Spider Diagrams

This technique could change your life for the better. One of today's
biggest killers is stress. There are two types of stress in my opinion.

Type 1, the type of stress, caused by being chased by a large hungry lion.

This to me is "good" stress. There is genuinely something to fear as adrenalin is pumped through your body,
your heart beats faster and your blood pressures sores.

This is hopefully short lived "stress" as your body either recovers up a tree, or is found in small pieces in the
lion's stomach.

Worrying about your mortgage payments, being anxious about your family, or feeling over pressured at work
can also induce these adrenalin fuelled states.

This to me is bad stress. Who controls these fearful thoughts?

Only one person.

You !

In reality our fears are often founded by our fertile imagination rather than the "true" reality of the situation.

I like the acronym for " fear "

False Evidence Appearing Real

I'm a great believer that to reduce this bad stress you need to have balance in your life.

So what techniques are there to help you get balance ?

You guessed it, the Spider Diagram

Spider Diagram for Life Balance

Here is what you do.

Jot down on a piece of paper say, seven things that are important to you in your life.

You may come up with a list that looks something like this:

	Career
	Health
	Spirit
	Family
	Personal Development
	Contributing to Others
	Finances

Now, get another bit of paper and a pencil and draw a dot in the middle of the paper.

Now, draw seven equal length lines from the dot. (just like the spokes on a
bicycle wheel)

At the end of each line, print one of the headings that you came up with.

Divide each line into 10 equal segments.

Now, draw a large circle to complete the wheel, touching the edges of each spoke.

You have just drawn a template for your first spider diagram.

Now, think about the list we created for the important aspects of your life.

Say, we looked at finances.

If you never have to think about money, and are totally confident about it, then you would score a 10.

If it consumes your every thought, and you worry about it constantly, then your score would be obviously
a lot less.

Place a cross on the number that best represents your circumstance.

Now repeat this for all the other areas of your life.

Be totally truthful with yourself.

Join all the crosses together and sit back and admire your spider diagram.

If all of the crosses are at 10 forming a perfect high scoring circle, then you are probably a big fibber!

The idea, over time is to raise all you scores.

If there are areas that are particularly letting you down, write down some goals to raise your game in this
particular area.

You should repeat this exercise every couple of months to check on your progress.

It can also help you think about something that was going well, but has started to slip.

In Conclusion

I've given you a very specific personal example of a spider diagram, but this technique can be used in
many aspects of business to great effect.

If there are several areas that contribute to an overall performance you can track them on a spider diagram.

Many organisations use spider diagrams to track 3S/5S workplace organisation efforts.

Hope this helps and thanks for reading.

Best regards,

Graham Ross

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