Some life lessons gained through experience, reading books, and reading blogs on the web.

• Do only things that make you happy. You have choices. We all have choices. Choose only to do the things that make you happy. If you find yourself unhappy, make a plan, change direction and learn from your mistakes.
• Organisation helps to achieve a work life balance. Invest time and energy in gaining management skills, and in gaining best practice in technology usage. Use all the tools available to you to become more efficient at what you do.
• Take time to work out and understand your own values and beliefs. This knowledge opens the door to self-awareness. When we are self aware, we are influenced less by others and our environment, and are ultimately we are more in control of our lives and our future.
• Life is full of ups and downs. If we focus on the downs, we remove opportunities to focus on the alternative, the upswing. It is important to focus on areas in our lives that we can influence and build upon.
• Plans allow us to formulate routes to our future. If we have no plans on how we are going to manage our finance, our career, our life, we have no focus on, or control over what will happen. Strive to attain personal goals by setting targets. Never give up learning. Learning fills information gaps, and it improves existing skills. If we improve our skills, we are better prepared, and more able to make wiser more informed choices.
• Avoiding tasks and bad situations will not help. Approach each problem as a challenge and break it into smaller tasks. We learn through experience and by doing. Use books, the Internet, and advice given by others to guide you to a solution. Delegate where appropriate.
• Believe in yourself. Understand why you think and feel the way you do. Discover facts, quantify and clarify problems, predict consequences of any proposed actions, remain constant and true to yourself. Don't be afraid to break old habits and embrace something new. Don't be afraid to redo something and make it better. If you close your eyes to change you stop learning. If you stop learning you will not progress.

Listed here are some of my most favourite books for Life Style Changes. These books have all inspired me to make some form of change in my own life. Some of these books I have given as gifts to others. They are listed in no particular order. (Amazon Links are included.)

• The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: Restoring the Character Ethic (A Fireside Book)
• Take Back Your Life!: Using Microsoft Outlook to Get Organized and Stay Organized (Bpg-Other)
• Anyone Can Do It: My Story
• Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life
• Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable
• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
• Rich Dad, Poor Dad (Rich Dad)
• What to Expect When You're Expecting (What to Expect)