When people fail to move forward in the direction of their dreams, a common excuse is “I don’t know how.” They claim that a lack of know-how is the key factor holding them back in life. For example, people write to me all the time saying that they wish they could start a successful blog, [...]

In this post I’m going to share some things I’ve never shared publicly before, some of which you might find a bit surprising. At the start of each new year, I like to pick a primary focus for the upcoming year. I prefer doing this instead of making a New Year’s resolution because it’s more [...]

Let’s consider a couple different scenarios you’ll encounter on your lifelong path of personal growth: linear growth and growth forks. This article will mainly focus on how to overcome the indecision you may face at a tricky growth fork. Linear Growth Linear growth is when you can see the next steps ahead of you fairly [...]

My Facebook Experience I’ve been using Facebook for a few months now. I currently have 1,907 Facebook friends. I’ve been a fairly active user ever since I joined. I get new friend requests, comments, and emails there every day. Overall I’m glad I joined Facebook. It takes extra time to keep up with it, and [...]

In personal development terms, calibration is the process of progressively refining your thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors until you shift your equilibrium to the point where you can consistently achieve the results you desire. Just as you might calibrate a scientific instrument to provide consistently accurate measurements, you can calibrate your skills to generate consistently good [...]

I’ve received several requests to write something about the apparent financial crisis in the USA, not to mention the upcoming election. Erin has received similar requests. At first I declined because so much is being written about this already, but people said they just wanted to hear my take on it, so here goes… First [...]

Now here’s a surprise — my book Personal Development for Smart People has launched early. The original release date was October 15th, but the book has already shipped and is available now. You can get it at Amazon.com and in many major bookstores, including Borders, Barnes & Noble, Books a Million, and Hastings. The major [...]

In this post I’ll share my thoughts on offering formal coaching or consulting services. Many people have asked me about this since I started blogging in 2004. If you have no interest in this topic, you can safely skip this post. I’ve always turned down formal consulting requests because I didn’t like the idea of [...]

Changing a habit is like playing a game of chess. In chess there’s an early game, a middle game, and an endgame. The same is true for habit change. Many people try to change their habits by skipping straight to the endgame. They dive in and commit themselves to making the change happen right away. [...]

If you’re attracted to many different pursuits and can’t commit to any single one of them for your career, college major, or income source, then good for you! Leonardo da Vinci was in the same boat. He’s considered by many to be the greatest genius of all time. The notion that you have to commit [...]