Recent Entries

• Starlink: Why is Elon Musk launching thousands of satellites?

  by UniqueThis September 3, 2022
        Image source, Starlink Image caption, A SpaceX rocket blasts off from Cape Canaveral, carrying Starlink satellites Elon Musk's SpaceX company has been launching thousands of satellites into orbit. Many people say they've seen them in the skies. ...

• AI won an art contest, and artists are furious

  by UniqueThis September 3, 2022
  Jason M. Allen was almost too nervous to enter his first art competition. Now, his award-winning image is sparking controversy about whether art can be generated by a computer, and what, exactly, it means to be an artist. In August, Allen, a game designer who lives in Pueblo West, Colorado,&nbs...

• US life expectancy lowest in decades

  by UniqueThis September 3, 2022
  After a historic drop in 2020, life expectancy in the United States took another significant hit in 2021. According to provisional data published Wednesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, life expectancy at birth dropped by nearly a year between 2020 and 2021 – and b...

• Does monkeypox need a new name?

  by UniqueThis September 3, 2022
  What’s happening Earlier this month, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that it is planning to rename the disease known as monkeypox and even created a way for the public to weigh in on what the disease should be called in the future. Since the early weeks of t...

• Cinnamon Apple Scones

  by UniqueThis September 3, 2022
  This apple scones recipe is the perfect fall treat! The scones are moist, warmly spiced, and packed with sweet apple flavor. This post is in partnership with Jewel-Osco®. Happy September! Fall may not officially start until the 22nd, but I’m already excited for warming soups,...

• Does yoga count as exercise?

  by UniqueThis September 3, 2022
  Many people want to ensure their workouts are effective but is yoga exercise? Well, that depends on what you want to achieve. If you're looking for something that can improve your mood and flexibility then yoga is a perfect fit. But if you're searching for some heart-pumping aerobic exercise&nb...

• Why I Quit Buying Rental Properties To Buy REITs Instead

  by UniqueThis December 12, 2021
  Summary I used to invest in rental properties, but as I learned more about REITs, I came to the realization that they were superior investments in most cases. Put simply, they generate higher returns with lower risk and don't require any effort from you. Moreover, they protect you from liabilit...

• Dr. Oz wants Dr. Fauci to resign

  by UniqueThis December 11, 2021
  TV personality and doctor Dr. Mehmet Oz wants Dr. Anthony Fauci to resign. Oz said he believes Fauci should be held accountable for misleading the American public and Congress on matters relating to the COVID-19 pandemic, whether intentionally or unintentionally. Fauci, who heads the Natio...

• Ireland is GoFundMe’s most generous nation

  by UniqueThis December 11, 2021
  According to the 2021 giving report from the for-profit fundraising platform GoFundMe, Ireland topped the list of most generous countries. On GoFundMe, where individuals can quickly raise money for everything from college tuition to disaster relief, Ireland donors gave the most per ca...

• Mutual Funds getting extra taxed

  by UniqueThis December 11, 2021
  People who own mutual funds investments will see taxes on dividend gains, even if they reinvest the dividend income. Some experts recommend offsetting the dividend gains by selling underperforming stocks at a loss. Those that have tax-sheltered accounts, such as a 401(k), qualified Roth IRA, don't h...

• Chinese space capabilities are growing two times faster than US

  by UniqueThis December 11, 2021
  China is developing its space capabilities "twice as fast" as the US, said Gen. David Thompson, vice chief of space operations for the US Space Force. Gen. Thompson warned China could overtake the US in space capabilities by the end of the decade at a panel led by CNN's Kristin Fisher at the Reagan...

• How to Keep Your Windshield From Fogging Up

  by UniqueThis December 11, 2021
  Imagine driving down the street, and your car's windshield fogs up. So you turn on the defroster. The fog goes away but returns a few minutes later. Annoyingly you repeat the process of turning on your defroster for temporary visibility.  Why Does Your Windshield Fog Up? The temperature and h...

• UFOs Spotted in Sky Above Chino Hills, CA

  by UniqueThis December 11, 2021
  A woman in Chino Hills, California filmed several UFOs flying above her house. At first, she thought it was a grand opening but later found out that her community had no scheduled aerial events.  Within 40 minutes, the unidentified flying lights disappeared to never be seen again. The United...

• NFL Power Rankings 2021: Top 10 teams ahead of Week 2

  by UniqueThis September 18, 2021
  One week down, 17 to go. After the NFL season's first week, several teams showed early promise as potential contenders. Only time will tell as the season progresses, but the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs look like they have pieces in place to return to Super Bowl. This week's slate o...

• How to breathe while running

  by UniqueThis September 18, 2021
  Beginners in the running world may not know how to breathe while running - but it doesn't have to be the massive stressor your mind makes it out to be.  Your heart rate and muscles will change once you start running faster, but panic can also set in.  You can get faster and feel less str...

• A third of shark species are threatened with extinction

  by UniqueThis September 18, 2021
  According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), more than a third of sharks and rays on Earth are endangered. Earlier reports by the group claimed the loss was mostly due to overfishing and ocean pollution.  The latest IUCN Red List includes a reassessment of the world...

• The Taliban wants the world to think they've changed

  by UniqueThis August 22, 2021
  Afghanistan's Taliban have tried to offer hope that the country - and the world - won't return to the 1990s hard-line regime. According to Al Jazeera, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said: "Our nation is a Muslim nation, whether 20 years ago or now." "But when it comes to experience, maturity,...
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• Hackers steal your cellphone and social media account

  by UniqueThis August 22, 2021
  The Department of Justice (DOJ) recently exposed a scheme that hijacks social media and mobile phone accounts and nets criminals millions. According to the Department of Justice, criminals conspired to steal cryptocurrency through a practice called "SIM-swapping." Declan Harrington, 21, of Massach...
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• Bat killed by cat

  by UniqueThis August 22, 2021
  An "Olympic bat" the size of a human thumb flew over 1,200 miles from London to Russia before being killed by a cat. When a resident of the small Russian town of Molgino in the Pskov region saw the female Nathusius' pipistrelle bat on the ground, it had been damaged by the feline. According to the...

• Afghanistan Refugees In America

  by UniqueThis August 22, 2021
  Caroline Clarin, who works from her rural Minnesota home and attempts to bring hope to those who convey heart-wrenching messages of desperation from a world away, has had her phone ringing for days with pleas for aid from Afghans. Ms. Clarin, who headed a US Department of Agriculture program in Afg...

• Bringing Extinct Species Back

  by UniqueThis August 22, 2021
  Seeing Jurassic Park left me gobsmacked, which is not a term I use often. The first dinosaur I remember seeing in 1993 was a brachiosaurus and I remember clutching my popcorn with wide eyes. I shouted with excited jibes as I walked out with my parents: "Can we really make dinosaurs viable again, Dad...

• Gain weight after exercising?

  by UniqueThis August 22, 2021
  Perhaps you have felt disappointed when you start an especially vigorous workout routine only to see the scale go above the weight you started with. Is there a biological reason behind why exercise&nb...

• Beyoncé Closed Off To Fans?

  by UniqueThis August 15, 2021
  Beyoncé, who turns 40 next month, looked back on her life and career during an interview with Harper’s Bazaar released Tuesday. In the cover story, the singer said she can come across as “closed off” because of a conscious decision she made years ago. “I&rs...

• 'South Park' creators buying Casa Bonita restaurant

  by UniqueThis August 15, 2021
  LAKEWOOD, Colo. -- The creators of the irreverent animated television series “South Park” are buying Casa Bonita, a quirky restaurant in suburban Denver that was featured on the show. Matt Stone and Trey Parker said in an interview with Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Friday that they ...

• Chimps use 'hi' and 'bye' greetings, just like humans

  by UniqueThis August 15, 2021
  Chimps and bonobos signal "hello" and "goodbye" to one another when entering and exiting social encounters, a new study finds. In other words, these apes, which share about 99% of humans' DNA, politely greet and bid adieu to each other, just like humans do. Until now, this behavior hasn't...

• Miscarriages and covid vaccine

  by UniqueThis August 15, 2021
  False and misleading claims about Covid-19 vaccines, fertility and miscarriages are still circulating online, despite not being supported by evidence. Doctors are extremely cautious about what they recommend during pregnancy, so the original advice was to avoid the jab. But now, so much safety data ...

• Death-row inmate sues for pastor's touch during execution

  by UniqueThis August 15, 2021
  CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas -- A Texas death-row inmate has sued state prison officials to allow his pastor to lay hands on him as he dies from a lethal injection. John Henry Ramirez, 37, is scheduled to be put to death in the Texas death chamber on Sept. 8, but his attorneys said in a federal lawsui...

• Should immunocompromised get extra covid vaccine dose?

  by UniqueThis August 15, 2021
  United States regulators on Thursday said transplant recipients and others with severely weakened immune systems can get an extra dose of the Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines to better protect them as the Delta variant continues to surge. The announcement by the food and drug administr...

• Why use the UniqueThis Cloud Storage?

  by UniqueThis May 29, 2021
  Backup your important documents, videos, pictures, and files. Choose to keep your uploads private or file share with others. Upgrade to access UniqueThis Cloud Storage        

• Why create an Online School Page?

  by UniqueThis May 29, 2021
  Own an online school page. On demand learning platform. Create courses with quizzes and get paid by online students. Example Online School Page.           Upgrade to create a Online School Page

• Why create a UniqueThis News Page?

  by UniqueThis May 29, 2021
  Be a news publisher. Share news about anything on your personal page for your followers to see, activity stream for members around the world to see, and the news section. Share your news on social meda platforms like Facebook and Twitter for more views. Monetize with your own ads and affiliate links...

• Why use the UniqueThis Ads Platform?

  by UniqueThis May 29, 2021
  The UniqueThis ads platform allows you to advertise your website, business and brand to thousands of people around the world. Send people to any url. Advertise using pictures, videos and text throughout the website and app. Your ads will be displayed in the activity stream, footer, and ad ...

