September 16th, 2005 by Steve Pavlina 
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StevePavlina.com Personal Development for Smart People podcast #2
This podcast explores the topic of moving beyond denial and ignorance to face and accept the truth in your life, including two different methods for how to accomplish that.
Pavlina-002-Truth-and-Awareness.mp3
(Time = 19:49, Size = 9.1MB)
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Here’s the list of the different areas of your life referenced in the podcast:
- Work
- Financial
- Relationship
- Home & Family
- Physical Health
- Mental
- Social
- Emotional
- Spiritual
- Character
- Contribution
- Fun & Adventure
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on Friday, September 16th, 2005 at 5:48 pm and is filed under Podcasts.
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September 16th, 2005 at 7:22 pm
A very insightful podcast. Just as a bit of constructive criticism I felt that the anecdote of the Christmas story was a little weaker as an introduction. I think your computer games to personal development career shift resonated more deeply with myself, simply because career choices is something many of us may have been secretly been in denial.
Other than that I think it was excellent and I plan on trying your written truth seeking approach before I eagerly await your next post!
September 16th, 2005 at 9:53 pm
Steve, I’m wondering, could you post the text somewhere too? I can’t understand spoken English that well as I understand the written English.
September 17th, 2005 at 12:53 am
Again Steve, you done an increadible good job
September 17th, 2005 at 6:48 am
Steve,
Great job again !! I noticed that you used deliberate pauses to add impact !!
An indicator of the effectiveness of a speech is the feeling that the listeners get after hearing. A great speech leaves its listeners with knowledge, hope and desire.
I felt really inspired after hearing this speech and is a strong indicator of your success. Your story at the end and the metaphor of life with the christmas tree was specially powerful!
Keep it up buddy !
September 17th, 2005 at 10:09 pm
I’m listening to #2 right now - I notice you speak a lot faster than in #1. I can only assume it’s deliberate - I’m curious about why.
September 18th, 2005 at 2:33 am
Have to say your podcasts really make my day in some way or other.
Simply awesome!
September 18th, 2005 at 12:23 pm
I really enjoyed this podcast. There was a definate improvement compared to the first one. I agree with the earlier posters that the faster speaking and the pauses made the speech more “arresting”.
I also took your advice to the motivational audio programs you really found helpful. It is very nice to have positive voices and energy available on demand.
Keep up the great work!
September 18th, 2005 at 6:36 pm
Ugh, pardon my HTML formatting errors above. I really wish I could delete posts.
Thank you for this. I definitely agree with your sentiments about honesty versus self-delusion. It’s amazing how much our society values mystery. Some quotes from personal heroes of mine:
Just one point of confusion: Your podcast seems to imply that you are no longer a game developer. Is this true? Have you lost your passion for game development?
September 18th, 2005 at 6:52 pm
@Mike: I retired from game dev about a year ago. I’ve been working on my new career full-time since then. It wasn’t so much that I lost my passion for game dev, as I was inspired by a bigger passion to do what I’m doing now.
September 18th, 2005 at 8:30 pm
You really topped your last podcast! Good energy. Good use of pauses. Much smoother delivery.
I’m in the situation you describe. A few years ago I realized that I had outgrown my career. I had outgrown a few of my values, too. Awareness helped. It still took years to figure out what to do. My new future will take years to build. Each day it gets closer. Until that incipient moment, I continue to live each day in the problem — just as you describe. Your personal development insights ease the way. Thanks.
Incidentally, you really seemed to hit your stride in the last minutes of podcast #2. You stopped speed talking, but you didn’t lose the energy!
You probably knew this already… See how many words of your podcast you can eliminate without losing meaning. For example, in one passage you said, “but at least for now”. I write and speak in much the same style. My too-many words strive for precise shades of meaning. But it’s not the most effective way to communicate.
Intonation and timing carry meaning, too. Connecting words like “And”, “Or”, “Also” can become superfluous.
September 20th, 2005 at 1:51 am
Too fast!
I stopped listening after about 3 minutes. Steve, I guess this was one of your improvement trials to see what works better. Slow down! I liked the pace of #1 much better. But then, I’m not a native speaker.
If you want to make a point, let it sink in. Smart listening means following the line of thought of the speaker, which takes effort and time. Arent’t your ideas worth sinking in? If not, why?
I’ll try to get throught the cast later again and see if I can comment on the content.
September 20th, 2005 at 2:16 am
Having kept a journal for years, last night I sat down and completed a focused ‘life audit’ based on the twelve different aspects you spoke about in your podcast. I’ve never actually taken the time to do anything like that before, and I found the process to be both enlightening and therapeutic. Although I didn’t score myself above a five in any of the categories (perhaps I’m a tough marker), I found that I’m probably more self aware than I’ve ever given myself credit for, and I now have a positive plan as to how to start to address many of my short comings. I’m generally a ‘happy’ person and hopefully this will help me to have even more reason to be so. Thanks
September 22nd, 2005 at 10:14 am
Steve,
I liked the difference in pace and emotion in this podcast, and the content was first rate. A big improvement in terms of delivery to my taste!
September 22nd, 2005 at 12:02 pm
Did your parents know you opened the Christmas gifts early, or did they find out from listening to the Podcast?