Raymond L. Burton - The Happy Soul

Who The Heck Is Steve Pavlina?

A couple of years ago I became aware of an online blogger who really had some interesting ideas. His name is Steve Pavlina. As a matter of fact, his rss feed is still on my home page to this day because there is always something to challenge my current mind set there.

What makes him interesting is that the ideas he puts out are his own and it’s quite fine if you don’t agree with them. The thing with the field of personal development and self help is that it’s quite a lot like organized religion. The blind lead the blind. Ideas and protocols seem to get regurgitated without any original thought or questioning on the part of the seeker. Actually without much thought or questioning on the part of the teacher for that matter. Now this does not mean the ideas are false or the teachings of no value but without questioning, growth and development can be slow.

AND SO WHAT?

Well, I was given the pleasure of getting an advance copy of Steve Pavlina’s “Personal Development For Smart People” to review. It’s great stuff.

My usual protocol for reading personal development books is to pick my favorite highlighter (pink or yellow depending on the mood) and highlight some of the more outstanding concepts that I run into. That way once I finish the book I can look back and mull the ideas around a bit more to see how they might help enhance the lives of this blogs readers as well as my own.

It’s kind of funny but after a couple of pages I realized that Steve doesn’t seem to believe in adding filler to important concepts just to flesh out a page. I ended up with a lot of yellow highlighting and very little white space which is fantastic. It means that Steve Pavlina’s “Personal Development For Smart People” is a book that I need to keep on the shelf to use instead of pulling out only a concept or two and throwing the rest away.

Another thing I appreciated as I read through the book was the fact that his ideas where not full of “intangibles”. What I mean is that often times, books from the self help genre have ideas that are so spiritual it seems that unless you own a set of white fluffy wings and have the ability to see auras, then most of the stuff is pretty hard to put into practice for any length of time.

Steve Pavlina’s “Personal Development For Smart People” gives you the principles of growing yourself and explains how to implement them into your life and why you would actually even want to do such a thing in the first place.

Where You Can Get Steve’s Book

Steve Pavlina’s “Personal Development For Smart People” is available to order in hardcover through Amazon.com here:

Personal Development for Smart People: The Conscious Pursuit of Personal Growth

On a more personal note, this book came into my hands in a really well timed manner. As most of you know, my major area of “providing social value” (you’ll know what I’m talking about if you pick up Steve’s book) is in the fitness industry. Both through the Buildingbodies.ca Fitness Site as well as my Calgary Personal Training Company.

The reason is that the time has finally come for me to personally step back from one on one training so that I can concentrate on offering my help on a larger scale. Both through writing new programs, speaking and offering help online. It’s a big shift for me but due to circumstances that are out of my control, intuition and reading Steve’s book I now feel this is the right move.

The section on money in “Personal Development For Smart People” opened my eyes. Chasing the buck doesn’t work. I’ve done time in that cellar. Providing massive social value in an area that helps you evolve and grow as well does. It’s win win and it’s a ton more fun. Seems simple but sometimes it’s the simple things our friends need to remind us of. Just like in jiu jitsu, if you know the basics and are solid in your tactics, you’ll do well.

On a side note: It’s looks like this book is quite a hit with others as well. As I write this, you can read twelve other positive reviews of Steve’s book and as of this moment They Are Out Of Stock! Congrats Steve, get that next shipment out.

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