• Why create a UniqueThis Marketplace Store?

  by UniqueThis May 29, 2021
  Create your own online store on UniqueThis and sell anything. Take payments through paypal and all you have to do is ship the product to the customer. Search engines will find your products and send people here so that they can buy it. Plus, our 200,000 members and 1 million visitors each month...
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• Why create a UniqueThis Blog Page?

  by UniqueThis May 29, 2021
  Own a blog page. Unlimited writing on any topic. Use links & HTML. Monetize with your own ads and affiliate links. Your blogs will show on your personal public profile and your blog page. Write about anything and have a constant influx of views by readers around the world. Your blogs wil...
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• Pay your bills with monthly stock dividends

  by UniqueThis July 19, 2020
  Instead of working yourself into an early grave, consider investing in stocks that pay monthly dividends. Since your bills come monthly, you can structure your investments to pay you monthly. It is possible to get paid while you sleep, while you eat, while you live your life. Honestly, if you can&rs...
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• Aliens could be observing Earth like animals in a zoo

  by UniqueThis July 18, 2020
  One theory bouncing around in the paranormal world is “Alien Zoo Theory.” The idea that aliens are observing us like one would observe animals in a zoo. The zoo theory speculates that aliens have been with us from the very beginning. They watched our evolution as a species like a giant t...

• An Inspirational Week

  by UniqueThis July 27, 2011
  I spent last week in Santa Fe, NM for a Transformational Leadership Council retreat. These TLC retreats are held twice a year, and this is the third one I’ve attended. It was also the largest, with about 80 members (out of a total of 114) present. The atmosphere at TLC is like a big...

• 30 Days of Inspiration

  by UniqueThis July 27, 2011
  Today is Day 5 of my 30-day trial of inspired living, as I explained in the previous post. If you missed that post, basically I’m testing what it’s like to live without thinking or planning ahead. I’m living in the moment and doing my best to act on inspiration whenever it com...

• Living Subjectively

  by UniqueThis July 27, 2011
  Apparently there’s a lot of interest in this 30-day inspiration trial. My various e-inboxes have been surging with messages expressing support and curiosity. Many of them have to do with the subjective reality aspect of this trial, so that’s what I’ll address in this Day 6 upd...

• Inspiration vs. Expectation

  by UniqueThis July 27, 2011
  This 30-day inspiration trial is almost too strange. I feel like a blind man excitedly examining a rainbow. There’s definitely something there, but I’m not sure I have the faculties to make sense of it. I feel a bit foolish trying to explain it. It’s tough to translate th...

• Inspired Living feat. Subjective Reality

  by UniqueThis July 27, 2011
  Some people mentioned that I seem to be doing two overlapping trials here. First, I’m doing 30 days of acting promptly on inspiration whenever it strikes. Second, I’m also delving more deeply into the subjective reality frame. So what’s that all about? I honestly don’t know,...

• Subjective Relationships

  by UniqueThis July 27, 2011
  “What is the primary goal?” “You should know, Professor. You programmed me.” – War Games Well… this 30-day trial of inspiration is absolutely amazing. I’m so far down the rabbit hole of subjective reality that I can perceive little else but ...

• Dream Lovemaking

  by UniqueThis July 27, 2011
  One thing I was very curious about was how the dream world perspective would affect my experience of physical intimacy. Would it seem very different if I knew that the woman was a character in my dream world, a projection of some part of me? This past weekend I had a chance to enjoy some dream worl...

• Life in a dream world

  by UniqueThis July 27, 2011
  A Roller Coaster of Emotions Throughout this trial my emotions have been all over the place. Sometimes I’ve felt incredibly blissful, and other times I’ve felt very stressed. When I feel stressed, it isn’t related to events coming up or anything like that. My calendar is still esse...

• 30 Days of Inspiration Recap

  by UniqueThis July 27, 2011
  Acting on Inspiration Acting on inspiration in the moment, as opposed to planning things out in advance, was a very different way of living for me. In some ways I liked it, and in other ways I didn’t. I enjoyed the feeling of flow from one action to the next. Instead of hesitating or thinkin...

• Integrating Light and Dark

  by UniqueThis July 27, 2011
  In previous articles about lightworking and darkworking, I mentioned that both paths ultimately lead to the same place. In this article I’ll explain what that convergence looks like. Lightworking and darkworking are potent power-building methods. By focusing intently on a unidirectional flow ...

• Hacking Reality: Subjective Objectivity

  by UniqueThis July 27, 2011
  As my 30-day subjective reality experiment concluded last month, I shifted to a different mode of living. I finally got used to seeing the world through a dream lens. It was seriously challenging to hold that perspective at first, but after a few weeks, my subconscious took over, and I no ...

• Attention

  by UniqueThis July 27, 2011
  Life offers an abundance of concerns to which you can give your attention. A significant part of living consciously includes deciding what is deserving of your attention and to what extent as well as deciding what isn’t deserving of your attention. Attention Worthiness How do you decide what...

• Go Hunting

  by UniqueThis July 27, 2011
  I think the best way for us to make sure our diets are in line with our morals is to stay connected with the end-to-end processes that we support through our food choices. For example, if you’re a meat eater, then I would strongly recommend that you go hunting once in a while and eat what you...

• The Power of Connections

  by UniqueThis July 27, 2011
  One of the conscious growth principles I’ve been teaching for years is the principle of Love. This principle states that you’ll grow significantly faster — and enjoy the process of growth much more — when your life is rich in supportive, encouraging connections. People viola...

• Spirit

  by UniqueThis July 27, 2011
  You’ve taken many painful lumpsSurvived life’s tearful turnsEndured some brutal bruises, bumps,And saintly savage burns Be grateful for the strength you’ve gainedYour inner muscles bulgeBut lips are drained and legs are chainedBy fears you still indulge Your animator kept from vi...

• How to Achieve Stretch Goals

  by UniqueThis July 27, 2011
  In the previous post, I mentioned that I’d share a method for achieving goals where you aren’t already a good match for the goal. For example, how do you become a millionaire if your vibe is riddled with thoughts and feelings of scarcity? I’ll share that process with you now. ...

• Your Simulated Reality

  by UniqueThis July 27, 2011
  Last night I had a really cool lucid dream. It started out as a regular dream that involved a bunch of robbers stealing items from a large house. I was trying to foil the robbers’ plans. At some point I realized that I was dreaming and became lucid. I ignored the robbers after that and decided...

• Completing Projects

  by UniqueThis July 27, 2011
  Even when you take the time to set clear goals, visualize success, and break big goals down into projects and action steps, it can be difficult to get yourself to take action consistently until your goal is 100% complete. Crossing the starting line is much easier than crossing the finish line. Your...

• Waking Up

  by UniqueThis July 27, 2011
  What does it mean to wake up and become more conscious? Let me share some perspectives that should make it easier to understand the process of waking up. The Cellular Perspective From the cellular perspective, you can see yourself as an individual person interacting with other individuals. Y...

• Inspired Relationships

  by UniqueThis July 27, 2011
  Lately I’ve been using a different model for thinking about human relationships, and it’s working out really well. It may seem a bit unusual though.  As I considered different relationship models like monogamy, serial monogamy, polyamory, and more, I soon realized that what I reall...

• Petting a Hummingbird

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  I usually see hummingbirds every day when I’m at home. I don’t have any bird feeders, but the birds love to hang out in my backyard or buzz around my office window. Sometimes I’ll see several of them hovering nearby. Lately I’ve been wanting to see if I could actually touch ...

• Geeks vs. Non-Geeks

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  I saw this posted in the Association of Shareware Professionals newsgroups today and couldn’t resist sharing: What really happens at an internet help desk Although it’s a humorous video clip, it illustrates a pretty common societal frustration. It can sometimes be difficult for geeks an...

• Dealing with Difficult People

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  How do you deal with difficult, irrational, or abusive people, especially those in positions of authority who have some degree of control over your life? I’ve never met a totally rational human being. Our ability to store and process information is far too imperfect for that. But our emotions...

• What Is Your Career?

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  What is your career? Forget about how you define this to others for now, and just think for a bit about how you define your career to yourself. What does it mean to you to have a career? Is it just your job? Is it something you do to make a living? Is it what you do for money? Is it your work? Most...

• Don't Die With Your Music Still In You

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  What if you currently live a very comfortable lifestyle and you have a lot of assets? How can you justify running off to do what truly makes you happy if it might put all your current assets at risk? Here’s my take on this…. To abandon a comfortable lifestyle that isn’t deeply f...

• Purpose = Freedom

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  It’s fair to say that if you don’t know your purpose in life, you won’t be spending much time working on it. So what will you end up doing with your working time instead? Three things: 1) Working on your needs, 2) Working on other people needs, 3) Working on other people’s p...

• Hard Work

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  Success literature going back hundreds of years espouses the benefits of hard work. But why is it that some people seem to feel that “hard work” is a dirty word nowadays? I define “hard work” as work that is challenging. Both hard work and “working hard” (i.e. pu...

• The Productivity Debate Begins

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  The hard work vs. laziness productivity blog showdown between myself and Fred Gratzon has begun at Slacker Manager. Brendon Connelly first invited each of us to provide our own definitions of certain terms: success, hard work, passion, happiness, laziness, productivity, work ethic, efficiency, and m...

• Productivity Showdown Day 3

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  Working hard and setting limits… a. Can a person work a maximum of 40 hours a week at something and still be successful? b. Real-life story problem #1: I’ve recently graduated from university and launched into full time work with the company I have been working part time with for the la...

• How Many Careers Would You Like?

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  As children we all hear the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” So we grow up, we pick a career and work at it for a while. But then what? Does the choice we made at age 20 bind us until age 65? For many people that seems to be exactly what happens, and that’s a f...

• Working From Home

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  Yesterday I was working in my home office, and my son Kyle was playing on the floor next to me, mostly trying to reorganize my bookshelf. Kyle stood up and pointed to an apple I was eating and said, “thash an apple.” Then he took about 5 steps towards me without holding on to anything &m...

• Working in Unusual Places

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  I recently read that Malcolm Gladwell wrote most of his book Blink while away from his desk. He wrote at coffee shops, restaurants, and other public places. I’ve only done a little of this myself, but I’ve always found it a valuable practice. If I feel stuck in a creative rut, working i...

• The Meaning of Life: Transitioning

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  Once you’ve defined your purpose and identified some goals and projects based on that purpose, most likely you’ll find that you’ll have to move in a very different direction. You may have been trekking down your current path for years, and now you’ve set a whole new direction...

• How to Get From a 7 to a 10

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  A frequent question I ask when trying to improve some area of my life is: If I were to rate this area’s current performance on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being the worst imaginable and 10 being the best imaginable, where am I right now? Very often I find that areas get stuck somewhere in the 6-8...

• Life Lessons From Blackjack

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  Having played a fair amount of blackjack (I learned card counting when I was 21), I’ve noticed some interesting patterns in the way people play the game that seem to reflect larger life patterns. Background Story Feel free to skip ahead to the “Interesting Observations” section i...

