Life can take unexpected turns without consideration. Life is not easy nor fair. And the trick to being happy in life is keeping balanced. This guide is presented, without preference to order, to provide resources to you, the reader, to keep your life on a balanced track. Regardless if you are an teenager starting out in life or a senior who has lived a long life, The parts of life that are focused on are educational achievements, career path, rounded relationships, personalized hobbies, selfless activities, a healthy life, eating nutritionally, exercising regularly, refraining from smoking, safety habits, stress relief, sleep enhancement, financial management, and when you need external help, seeking counseling or looking towards a higher being, regardless of personal beliefs. Take the time to round out your life and get back into balance.

Education

"Education makes a people easy to lead but difficult to drive: easy to govern, but impossible to enslave." Peter Brougham

• Education Attainment: Adults with advanced degrees earn four times more than those without a college education.
• College Resource Guide: A college degree can affect not only a graduate’s salary level but an entire family and their future salary levels.
• College Fund Assistance: Many programs and public service industries forgive student loans if a position is taken in these fields. This could mean a free education.

Career

"I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." Michael Jordan

• Career Development Organization: Student who take an active role in planning their own career development tend to excel in their given industry.
• National Career Development Association:
• Career Maze: Using a career profiling tool can help a person narrow down what career they can naturally excel in.
• Next Steps: The average adult changes careers at least every seven years. Enhancing a professional portfolio can help keep a resume fresh.
• Career Guide to Industries: Choosing a career early in a professional’s life allows for focusing on improving skills that allow a person to excel in a career.

Relationships

"The quality of your life is the quality of your relationships." Anthony Robbins

• Women and Healthy Relationships: Building healthy relationships can be learned just like any other skill.
• Safety in Relationships for Young Men: Relationship management habits are traced back to family home life.
• Building Healthy Relationships: Those who have healthy relationships in their personal life, generally have healthy relationships with their co-workers.
• Teen Relationships: Learning to build healthy relationships as a teen can be helpful in future success.
• Heathly Aging Heath Center: Friendships and relationships can help people live happy, healthy lives. Now it is understood that it can help people live longer lives.
• Friendships and Peer Relationships: Teens and young adults handle difficult situations differently than older adults and reaching out can help.

Hobbies

"Hobbies are apt to run away with us, you know; it doesn't do to be run away with. We must keep the reins." George Eliot

• Pre-Teen Hobbies: Hobbies can bring joy to many lives and create a happy and healthy living environment.
• Hobbies and Your Health: Hobbies help keep your body healthy by engaging the mind and the body.
• Hobby Directory: Participating in a hobby can ward of depression and other mental illnesses and promote a healthy and balanced lifestyle.
• Healthy Habits Include Hobbies: The joy from participating in hobbies has shown many health and emotional benefits.

Selfless Activities

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mean

• World Volunteer Web: Volunteering has a positive impact on a community as well as the person who is volunteering.
• Help Guide: Volunteering can be a great way to gain experience in a particular field.
• Youth for Understanding: Teaching youth volunteering can broaden awareness and create better college opportunities.
• Health Benefits of Volunteering: Scientists have found that people who contribute 100 volunteer hours or more each year experience health benefits.
• Volunteer Match: Volunteering requires time and effort from the volunteer but the reward is intrinsically more fulfilling.
• United We Serve: This initiative from President Obama seeks to engage and challenge citizens to serve their communities.

Nutrition

“The doctor of the future will no longer treat the human frame with drugs, but rather will cure and prevent disease with nutrition.” Thomas Edison

• Smart Nutrition: Eating healthy lowers the risk of heath related problems such as heart disease and cancer.
• Food and Nutrition Information Center:
• Choose My Plate: People who eat a healthy balanced diet according to the USDA MY Plate model are more likely to lead healthy lives.
• Dietary Guidelines for Americans: Eating healthy can improve mood, intelligence and overall well being.
• Dietary Web Tutorial: Changing bad eating habits can promote a lifelong benefit to an entire family.

Exercise

"Those who think they have not the time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness." Edward Stanley

• Fitness, Sports and Nutrition: Over two thirds of US adults over 20 years old are obese or overweight.
• American Heart Association: Only thirty one percent of US adults say they engage in regular physical activity.
• Start Walking Now: Physical activity may help lower the chance of adult onset diabetes, heart disease, some cancers and depression.
• Shape Up America: Exercise produces endorphins which can elevate mood and mimic a natural antidepressant.
• Active Lifestyle Log: People who track their fitness are more likely to continue an exercise program than those who do not.

