First I’ll say this; you will not be bored on this blog! You could spend a day on it reading a wide variety of articles ranging from “How to Give Up Coffee” to “The Meaning of Life.” The articles are generally well written and are frequently backed with Steve’s experience on the subject.

One of the articles I found particularly interesting was “30 Days to Success.” It’s one of those things that you read and think, “It’s so simple! Why didn’t I think of that?” Basically Steve suggests that major changes in your life should have a 30 day trial period. Have you been thinking of starting a new diet? It can be a daunting task to change the way you eat forever, but if you just want to stick with the diet for 30 days, it becomes much less of a mental hurdle. The beauty of this principle is that new habits take about 30 days to form so if you find that you’re reaping health benefits from your new diet after the 30 day mark, you’re much more likely to continue. See what I mean? The principle presented is simple, yet powerful.

Don’t get me wrong. There are some things Steve writes about that I’d recommend a lot more research on before trying. One such idea is polyphasic sleep. Polyphasic sleep is taking many naps throughout the day rather than sleeping in one long span of time. Steve suggests that this is possible because you train yourself to enter REM sleep faster. That statement caused little alarms to go off in the part of my brain that holds a psychology degree. I remember reading that a person will go directly to REM sleep if they’re sleep deprived and exhausted. I don’t think people trying this sleeping method are really training themselves. I just think they reach a point where they’re so exhausted they go right into REM sleep. Polyphasic sleep also seems to ignore thermal fluctuations that your body goes through during wake/sleep cycles. For me, polyphasic sleep left too many questions.

The truth is you don’t have to agree with everything Steve Pavlina writes in order to benefit from his site. There are plenty of good ideas there and it’s definitely worth your time to check it out and play around for a couple of hours. Who knows? One of Steve’s ideas may change your life!

Covey’s book runs the gamut in terms of personal development. After the initial overview, Covey separates his book into three parts. Each part attacks a different facet of success. For example, the first part is focused exclusively on the individual. Here you’ll learn how to approach the projects that face you every day. Sound like your average self help book? It probably would be if Covey didn’t take an unconventional approach to task management. Einstein once said that, “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” That quote pretty much sums up Covey’s philosophy when engaging your most challenging tasks. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People explains how you can elevate your thinking to solve issues that stand in the way of your success.

The next section of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People explains the principle of interdependence and the importance of seeking out win/win relationships with other successful people. No one is an army of one and everyone needs help to achieve their most ambitious goals. The next section of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People explains the principle of interdependence and the importance of seeking out win/win relationships with other successful people. Two heads truly are better than one and if you’re really serious about your success, you’ll need to help others with theirs’. In this section, Covey will teach you how synergy will help you reach your goals in short order!

Finally, Covey also understands that life can’t be all business all the time so the last section is dedicated to renewing yourself so you don’t miss out on the important things in life. Some people tend to get lost in the pursuit of their goals and forget about the important things in life. In the last section of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Covey reminds you to take a step back every now and then to enjoy life so you don’t forget why you’re working as hard as you are.

If you’re a nail biter or a speeder, then it’s time to get some better habits. With Stephen Covey’s help, you’ll reach your goals a lot faster, and without a speeding ticket.

Failure is a tool to build success. Success is the good stuff. It’s the goal. But failure is what will lead you there. Failure is a learning experience. From success you get nothing in terms of development. When you fail you haven’t really made a mistake, you’ve simply found the wrong path to success. After a while you’ll get on the right track and success will be yours as long as you have the guts to keep on going.

Persistence is what separates the achievers from the naysayers. Too may people have it in their heads that you should never fail. If you’re one of those people then I can say with absolute certainty that true success will never be yours. You’ll have a lot more success and a lot more fun in life if you not only accept failure but seek it out! Why not? Make it one of your goals this year to have a spectacular failure. I mean a real bomb!

Why the heck would anyone tell you to fail? To get you to try! What is it that you’ve always wanted to do but have been too afraid to take on? Go ahead and do it! The fear of failure has prevented more people from achieving their dreams than any other force on this planet. A failure is not someone who fails; it’s someone who gives up trying before their goal is reached. Give yourself permission to fail and see what happens. At the worst you’ll get a great learning experience and who knows, you might just make your dreams come true.

NLP stands for Neuro-Linguistic Programming. In essence you’re using the nuances of language to change the way you think about things. This way of behavior modification was originally the brainchild of a personal development author (Richard Bandler) and a linguist (John Grinder) and it gets its base in Gestalt therapy.

In order to understand NLP, you really need to have a basic grasp of the theory behind Gestalt therapy. Gestalt works on the assumption that people fill in information gaps. For example, have a look at this:

Do you see three random dots, or do you see a triangle? The vast majority of people would say that these dots aren’t random and form a triangle even though the lines and angles necessary for a triangle to exist aren’t really there. Your personal beliefs can form in the same way. You get a couple of small pieces of information and your mind develops a complex belief system around them. NLP tries to change this belief system by challenging these conclusions.

NLP supposes that there isn’t any evidence for the negative beliefs that you hold. You just hold these beliefs because your mind is filling in the gaps and forming a reality that isn’t really there. For example, a commonly held belief is that you need to excel in academics if you want to succeed in life. If you were a student of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, you’d look for examples to prove this belief wrong. In this case you could read about Richard Branson, the multi-billionaire behind the Virgin Empire. Branson suffers from dyslexia and as a result, he preformed poorly in his academic career. He’s also worth $7.8 billion dollars! Obviously not everyone who does poorly in school fails in life.

Neuro-Linguistic Programming is about challenging your perception of the world. All you have to do is make a list of all the beliefs you have that are holding you back and find evidence that those beliefs aren’t really the triangle they appear to be. If you need some help along the way, pick up a copy of Awaken the Giant Within by Anthony Robbins. You’ll learn a lot more about NLP and you might just drastically improve your life.