Let’s admit it; we all want to be more, do more, and have more. When you ask people if they would like to be happier, healthier, or more prosperous financially, you are certain to get an affirmative response. This is because every living thing in nature is programmed with a desire to improve. We are most certainly a part of nature. Since the beginning of time, our deep instinct of wanting to be more, do more, and have more has been one of the primary reasons behind general advancement of the human race.

You often see articles on ways to unwind and relax after a stressful day, which I always find useful, but for me the most important advice would be to get to the source of the problem, and cut stress out before it even happens. By careful editing of your life, and changing certain habits, you can eliminate most (not all) sources of stress in your life.

I don’t believe that a stress-free life is possible. Stress is a response to challenges in life, and a life without challenges is too boring to contemplate. However, I do believe that most of the stress in our lives is unnecessary, and that it can be eliminated by taking some simple (and some not-so-simple) steps. It can’t be accomplished overnight - I’ve been eliminating stressors in my life for awhile now, and I’m still not done. But I think it’s a worthwhile goal.

In today’s hectic world we often do not take the time to allow ourselves the luxury of quality time with ourselves, free from the cares and craziness of the daily circus that is our lives. It seems that, on the whole, we’ve all become phenomenal multitaskers, capable of amazing feats of juggling and endless readjustments to our schedules.

Five year olds take note! Your hyper-charged antics have absolutely nothing over a 21st century adult male or female anywhere in the world plugged into cyberspace via iPod or blackberry, amped up on various unholy mixtures of sucrose, caffeine and lactose, rocketing down a high-efficiency autobahn or freeway in an amazingly over-powered personal transportation vehicle, liberated from the office to go to yoga class, take in a movie, grab a bite to eat, shop for new cellular service and make it home in time to do a load or two of laundry and zone out in front of the TV.