Book Review – Personal Development for Smart People

Personal Development for Smart People

The Conscious Pursuit of Personal Growth

 Steve Pavlina, who I have long admired, recently sent me a copy of his new book to read and review.  Steve is a phenomenally successful writer and blogger who has been blogging on personal development for over four years at:  StevePavlina.com.  Along with working on his blog and amassing a huge amount of valuable content, he has read more than 1,000 books on personal development.

This book is reminiscent of Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People , which I thoroughly enjoyed.  I’ve used Covey’s 7 Habits book in mentoring for years and recommend it to all.  Steve Pavlina, though, has gone deeper to examine the hidden order beneath the ebb and flow of personal growth and effectiveness.  Most of us are very busy people.  With the distractions of modern day life many of us seldom take time for deep thinking about personal growth.  Steve has done much of that for us as he worked for three years on his new book: Personal Development for Smart People – The Conscious Pursuit of Personal Growth.

This book is in two parts.  The first part covers the theory of Steve’s 7 fundamental Core Principles.  The second part covers application – he shows how the 7 core principles apply to habits, career, money, health, relationships and spirituality.  Although this book is very effective as a stand alone book (it has very little content from his website), it is actually a capstone to his personal development blog at stevepavlina.com and his discussion forums and is written in Steve’s style: thorough, logical, strong and bold.

This book is not yet another “how-to” guide, it is much more than that. Steve has applied his considerable experience and intellect to identifying the basic core principles that govern our actions and our relationships.  

He has made the introduction and first chapter available for free download.  This free PDF is definitely worth a read.

Just as in physics which has basic principles that apply across the board and are unchangeable, Steve believes that there are also universal core principles of human behavior. He set about identifying these core principles and then explained them.  

The three basic universal core principles that he identified are Truth, Power and Love (as seen at each corner of the triangle below.)   Combinations of these three principles give us three more principles: Courage, Authority and Oneness. All six of these principles together give us: Intelligence. Taken altogether, these are the seven universal principles underlying our lives and personal growth. These principles apply across the board in our lives – relationships, activities, health, habits, etc:

• Oneness = Truth + Love
• Authority = Truth + Power
• Courage = Love + Power
• Intelligence = Truth + Love + Power

From Steve’s blog:

Intelligence is our highest expression of personal growth. The purest aim of all growth efforts is to live as intelligently as we can. We aren’t talking about IQ here. We’re talking about aligning ourselves with the true nature of reality instead of railing against it. This requires that we continually strive to become more truthful, more loving, and more powerful — both as individuals and collectively. Anything that turns us away from truth, love, and power also makes us less intelligent.

The deep thinking that comes from reading this book is preparation for personal development and improvement.  Once you learn about the seven core principles, study them and observe them you will be well on your way to conscious personal development.

We all are looking to maximize the return on our investment of time and effort.  Reading this book will be one of the best investments you have made with regard to your personal development and your own future.  HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

See my review of Personal Development for Smart People at Amazon.com

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Steve Pavlina is a very smart guy.  He completed a dual degree in computer science and mathematics in record time, started and ran a successful computer software business, then in 2004, started his blog on personal development.  Steve said that after thousands of interactions with his readers he began to detect recurring patterns and themes and began to suspect that there was a “hidden order” beneath “our seemingly chaotic growth experiences.”   So he set about ferreting out the core principles of personal development that are behind all conscious human development.  He decided that these principles would have to be universally acceptable and identified several criteria that would have to be applicable:

1. universality
2. completeness
3. irreducibility
4. congruency
5. practicality

His logic is impeccable.   However, as you might expect from a book that is so packed with wisdom, reading it isn’t like reading a popular novel.  You need to read a little, then stop and think about it.  I suggest reading through the entire book this way, then go back and go through the book again for deeper understanding. 

This is a book that you will think about a lot and reference often.  It should have a permanent spot on your bookshelf so that when you reach for it you find it quickly.  Again – HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

About the Author

Steve Pavlina is widely recognized as the most successful personal-development blogger on the Internet, attracting more than two million monthly readers who value his unique insights. Instead of posing as a self-help guru with all the answers, Steve encourages people to fearlessly conduct their own personal growth experiments in order to learn through direct experience. He has written more than 700 free articles, often challenging his readers to question what they’ve been taught and to consider alternative perspectives. 

This is Steve’s first book.

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