Book Review

Difference a Day Makes: 365 Ways to Change Your World in Just 24 Hours

Okay, so your life hasn't yet slowed down as you contemplate the living gently lifestyle. Demands on your time continue to come from all sides, and yet an inner voice, spurred perhaps by recent tragedies such as the Indian Ocean tsunami, still nags you to "get involved."

If the above describes you, then Karen M. Jones may have a solution. Her new book The Difference a Day Makes: 365 Ways to Change Your World in Just 24 Hours offers simple actions you can take that can make that difference with a minimum of time commitment and no cash donation. And perhaps, those small steps are just the beginning for further action in the near future.

The Difference a Day Makes is not the kind of book one reads end to end, though you may want to skim it fully through when you first obtain a copy. Its 365 simple action steps can be taken in doses of action around a particular subject (how the actions are arranged in the book) such as "Care About Kids," "Sharing Wealth," "Honoring Elders" and "Friends and Neighbors." Each action features a different altruistic step that can be accomplished in a single day or even a few minutes with the simple click of the mouse on a website who will donate money to a charity.

Among the actions are: acting as driver for a battered women's shelter, planting trees or a garden at a schoolyard, recycling running shoes into a playground surface, taking a day off from consumerism, aiding low-income students in finding grants and scholarships, or helping unemployed workers put together resumes. The choice is yours.

The whole process is what Jones calls philantherapy. "We've spent decades consuming self-help advice to little or no avail," she believes, "when actually it turns out selfless help is the key to fulfillment and inner peace. You just can't help but feel good once you start doing good."

If you need that quick start and small beginning step, obtain a copy of The Difference a Day Makes and begin to change the world.