Problem Solving Category Archive

What I Learned From Going Bankrupt in My 20s That Proves to Be Immensely Valuable in My 30s

Monday, July 14th, 2008

“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in that grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.” – Theodore Roosevelt It’s so easy for us to fall into [...]

Pre-order Personal Development for Smart People

Tuesday, July 8th, 2008

In case you haven’t noticed the links I splattered all over StevePavlina.com during the weekend, my new book Personal Development for Smart People: The Conscious Pursuit of Personal Growth is now available for pre-order at Amazon.com and BarnesAndNoble.com (with a discount off the cover price). The official release date is October 15, 2008, so we [...]

I Can Do It! Conference Review

Friday, July 4th, 2008

Erin and I had a wonderful time at the Las Vegas I Can Do It! conference this past weekend. Although the conference was only 20 minutes from our home, we stayed at the Venetian Hotel, mainly so Erin would have a quiet place to do her readings. This is the 4th ICDI conference I’ve attended. [...]

How to Make Accurate Time Estimates

Monday, May 19th, 2008

Many people are really bad at estimating how much time a task will take. Perhaps you estimate you’ll need about an hour, and it really takes you 3-4 hours to finish. Or maybe you allocate 30 minutes for a task, and you’re done in 5 minutes. What can you do to get better at making [...]

The Value of Ideas

Thursday, May 1st, 2008

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 [...]

Life Coaching

Saturday, April 12th, 2008

Life coaching (or personal coaching) is fairly popular these days. Many people have asked me what I think of life coaching, so I’ll share my thoughts on this subject. A life coach is someone you hire to help assist you with your personal development, especially in the area of setting and achieving specific goals. Typically this [...]

The Anatomy of Personal Change

Tuesday, April 8th, 2008

I want to share some thoughts on my recent decision to switch to a raw food diet with respect to how I finally made this change. Although I only made the decision about a week ago, it feels to me like a permanent change, and I have a hard time seeing myself returning to cooked [...]

Resourcefulness

Wednesday, March 26th, 2008

Few men during their lifetime come anywhere near exhausting the resources dwelling within them. There are deep wells of strength that are never used. – Richard Byrd When you think of someone who’s extremely resourceful, what images come to mind? Do you think of someone who’s wealthy, well-connected, and in control of significant assets? Or [...]

The Most Direct Solution to Any Problem

Tuesday, March 11th, 2008

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 [...]

Hopeless Situations

Monday, March 3rd, 2008

I was up late last night playing chess on Yahoo Games with an old friend. The last time he and I connected was back when I was still a game developer, so as we were playing we were catching up about a lot of things. I looked him up after getting an intuitive hit to contact [...]