Steve Pavlina December 21, 2006
Posted by The Probabilist in : [Links], Business, Consciousness, Entrepreneurship, Health, Goals, Personal Growth, Productivity, Purpose, Beliefs, Sleep, Wealth, Blogging , 4 comments
Steve is one of today’s beacons in personal development. Not only does he write exceptionally rewarding and original articles, but he also inspired me to create this blog of my own. His website has been online a good two years now and is filled with over 500 articles on everything from courage, motivation, awareness, wealth, purpose, habits, productivity, business, intention-manifestation to the meaning of life and death.
Additionally, he has been recording podcasts once or twice per month on the very same topics and they are free of charge as well. They are highly recommended to listen to and I usually play them while walking, jogging and commuting. As of now, they sum up to over six hours of valuable insights on beliefs, courage, purpose, entrepreneurship, problem solving, etc. In October of 2006 he launched a public forum, which has been surprisingly active and of high quality. It’s the only one I’m currently regularly visiting and occasionally writing in.
A good place to start is the Best of StevePavlina.com section on the sidebar that covers the 20 most popular and valuable entries that he has posted. Like any other blog, you can search for specific content by category, archives (chronology) and search box. Some of his more lengthy and focused articles are found under the separate articles tab. Steve also has an excellent polyphasic sleep log from his five-month experiment a year ago. Be sure to check that one out too as I’ll be starting my journey after approximately a week.
While Steve is very successful in all aspects of personal development, he’s very much into genuinely helping others as well to become more conscious and aware of living purposefully. He has truly proven that it’s possible to do this while still recieving an adequate, or even overwhelming stream of income doing it. As Steve himself puts it, it’s all about providing value to others. And the one who is willing to practice and master this skill, will live a life of abundance instead of scarcity.
Some of the content on my own blog is the result of the great impact that Steve’s writings has had on me. So even though similarities may be found, it’s all in the name of spreading the good message of awakening more people to their true potential. My words don’t yet have the strength to describe how incredibly useful Steve Pavlina’s site is, so please do visit it just in case you didn’t stumble upon my blog through his forums where I participate.
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Tales and Truth December 19, 2006
Posted by The Probabilist in : [Articles], Creativity, Personal Growth, Psychology, Purpose, Beliefs, Vision, Leadership, History , 2 comments
Do you constantly attempt to draw a line between truth and fiction? Do you find yourself classifying a story as gullible, make-belief fantasies long before it has reached its end? And do you refrain yourself from watching movies after something supernatural, miraculous or extremely unlikely happens because it may offend your intellect? After all, fairy tales are for children, right?
Yet, there are great stories dividing adults’ beliefs as well. There’s a story of a man who had the strong vision of a flood coming to pass, so he set out to build an ark in the midst of the dry desert land. There’s a story of a character called Narasimha, who saved humanity from a demon invincible both day and night, by slaying it upon sundawn. And some people speak of and believe in a man capable of giving blind humans their sight back among other remarkable feats.
What are these tales for? Quite simply, they share the same reason we tell children about Robin Hood, the ugly duckling or little red riding hood - to give perspective, meaning and guidance into our lives. We’re all followers of example on one plane or another when it comes to applying a moral code to our behaviour. We tell others about mistakes that were done so that they don’t have to repeat them. The human mind learns the lesson and the moral of a story whether it understands or measures its veracity or not. Therefore, limiting the mind from potentially untrue events puts on a filter for the brain that may not be of the best interest for the mind. By this example I conceptualize the brain as a container of logical and reasoning intelligence and the mind as a container of psychological, emotional, moral and spiritual intelligence.
A human being suffers no loss in personal growth by increasing all areas of intelligence, because intellect and spirituality can co-exist together in consciousness itself. Denying oneself from listening to tales, fantasy, glurge and various stories of unknown truthfulness is like saying that the right side of the brain is useless for personal growth when it comes to external information that we input to our mind. A brain like this wouldn’t allow its possessor to watch movies like The Iron Giant, Hero, The Matrix or The Lord of the Rings, whereas a creative brain would devour these titles, but show no interest in watching financial news, table sports or various documentaries.
You can take the advice from a story and still believe it to be utterly false. It doesn’t have to be a contradicting event. It’s simply allowing yourself to notice the power of holding contradicting thoughts in your brain. For this whole topic I’d like to recommend the movie Big Fish above all. It’s a story of two men with opposing beliefs about tales and truth. If you’ve already watched it, then you may find the following ending empowering. When a person hears the same story over and over again, it can get boring to listen to. But consider how some people live. The longer they perpetuate and repeat the same truth they believe and live in, the more boring and unfulfilled they also become. So maybe it’s time to embrace the tales and stories you hear, stop judging them as true or false and start creating one that has you as its main character. Maybe the rest of us can learn something new to live by.
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