Tag Archive for 'success'

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Who is Steve Pavlina?

Published on February 19, 2008 in Blogs, Educational, Health, Mental, NLP, Nutrition, Personal, Professional and Reviews. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Steve Pavlina, once a felon, is now a personal development blogger who maintains a site at www.stevepavlina.com. His interests vary. While some of his posts are the run-of-the-mill personal development articles that describe how to energize your life and get things done, other articles boarder on the weird. The arena of personal development has no shortage of blogs on the web so the question is, “Is Steve’s blog worth your time?”

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!

Stephen R. Covey The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Published on February 12, 2008 in Books and Reviews. 1 Comment Tags: , , , .

People have all kinds of habits, some good and some bad. Some bite their nails and others drive too fast. But then there are a select few that are habitually proactive and begin tasks with the end in mind. These last two are habits of highly effective people. What habits do you have? More importantly, what habits should you have? If you are not sure how to answer that last question, then you desperately need to read Stephen R. Covey’s book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

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.

Anthony Robbins Unlimited Power

Published on February 5, 2008 in Books, Reviews and Self-Improvement. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Of all the slogans I ever heard, I think the one that bothered me most was the old US Army slogan: An Army of One. How many times do you think the US Army sent just one person to the front lines? When the war on terror was announced did they say, “We realize that there is a clear threat from radical factions in the Middle East, but don’t worry “cause we’re sending in John Doe. He’ll take care of everything.”" Which brings me to my point, how many truly successful people do you know that did it all themselves? Let’s face it; you need help to become obscenely successful. You need mentors, accountants, lawyers, support staff, the list goes on and on. So how do find all these people to help you? Ask Anthony Robbins.

In Unlimited Power, Robbins shows you how to identify disempowering beliefs that you hold such as, I have to do everything myself and teaches you to question them and break them down using neuro-linguistic programming. It’s truly amazing how many beliefs you develop that have little or no evidence to back them up! You see, the mind doesn’t like information gaps so when you lack enough information your mind will fill in these gaps to reach a conclusion. Some of these conclusions are preventing you from achieving your ultimate potential in life. Unlimited Power gives you step-by-step instructions to identify these disempowering beliefs, challenge them, and replace them with empowering beliefs so you can move forward in your life and achieve the success you deserve!

The book would be great even if it stopped there but Robbins takes in a step further and dedicates an entire section of the book to building a winning team. Most self help books focus solely on self improvement, but Robbins realizes that no one is an army of one. In order to put together a powerful team, Robbins teaches you a variety of techniques such as mirroring. When you mirror someone you mimic, to a degree, the mannerisms of the person you’re talking to. People like others that are like themselves. It’s true that birds of a feather flock together. If you are driven to be successful then you have to align yourself with other people who want the same thing. Unlimited Power is not only about bettering you; it’s about building a powerful alliance and growing together.

If you think you’re going to be an army of one, go ahead and try. But your chances of success are about as good as John Doe winning the war on terror by himself. When you have a group of like minded people working with you, there’s no limit to what you can achieve and Unlimited Power will teach you to do just that.