You Need to Balance Your Life Before You Can Simplify It

I was reading Simplify Your Work Life: Ways to Change the Way You Work so You Have More Time to Live by Elaine St. James, a book that offers 85 individual concepts in seven sections on making your work more enjoyable and productive when Linda said, “You need to read Wayne Dyer's book Being In Balance: 9 Principles for Creating Habits to Match Your Desires and then it will be much easier to simplify your lilfe.

But first a little about the ways to simplify your life. Two examples will give the reader a general idea of the thrust of the book: “Cutting Back on the Amount of Time You Work” and Being More Productive When You Work.”

The eighty-five short sections offer helpful information on work (that is public work), but since I am retired, much of the information is something I needed back then not now. If I were a young worker, I would read and take heed to section five: “Being More Efficient with Your Money.”

If young workers (and even government officials from a few years back had this information and acted on it, maybe we wouldn't be in the sad state we find ourselves in this country.

So I decided to see what Dr. Dyer could add that would add to the process. I found he had a lot to add that made a lot of sense. The book is an attempt to help the reader restore equilibrium in all aspects of his/her life. Dyer keeps repeating the idea that a person's dream must match up with his actions. In other words a dream of love and happiness should be matched with an attitude of love and happiness. It they don't match, the chances of success are lowered considerably. The reader needs to get in the habit of thinking in alignment with his/dreams.

A few of the chapter titles will give a clue to what advice and encouragement Dyer offers: “There's More to Life Than Making It Go Faster,” “Your Addictions Will Tell You,” “You Never Get Enough of What You Don't Want,” “Fighting Any Abuse Only Increase Its Power Over You,” and especially for older couples, “Love is What's Left When Falling in Love Fades Away.”

I would suggest a reader read the sections in Simplify Your Life that apply to his/her situation but read Being in Balance in its entirety and after being somewhat successful in balancing your life, the job of simplifying it will be a piece of cake.

Both books are a little dated (2001 for Simplify and 2006 for Being in Balance) but both contain some useful information for improving one's life.