Find Your Balance Point

by Brian Tracy and Christina Stein

Berrett-Koehler     2015

112 pages     Self Help

When I was a young woman, my husband and I were involved in a multi-level marketing business that we pursued for several years. While "building our business," we went to many motivational seminars with motivational speakers—the most famous being Zig Ziglar. My husband actually went to a one week seminar with Ziglar. I believe that the lessons we learned from those seminars have helped me throughout my life. Certainly, they helped our family surmount the loss of our husband and father. We had the inner strength. 

Find your Balance Point is a quick read and a quick journey through the power of planning and executing goals for achievement. Although the authors purport to want to help readers find "balance," the book is all about setting goals and believing you can achieve those goals. They only briefly touch on balance. Perhaps you goal is to find balance between home and work. The authors believe that this is possible. It would have been helpful if they had used more real-life examples to help the reader relate to the terms and the concepts.

The most practical advice offered concerns list making. They suggest that successful people make lists for the next day before they go to bed at night. That way, the list maker will subconsciously work on tasks all night. I'm not sure that will lead to a very good night's sleep. I find that I do my best thinking and planning in the early morning hours, just before rising; I solve lots of problems that way.

One of the most successful parts of the book for me was the lists of values that the authors ask the reader to rank in importance. The lists include character values, life values, and role and identity values. This was a good exercise for me because it helped me to identify those values that have guided my life. I will use those lists in classes that I teach.

I contrasted Find Your Balance Point with another book I read recently—Are You Fully Charged? by Tom Rath. Rath has a different take on motivation than do Tracy and Stein, but the results are the same. People are the most successful when they are doing work they love. These books make a great combination for people beginning their careers. Find Your Balance Point is simplistic—by design, I believe. It makes it a great gift for a new graduate or someone just starting on a career. 

Here are author bios from the publicist. It appears that they are a father-daughter duo. As you can see, the authors have extensive experience in motivational speaking and counseling. 

Brian Tracy is one of America's leading authorities on the development of human potential and personal effectiveness. A dynamic and inspiring speaker, he addresses thousands of people each year on the subjects of personal and professional development, including the executives and staff of such firms as IBM, Arthur Andersen, McDonnell Douglas, and The Million Dollar Round Table. Prior to founding his own firm, Brian Tracy International, he had successful careers in sales and marketing, investments, real estate development, distribution, and management consulting. Tracy is the author of thirteen previous books including the bestselling book Maximum Achievement. He is also the author/narrator of numerous bestselling audio-cassette programs, including The Psychology of Achievement and How to Start and Succeed in Your Own Business.

Christina Tracy Stein graduated with a bachelor of arts in psychology from the University of Southern California and received her master's degree in clinical psychology from Antioch University. She has a Marriage and Family Therapist license from the Board of Behavior Sciences, is a member of both the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy and the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapy, and is a Certified Nutrition and Lifestyle Coach. She currently has a private practice in Santa Monica, California. Prior to beginning her private practice, Christina worked at the Maple Counseling Center in Beverly Hills, California, where she participated in the Intake and Assessment, Adult Counseling, and Group Programs. She has spent more than five thousand hours with individuals, couples, and groups doing assessments, psychotherapy, and personal counseling.

Here is Brian Tracy's website: http://www.briantracy.com