• Videotape Your Performance

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  One of the best pieces of advice for improving at public speaking is to videotape yourself and then watch the video, looking for ways you can improve. This technique is commonly used by the best speakers in the world. But this idea can work for any kind of performance, not just public speaking. If...
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• Life Lessons From Poker

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  Since I received positive feedback on Life Lessons From Blackjack last week, I thought I’d share some lessons I learned from poker as well. Background Again, feel free to skip the background story if you just want to read the lessons part. I only include this for the curious. I first learne...

• Your Superpower and Your Kryptonite

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  What’s your greatest strength? Can you identify it? I’m not saying your greatest strength is necessarily unique, and it probably won’t put any comic book heroes to shame. But if you can identify any strengths at all, then one of them must be your greatest (or at least a few are ti...

• What Is Your Value?

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  Last Thursday I turned the subject of the article “The Medium vs. the Message” into a 20-minute speech, which I delivered to one of my Toastmasters clubs. At the beginning of the speech, I had everyone in the audience create a fake business card with their name and their current career l...

• Creating Inspiration

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  If you do any creative work, I’m sure you’ve experienced this dilemma: Should you ever work when you aren’t inspired, or should you wait for inspiration? I’ve had to face this situation many times, whether it involved designing a new computer game or writing an original blog...

• Is Your Genius at Work?

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  Is Your Genius at Work? by Dick Richards is a fantastic book about discovering your genius and your purpose and identifying a career that fits well with both.  This book was recently provided to me by the publisher, and it’s one of the few unsolicited books I receive...

• Deciding What to Do With Your Life

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  Deciding what to do with your life isn’t remotely easy.  Most people never make this decision at all.  But since we all end up doing something, if we don’t make this decision consciously, then a decision will still be made, but it will be an unconscious one. If you don’t...

• How to Have a More Focused Day

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  It’s been said that the best way to predict the future is to create it.  While obviously there’s a great deal that’s out of your control with respect to events that haven’t occurred yet, you should at least have some control over how you spend your time today and tomorro...

• Are You Ready to Take Action Now?

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  After a stock market rally, many investors will sell some of their stock to “lock in their gains.”  They cash out and take the rewards they’ve accumulated.  Partly this is to ensure that the rewards of their efforts are actually received because in a short period of time ...

• Social Drag

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  Social drag is what happens when you undergo a significant personal shift, yet everyone around you still treats you the same.  Suppose you’ve decided to switch careers.  Even though you’re still working in your old career, mentally you’ve already made the leap t...

• Progressive Training

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  A great idea I learned from weight training is the concept of progressive training.  Progressive training means that you keep gradually increasing the weights you lift (over a period of weeks, months, and years), so you always experience a high degree of challenge in your training.&nb...

• Motivation for Smart People (Sans Chest Pounding)

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  Do you ever feel there’s a greater being inside of you just bursting to get out?  You can feel its presence sometimes, can’t you?  It’s the voice that encourages you to really make something of your life.  When you act congruently with that voice, it’s like you...

• How to Set Goals You Will Actually Achieve

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  A major obstacle that prevents people from enjoyably achieving their goals is that they set their goals incorrectly to begin with.  This problem occurs because people don’t understand the nature of time well enough.  When people consider a particular goa...

• PhotoReading – How to Triple Your Reading Speed

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  For the past several days, you may have seen some new ads on this site and even in the RSS feed.  Those ads are for the PhotoReading system, which is a way to dramatically increase your reading speed. I evaluate a lot of personal development courses, and to be honest most a...

• How to Make More Intelligent Info Product Purchases

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  If you’re a growth-oriented person like me (OK, growth addict would be more accurate), you probably consume lots of information products, including books, ebooks, audio programs, self-study courses, classes, workshops, seminars, and more.  Once you get starte...

• If Everyone Awakens Will We All Starve?

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  Some people suggest it isn’t practical for too many of us to become purpose-centered.  Imagine what would happen if everyone on earth awakened to a noble purpose.  While we’re all busy changing the world, who will clean our floors and dig our ditches?  Will we&nb...

• Life – The Ultimate Game

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  When designing a game, a good game designer will present the player with a solid collection of compelling choices.  As long as the choices remain compelling, the game has a chance of being fun.  But if the choices are boring, confusing, pointless, or broken, it’s unlik...

• Showing Up

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  I’m sure you’ve heard the Woody Allen quote that 80% of success is showing up.  While merely showing up — to work, to an audition, to a date, etc. — won’t guarantee success, it’s certainly a prerequisite. A few months ago I began training in kempo, a martial...

• 7 Rules for Maximizing Your Creative Output

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  After my last article on experiencing creativity, there was a question in the resulting forum discussion about how to enter this highly creative flow state, the state where you lose all sense of time, your ego vanishes, and you become one with the task in front of you.  Is this peak creati...

• James Ray Interview

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  I’m delighted to present this exclusive interview with James Ray, President and CEO of the multi-million dollar corporation James Ray International and cast member of the increasingly popular movie The Secret. Last week James shared his insights on the Law of Attraction&nb...

• 33 Rules to Boost Your Productivity

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  Heuristics are rules intended to help you solve problems.  When a problem is large or complex, and the optimal solution is unclear, applying a heuristic allows you to begin making progress towards a solution even though you can’t visualize the entire path from your starting point. S...

• 33 Rules to Boost Your Productivity – Volume 2

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  My last article on 33 Rules to Boost Your Productivity got a positive reception, so I decided to come up with 33 more. A few of these are similar to the ones already posted, but most are new.  Sometimes looking at the same idea from different angles can be beneficial. So here are 33...

• 33 Rules to Boost Your Productivity – Volume 3

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  Here’s the third installment of 33 Rules to Boost Your Productivity (see Volume 1 and Volume 2). These are a bit sillier and less politically correct than the first two volumes — I had to stretch to come up with more ideas – but many are still valid in certain ...

• How You Give Your Power Away

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  One of the themes that repeatedly came up at the last Conscious Growth Workshop was the problem of giving your power away. Instead of focusing on your true desires, you erect false structures in front of your desires and then feed your power to those structures as a delay tactic. Here are some typi...

• The Past DOES Equal the Future

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  The past does not equal the future is a favorite saying of Tony Robbins. Unfortunately he’s dead wrong. I can understand Tony’s intent in making such a statement. Sure it’s part of his overall sales pitch, but essentially he’s telling people that they have the power to brea...

• Hacking Reality: Subjective Objectivity

  by UniqueThis July 14, 2011
  As my 30-day subjective reality experiment concluded last month, I shifted to a different mode of living. I finally got used to seeing the world through a dream lens. It was seriously challenging to hold that perspective at first, but after a few weeks, my subconscious took over, and I no longer had...

• Contributing Through Your Career

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  As I see it, your best long-term outlet for making a meaningful contribution to the world is your career.  Yes, you can contribute by donating money and volunteering on the side, but that’s not as efficient as being able to give through the work you do each day.  Most ...

• David Brooks Interview

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Today I’m happy to share an exclusive interview with David Brooks, an award-winning professional speaker and trainer who has taught more than 10,000 business professionals to speak and write clearly, concisely, and confidently. Recently David came to Las Vegas to give a pr...

• Career Apathy

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  A bad career choice can serve up some major emotional consequences.  First comes discontent and dissatisfaction.  Next comes frustration and overwhelm.  Then comes depression and learned helplessness.  And finally you get numbness and apathy.  This pattern nor...

• How to Take Action Consistently

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  With respect to goals, projects, and other to-do items, it’s easy to get stuck too long in the thinking and planning phase.  You can sit around writing and rewriting your goals, delving into your subconscious mind, working through emotional blocks, summoning the power of Thor… what...

• Career Transitions

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  I’ve been in the fortunate position of watching a lot of people undergo career transitions during the past several years, myself included. I’ve noticed a very simple recurring pattern that I’d like to share with you. This pattern is so common you could...

• 200 Things I Love About Writing

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  A few days ago, I decided to do a simple journaling exercise. I wanted to make a quick list of 20 things I love about writing. However, when typing the number 20, I accidentally typed 200 instead. As I hit the backspace key to correct the error, I paused and said, “What the hell… I ...

• Love Your Work or Don’t Work at All

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Why is it that so many people are willing to tolerate work they don’t enjoy for the sake of a paycheck? I think it’s because most of them simply don’t know what it’s really like to be in love with their work. Their fear is greater than their power, so they never make the leap...

• Lightworking

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  I’ve written a lot about the mindset behind becoming a lightworker (or darkworker), but what do lightworkers actually do? What does the business of lightworking look like? First, it’s important to understand that the ultimate goal of a lightworker is basically the expansion and elevatio...

• How to Make Accurate Time Estimates

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Many people are really bad at estimating how much time a task will take. Perhaps you estimate you’ll need about an hour, and it really takes you 3-4 hours to finish. Or maybe you allocate 30 minutes for a task, and you’re done in 5 minutes. What can you do to get better at making accurat...

• Oneness

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Why should we bother to care about other people? Is it okay to live just for ourselves? Is it good enough to do no harm? Is there any reason we should go out of our way to help other people? I used to not care about people. I mean really not care. I know what it’s like to live with that minds...

• Productivity 101

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Last night I shared some productivity tips with my Toastmasters club, so I thought it would be a good idea to share those tips with you as well. These tips are not complicated, but they’ve proven very effective for myself and countless others. You’ve probably heard these before, so if t...

• You vs. the Cubicle

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Ah, the cubicle. The beige cage. The cubicle is the antithesis of doing work you love. Virtually no one pictures a cubicle when they think about doing what they most love. The cubicle is where you end up when you fall out of harmony with what you love. The only way you can be stuck in a...

• Being a Savage

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  If I were to create a resume/CV for myself, it would start out something like this: 1989 – arrested for misdemeanor petty theft 1990 – arrested for misdemeanor petty theft (2x) 1991 – arrested for felony grand theft 1989-91 – UC Berkeley, expelled 1992  - retail sales a...

• Living Your Life Purpose

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  You may recall that a few months ago I did a survey to see what kinds of products people would be interested in seeing me create. Among other insights this provided, it helped me see what the most requested topics are. Where do people need the most help? One of the top requests in that survey was f...

• Business Planning

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  I spent most of the day yesterday on planning work, mapping out the path for growing this web site into a profitable and sustainable business. I created five 1-page documents: a business development plan, a marketing plan, a sales plan, a product development plan, and a web site development plan &md...

• The Best Place to Invest Your Money

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  The best place to invest your money is in yourself. The rate of return from investing in your own knowledge and skills will be much higher than anything you’ll see from stocks, real estate, or other investments. In some cases you can even measure the rate of return. Say you buy a book. Even a...

• Do you create plans that would require an android to execute?

