In Search of Balance: Keys to a Stable Life

by Richard Swenson

Overview

In Search of Balance by Richard A. Swenson, MD, author of the best-selling book Margin, helps us understand the dangers of living in a fast-paced world and gives us hope for recovering a foundational sense of equilibrium. Dr. Swenson offers not only important organizing principles for making sense of our priorities but also scores of practical tips for finding rest and contentment in a world that emphasizes materialism and busyness. His advice is grounded in the daily realities we all experience, but his wisdom has been honed by the big-picture perspective of an exhaustive study of the stresses of modern life. Let Dr. Swenson be your gentle guide for reaching a new stage of personal balance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781600066986
Publisher:	The Navigators
Publication date:	02/15/2010
Series:	LifeChange Series
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Dr. Richard A. Swenson is a futurist, physician-researcher, award-winning educator, and best-selling author of Margin and The Overload Syndrome. He has given thousands of presentations, both nationally and internationally, to a wide variety of career, professional, educational, medical, religious, governmental, and management groups as well as members of the United Nations, NASA, Congress, the Pentagon, and the Mayo Clinic. Dr. Swenson and his wife, Linda, live in Menomonie, Wisconsin.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 11

Introduction

1 Dreaming the Possible Impossible Dream 15

Part I

2 How Aggressive Progress Sabotages the Balance We Need 25

3 How Balance is Displayed in Every Quadrant of the Created Order 45

4 How to Place Your Life in Stable Orbit Around Your Priorities 61

5 How to Couple Balance (Equilibrium) with Margin (Capacity) 81

Part II

6 Countering the Escalation of the Norm 99

7 Doing the Math 129

8 Maintaining a Work-Life Balance 151

9 Meeting the Decent Minimums 179

Conclusion

10 Securing a Space for Deep Consecutive Thoughts 201

Notes 209

Index 223

About the Author 231

Editorial Reviews

Swenson scored a best seller with Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives; his latest is also geared toward helping adults reorder their priorities to find more purpose and joy in their lives. Swenson denounces uncontrolled profusion (e.g., bigger houses, lavish weddings) as the cause of uncontrolled stress and imbalance in most of the population. He counsels the reader to resist escalating norms and to weigh positives and negatives on such things as allowing interruptions, taking on discretionary burdens, and social networking. While his recommendations are quite good, he spends well over half the book laying out the dilemma of imbalance and less space on solutions. Those who want to commiserate over a changing world and get off the treadmill will enjoy this book.

Library Journal