It’s hard to find a person seriously interested in personal development and not familiar with Steve Pavlina’s blog. Now that Steve has his first book out, I would like to share with you my thoughts on his work.
Personal development is a challenging topic to cover. It’s so vast that rarely an author manages to pick the right angle to present you with new possibilities and to suggest solutions for your real-life challenges without making it all seem either too simplistic or overly complex.

In this regard, Steve Pavlina’s book have really lived up to my expectations: clear and focused material stayed on a topic at all times, although every chapter has a few examples from Steve’s personal experience, examples generic enough for many people to relate to.

I think Steve managed to maintain his original style of writing throughout the book – guiding and suggesting, but always making it clear that there are no rules which work for everyone. However many options there are, it is your own task and responsibility to pick the right tools and choose the direction for your own development.

Live consciously

If you read Steve’s blog, you know that living consciously is the main theme of his life. Although many reasons behind this are obvious from blog posts, I only realized how conscious Steve’s approach is after reading the book.

There are two parts in the book: introduction to the core principles of personal development and a practical guide to applying these principles in real life situations.

Such a structure ensures you have all you need to get started with your own conscious living: you learn the principles, and you are given examples of how to make use of them.

I enjoyed both parts of the book, but would like to read the book again in a few months time. The way material is presented, you are encouraged to start making changes right away. Practical examples give you an opportunity to pick the few steps for starting immediately changing something in the way you act. However, it will take time for the fundamental principles to settle in your view of your own development, so reading the first part of the book again is highly recommended.

Seven fundamental principles of personal development

There are seven fundamental principles of personal development, and first part of the book explains in great detail each of them. Apparently, every aspect of your personal growth, every conscious effort in self-improvement can and must be aligned with the core principles.

Here are the seven principles you will discover:

• truth
• love
• power
• oneness
• authority
• courage
• intelligence

The beauty of these principles is in their nature – as I read the book, none of them felt like they should be enforced and re-introduced into my life. Instead, I was surprised to discover the presence of each principle in my everyday actions. I felt real joy as I was explained why each principle mattered and how I can benefit myself and those around me by further aligning with the fundamentals of personal development.

Learning these seven principles was quite a revelation. None of them are completely new to me, yet it is the first time I see someone present these fundamentals in such an obviously interconneted way.

The first three principles – truth, love and power – are the core principles of personal development. Everything that you do and experience in your life is a result of applying these principles by either yourself or people around you.

The next four principles are secondary in a sense that they are derived from the core ones. Oneness is truth plus love. Authority is truth plus power. Courage is love plus power. Intelligence is the combination of all three core principles: truth, love and power.

Why you should definitely read this book

It gives me a great pleasure to be recommending Steve’s book. This is easily the best book on personal development I have read so far – it’s easy to see how some of the views Steve developed are a direct result of reading hundreds of other books.

It’s a great book to finally make sense of why some actions and feelings seem natural and some don’t. It’s a chance to improve your own understanding of the fundamental principles of living a better life.

You will not find false promises of easy changes that happen overnight. You will not discover any magic secrets of becoming an instant success upon the completion of the book. You will not learn any weight loss tactics or one-liners to save your relationship.

What you will get though is an opportunity to realize how closely related are all the aspects of your well-being and personal growth. You will get a chance to start living consciously and gradually make the changes you always wanted.

Sounds like a book you want to read? Get it here! Enjoy!

Read more in: Book Reviews.

I’ve bought and read Zen To Done book just a few days after it was announced. It met all the expectations of mine and served its purpose perfectly, providing a great introduction into a simple way of organizing your life and staying most productive with the least amount of stress. If you were looking for news ways to get your self-organization and productivity levels up, this book is a winner – it truly is the ultimate simple productivity system.

What is Zen To Done?

Leo Babauta from Zen Habits have used his personal findings and experience to come up with ZTD – Zen To Done system, and here is how he describes it:

Simply put, Zen To Done is a simple system to get you more organized and productive, and keep your life saner and less stressed, with a set of habits. ZTD teaches you:

1. The key habits needed to be productive, organized, and simplified … and no more than that.
2. How to implement these key habits … tips on forming a habit.
3. How to organize these habits into a simple system that will keep everything in your life in its place.
4. How to simplify what you need to do.
5. Minimal ZTD. Also includes an even simpler version called Minimal ZTD.

