The Courage to Live Consciously
October 27th, 2004 by Steve Pavlina
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I just posted my first new article for this site today, titled The Courage to Live Consciously.
Feedback is always appreciated.
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9 Responses to “The Courage to Live Consciously”
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October 28th, 2004 at 4:51 am
Steve,
Great article! I agree with you that many people don’t know how to face their fear. When is your book going to be finished?
October 28th, 2004 at 6:06 am
Good article. Your advice on writing down your fears and working through them gels with something written by Geoff Thompson (UK Martial Artist) in his book Watch My Back. http://www.geoffthompson.com/chapters/chapter_Watch_my_back_1.htm
October 28th, 2004 at 12:24 pm
Thanks Steve, this is one of the best articles I’ve ever read. Is it going to be one of your public speechses on those meetings you’ve told us about?
October 28th, 2004 at 6:03 pm
In reply to the questions above….
1) I expect to release The Software Self-Publishing Guide by the end of 2004, but the editing time is hard for me to estimate because this is the first book I’ve written, and I tend to do a lot of rewrites to make the text as clear as possible, so I can’t be precise yet about the release date.
2) Regarding speaking… I have a written plan I’m following which begins with building skill as a speaker as well as developing original content. Ultimately I’m working towards building a new personal development information business, which will include lots of free content (blog entries and articles), products (books, audio programs), speaking engagements, and a few years down the road, public seminars. So the recent article I posted may be developed into a speech and/or a book. But right now my primary focus is on finishing and releasing The Software Self-Publishing Guide, while doing free speaking on the side to build experience (my last speech was on Oct 23 for a speech contest, and my next one will be on Nov 3).
November 2nd, 2004 at 6:19 am
I’m enjoying your articles very much, thank-you.
1) I remember that you’ve addressed the topic of fear before, and at that time I looked at the problems I’m having moving forward, and have a hard time relating it to fear. Both of the articles (but especially your first one) seem to imply that fear is what stops us. But that’s not so for me. For me the problem is quite simple. After the kids are asleep, I can turn left and sit down at my computer and work on my vision, or I can turn right and watch TV, read a book, or watch a movie. Too often I turn right. Same thing goes for washing the car, mowing the lawn. I’m not afraid of anything, I’m just lazy. I like doing nothing. The only fear I can relate to is a fear of work. I’d just rather not!
2) This is a little off topic, but it’s a pet peave of mine so I want to rant a bit. In your article you give an example of a person in a dead-end marriage who’s afraid to end it. Why not instead give the example of a person in a dead-end marriage who’s afraid to do the work necessary to make the marriage work? I know of several couples who were on the verge of divorce and hated each other. But they decided to seek help and to work on their marriages and now they are VERY happy. Genuinely happy. Divorce isn’t always the answer to a hurting relationship. There ARE ways to make a marriage whole again, but people don’t want to make themselves vulnerable to what is needed to fix a marriage, or they just don’t want to put in the work to keep a marriage happy. I’m happily married, and that is one area of my life where I’m not lazy. A happy marriage doesn’t just happen. It requires work.
henning
November 2nd, 2004 at 5:05 pm
To address the 2 points above:
1) I can’t address this one too deeply because I don’t have enough information — it would really require a back and forth conversation. Some people are very in touch with their fears and passions, while others have a tendency to numb themselves to such feelings or simply aren’t as aware of their feelings. In the latter case it can be easier to recognize fears from a lack of ambition or challenging goals. This usually indicates fear of failure or rejection or sometimes of success. You say you aren’t afraid of anything. There’s a TV show called Fear Factor that will pay you $50,000 to prove it.
2) The example was arbitrary, possibly biased due to my living in Las Vegas. I could have written it either way. I plan to address relationship issues in depth in future posts/articles.
November 3rd, 2004 at 10:05 am
Thanks for your comments Steve.
When I say that a I’m not afraid of anything, I mean that I’m not afraid of anything related to the tasks I wish to accomplish. Sure, I’m afraid of heights (a little) and so forth. But looking at where I want to be WRT my software product and where I am now, what is stopping me from getting there? The closest fear I can think of might be a fear putting in a lot of work only to find it amounts to nothing. I’m not afraid of the failure, I’m just afraid of wasting that time that I could have spent reading or whatever. Hmmm… well that’s as far as my thinking goes. My only solution so far has been to force myself off my butt and DO IT.
November 5th, 2004 at 11:59 am
I’d have to agree with Henning’s point #2.
Steve there are people in this world that we care about deeply that may appear at times to be roadblocks in our journeys of success.
Your toss to the side, “get out of my way” approach troubles me and could be indicative of problems on your end. If I care about someone but that person is a source of stress at some point, I am much more interested in hearing your ideas about arriving at common ground or how to convey ideas without increasing tension.
You appear to treat relationships like a CEO checklist item.
My girlfriend is a beautiful person but frustrates me at times when I don’t “read” her right. But in the end, if my funeral were to be tomorrow, she’d be there in the front row sobbing away which is more than I can say for any fans of my software.
July 7th, 2005 at 7:19 pm
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