Smoke-Free

"Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude." W.W. Ziege

• Benefits of Quitting Smoking: Cigarette smoke contains over 7,000 chemicals with 70 known to be carcinogenic.
• Tobacco Related Mortality: More deaths are caused by the use of tobacco products than any other causes combined eat year.
• Learn About Cancer From Tobacco: Lung Cancer is the most preventable cancer in men and women.
• American Lung Association: 392,000 people die in the US from tobacco related deaths.

Safety

"Prepare and prevent, don't repair and repent." Author Unknown

• FEMA: Preparing a disaster kit, making a plan and staying informed can benefit any family, home or business.
• Food Safety and Inspection Service: Taking measures toward food safety can reduce food poisoning and contamination.
• Homeland Security: Citizens are the eyes and ears of the country’s security and are responsible for reporting any threats or strange behaviors.
• National Weather Service: Staying informed about local and national alert systems is the first line of defense in a weather disaster.

Health

"The greatest wealth is health." Virgil

• Vaccines and Immunizations: Vaccines prevent and eradicate many life threatening illnesses.
• Health and Human Services: Yearly physicals performed can reduce the incidences of complications from illness when they caught early.
• Routine Oral Exams: PDF - More than 8,000 Americans die each year from oral cancer which is curable if caught early.
• Eye Exams: One in four children fail eye exams which can impact their ability to learn in school.
• Preventative Healthcare: Self exams combined with physical screenings can help catch many illnesses including cancer in a curable stage.

Stress

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us." Helen Keller

• Effects of Stress on Life: Stress has been connected with causing heart disease and other illnesses.
• Ways to Reduce Stress: Reducing stress can improve physical health as well as emotional well being.
• Guide to Living a Stress-free Life: Living a balanced life can help relieve stress and provide coping skills throughout stressful situations.
• Coping with Stress: Signs of stress can mimic other disorders and should be evaluated to avoid complications and health issues.
• American Institute of Stress: Health aggravations by stress have caused between a large amount of doctors visits.

Sleep

"A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor's book." Irish Proverb

• Sleep Disorders: An estimated 40 million Americans suffer from sleep disorder.
• Sleep Deprivation: The average American sleeps between 6.9 – 7.5 hours each night when the body requires an average of 7-8 hours of sleep per night.
• Get Enough Sleep: Proper amount of sleep can reduce risk of illnesses, lower blood pressure and maintain a healthy weight.
• Understanding Sleep: Some studies show that people not only require the proper amount of sleep, but the quality of sleep must also be high to benefit.

Financial Management & Budgeting

"The real measure of your wealth is how much you'd be worth if you lost all your money." Author Unknown

• Consumer Reports: Debt management is a growing concern across the country and proper education can alleviate some of the stress.
• Federal Trade Commission: A large percentage of Americans do not maintain or stick to a monthly budget.
• Money Management: Quality of life can be improved by educating oneself on personal money management.
• Retirement Planning: AN IRS survey showed 80% of Americans plan to work part time after retirement, but with proper early retirement planning they could have avoided this.

Therapy

"I've experienced several different healing methodologies over the years - counseling, self-help seminars, and I've read a lot - but none of them will work unless you really want to heal." Lindsay Wagner

• American Psychology Association: Managing stress can be a great way to ward off stress related illnesses.
• Counseling Resource: Therapy can help people cope or even overcome obstacles in life.
• American Counseling Association: Learning how to cop with adversity makes for a healthy life and positive attitude overall.
• Help Horizons: Maintaining a healthy lifestyle can also mean accessing support when needed.

Faith

"Faith is courage; it is creative while despair is always destructive." David S. Muzzey

• Spiritual Resource on Different Faiths: Actively engaging in practicing spirituality can bring stress relief to every day life.
• Explore Faith: People in crisis often find solace and peace when seeking spirituality and have faith.
• Spirituality and Faith: APA studies show that those who are overcoming life battles show a higher frequency of positive results by patients who have a higher level of faith or spirituality.
• Faith Resource: Optimism is common among those who practice a certain faith.