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Last week I read Execution by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan. I felt the book was filled with too many long-winded stories and could have been reduced in size by at least half, but I liked the overall message, which is that execution is a key part of strategy. Let me ‘splain…. No, there i...

• Thought vs. Action

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Balancing thought and action is a challenge for many people, especially those who are self-employed. How much time should you spend thinking vs. doing? We hear things like, “failing to plan is planning to fail,” implying that careful thought must govern all action. But then there are als...

• Marketing From Your Conscience

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  I wrote and posted another new article called “Marketing From Your Conscience.” In this article the concept of marketing is meant both professionally (marketing products and services) and personally (marketing yourself for a job or a relationship). The main point of the article is to sho...

• The Best of Both Worlds

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  As Albert Einstein once remarked, “Computers are incredibly fast, accurate and stupid; humans are incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant; together they are powerful beyond imagination.” I read an interesting article about how the world of chess has changed after Deep Blue defeated Wo...

• Dark Night of the Soul

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  One of the things I’m struggling with in my life right now is making the leap to what I see as the next level of awareness I want to experience. I’ve reached the point in my life where I’m very clear about my purpose, and it has become a powerful driver for me. Whenever I align my...

• How NOT to Build a Successful Online Business

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Darren Rowse of Problogger.net recently posted a case study of a blogger who decided to quit blogging after six months due to poor financial results: Blog Case Study – Is it time to Quit? Darren’s post is a great read for anyone who runs an online business, not just for bloggers. Inter...

• Get Involved Anyway, Even if You Think It Won’t Help

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Many years ago I was listening to one of Brian Tracy’s audio programs where he recommended getting involved with some kind of trade organization, so you could surround yourself with potential mentors. He went on to tell his story of getting involved with his local Chamber of Commerce and how m...

• The Light at the End of the Tunnel

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  If you found yourself unemployed today, would you want the job you have now? Would you be eager to apply for it? What about your career as a whole? If you’d never worked in your current industry, would you consciously choose to work in it now? Many people just fall into their current line of...

• 80% of New Employees Fail Within the First 5 Years

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Have you heard the statistic that says, “80% of new businesses fail within the first five years?” That seems to be a favorite one for people to cite when attempting to discourage their friends or co-workers from starting a new business (with the best of intentions of course <- yes, th...

• What Is Productivity?

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  In this post we’re going to take a deep look into the concept of productivity. Here’s my personal definition of productivity: Productivity = Value / Time (productivity equals value divided by time) By this definition there are two primary ways of increasing productivity: 1) Increase t...

• Million Dollar Experiment – First Dollar Earned

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Well, that didn’t take long. Yesterday as I was typing up the Million Dollar Experiment (which I just posted this morning), I decided to try adding some Chitika eMiniMalls ads to the bottom of the sidebar. I just signed up with this ad service after hearing other bloggers speak highly of it &m...

• How to Earn $10,000 in One Hour

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Many books on time management recommend the practice of thinking of each hour of your time as being worth a specific quantity of money. It’s an extension of the “time is money” concept. First you figure out what your hourly rate is, and then you use that as a guide to determine whe...

• What Should I Do With My Life?

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  There’s a nice article in Fast Company about the ongoing quest for meaning in one’s work and career:  What Should I Do With My Life? This part of the article certainly resonates with my own musings on career: Those who are lit by that passion are the object of env...

• My Wife Won’t Let Me Start My Own Business

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  I hear this one a lot:  I want to start my own business, but my wife won’t let me because she thinks it’s too risky. There are variations using “girlfriend” or “fiancée,” but so far I can’t recall a single instance of a woman telling m...

• Creating a Productive Workspace

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  How would you like to permanently boost your productivity by making some simple changes to your work area? If you’re going to spend so much time at your desk, then make sure it’s going to be a pleasant experience. How does your workspace make you feel? If you’re at your desk righ...

• 2005 Traffic & Adsense Revenue Growth

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Last night I presented a 90–minute workshop to a group of about 60 speakers (some Toastmasters and some members of the National Speakers Association) about how to take advantage of internet and blogging technology.  I had a great time showing people what they could achieve by putting...

• Intelligent Risk Taking

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Risk taking is an integral part of business and life, but so few people know how to manage it properly.  The word risk has a slightly negative connotation to it — it implies danger, tension, and possible loss.  But risk also has a positive side, the chance of hitting a big ...

• How to Build a High-Traffic Web Site (or Blog)

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Since posting my 2005 traffic figures recently, I’ve received many questions about how I was able to start this web site from scratch and build its traffic to over 700,000 visitors per month (Jan 2006 projection) in about 15 months — without spending any money on marketing or p...

• Creativity for Smart People

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  According to a well-known stereotype, left-handed* people such as myself are supposedly more creative than right-handed people. For example, in the previous sentence, I just alienated most of my readers while simultaneously giving myself a compliment – pretty creative...
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• Is Self-Help a Scam?

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  The self-help industry is frequently criticized for being poulated by scam artists who overpromise and underdeliver.  Is this a valid criticism?  Let’s take a deeper look into the dark side of self-help. False promises One of the biggest problems in the self-help industry is that p...

• Humor: In the Workplace

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  There’s a time to be funny, and there’s a time not to be funny.  For most people it takes only basic common sense to know the difference.  But sometimes people use humor inappropriately.  Actually in most situations it’s not the use of humor that’s inappro...

• 10 Stupid Mistakes Made by the Newly Self-Employed

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Having been a non-employee for about 14 years now, I’ve made my share of stupid business mistakes.  I’ve also coached a number of people to start their own businesses, and I’ve seen many of them make similar mistakes.  This advice is geared towards small business own...

• Marc Allen Interview

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Today I have a special treat for you — an exclusive interview with multi-millionaire Marc Allen.  Marc Allen is the president and co-founder of New World Library, which has published some outstanding books on personal development and spirituality, including Eckhart Tolle’s The Power...

• To Thine Own Self Be True

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  How can you intelligently decide what to do with the rest of your life?  And how can you find an answer that you won’t later change on a whim? Many of us face this decision for the first time in our late teens and early 20s.  Some never face it at all and shrink from ...

• The Type-Z Guide to Success With Ease

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  You may have read my recent interview with multi-millionaire Marc Allen.  This is a review of his latest book, The Type-Z Guide to Success With Ease: A Lazy Person’s Manifesto for Wealth and Fulfillment. The Type Z-Guide presents a way to enjoy success with less stress, less ha...

• How to Make Money From Your Blog

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  StevePavlina.com was launched on Oct 1st, 2004.  By April 2005 it was averaging $4.12/day in income.  Now it brings in over $200/day $1000/day (updated as of 10/29/06).  I didn’t spend a dime on marketing or promotion.  In fact, I started this ...

• The Power of Now

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  This is a post about a major shift in my thinking that occurred several years ago, a shift that caused a dramatic improvement in my enjoyment of life.  If you’d like to experience more joy in your life right now instead of merely hoping things will get better in your future...

• 10 Ways to Relaxify Your Workspace

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Some people claim they work well in a high-stress environment.  I’m not one of them.  My productivity is highest when I’m fully relaxed.  With inspiring goals I still feel a positive urging to get my work done, but the pressure to work stems from passion instead of fear. ...

• Goal Planning for Optimal Enjoyment

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Let’s say you’ve set some goals for yourself, and now you want to map out a basic plan for how you’ll achieve them.  How do you do this? Obviously there are many ways to plan your action steps, but as a generalization it seems intelligent to aim for a plan...

• Money and Financial Issues

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  The first area of my life I’m struggling with involves money and financial issues.  I’m not sure how many of you will be able to relate to my particular challenges, but I’ll do my best to explain them.  I’ve read many books on money and finance, as I’m su...

• Money and Financial Issues Solution

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Thanks so much to everyone who privately responded to my financial abundance challenge in the previous post.  I received hundreds of ideas in less than 24 hours and more are coming in every hour.  I’m sorry I can’t reply to everyone to thank you personally (it&rs...

• Blogging Questions

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  I received a number of blogging-related questions, so I figured I’d handle them all in a single post. What blogging software do you use? WordPress What do you use as your primary RSS feed reader? FeedDemon Did you use a template for your blog design, or is it custom? It’s cust...

• Keeping Up With Accelerating Change

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Today it seems like the rate of change in the world is increasing exponentially, with monumental developments in business, technology, and the social environment happening daily.  How can an individual continue to grow and develop in a world that is moving so quickly? My personal answer to thi...

• 10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Just for fun I recently asked Erin, “Now that the kids are in summer school, don’t you think it’s about time you went out and got yourself a job?  I hate seeing you wallow in unemployment for so long.” She smiled and said, “Wow.  I have been unemployed a...

• 10 Myths About Self-Employment

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  My article 10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job has quickly become very popular, so I figured it would be nice to write something about the realities of self-employment as well.  Since there are so many myths about self-employment (especially among lifelong employees), a good place to start wo...

• 10 Reasons to Develop Your Technical Skills

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Something I’ve rarely seen mentioned in personal development books is intelligent advice on how to develop and maintain strong technical skills.  At best you’ll see email, PDAs, and a few other basic tools mentioned, but that’s about it.  Even children can use email thoug...

• 10 Ways to Improve Your Technical Skills

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  In 10 Reasons to Develop Your Technical Skills, I explained why it’s important to develop your technical skills as an integral part of your personal development efforts.  Strong technical skills can save you time, increase your income, and enable you to extract the most ban...

• How Much Is a Blog Post Worth? Would You Believe $2400 Each?

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Recently I read Darren Rowse’s enlightening post about bloggers-for-hire being paid on a per-post basis.  Darren says the going rate being offered is around $2 to $20 per post… sometimes as high as $100 per post.  That’s a flat one-time fee with ...

• What Are the Odds of Becoming a Black Belt?

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  People often ask me to help them assess what their odds of success will be in some new endeavor:  What are my odds of succeeding as a full-time blogger?  What are my odds of succeeding as an indie game developer?  What are my odds of succeeding as an entrepreneur? On t...

• 5 Wealth Lessons From 20 Percent of a Millionaire

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  In early 2006 I got serious about the goal of becoming a millionaire, and in this article I’ll share with you five key lessons I learned that may help you increase your financial abundance. While I’ve long dreamed of becoming a millionaire (who hasn’t?), it was only last...

• 10 Business Lessons From a Snarky Entrepreneur

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  As a companion to 10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job and 10 Stupid Mistakes Made by the Newly Self-Employed, here are 10 positive lessons I learned from more than 12 years as an entrepreneur.  A few of these are rehashed from the 10 Mistakes article, but most are new. This list is...

