Personal Development for Smart People^TM

I just posted Part I of a new two-part article: Living Your Values.
This article guides you through a step-by-step process to discover your personal values hierachy. Part II (still in progress) will explain how to use your personal value system to make conscious decisions and achieve your most important goals.
Feedback is always appreciated.

I certainly understand those who reacted negatively to the software book cancellation. Keeping commitments is important to me. The key lesson I had to learn though was when to break a commitment — if you reach a higher state of awareness where your original commitment no longer makes sense, how do you know […]

This past week I updated my personal values. My previous list was (in order of priority):

Growth
Intelligence/reason
Clarity/focus
Drive/desire/determination
Efficiency
Self-discipline
Health/vitality
Success/achievement/accomplishment
Industry/persistence/diligence
Confidence
Resilience
Courage
Loyalty
Order/structure/cleanliness
Curiosity
Excitement/adventure

My new list is:

Clarity/focus
Health/vitality/fitness
Peace
Connection/empathy
Intelligence/reason
Honor/honesty
Courage
Fun/humor
Excellence/mastery
Impact/making a difference
Growth

I normally update my values every 3-6 months, and the previous list was about 5 months old. These lists don’t represent my overall global life values. What they represent is what I […]

Since 1992, I’ve been pursuing personal growth with a passion. I’ve attended seminars, listened to audio programs, and read hundreds of books in this field. I’ve easily spent many thousands of dollars and invested thousands of hours on such pursuits. And one thing I can tell you from all of this effort […]

I decided to cancel my book project, The Software Self-Publishing Guide. This was a tough choice, and I know some people will be disappointed. So I’ll explain why I came to this decision.
I originally started work on this book as something of a transition project that would help me move from game publishing […]

As a follow-up to the last entry, let’s explore the role of the people in your life. Are they elevating you to be the best person you can be, or are they holding you back?
I mentioned in my last entry that when going through major life shifts, like changing careers, I would shift the people […]

Daily affirmations are something you’ll commonly see recommended in pop-psychology books. Each day you verbally affirm your goals as if they’re already accomplished. However, you usually won’t get any results at all with this approach — in most cases it’s an utter waste of time.
Why is this? Because every thought is an […]

One of my favorite poems is “The Guy in the Glass,” which is about integrity and honesty to oneself. I first encountered it 20 years ago. It is usually mistitled as “The Man in the Glass” and is often inaccurately credited to the enormously prolific author Anonymous. The true author of the […]

Sometimes you find yourself with a goal you think you should want to achieve, but you just don’t seem to be taking enough action to reach it. You aren’t really afraid of failure or rejection, the path to the goal seems clear enough and might even be an interesting challenge, and occasionally you’ll make […]