Steve Pavlina: Personal Development for Smart People: The Practices

I know I promised to review the second half of Steve Pavlina’s ever-better book, Personal Development for Smart People, a week ago or so but it’s so jammed packed that in order to do it justice, I had to slow down.

In fact, if I have any criticism for this wonderful self-development system, it’s for Steve’s publisher. I know many of us are used to reading online, and that means faster than fast, but reading a good old-fashioned book ought to be a sensory experience. This book needed a serif typeface. Serif type slows the eye, giving it little places of rest, and assimilation time.

This book is so full of clear and practicable ideas that I couldn’t hurry through its second half, and do it or myself justice. It’s the second half of this book that makes it outstanding. Haven’t you read plenty of self-help books wherein the theories are terrific, and the practices that make them useful aren’t so hot? I sure have.

Pavlina is first and foremost his own guinea pig. His sincerity and his experience beam off the pages. I’d venture to say that if he hasn’t tried it, whatever it is, it isn’t in the book. That’s a great way to test the efficacy of any practice. Test it yourself!

What I especially like about Pavlina’s personal development system is that, even though his final chapter is on spirituality, he doesn’t require that God be in anyone’s personal mix. I, a minister, saying that! (I know, I’m weird.) Truth is, I think if a person needs God (and I do) that one will find a God that works for him or her. Personal growth and development aren’t always about God. They’re about persons.

I so appreciated the application of the seven principles to major life areas: habits, career, money, health, relationships, and spirituality. This is where the elegance and the simplicity of his personal development system shine. In his closing, Steve talks about values systems and how they must be universal in order to be efficacious. He’s done his homework, and thought through every detail before writing this book.

Toward the end, he speaks to the driving light of my own life mission.

“Only when we all learn to align ourselves with truth, love, and power at the individual level will we be able to achieve peace at the global level.”

It’s so nice to know there is another conscious peaceworker on planet earth. Thanks, Steve Pavlina!

I’ll close with Steve’s solid reminder: Live consciously.

P.S. For Part One, go to http://seedsforsanctuary.blogspot.com/2008/09/steve-pavlina-personal-development-for.html.