Personal Development for Smart People

I read a new book - Personal Development for Smart People by one of my favourite self help gurus - Steve Pavlina. I even used a list of values that he developed (and I added to) in my Time Management Book.

Part 1 deals with 7 fundamental principles - Truth, Love, Power, Oneness, Authority, Courage and Intelligence.

I had a negative reaction to a paragraph he wrote in the section on Truth about habits. The gist of his message was - to become more intelligent, do things differently. "Excessive routine is the enemy of intelligence". Of course I am a big believer in having success habits. Later in the book he devotes a full chapter to success habits though so he does understand the power of habits.

I liked and agree with what he said about media conditioning. We can become over influenced by traditional media. And much of media has a conflict. They want to "sell" you that something is not good for you - EG alcohol will make you feel popular or sexy. He even suggests a media fast for 30 days.

I liked what he said about momentum. The key is to get started and get moving. I will write an article on this in the coming days. I am adding articles to my resources section with fair frequency now. I just added one on Be a Life Long Learner (I am sure Pavlina would agree with that one) and another on Leadership vs. Management.

Part 2 talks about practical application - Habits, Career, Money, Health, Relationships and Spirituality.

I found a lot of practical tips in the first section (like start with the worst thing first thing and master the first hour of the day) so really looked forward to more practical application.

From the Habits chapter:

"Habits are your Mind's approach to time management. It would be extremely inefficient for you to decide how to spend every minute of every day. Your conscious mind has better things to do than solve the same problems over and over, so it delegates known problems to your subconscious"

The book is well written and easy to read. And it is inspirational.

The book is full of ideas. It is one of those books that you can take only 2 or 3 ideas and incorporate them into your life to make a big change. Definitely worth reading if you are interested in self development.