Getting A Life provides answers to the challenges of life at the beginning of the 21st century. Such things as:

• The Time Famine - People feel they have no time -- for themselves, their families, friends or community. Getting A Life tells how to get off the work and spend treadmill and create time for things you really want to do.

• Financial Insecurity - Despite all the positive economic indicators, the late 1990s have seen more personal bankruptcies, lay offs and higher levels of consumer debt than ever before. Getting A Life helps you create an individual gameplan that can give you peace of mind by eliminating debt, saving money and making you more self reliant.

• Affluenza - Called the "disease of the 90s," Affluenza is the dogged pursuit of "more" when the rewards clearly aren't there. Getting A Life guides you in carving out a healthy, more balanced life rich in non-material ways.

• The Search for Our Souls - People are starting to ask, "Is this all there is?" when they think about their harried lives dominated by work and bills. Getting A Life offers a way to get in touch with your true values and live an authentic life in tune with your real purpose.

• Environmental Concerns - Air and water quality are threatened, garbage is piling up. Our natural resources are being used up at a record rate. Getting A Life shows how we can make a positive difference in our environment by reducing consumption.

Excerpt From The Prologue:

What is in this Book?

You might legitimately ask: "Do I need a program to change my life?" Perhaps not. Nineteenth century philosopher Henry David Thoreau just hung out at Walden Pond for a couple of years to figure things out. Other self-motivated souls have changed their lives, found happiness and achieved financial integrity through sheer will, individual exploration and trial and error. We found, however, that using a program gave us an overall structure that would be difficult to create on our own. The program made us ask ourselves the tough questions. The structure then gave us a way of monitoring our progress and provided motivation for "staying the course." While it gave us a framework, the program also had enough flexibility to allow us to define our own goals and objectives.

You might also ask: "Well, OK, but what's so special about this program - the Your Money Or Your Life program? Aren't there lots of other programs that promise financial independence and true happiness?" A quick look at bookstore shelves reveals many books devoted to money. However, most programs we have seen are based on traditional financial advice and assume a lifestyle based on consumption and an underlying equation between happiness and material acquisition. Other sources offer ways to think about money, but little in the way of practical steps to achieve change. Your Money or Your Life offers a holistic approach that uses consciousness about spending instead of external controls (budgets) to bring about change. It offers "enough" rather than "wealth." The program not only made us realize the folly of the "more is better" treadmill, but gave us a plan to get off.

We wanted to make this book as useful as possible and realized that everyone who read it might not be familiar with the program. You do not have to have read Your Money Or Your Life to benefit from this book (although we hope you will be inspired to read it if you haven't already). We explain terms and principles from the original book as they come up. Chapter 5, the account of how we and others worked through the program, includes a more detailed explanation of each of the nine steps. Overall, we've included how-to information, revealed difficulties we encountered along the way, and shared some of the mental processes we have gone through in making changes in our lives.