"Personal Development for Smart People" Review

Personal Development for Smart People by Steve Pavlina is a book that I enjoy and recommend to friends and clients.  There are many useful tools; some new, some already tried, that can help anyone move through self barriers and succeed in creating the life they want to live.

From a broad perspective, the books seems like a model Mr. Pavlina created from his vast amounts of information and articles on his website, http://www.stevepavlina.com/;  an outline both for himself and his audience.  My wife first stumbled upon his work on various internet searches and has shared with me some of his articles.  Before reading the book, however, I was for the most part not very familiar with his work. 

The foundation of the book is the three pillars Steve labels TRUTH, LOVE and POWER.  These three virtues create INTELLIGENCE.  I am so moved by this model that I have a created a triangle in my office with Truth, Love and Power written at the three angles and Intelligence in the center.  It is a great reminder throughout my day to be true, to love and to harness my power. 

He then weaves the concepts of Oneness, Authority and Courage with this foundation and applies these qualities to habits, career, money, health, relationships and spirituality.

I really enjoy working with these concepts in my everyday life - it has especially helped me in relations to my career (and challenges me to take my next step as a healer/teacher/storyteller) and my relationship with money.  One of his early exercises has the reader rank their career in different ways and it is quite an eye opener when Steve shows you what your rankings really mean.  I won't spoil it, but it is quite enlightening!

In the chapter on Money, it gives me yet another concept of money and its function and I think Steve hits the nail on the head.  It has taken me years to unravel old beliefs and feelings surrounding money, and Steve offers a great perspective that helps me connect with money in a simple, non-judgmental, healthy way that I will continue to practice.  I also really appreciate the difference he lays out between "personal value" and "social value" and how this relates to earning potential.  But most importantly he helps me align with ways to earn more money while staying focused on what I am contributing to the World.  This is very important to me and what I have been working on both individually and instilling in my family.  "What gifts do I have to share," and "How can I contribute?" are questions I encourage us to ask frequently.  Steve's book gives great tools and ideas of how to bring these answers into reality.

I also enjoyed the section on Health, another area that I am very focused on.  Steve and I agree that health starts at the cellular level moving through the individual level which contributes to community and finally onward to universal health.   Too many self help leaders forget about the importance of health - in diet, exercise, emotions, beliefs and spirit.  It all relates and is all essential to individual and societal evolution.

What the book lacked, for me, was that strong heartfelt "Aha;" that whole body buzz I get when I really connect to a spiritual truth.  The book felt "heady" at times, and Steve definitely focuses contribution in the form of external action.  This obviously fits his personality as someone who over-achieved academically and often succeeded in some outrageous action-oriented goals - many of which he shares and some which are not only inspirational but help move me out of old, comfortable patterns and encourages taking on a new challenge - and others that border on insane.  (I say that in the kindest way; one of my teachers points out that the line between enlightenment and insanity can be very thin at times.) Steve is big on the "30 day challenge" as a way of finding out your personal truth about a habit or action plan.  A great approach in my opinion.

There is a section that applies his principles to Spirituality, which is exactly the missed point.  Spirituality breathes through all the other principles - and could be applied as such.  Heart, Love and Presence are all talked about, but it most often takes the back seat to raw action.  This works for some, I am sure, and that "action" piece is definitely something I could implement more of personally.  But action in and of itself is not necessarily the barometer for contribution. 

All in all, I enjoyed Personal Development for Smart People and will continue to recommend the work.  Thank you, Steve, for putting your work out there.  We will all benefit from it!

Bryan Bertsch is a Meditation Coach and Energy Healer.  Visit him online at http://www.bryanbertsch.com/.  Bryan practices TRUTH, LOVE and POWER in all that he does.