Life’s problems do not exist to beat you down. They exist to help you grow. Do you ever go to the gym, stare at all the dumbbells lining the wall, and exclaim, “Dammit! Why are there so many weights here? I can’t possibly lift all of them! Look at how heavy they are! Why can’t they [...]

Have you ever heard of an elevator pitch? That’s when someone casually asks, “What kind of work do you do?” and you give them a brief answer in roughly the time span of an elevator ride. The people who hear your elevator pitch could be potential business partners or clients, or they could be strangers you meet [...]

Whenever you set a new goal, you’re unlikely to achieve it unless your habits already support it. If your goal runs afoul of your current habits, you’ll need to change your habits in order to achieve your goal. Suppose you set a goal to write a book, but you aren’t already in the habit of [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Some miscellaneous updates and news to share… Twitter My Twitter trial is going well. There are 600+ people following me on Twitter so far (my blog obviously bestows an advantage there). I’ve shared some links as well as various minor updates. I’m grateful for the helpful advice from fellow Twitterers (Tweeters? Twits?). For example, one [...]

It wasn’t until this year that I realized that one of the blocks that prevented me from improving my diet was figuring out what to do with the extra energy I’d gain if the change became permanent. For example, when I was going through my 30-day raw food diet trial earlier this year, I had [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]