• Polarity and Your Career

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  As a follow-up to the Polarity and Polarization articles, let’s explore some practical applications of polarity-based thinking with respect to your career choices. Better decision-making The significance of polarity is that it can serve as a powerful decision-making tool.  It helps you ...

• Purpose and Values

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Until now I was able to simply use my personal mission and values for running this business, but as I mentioned in the previous post, it’s not going to be just me much longer.  Pavlina may be my “baby” in a way, but as a business it needs its own purpose and val...

• Testing to Failure

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Testing ideas through direct experience is among the best ways to learn and grow.  If you want to know if an idea really has merit, test it under real-world conditions.  Then you’ll have your answer. For example, suppose you want to ask someone out for a date.  O...

• How to Prioritize

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Virtually every time management system teaches that you must prioritize your projects to make sure you’re working on what’s truly important instead of getting caught up in minor things.  However, few systems explain precisely how to do this.  How do you deci...

• Copyright and Intellectual Property

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  As a blogger and a former software developer, I must frequently deal with copyright issues.  For most of my adult life, intellectual property has been my primary source of livelihood and remains so to this day.  While some people take issue with the concept of intellectual p...

• The Truth About Piracy

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  After posting the recent article on Copyright and Intellectual Property, I expected someone would question whether the whole notion of copyrights is fear-based.  Sure enough someone did.  It’s a very good question — is the whole notion of intellectual property in...

• David Schirmer Exposed

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  David Schirmer is one of the experts featured in The Secret.  Within the past hour, I watched a rather disturbing YouTube video clip about him after a forum member posted a link to it.  Some of David’s seminar customers accused him of taking money he was supposed to be investing on t...

• How to Create a Fulfilling Career

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  How to create a fulfilling career has been one of my most requested topics lately.  Career development is such a rich and complex subject, however, that I can’t do it justice with a single article.  Consequently, I’ve decided to devote a new series of a...

• Do You Have a Deeply Fulfilling Career?

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  If you’re already on a stable or semi-stable career path, this article will help you determine whether your current career is really the right one for you, using a very simple assessment process. Career fulfillment defined What does it mean to have a fulfilling career?  Here’...

• Career Planning

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  There many strategies you can use to select and plan a career path, but perhaps the two most basic patterns are bottom-up and top-down. Bottom-up career planning Bottom-up career planning means figuring out how you can best take advantage of the career building blocks you already possess.&nbs...

• Career and Commitment

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  How committed are you to having a career you absolutely love? Your level of commitment plays a key role in the process of creating a fulfilling career.  When people are undercommitted to their careers, they tend to get lousy results.  When they get clear about what they want and commit th...

• Exploring Career Choices

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  There are so many choices today that it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the vast array of career possibilities.  Paradoxically the more choices people have, the more they paralyze themselves trying to find the right choice, and the less satisfied they are with their eventual decision. To...

• 2 Mental Blocks to Making Money

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  The essence of successful income generation is value creation.  If you want to earn income, you must provide something that matters enough to someone else that they’ll pay you for it.  The act of providing value may be direct, such as selling a useful product or service, or...

• Discover Your Strengths

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  In order to develop a career that really suits you, it’s important to have a basic knowledge of your key strengths.  Unlike skills or knowledge you can acquire through education, your strengths are more basic talents.  For the most part you were born with them.  Y...

• The Challenge of Choosing the Right Career

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Choosing a career is a huge responsibility, both for men and women.  I think this is especially true for men though, since we’re socially conditioned to value our careers very highly and to mix our egos into our work.  It’s tough for many men ...

• You Are Self-Employed

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Many years ago I listened to an audio program by Brian Tracy where he said that everyone is essentially self-employed and that even if you’re an employee, you should think of yourself as the President of your own personal services corporation.  Call it Your Name, Inc. This mindset makes ...

• Career Responsibility

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  A few people asked variations on this question: If I work for a company that seems to have priorities I don’t agree with, am I partially responsible for its results? Answer: Of course you are. If you assist your company in achieving its objectives, you’re contributing to its ...

• Working for Free

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Many people ask me how they can start generating income from a new line of work, especially work that is highly creative or artistic. Some have already created quite a bit of content like albums or books or paintings, but they aren’t making any money from it. Some have a decent level of skill,...

• Quitting to Win

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Are you afraid that if you quit too many jobs or switch careers too often, your resume (CV) will make you look undesirable? And who’s gonna hire you then? No one wants a loser who can’t stay put. You’re probably right to be concerned… assuming your primary career goal ...

• How to Build a Successful Online Business

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  I love the lifestyle that comes from running an online business. I get to work from home each day, set my own hours, choose my own projects, and enjoy abundant income. It’s hard for me to imagine how I’d feed myself without the Internet. When I think about income generatio...

• Blogging for Money

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Starting a blog is very easy these days. You can start your own blog in a matter of minutes if you want. Many web hosts will even install a blog for you or provide an easy installation process. And of course you can always use a hosted service like WordPress.com or Blogger to get started. Some peop...

• Personal Branding

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Personal branding is basically the way you market yourself to the world. Your personal brand is what other people think of you. In some ways it’s outside your control, but you obviously have some influence over it. Personal branding is unavoidable. As others interact with you, they&...

• How to Beat the Competition

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  In a recent forum thread about starting a new business, someone asked about the best way to handle competition. How do you ensure that your efforts will pay off instead of merely jumping into a giant pool with everyone else and being unable to stand out? My strategy for dealing with compe...

• The Value of Ideas

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Every week I receive emails from people who tell me their ideas for new websites, businesses, or organizations they’d like to build. Usually they ask me for feedback on their ideas, implying that their ideas have some intrinsic value. Occasionally they want me to invest in their...

• What I Learned From Going Bankrupt in My 20s That Proves to Be

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  “Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in that grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.” - Theodore Roosevelt It&rsquo...

• How to Earn Your First Love Dollar

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  If you really commit yourself to the idea, can you earn $1 from doing something you love? Very often people who are stuck in the pattern of doing work they dislike will shun simple opportunities to earn small amounts of money doing something they love. They assume that if they could only earn a few...

• Zen Habits Interview, Facebook Page, Free Book Bonuses, and Mor

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  If you’re up for some fresh content, Zen Habits just posted a monstrous new interview with me. Leo Babauta asked really good questions, so I gave them a lot of thought. This interview is very long — nearly 7,000 words — about the length of a typical book chapter. I promise you it ...

• Financial Meltdown

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  I’ve received several requests to write something about the apparent financial crisis in the USA, not to mention the upcoming election. Erin has received similar requests. At first I declined because so much is being written about this already, but people said they just wanted to hear my take ...

• Dropping Adsense – Saying Goodbye to $100K Per Year in Easy Inc

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  The day has finally arrived. I just finished removing all Google Adsense ads from StevePavlina.com. This includes the blog, the forums, and all other pages on the site. Unless I missed something, there should be no more Adsense ads showing anywhere on this website. For long-term readers, this shoul...

• How to Make Lots of Money During a Recession

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  A recession is possibly the best time to launch a new business or to expand an existing one. It’s also a great time to get ahead in your career. I know this sounds counter-intuitive, so let me ‘splain. First, the media goes nuts during a recession. They turn a little bit of negativity i...

• How to Create Real Value

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  As a follow-up to the last article, let’s tackle the question of how to discern whether or not you’re creating and delivering real value. The simple answer is that you know you’re creating value when you can see tangible positive changes in the world as a result of your creative o...

• Succeeding by Helping Others Succeed

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  What do you think about self-help gurus that achieve most of their success (financial or otherwise) through the vehicle of their work as a self-help guru? What can we say about a motivational speaker who talks about success but whose greatest success is being successful at speaking about success? ...

• Living Paycheck to Paycheck

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  One of the traps people fall into, especially during an economic recession, is the trap of living paycheck to paycheck. You can’t afford to switch jobs or get laid off because you’re just barely making enough to squeak by. Erin and I were in a situation like this about 10 years ago...

• 15 Second Marketing

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Have you ever heard of an elevator pitch? That’s when someone casually asks, “What kind of work do you do?” and you give them a brief answer in roughly the time span of an elevator ride. The people who hear your elevator pitch could be potential business partners or clie...

• The Joy of Solving Problems

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Life’s problems do not exist to beat you down. They exist to help you grow. Do you ever go to the gym, stare at all the dumbbells lining the wall, and exclaim, “Dammit! Why are there so many weights here? I can’t possibly lift all of them! Look at how heavy they are! Why can&...

• SBI eLearning – A Complete eBusiness Education

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Site Build It recently launched a new service that I’ve been eager to review. It’s called SBI eLearning, and it’s a structured 12-week online course with a real instructor that guides you through the process of building and launching your own income-generating online...

• Rebecca Turner Interview

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Rebecca Turner is a successful online entrepreneur who created a website to teach people about lucid dreaming, aptly named World of Lucid Dreaming. She’s been a regular participant in our discussion forums. After watching her openly share eBusiness tips with other forum members ...

• How to Network With Busy People

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  I began writing this article on an airplane last week, and it came out to be more than 9,000 words, almost 20 pages when printed. So I decided to break it up into smaller chunks and publish it as a series. This article is the start of that series. Often the people we’d most like to network wi...

• How to Network With Busy People – Part 2

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  This is a continuation of the “How to Network With Busy People” series. The first post in the series can be found here. Continuing on with our tips… Don’t trigger a pattern match. Don’t send a busy person any communication that fits the pattern of what they’ve...

• How to Network With Busy People – Part 3

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  This is a continuation of the “How to Network With Busy People” series. The first post in the series can be found here. Continuing on with our tips… Avoid making threats. An example of a threat is, “I really need a response from you, so I’m going to keep calling/ema...

• How to Network With Busy People – Part 4

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  This is a continuation of the “How to Network With Busy People” series. The first post in the series can be found here. Continuing on with our tips… Avoid cold-calling. Avoid cold-calling if possible. Busy people get cold calls (and a lot more cold emails) every day. This is ye...

• How to Network With Busy People – Part 5

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  This is a continuation of the “How to Network With Busy People” series. The first post in the series can be found here. Continuing on with our tips… Use a backdoor. Busy people often have backdoor channels where they automatically pay more attention to incoming communication. I...

• How to Network With Busy People – Part 6

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  This is a continuation of the “How to Network With Busy People” series. The first post in the series can be found here. Continuing on with our tips… Be discerning. Don’t try to network with someone just because they seem like a high-value target. When I started my comput...

