Life matters（平衡）（英文原版）

The Merrills, time management experts who co-authored First Things First with Stephen Covey (The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People), expand their range here to cover creative ways to successfully balance four major aspects of life: family, money, work and time. The premise of their program rests on what the authors call three gotta do's-validate expectations, optimize effort and develop navigational intelligence. For example, if you have determined for yourself and your family that financial security is important (validate expectations), it is necessary to take steps to achieve this (optimize effort) by, say, getting out of consumer debt. Navigational intelligence is the ability to make appropriate decisions when unpredictable events arise that may interfere with your focus. The Merrills borrow a paradigm from their earlier book that divides tasks into four quadrants; urgent, not urgent, important and unimportant. Drawing on personal anecdotes, the authors show how this division can facilitate making choices that balance the requirements of a family life with earning a living. Their philosophy is based on the conviction that a strong family-centered life is one of the keys to happiness and central to a stable civilization. The Merrills recommend working with children to create a family mission statement; they advocate regular family meetings, shared family activities and scheduled "dates" between husbands and wives. This thoughtful self-help manual is not a quick read, but its advice is sound and can easily be applied to daily life.

工作与生活真的不能协调吗？看完本书，你就掌握了平衡之道了。

A. Roger Merrill,
　　Roger has had over 35 years of experience as a senior executive, writer, teacher, and consultant. He has been featured in numerous magazine, radio, and television interviews internationally, including The Today Show, Prime Time Live, Lifestyle Magazine, Business Week, and USA Today. Roger was a cofounder of Covey Leadership Center–now FranklinCovey–and is a principal of Agilix Labs, which is involved in the creation of software applications for the new Tablet PCs. Working with many of the world's most respected organizations, he offers practical insights to enhance personal and organizational leadership.

　　A groundbreaking guide to achieving true life balance from the experts at the Covey Institute

　　In this highly acclaimed book, A. Roger Merrill and Rebecca Merrill show you how to navigate the critical relationships between time and money, work and family, to create a harmonious, success-enhancing dynamic between each.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
FOREWORD
WHAPTER 1 WHAT MATTERS
WHAPTER 2 THE THREE GOTTA DO’S
WHAPTER 3 WORK MATTERS
WHAPTER 4 FAMILY MATTERS
WHAPTER 5 TIME MATTERS
WHAPTER 6 MONEY MATTERS
WHAPTER 7 WISDOM MATTERS
NOTES
INDEX

Foreword by Stephen R. Covey

FOREWORD
“Profound knowledge.” These are the words of the late Edwards
Deming—the management/quality guru who helped bring America
back to economic prominence in the 1970s and ’80s. He used this
phrase to describe the deeper knowledge of human nature and principles needed to understand and make practical knowledge work.

Profound knowledge is literally what this book is. In fact, what I
would say is “profound wisdom,” because it interweaves timeless, universal, self-evident principles into all of the knowledge that is given.
The great educator Alfred North Whitehead differentiated knowledge
from wisdom in this way:

In a sense, knowledge shrinks as wisdom grows; for details are
swallowed up in principles. The details of knowledge which are
important will be picked up ad hoc in each avocation of life, but
the habit of the active utilization of well-understood principles is
the final possession of wisdom.

Rebecca and Roger Merrill are not only truly marvelous people,
they are a remarkable couple. As will become wonderfully obvious to
you,they practice and live what they teach.They didn’t just learn these
things; they earned them, often the hard way, as they clearly, humbly
acknowledge.

I hope you share my passion for this remarkable book. I would
like to share with you my experience with both Roger and Rebecca. I
believe the more you understand them and my experiences with them
both, the better you will understand the material in this book.

I have known Roger almost my entire adult life. We have been
involved together in many enterprises and projects, and I can honestly say that he is one of the finest people I have ever known—a beautiful blending of heart, mind, and spirit. I also esteem him to be one of
the finest and wisest teachers I have ever seen. He has been teaching ……