, and a thriving social or family life.

But if we look closer, I think we see that our quest for “the perfect rock-life balance” is misdirected. Life is more like a balancing act in response to our constantly changing priorities and circumstances. 

Life is a balancing act

Over the years, I’ve gotten more interested in the act of balancing than in “finding the perfect balance.” What does it look like to intentionally cultivate a balance between rock climbing and the rest of life when our values and circumstances are always shifting? When we change jobs, move to a different state, level up our climbing, get injured, start a new relationship, have kids, start a new service project, or change our ideas about what we want from our career?

I developed the Climbing Wheel of Life after discussing these questions for years and then co-founding ClimbWell as a space to answer them. As Blake Cason, Gaby Colletta, and I sketched the contours of ClimbWell - a space for climbers to learn and grow as people and athletes - we realized that rock-life balance is often a helpful place to start.

The Climbing Wheel of Life is a simple activity that helps us check in on how climbing is affecting other areas of our life and vice versa. It’s not about finding the perfect balance, but about checking in to see what adjustments need to be made. I recommend you do this anytime you’re feeling out of balance, but also just as a basic act of maintenance. Check your bank accounts, get an oil change, do the Climbing Wheel of Life. 

Instructions: The Climbing Wheel of Life

Follow along with the instructions below. You can draw a version of the wheel on any piece of paper, or if you like to get fancy, print a template here. 

In either case, I recommend you spend less than 30 minutes on this so you don’t overthink it. It works best if you take an intuitive approach and go with your first assessment.

Step 1: Fill in the wheel

The Wheel of Life is a popular coaching tool that helps you quickly get a snapshot view of how it’s going in different areas of life. Fill in each slice of the pizza based on how ‘full’ you feel at this moment. Remember not to overthink this - it’s just a snapshot.

Step 2: Add a climbing vector

For each life area, add an arrow pointing toward or away from the center of the circle, to indicate whether climbing is taking away from this area of your life or adding to it. 

This ‘climbing vector’ is just an observation of your current experience. For example, if climbing is taking away from your family life, it doesn’t mean that will always be the case or that you can never balance family and climbing. It just means that at this moment in time you see the way you’re engaging with climbing is subtracting, rather than adding, to this area of your life.

If you want to add more nuance, make the arrow longer or shorter based on the magnitude of climbing’s impact on this area. For some areas climbing may play little role, whereas in others it may be a major factor.

Step 3: Write your observations

This is the most important step. Now that you’ve filled in each area of the wheel and added a climbing vector, write down any observations. Did you notice anything new while doing this? Was there anything that surprised you?

One important note about this step: observation helps us see what needs to change, but please don’t analyze your experience too much. 

Observation asks: “What do I notice or see now that I’m looking at this?” Analysis tries to figure out what our observations mean. Analysis sounds like this: “Why can I never balance climbing and family life? Does this mean I’m selfish? Is it even possible to score my climbing goals while being present enough for my family? Maybe I should give up climbing….”  See the judgment shift there?

If you’re like most of us, these thoughts can be paralyzing and usually don’t get us anywhere. If you’re doing this activity and those kinds of thoughts come up, it just means you love climbing and you love your family. Your worries don’t need to mean anything more than that. Just notice what you notice, and take a small step toward balance.

Step 4: Pick a small next step

Once you’ve jotted down some observations, pick one small step that will move you closer to your current idea of rock-life balance. Is there a life area that you noticed was particularly empty? What role, if any, is climbing playing in that? And what’s one small thing you could do (today, this week…) that would move you closer to balance?

This is where the magic happens, so don’t skip step 4! Write down what you’ll do and by when. Tell someone or put it on your calendar. And let it be a small, sweet step that will really make a difference for you.

One example of a completed Climbing Wheel of Life.

Remember, it's a balancing act

This is a great activity to do when you're feeling out of balance, but it’s important to realize that balance may not mean you’re similarly full in each life area. In fact, I’d be surprised if you ever find yourself mostly full in all of them. 

Your definition of balance will change, which is why it’s helpful to check in often. Maybe you do this activity and see that your career is in “maintenance mode” (you’re doing just enough to get by), but you’re feeling fit and healthy and spending lots of time with your kids. If that’s what feels balanced and nourishing right now, great! There’s nothing to change.

But six months later you might make the same observation and feel like there’s something off. Maybe you feel a need for more personal growth or intellectual challenge that you’re not getting in other areas of life. The key is to notice any gaps between your current reality and what you suspect would feel most nourishing and fulfilling in life and in climbing, and then trying it out. 

Remember, a balancing act is active, so when you notice something don't let that insight fizzle away as just another good idea. Commit to some small action you can take this week to move closer to your current definition of rock-life balance.