• How to Network With Busy People – Part 7

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  This is a continuation of the “How to Network With Busy People” series. The first post in the series can be found here. Continuing on with our tips… Forgive the blow-off. Busy people are constantly being approached by those who are coming from a place of neediness. This is why ...

• How to Network With Busy People – Part 8

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  This is a continuation of the “How to Network With Busy People” series. The first post in the series can be found here. Continuing on with our tips… Don’t misinterpret short replies. Busy people often send very curt replies to emails they receive. Don’t misinterpret...

• How to Network With Busy People – Part 9

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  This is a continuation of the “How to Network With Busy People” series. The first post in the series can be found here. Continuing on with our tips… Offer genuine friendship, not neediness. This idea is more about attitude than actions. Busy people are so accustomed to being ap...

• How to Network With Busy People – Part 10

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  This is a continuation of the “How to Network With Busy People” series. The first post in the series can be found here. Continuing on with our tips… Meet in person. It’s hard to create much of a connection with someone via email. Email just isn’t expressive enough. ...

• How to Network With Busy People – Part 11

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  This is a continuation of the “How to Network With Busy People” series. The first post in the series can be found here. Continuing on with our tips… Don’t apologize for reaching out. Never begin your first contact with an apology. Every week people send me emails that be...

• How to Network With Busy People – Part 12

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  This is a continuation of the “How to Network With Busy People” series. The first post in the series can be found here. Continuing on with our tips… Communicate like a human being, not a marketer. If your email looks even remotely like spam, expect that busy people will treat i...

• A Fixed Income Is a Sucker Bet

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Do you live on a fixed income, earning the same amount of money paycheck after paycheck? Maybe you pick up a cost of living adjustment or a raise now and then (or suffer a pay cut or reduction in hours), but barring any major changes like getting promoted, fired, or laid off, is your income fairly s...

• SBI Buy One Get One Free Holiday Special

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  SBI is currently offering a special buy one get one free holiday promotion. This is their best offer of the year. This is an extra optional bonus where you can get a second SBI subscription for a friend or relative (or even yourself) for FREE instead of the regular $299 price. This offer is o...

• Master Your Workday Now

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  I recently had the privilege of reading the book Master Your Workday Now!by Michael Linenberger. I daresay this is the best book on workflow management I’ve ever read — and I’ve read a LOT of books on that subject. The book just came out this week, and last I checked it was in the...

• Contributing to Your Field

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  A good way to attract interesting and inspiring people into your life and to boost your overall success is to actively contribute to your field. Contributors get noticed and attract new friends and opportunities easily, and contributing is much easier than you might assume. Tired of Isolation When...

• How to Raise Your Hourly Rate

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  If you work as an independent professional or employee whereby you get paid by the hour, then your income depends heavily on your hourly rate. So obviously if you can raise your hourly rate, you can earn more money without working longer hours. But when does it make sense to raise your hourly rate?...

• Spanked by eBay

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  A few hours ago, eBay removed my listing for a 60-minute phone consultation. The last time I checked, that auction had received dozens of bids and was up to $1000. There were still 2-1/2 days left in the auction, so I suspect the final price would have gone much higher. I checked my email and saw t...

• Moving Beyond Copyright

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  An inspired idea came to me today, one that struck me multiple times over the past few years. Until today I couldn’t bring myself to act on it. Now I’m ready to move forward with it. The short version is that I’m going to give people permission to republish my articles far and wid...

• SBI 2-for-1 Holiday Special

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  SBI is offering their annual special buy one get one free holiday promotion. This is the best deal they offer. In fact, it’s now the only special deal they offer each year, having discontinued all their other seasonal promotions (Valentine’s Day, Spring Special, etc). Why Have I Been Re...

• Product Survey Results

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Recently I posted a product survey to ask readers what they thought I should create next. The survey included questions about topics, formats, and delivery methods for new personal development products. Now I’ll share the results, insights I learned, and how this affects plans for the road ahe...

• Help Wanted

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  I mentioned previously that I wanted to stop working as a solopreneur and build some staff this year. Well, the time has finally arrived. I’m ready to start recruiting some staff, so if the idea of working with me sounds interesting, please read on. If you’ve been reading my blog for a ...

• Help Wanted (the Serious Version)

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  My April 1st Help Wanted post generated a wide range of reactions. As many people figured out, the post was indeed an April Fools joke. I thought up this idea 3 weeks prior when I decided I should finally do an Aprils Fools post. This idea seemed like the perfect combination of various things...

• 10 Tips for a Better Cover Letter

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Recently I’ve been reading through dozens of letters from people who are interested in working together, and I want to share some insights regarding what makes for an effective cover letter and what doesn’t. If you consider these tips from the employer’s perspective, I think you&r...

• Waking Up

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  What does it mean to wake up and become more conscious? Let me share some perspectives that should make it easier to understand the process of waking up. The Cellular Perspective From the cellular perspective, you can see yourself as an individual person interacting with other individuals. Y...

• Sharpen the Saw

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Habit #7 in Steve Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is called “Sharpen the Saw.” Covey uses the common analogy of a woodcutter who is sawing for several days straight and is becoming less and less productive. The process of cutting dulls the blade. So the solution is ...

• Full Engagement

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  In an article I wrote a few years ago called Do It Now, I explained some time management techniques that allowed me to finish college more quickly than usual. What I probably didn’t make clear in the article was that I didn’t overwhelm myself like a workaholic to pull it off. I had a gre...

• Enjoying the Journey

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  If you work really hard to achieve your goals but don’t enjoy the journey, you’re delaying the essence of life. Committing to your goals doesn’t mean you slave away at work you dislike, celebrating only the destination. A real abiding commitment means that you love what you do each...

• Living Congruently

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Do you tend to compartmentalize all the different areas of your life? Career goes there, relationship goes here, spirituality fits there, and health … well, that’s neither here nor there. Or maybe your compartmentalizing is temporal instead of spatial in your thinking. During the workd...

• Cycles of Life

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  A reader suggested I write about this topic: Explore the tension between being satisfied with what you have and your accomplishments vs. the desire to do better. Being too complacent would yield suboptimal results because you’re drifting and not getting close to your true potential. But push ...

• Productivity Showdown Day 2

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  The hard work vs. laziness productivity blog showdown between myself and Fred Gratzon continues at Slacker Manager. Today we tackle the following questions: 1) The money and the passion… You both seem to encourage paying less attention to how much money you make, and pay more attention to wh...

• How Does Consciousness Relate to Personal Growth?

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Given previous posts on Levels of Consciousness and Raising Your Consciousness, several people have asked me what “practical” relevance this has to personal growth. A valid question — here’s my answer: Certainly your actions will produce results in your life, but which actio...

• Six Months of Goal-Mongering

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Here’s what I’ve done so far this year: Physical - completed a 30-day challenge to kick start a new exercise program - revised exercise program to six days per week, mixture of running and weight training - gradually extended distance runs to 8 miles (will probably hold off on distance ...

• How Selfish Are You?

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Several readers have informed me they’re experiencing tremendous difficulty with the issue of selfishness vs. selflessness. Deep down they want to live lives of greater service to others (STO), but they note that their current lives are designed almost entirely around service to self (STS). Th...

• What Should I Do With My Life?

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  There’s a nice article in Fast Company about the ongoing quest for meaning in one’s work and career:  What Should I Do With My Life? This part of the article certainly resonates with my own musings on career: Those who are lit by that passion are the object of env...

• The 50-30-20 Rule

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Lately I’ve been trying a promising new method for managing my time. It’s similar to timeboxing, except that instead of allocating a certain amount of time for a specific activity, I divide my total work time between three different classes of activities. Here’s how it works&helli...

• What Kind of Year Do You Want to Have?

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  There’s been a lot of writing about New Years’ resolutions in the blogosphere lately.  That isn’t a bad thing; however, there are a couple problems with the way most people make New Years’ resolutions. First, most people treat their NYRs as mere wishes, n...

• Branching Out

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  One of the most basic ways to grow as a human being is to try something new. Do something you’ve never done before. New situations challenge us. Our brains have to work at full capacity to understand new patterns instead of just rerunning old ones. In completely new situations, we’re li...

• Erin Pavlina . com

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  After seeing my results over the past 16 months, my wife was inspired to start her own web site and blog. She recently launched ErinPavlina.com. Her site just has a few articles right now, but with the time she’s been putting into it, I don’t think it will be long before she has an abund...

• Cave-Free Spirituality

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Silly beliefs sometimes steer people away from the pursuit of spiritual development and higher awareness.  One of those is the belief that the pinnacle of spiritual evolution is to become a hermit-like cave guru who’s completely withdrawn from active participation in the world a...

• The Three Bears: Arrogance, Timidity, and Honesty

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Arrogance (too hot) Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.  – Proverbs 16:18 Arrogance is overbearing pride that attempts to juxtapose others as inferior to yourself.  Although this quality is considered honorable among Klingons, it tends to annoy human...

• Work From Your Strengths. Train Up Your Weaknesses.

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  One of the most important personal development principles is that your weakest area will limit your ability to take advantage of your strongest area.  The various parts of our lives — physical, mental, social, spiritual — are deeply interwoven, and we cannot simply consider each par...

• Weaknesses That Matter, Weaknesses That Don’t

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Yesterday’s post on strengths and weaknesses generated some interesting follow-up questions.  Much of it can be reduced to the following question, which certainly deserves an intelligent answer: Isn’t it a bad idea to work on a weak area that you aren’t very good at...

• Self-Acceptance vs. Personal Growth

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  How do you balance self-acceptance vs. the drive to grow and improve yourself?  On the one hand, it’s a good idea to accept yourself for who you are… faults and all, right?  But on the other hand, isn’t it also a good idea to set goals and aim for something even bet...

• Personal Development and Subjective Reality

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  What does the mindset of Subjective Reality have to do with personal development? Your own path of personal development will proceed in accordance with your thoughts and beliefs.  It can proceed no other way.  Hence, you will enjoy and experience the most growth if you choose to...

• 10 Ways to Optimize Your Normal Days

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Many years ago an old friend and I were discussing the meaning of life.  He said, “I don’t think the point of life is to accomplish a certain level of external success.  I believe we’re actually here to acquire and enjoy experiences.” That conversation took pl...

• 10 Ways to Relaxify Your Workspace

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Some people claim they work well in a high-stress environment.  I’m not one of them.  My productivity is highest when I’m fully relaxed.  With inspiring goals I still feel a positive urging to get my work done, but the pressure to work stems from passion instead of fear. ...

• Goal Planning for Optimal Enjoyment

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Let’s say you’ve set some goals for yourself, and now you want to map out a basic plan for how you’ll achieve them.  How do you do this? Obviously there are many ways to plan your action steps, but as a generalization it seems intelligent to aim for a plan...

