This is a beautifully illustrated gift book that offers 66 versatile ideas for juggling work and play, friends and family, heart and soul, and mind and body in this balancing act we call life. The ideas are practical and often whimsical. Many of the ideas may sound familiar but may, in fact, have become forgotten or lost in your day-to-day busy life.

Life is a Balancing Act… a fun book

Debbie Lessin
Balancing Act Productions (2004)
ISBN 0972892419
Reviewed by Irene Watson for Reader Views (4/06)


Debbie Lessin, a CPA, entrepreneur, speaker and author, presents 66 resourceful ideas for managing and coping with life challenges. Although the book is small, it is powerful and realistic, yet fun and entertaining. Each page gives the reader a new idea or an opportunity to remember an act that can be followed through to attain balance in life.

For example, on the page for “Expand Your Horizons” Lessin suggests to: ride a motorcycle, train for a marathon, cycle the trail. In “Arrange a Girl’s Night Out” she suggests: Laughing, sharing and telling the stories of sisterhood. Lessin suggests in “Just Say No!” to: remind yourself often that you don’t have to be a super-woman or super-mom.

Illustrations by Janet Jaffke are amusing and reflective at the same time. In the back of this little treasure Lessin provides an epilogue with items like: things to remember about balance, beat the clock activities, and, free or less than $20 activities. She also provides space for your balance inventory and balance wish list. In the end, Lessin reminds us that “there is no such thing as perfect balance!” We are encouraged to have fun, explore the mystery of life, and move on.

Debbie Lessin’s “Life is a Balancing Act” is a perfect little gift book for any woman – mother, sister, grandmother, friend, yourself. Her words of wisdom touch aspects of everyday life and give us the encouragement to strive for balance in our lives. This is not a book to taken lightly, but to delve into and reflect on the quality of life we deserve and manifest. Recommended!