Editor’s Rating: 7.9

Editor’s Note: This review is a fourth entry in a series of weekly e-book reviews.  The review is a guest post by Thursday Bram of ThursdayBram.com.

David Bohl’s ebook, “Your Life in Balance,” is part one of Bohl’s three-part Slow Down Fast Happiness Trilogy which collectively sells for $37.60.  The book is ideal for those of us who need a details than many self-help gurus seem able to offer up. Beyond describing the sorts of changes that a person might make in order to balance his or her life, Bohl provides exercises as well as questions for readers to ask themselves in order to focus their efforts in the parts of their lives where the most change is necessary.

Bohl left a career that was successful on the surface but was becoming a problem in his life. He was very successful financially by his mid-30s, but he had no time for his family and was mentally exhausted. He took a drastic approach to finding his own life balance — he essentially quit and became a consultant.

Bohl doesn’t advocate that sort of approach for most people, though. He is one of the more realistic life coaches I’ve had the pleasure of reading: he’s very upfront about the fact that there is no clear cut path to balance or even a set definition of what balance looks like. One statement of his statements stood out in particular — the idea that it’s hard to meet another person’s definition of balance because balance for each person is different. Bohl took on a very difficult problem (creating an ebook that could help numerous people in diverse situations), knowing from the start that he could not be all things to all people. He did not create some Lifehacker-esque series of tips and tricks to lead readers to some sort of pre-ordained vision of balance. Instead, he made the effort to provide starting points for readers to reach the sort of balance that will help them the most.

Empty platitudes irritate me beyond all belief. The endless focus on motivational quotes and other blatherings of the typical life coach or guru makes it hard for me to focus on the actual writing around it. Bohl scatters a fair amount of those quotes throughout his text, but was kind enough to layout his ebook in such a way that I could skip over them fairly quickly.  I also found myself skipping over Chapter 10, which was essentially a run down of how his consulting service operates and what he can offer.  I’d also argue for a slightly more concise writing style, but Bohl does justify the repetitive nature of his e-book with an explanation of the necessity of making sure that readers are clear on each concept.

Overall, Bohl’s writing style is clear and fairly concise. He does not try to veil the difficulties of making significant life changes and he does not make open-ended promises about the value of his help.  No get rich schemes here!

-Thursday Bram