• Ask Steve – Parenting

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  This is a specific example of a particular area of my life that I’m currently struggling with, as a continuation of this post from the “Ask Steve” series. Another area of my life that’s challenging me is parenting.  Again, I see this a...

• Ask Steve – Recommended Reading

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Could you recommend some of your all-time favorite books? Sure. Since the early 90s I’ve been reading about a book a week, so that adds up to quite a few books.  I’ll scan my office bookshelves to recall which ones had a meaningful impact on me after I read them. Here are so...

• The Death of Skepticism

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Skepticism is the mindset that says, “I’ll believe it when I see it… and even then I’ll still have doubts.”  In practical terms skeptics need to see a reasonable degree of external proof before they’ll believe anything out of the ordinary. The ide...

• Asset Allocation

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Recently I took a 3-week course on financial planning offered through UNLV.  The most important topic covered was asset allocation.  Asset allocation refers to how you allocate the money you have available to invest.  What percentage of your money goes into your se...

• Purpose = Permanent Message + Temporary Medium

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Once you discover and embrace your life purpose, are you set for the rest of your life?  Do you keep fulfilling that same purpose until you die?  Or can your purpose change over time? Truthfully I think the answer is a little of both.  There is a permanent, unchanging aspect of ...

• Life Lessons – Live

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  This is a very unusual post because it’s being written in the middle of a live workshop for the Las Vegas National Speakers Association. I previously mentioned this NSA workshop last month, and I’m happy to say there are about 50 attendees in the room, several of whom flew in from out of...

• Lightworker Syndrome

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  One obstacle that traps a lot of highly conscious people is what Erin and I call Lightworker Syndrome.  This is what happens when someone wakes up to a higher level of consciousness, but they can’t figure out how to live on purpose and feed themselves at the same time.  Such people&n...

• Making Money Consciously

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  How important is money?  How much is enough?  Is money a distraction from one’s spiritual path?  Is it a necessary evil?  Is it unfair that some people have more money than others?  Is poverty more noble than wealth?  Is it possible to become an enlightened m...

• Triage

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  In battlefield medicine the principle of triage involves dividing patients into three groups:  1) those who will die anyway whether they receive medical attention or not, 2) those who will survive anyway whether they receive medical attention or not, and 3) those who will survive only if t...

• Setting Your Primary Focus

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  At the start of each new year, in lieu of creating a New Year’s resolution, my tradition is to select an area of primary focus for the coming year.  Whereas a New Year’s resolution may succeed or fail, the choice of primary focus endures throughout the year....

• The Dark Side of Financial Abundance

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  One thing that holds a lot of people back from becoming wealthy is the fear that their lives will actually become worse in some ways. There is in fact a dark side to financial abundance, but it isn’t pitch black. Here are some items that might genuinely concern you if you dramatically i...

• Polarization

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  This article continues our exploration of Polarity.  If you haven’t yet digested the first article, you’ll probably want to do so before reading this one, since now we’re going to extend those concepts even further. A quick review Every thought has two components:&...

• Polarity and Your Career

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  As a follow-up to the Polarity and Polarization articles, let’s explore some practical applications of polarity-based thinking with respect to your career choices. Better decision-making The significance of polarity is that it can serve as a powerful decision-making tool.  It helps you ...

• For Love of Evil

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  I’d like to clarify a common question about polarity and love:  How does a darkworker experience love? How lightworkers experience love Lightworkers express love outwardly through forms such as giving and service.  Love is something that flows out of them and into the world.&n...

• Self-Help Cynics

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  At the other end of the spectrum from self-help junkies, we find self-help cynics.  Self-help cynics are people who’ve become totally disillusioned with anything associated to personal development.  They regard the entire field as nothing but a sham populated by s...

• Spiritual Depth Perception

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Stereo vision is one of our more fascinating human abilities.  Our eyeballs capture 2D snapshots of our environment, and our brains and visual circuitry rapidly combine them into 3D images.  So even though our eyes are perceiving reality in two dimensions, by combining the data from both e...

• Confessions of an A-List Blogger

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Since I receive many questions about this topic, I thought it would be fun to share a candid insider’s look at the reality of being an A-list blogger.  These are my personal observations, so I’m not saying they’re true of other high-traffic bloggers, but it woul...

• I Can Do It! Conference Review – Day 2

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  The review of the 2007 I Can Do It! Conference continues. Day 2 – Friday Brian Weiss, M.D. - Same Soul, Many Bodies Steve:  Friday began with a six-hour workshop on past life regression therapy from Dr. Brian Weiss, author of Many Lives, Many Masters.  The main reas...

• I Can Do It! Conference Review – Day 4

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  The review of the 2007 I Can Do It! Conference concludes. Day 4 – Sunday Group Meetup Steve:  About fifteen people showed up to our 8am meetup.  Not everyone stayed for the duration, although most did.  Fortunately the concourse was not at all crowded and was fairly...

• Copyright and Intellectual Property

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  As a blogger and a former software developer, I must frequently deal with copyright issues.  For most of my adult life, intellectual property has been my primary source of livelihood and remains so to this day.  While some people take issue with the concept of intellectual p...

• New York Times vs. Digg – Strange New Media

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Over the past several years, it’s been interesting to witness the shift from old media publishing outlets such as major newspapers towards new media outlets like web sites and blogs.  Even old media outlets that have major web sites aren’t quite the same as the new beasts of dedicat...

• Making Time for the Important

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Too often our important-but-not-urgent tasks get put on the back burner… and never make it to the front burner.  When you get busy with urgent tasks, you may feel pressured to finish those first before you can justify doing anything less urgent.  But then when you finally catch a br...

• Journaling

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Journaling is one of the easiest and most powerful ways to accelerate your personal development.  By getting your thoughts out of your head and putting them down in writing, you gain insights you’d otherwise never see. Beyond sequential thinking While your brain is technically capa...

• Microtasks

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Sometimes we procrastinate on projects because we don’t know where to begin.  A goal like “write a book” might seem straightforward enough when first set, but when it’s time to act, the goal becomes this huge, amorphous blob.  Procrastination soo...

• How to Create a Personal Productivity Scaffold

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  A scaffold is a temporary structure that supports tools, materials, and people while erecting or repairing a building.  A similar construct can be used to improve your personal productivity.  Much like wearing braces to reposition crooked teeth, a persona...

• Quality and Contribution

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  I remember reading in one of Donald Trump’s books that he’d buy cheap clothes and shoes because he didn’t think the more expensive ones were worth the money, even though the cost difference was negligible relative to his income.  Then he finally splurg...

• The Abundance Mindset

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Here’s a follow-up to yesterday’s Quality and Contribution post.  Just to quickly review:  The “outrage script” is the mindset that balks at seeing someone spend $10,000 for a hotel room stay.  It’s the mindset that would label this an extravagant or was...

• Achieving Peak Motivation

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Several people have asked me about the origins of the polarity concept I began exploring last year.  Where did it come from?  How does it relate to personal growth? These ideas actually stemmed from some journal entries I wrote in 2002.  At the time I wa...

• The Joy of Sadness

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Last night a thunderstorm passed through Las Vegas.  The thunder was so loud and the lightning so bright that I couldn’t sleep, so I decided to get up for a while.  Around 3am I went downstairs and enjoyed a banana and a cup of herbal tea.  Then I went outside and sat in the bac...

• Life on Purpose

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  I recently read a book called Life on Purpose: Six Passages to an Inspired Life by Dr. Brad Swift. This is a truly excellent book on how to discover your life purpose. I highly recommend it to anyone looking to gain clarity with respect to their core reason for being here. On Amazon.com this b...

• Authenticity

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Authenticity has become the modern currency of blogging. Unlike traditional media sources, most bloggers aren’t beholden to any puppeteers.  To some people this is a whole different kind of problem, but it’s also clearly a key strength of the new media.&nbs...

• Reaction vs. Response

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  The Sensei in my martial arts studio often reminds us during sparring to respond but not to react. When you react you’re not being authentic.  You’re sparring on your opponent’s terms.  You’re thinking too hard about what your opponent will do next.  You&...

• John Assaraf Interview

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  John Assaraf is an international best-selling author, speaker, and entrepreneur. You may have seen him as one of the experts in the popular movie The Secret (as well as in The Secret book), talking about how he manifested his dream house. What’s&n...

• Feelings

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Our feelings are a natural response to our thoughts and intentions.  We don’t really choose our feelings directly.  Our feelings are a feedback mechanism.  They indicate whether we’re moving into alignment with our true desires (positive feelings) or out of ...

• Proof

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  A forum member recently shared the Carl Sagan quote, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”  Sagan is credited with popularizing that slight rephrasing of an older quote by Marcello Truzzi:  “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.” These ...

• Recovering From Illness

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  The reason I haven’t posted the New York City trip review yet is that I’ve been sick the past several days.  Erin and I co-wrote the review last week (about 6000 words), but I still need to add the photos.  I’ll have it online by the end of t...

• Do You Have a Deeply Fulfilling Career?

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  If you’re already on a stable or semi-stable career path, this article will help you determine whether your current career is really the right one for you, using a very simple assessment process. Career fulfillment defined What does it mean to have a fulfilling career?  Here’...

• Career Planning

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  There many strategies you can use to select and plan a career path, but perhaps the two most basic patterns are bottom-up and top-down. Bottom-up career planning Bottom-up career planning means figuring out how you can best take advantage of the career building blocks you already possess.&nbs...

• 2 Mental Blocks to Making Money

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  The essence of successful income generation is value creation.  If you want to earn income, you must provide something that matters enough to someone else that they’ll pay you for it.  The act of providing value may be direct, such as selling a useful product or service, or...

• Discover Your Strengths

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  In order to develop a career that really suits you, it’s important to have a basic knowledge of your key strengths.  Unlike skills or knowledge you can acquire through education, your strengths are more basic talents.  For the most part you were born with them.  Y...

• Steve Pavlina Branding

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  It’s time to share the results of the personal branding experiment from the previous post. I asked visitors to this website to submit 3 adjectives to describe me. I let it run for 2 days and received a total of 1,101 responses, which included more than 3,000 adjectives. First of all, a b...

• Hopeless Situations

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  I was up late last night playing chess on Yahoo Games with an old friend. The last time he and I connected was back when I was still a game developer, so as we were playing we were catching up about a lot of things. I looked him up after getting an intuitive hit to contact him (Erin and I call ...

