The Life Map
A practical WTFT framework
Are you aware of the Life Map you already have?
Life repeatedly places us between competing pulls: enjoying today and protecting tomorrow, making room for ourselves and being available to others, staying with what works and making room for change. The WTFT Life Map turns those tensions into something you can examine.
Your Life Map is the unique pattern created by where you stand across the dimensions that matter to your life.
01
A tension becomes an axis
An axis represents one dimension as a continuum between two clearly defined ends. You may stand anywhere between them. Neither end, nor the middle point, is necessarily automatically better.
02
Your choices locate Current position
Repeated behaviour and the way you actually use your time, money and energy show where you stand now. Some positions were deliberately chosen. Others became defaults.
03
Your Wanted position reveals what matters
Marking where you genuinely want to stand reveals the differences that deserve attention. A gap is not a verdict—and not every gap must be closed.
From a tension to an axis
Different dimensions need different kinds of axes
The type of axis depends on what you are examining. The labels should describe real life clearly enough that you can locate yourself from evidence—not from self-image.
Degree
How much is present?
Measures how much of one quality, resource or behaviour is present.
Orientation
Which way do you tend to operate?
Shows which of two valid ways of operating you tend to favour.
Allocation
How do you divide a finite resource?
Shows how you divide the same limited time, money, energy or attention.
The purpose
Get more from life—not a better score
The Life Map is not a test of whether you are living correctly. It helps you see whether the pattern of your actual choices fits the life you want—and where an unexamined default or assumption may be narrowing your options.
The practical framework
Use the Life Map in five moves
The framework moves from clarity to action—and includes the people whose lives are affected by major shared decisions.
01
Define what matters
Choose 8–12 dimensions from recurring tensions and real decisions in your life.
02
Locate Current
Use repeated behaviour to see where you stand—and which positions arose by default.
03
Locate Wanted
Identify the two or three differences that matter enough to deserve attention.
04
Test a false choice
When two desirable outcomes seem incompatible, question what currently makes them conflict.
05
Compare shared maps
Before a major decision, compare with your spouse instead of assuming you want the same positions.
What the framework can reveal
Claire thought she had to choose between her income and having a life
Claire is 47, earns €135,000 and works about 53 hours a week. She believes that regaining her time would require becoming less successful.
The starting story
“Keep the job—or regain my life.”
It sounds like a decision. But “money,” “time,” “life” and “security” remain undefined, and income and free time have been forced into one false choice.
What the map showed
Income was not the gap
Her income was already where she wanted it. The material gaps were calendar control, recovery, family presence and discretionary time. What she wanted to reduce was permanent availability—not success.
The practical move
Test the operating model
A reversible six-week experiment introduced response windows, delegated decisions and protected time. It tested whether reduced availability would actually harm clients or revenue.
Start with your own life
What fits—and what no longer does?
A first map does not need to cover everything. Begin with eight to twelve dimensions that materially affect how you are living now.