A little comment on Steve’s homepage

[Somi]

Hi Steve, I have visited your website since 2004, and even though I don’t necessarily agree with some of your views, I agree with some others, and some I just plainly refute and even find unbelievable that you actually promote them. Yet, I generally find your attitude to life to be “a breath of fresh air”. I enjoy the togetherness of paradoxes in you, as I’m a living example of it myself and I’m pretty sure you would have the same kind of mixed view of me, if you knew me.

However, since despite my mixed views, I still find your work interesting enough to have remained a visitor for a few years, I feel like there is something I would like to share with you. There is a little phrase on your homepage, which has bothered me for some time. Of course whether you choose to make a slight alternation to it or not, will not affect my view of your work or your personality. I just want you to know how it may feel to some of your readers.

You say in the opening paragraph that the purpose of your website is to “teach people who are living below their potentialhow to feel more motivated and energized...”

However, I do not think that this is quite what you are doing and it is certainly not why I (and perhaps many others) visit your site. What you, really, are doing, which is something that you have mentioned on many other occasions, is that you are growing and you are sharing your experience of growth with others. So in a sense you are setting an example, which is something I also do in my own way, and so does everyone else, only our ways are different.

What I’m trying to say is that, not everyone who is a regular visitor of your website is living below their potential, even though in some sense we all have much more potential than we are realising. So when you phrase it that way, it can sound a little patronising as it makes you sound like you are trying to be some sort of a guru but I don’t think that’s what you are or you wish to be; otherwise I personally wouldn’t have been here, because I’ve never needed one or wished to be one.

So my question to you is: Would you maybe give that phrase some thought, in your own time?

[Kindred]

None of us have reached our potential--not even Steve himself--otherwise we would stop growing.

He is setting an example, but who is he setting it for? I believe his intent is to set one for those who are living below their potential, people who want to grow. So, his website's purpose seems very reasonable and well thought to me.

[Dreamline]

Originally Posted by Kindred

None of us have reached our potential--not even Steve himself--otherwise we would stop growing.

Then that not only makes the statement uneeded, but moot as well. Extraneous and maybe even showboaty as the OP suggests. No?

Perhaps it would read better if it were phrased in the postive:

"To help those who wish to reach their potential to feel more energized and motivated."

I love what words can do...




Jennifer

[Sea]

This is, of course, assuming Steve believes in someone reaching their potential - I think there are little plateaus of "potential" that you reach, but I have personally never seen a limit to how much potential someone can have, and any belief that someone has a limit to their potential seems to me to be a limiting one.

[MidasGirl]

Originally Posted by Somi

You say in the opening paragraph that the purpose of your website is to “teach people who are living below their potentialhow to feel more motivated and energized...”

Maybe he's also using the website to teach himself to not live below his potential, ya know?

I get your point though. It can come across as a bit patronizing, but only if you look at it that way. I've never come across anyone that is living above their potential, and I don't know anyone that even wants to admit they have exhausted their potential. If we look at potential as unlimited, then we are all living below our potential, guru or anti-guru, no?

What you, really, are doing, which is something that you have mentioned on many other occasions, is that you are growing and you are sharing your experience of growth with others.

Also, consider that a homepage is a marketing tool

[chrisrushton]

I like to think of it as Steve being someone who gives us permission to try and live to our potential.

His story is living proof that the standard way we are all taught to be successful isn't the only (or even the best) way.

[ballhit2]

I think the point is, when reading the introduction to something on the internet, which has for all intensive purposes endless information, you need an elbow in the ribs to keep your attention focused.

"Living below your potential" as a pointer phrase is such an elbow.

Then again it's also a snarky ether reference, because we all "ascend" into our "potential" when we die. If not, StevePavlina.rip audio tapes will be available.

Finally, it's an Authority check, because if you turn your Authority over to Steve, then well you aren't the one deciding whether you're living at your own potential or not.

[Somi]

Hi Steve, I've been away for while, though I was mindful of you on FB. Just wanted to leave a positive feedback after my original post. I really like your new homepage, and your posts of the past weeks that I had missed... As always, your work is a breath of fresh air, even if I may not agree with everything I read.

I wish you peace, love and ever more conscious growth, because you are true to yourself.