• Resourcefulness

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Few men during their lifetime come anywhere near exhausting the resources dwelling within them. There are deep wells of strength that are never used. - Richard Byrd When you think of someone who’s extremely resourceful, what images come to mind? Do you think of someone who’s wealthy, we...

• The Anatomy of Personal Change

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  I want to share some thoughts on my recent decision to switch to a raw food diet with respect to how I finally made this change. Although I only made the decision about a week ago, it feels to me like a permanent change, and I have a hard time seeing myself returning to cooked foods again. Since the...

• How to Maintain Not-Quite-Daily Habits

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Have you ever fallen off track while trying to install or maintain a not-quite-daily habit such as exercising 3-4 days a week or getting up at 5am on weekdays? This article will share some simple ideas to help you maintain such habits more easily. If you perform a certain task every day for weeks o...

• Skill

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  What role does skill play in the path to success? Are good intentions enough? Or do you actually need some talent? Why So Many Bloggers Fail I’m often asked why so many people who jumped on the blogging bandwagon failed to get good results. While the A-list bloggers enjoy soaring traffic and...

• Pre-order Personal Development for Smart People

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  In case you haven’t noticed the links I splattered all over StevePavlina.com during the weekend, my new book Personal Development for Smart People: The Conscious Pursuit of Personal Growth is now available for pre-order at Amazon.com and BarnesAndNoble.com (with a discount off the cover price)...

• What If You Have Many Different Interests and Cannot Commit to

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  If you’re attracted to many different pursuits and can’t commit to any single one of them for your career, college major, or income source, then good for you! Leonardo da Vinci was in the same boat. He’s considered by many to be the greatest genius of all time. The notion that you...

• Diet and Energy

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  It wasn’t until this year that I realized that one of the blocks that prevented me from improving my diet was figuring out what to do with the extra energy I’d gain if the change became permanent. For example, when I was going through my 30-day raw food diet trial earlier this year, I h...

• Personal Development for Smart People Book Is Here

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Now here’s a surprise — my book Personal Development for Smart People has launched early. The original release date was October 15th, but the book has already shipped and is available now. You can get it at Amazon.com and in many major bookstores, including Borders, Barnes & Noble, Boo...

• Follow Your Heartbreak

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  At the Tampa I Can Do It! conference, I attended a workshop by Andrew Harvey on Sacred Activism. I met Andrew a few months ago when we were on a panel with Alan Cohen and Summer McStravick for Hay House Radio. Andrew is a fiery, passionate individual with a powerful message about ridding our lives o...

• Calibration

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  In personal development terms, calibration is the process of progressively refining your thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors until you shift your equilibrium to the point where you can consistently achieve the results you desire. Just as you might calibrate a scientific instrument to provide consiste...

• Facebook and Twitter

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  My Facebook Experience I’ve been using Facebook for a few months now. I currently have 1,907 Facebook friends. I’ve been a fairly active user ever since I joined. I get new friend requests, comments, and emails there every day. Overall I’m glad I joined Facebook. It takes extra t...

• Rapid Improvement

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  When we want to build a new skill or just increase our comfort level with a new activity, the frequency of the activity is a key factor to consider. Squeezing the same experiences into a shorter period of time can greatly increase your performance gains. A Personal Example During my first few year...

• 2009 Focus – Intimate Relationships

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  In this post I’m going to share some things I’ve never shared publicly before, some of which you might find a bit surprising. At the start of each new year, I like to pick a primary focus for the upcoming year. I prefer doing this instead of making a New Year’s resolution because ...

• Remote Diagnosis Disorder

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Remote Diagnosis Disorder (RDD) is my new addition to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. People afflicted with this personality disorder suffer from an uncontrollable urge to diagnose individuals as suffering from one or more psychological disorders, specifically individuals...

• Volunteering

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Many people suggest that doing volunteer work is a great way to open your heart to new experiences. I totally agree. When I was in high school, I did volunteer work at two different places, helping out for about 50 hours at each place. Working With Seniors The first place...

• Attraction

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Is it true that opposites attract? Or would you be happier in a relationship with someone who is very similar to you? Is attraction something you have to create with another person? Or does it just happen automatically? Have you ever made up a list of qualities your ideal mate should have, bu...

• How to Visualize Your New Reality

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  This is a follow-up to my last video post on Creating Abundance. In this article I’ll share more detail on how to visualize your new reality so that you become a vibrational match for it. This is an area where people make some critical mistakes when trying to manifest their desires. Slid...

• Expanding Abundance

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  One of the cool things about the abundance mindset (or the abundance vibe to be more accurate) is that you once you figure out how to lock into that state in one part of your life, you can use what you’ve learned to expand it to other parts of your life. For example, suppose you&rsq...

• 2010 Focus

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Happy New Year! Around this time of year, I like to decide upon a primary focus for the upcoming year. I’ve held to this practice for several years now, and it’s never failed to stimulate major breakthroughs within the area of focus. I like to blog about my annual focus publicly because...

• Domination and Submission

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  As I mentioned in my 2010 Focus post, my personal focus for this year involves immersing myself in the fun and exciting world of domination and submission (D/s). (I really love my life!) Now one obvious question I’ve been asked a few times is: What the heck does this have to do with ...

• Domination-Submission and Personal Growth

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  I want to share some thoughts on an interesting dynamic I’ve been observing as I continue to explore domination and submission (D/s) with my consensual slave partner. A key aspect of personal growth is that in order to grow, we must stretch beyond our comfort zones and experience something ne...

• One Week On, One Week Off

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  If you’d like to boost your productivity far beyond the results you get with the 9-to-5 grind, an interesting alternative work schedule to consider is the One Week On, One Week Off approach. Instead of working week after week, you alternate between one intensive work week followed by...

• New Raising Your Vibration Audio Program

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Erin recently announced the release of her new audio program Raising Your Vibration, which is based on her ebook 10 Ways to Raise Your Vibration in Under 10 Minutes. I thought it would be great to announce it here as well. I wasn’t personally involved in producing this program, but ...

• Tapping the Promise of Personal Growth

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  The nice thing about working on your personal growth is that when you make a concerted, dedicated effort to improve some part of your life, there’s an excellent chance that you will succeed in the long run. You may have a lot of gunk to clear out in terms of limiting beliefs, and you may be st...

• Quitting Toastmasters

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  After almost 6 years as a member of Toastmasters International, I’ve decided to quit my Toastmasters club (and Toastmasters as a whole). Today is the last day of my paid membership. As of April 1st, I will no longer be a Toastmaster. I made the decision a few weeks ago, and I’ve al...

• Tried Bikram Yoga

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  I did my first Bikram (hot yoga) class today with Rachelle. She’s been asking me to try it for 4 months, so I finally decided to attend a class with her this morning to see what it was like. I’ve never done hot yoga before, so you could say my curiosity finally got the better of me. That...

• Suspending Judgment

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so. – Mark Twain Whenever I write about certain topics, especially those that seem contrary to mainstream conditioning, some people voice very strong opinions. The...

• How to Fall in Love with Procrastination

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Many time management experts label procrastination in strictly negative terms such as “the thief of time.” But is procrastination always such a negative experience? Is there a positive side to procrastination, one that may even encourage you to procrastinate more often? What if you coul...

• An Inspirational Week

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  I spent last week in Santa Fe, NM for a Transformational Leadership Council retreat. These TLC retreats are held twice a year, and this is the third one I’ve attended. It was also the largest, with about 80 members (out of a total of 114) present. The atmosphere at TLC is like a big...

• Putting a Brick in My Mailbox

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Yesterday I returned home from a 23-day road trip. It was an incredible experience, and I’m really glad I took the time to do it. I drove 4100 miles (6600 km) through 9 U.S. states (Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, and Arizona) and 2 Canadian provinces (B...

• 10 Reasons I Disabled My Contact Form

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Here are some of the reasons I decided to disable my online contact form, as mentioned in this blog post. I already shared some of these in the forums, but I figured it would be fun to share them here as well. 1. I bought your game Dweep in 2002, but my hard drive crashed and I lost the gam...

• One Year After Separation

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Erin and I have now been separated for more than a year after deciding in Oct 2009 not to continue as husband and wife. In this post I want to share some thoughts on what that first post-separation year has been like (after 15 years together as a couple, 11 of them married). It’s my hope that ...

• 30-Day Supertrials

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  For years I’ve been recommending the 30-day trial as a way to install a new habit or replace a bad habit. Many people, myself included, have used this practice to successfully make behavioral changes — and have them stick. Now it’s time for the advanced version: The ...

• Abundance in a World of Limited Resources

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  How we can talk about creating abundance when it seems we live in a world of scarce resources? Aren’t these in conflict? Isn’t an abundance mindset just an exercise in self-delusion? Scarce Resources Certain resources on earth are in limited supply and are being depleted quickly. Perha...

• 2011 Focus

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  I seem to have this tradition of making a post at the start of each year to muse about what my primary focus for the coming year will be, so I’ll share some thoughts on what I’d like to explore in 2011. 2010 in Review First of all, 2010 was a year of tremendous growth and exploration. ...

• Leaving Facebook

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Today I decided to stop using Facebook. I’ve already turned off both my personal page and my fan page. I’ve been pretty active on Facebook in the past, and I have many friends who use the service. My personal page was maxed out at 5K friends for more than a year, and my fan page had jus...

• 30-Day Facebook Fast

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  It’s been about 30 days since I quit Facebook, so I wanted to share an update on what that’s been like. Many others also quit the service last month, and many more are on the fence as to whether they should do the same. Here are some realizations I’ve had as a result of leavi...

• The Best Guidance

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  In his recent book Manifesting for Non-Gurus, Robert MacPhee contrasts two different methods for making your desires a reality. The first method is to define your outcome and then dive right into massive action. Adjust your approach along the way, and keep going until you get there. This appro...

• Building a Happier Life

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  Lately I’ve been on a happiness kick. I’ve been going over various projects, activities, and aspects of my lifestyle and asking myself, Does this really make me happy? Many people say that happiness comes from within, and while that’s true in the long run, there’s also ...

• Action Bias

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” – George Bernard Shaw In reading the biographies of very successful men and women, one theme freque...

• Are You Faking Progress?

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  One of the big traps in life is believing that you’re making progress when there’s no actual evidence of it. It’s easy to keep learning and studying new ideas, methods, and techniques that don’t improve your results… while convincing yourself that you must be making pr...

• How to Defeat Kolrami

  by UniqueThis July 12, 2011
  One of the most potent lessons I’ve ever learned (and would love to impart to you) is just how powerful a seemingly simple perspective shift can be. Dr. Wayne Dyer says, “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” I hope you realize just how profou...