Personal Development for Smart People^TM

Every week I receive emails from people who tell me their ideas for new websites, businesses, or organizations they’d like to build. Usually they ask me for feedback on their ideas, implying that their ideas have some intrinsic value. Occasionally they want me to invest in their ideas, either financially or by putting in some of my time […]

The War on Ego seems to be gaining popularity in some spiritual circles. Within this context the ego is basically your identification with your physical life and all its trappings, including your name, your personal history, your career, your relationships, and your current life situation. The ego is how most people choose to identify themselves.
The War […]

When trying to solve various problems in life, an approach I find very useful is to first identify what I’d consider the most direct solution, regardless of how I feel about actually implementing it. What’s the clearest, most direct path to my goal or the most efficient way to get around an obstacle?
Many problems will have multiple direct […]

With respect to goals, projects, and other to-do items, it’s easy to get stuck too long in the thinking and planning phase.  You can sit around writing and rewriting your goals, delving into your subconscious mind, working through emotional blocks, summoning the power of Thor… whatever.  But if you don’t eventually get into action, you’re […]

Our feelings are a natural response to our thoughts and intentions.  We don’t really choose our feelings directly.  Our feelings are a feedback mechanism.  They indicate whether we’re moving into alignment with our true desires (positive feelings) or out of alignment (negative feelings).
Simply put… we feel good when we’re moving towards what we want, and we feel bad […]

David Schirmer is one of the experts featured in The Secret.  Within the past hour, I watched a rather disturbing YouTube video clip about him after a forum member posted a link to it.  Some of David’s seminar customers accused him of taking money he was supposed to be investing on their behalf (to the […]

John Assaraf is an international best-selling author, speaker, and entrepreneur. You may have seen him as one of the experts in the popular movie The Secret (as well as in The Secret book), talking about how he manifested his dream house. What’s most amazing is that he lived in that house for quite a while before discovering it was the exact same house he originally posted on his […]

Readers often ask me, “Steve, how do you know if the whole subjective reality belief system you describe is accurate?  Do you really believe in this stuff?  It just seems so… you know… out there.”
Behind such questions is usually an assumption that reality is in fact objective and that accuracy is an objective standard.  But in […]

I want to make a distinction between subjective reality and solipsism, since many readers still confuse the two.  I think the best way to explain the difference is by way of a simple analogy:  lucid dreaming.
Imagine you’re having a lucid dream.  This means you’re lying in bed having a dream, and while still within the […]

Overcoming jealousy has been one of my most requested topics for new articles, but in the past I’ve always declined such requests because I don’t have much personal experience in this area.  I’m not prone to jealousy, so I can’t explain from personal experience how to overcome it.  Nevertheless, due to the demand for such […]