I really like the way Leo makes most things appear as simple as they really should be. It’s not a secret at all that many people fail to become organized simply because they associate too much effort with such a goal. But the truth of being organized is that the better you get at it, the easier it is for you to get things done.

For those of you who have read and tried following the Getting Things Done book by David Allen, there’s a comparison of how and why ZTD could get even better results for you. I loved the GTD book, and have incorporated parts of the GTD system into my daily routine, but somehow the feeling of not being a true GTD follower stayed on. Zen To Done offers a simplified approach which many will find much easier to follow.

Why read Zen To Done?

Essentially, Zen To Done tells you about 10 habits for being productive and organized, and every habit is given thorough explanation and a few practical examples.

The most useful feature of Zen To Done book is that Leo gives practical advice on forming and maintaining the habits. It’s rather easy to understand the principles, but unless you know exactly how to stick to them on a daily basis, they’re not going to help you much.

Apart from a generic introduction to mastering your habits, you will also find reasons why certain habits are so hard to establish and what are the best ways to make your new habits permanent. There’s quite a lot of explanation given for every habit so that you understand exactly why you would like to work on such a habit, and so by the time you get to the practical application of a new principle it’s much easier.

Zen To Done: Is It Worth Reading?

Absolutely, yes!

I highly recommend you to buy and read Zen To Done, it’s a pearl of simplified productivity wisdom which effortlessly summarizes all the principles you will ever need to stay productive and organized.

See also:

• Zen To Done introduction by Leo Babauta

Read more in: Book Reviews.

I’ve recently read a wonderful book about money. Rich Ezzo has managed to surprise me in many ways, starting with the fact that the book isn’t about affiliate marketing or get-rick-quick schemes.

In our world of instant information delivery and hundreds of self-proclaimed monetization geniuses, this book was the least expected kind of a guide: a wonderful tale explaining what basic habits you should develop to ensure not only that you attract money into your life, but also truly appreciate every moment of your financial freedom.

I absolutely loved the five lessons given by the very easy-flowing story of this book, and I can relate to every one of them.

To give you the idea, here is just one of the lessons:

Earnings come from whatever the world decides a skill is worth. However, there is no one more deserving than another.

I’ve seen this happen so many times already: you see how successful a certain business idea is and you’re just amazed and how you never came up with the same thing. You look at the proud business owner and think: How in the world did this person ever come up with an idea to charge for this service? Who could have thought there are so many people willing to pay for it? How is it that nobody made this discovery before? After all, everything was waiting for us right there on the surface – just come and grab the idea, make millions and move onto the next brilliant project.

At the same time, there are so many hard workers who work late hours and deprive themselves of sleep just to make an extra few dollars. They do their jobs perfectly, and their products and services are worth dozen times more than what they charge. Yet when you ask them why their price is so low, you realize that these people do not think so highly of themselves. They do not find their ideas and services special, and therefore do not believe it would be possible to ask for more.

Well, that’s where one of the best lessons lies: do your best to produce a result, but let others decide how much it’s worth. If you’re passionate about your work and you genuinely try to produce the best service possible, you will be surprised how many people will want to pay for your services, and even more surprised at how much higher their price will be.

One unique feature of the When Money Talks, Listen! book is that it comes with plenty of examples to demonstrate the point of each lesson. To make the impact of the book last even longer, you’re also offered a list of all the five lessons at the end of the book, plus a workbook – a set of printable templates you can use to track the progress on your quest to better understanding money and attracting abundance into your life.

Rich has written a lovely book which you will probably finish in a couple of hours. It has no revolutionary discoveries to offer, it suggests no shortcuts to getting rich overnight, but instead it gives you much more: a timeless wisdom of not making money matters bigger than they are, of cherishing every moment of joy you but with your money, of sharing your riches with people around you to make your own life and this whole world a much better place.

Go get the book and read it, you won’t regret: it’s been a while since I read something so simply beautiful and so immediately useful.

pS: if $9.95 stretches your budget, please consider contacting Rich directly, as he’s willing to give his book as a gift to those in need.

See also:

• Do You Listen When Money Talks? You Soon Will
• The 7 Laws of Money and Wealth by Ryan Whiteside
• 5 Tips for Acquiring a Money Magnet mind

Read more in: Book Reviews.

Written in 2004, 50 Success Classics is a truly great collection of commentaries written by a passionate scholar and a personal development expert on some of the best books found in success literature.

Tom Butler-Bowdon got started with reading books on self-help and success very similarly to the way most of us did: a bit sceptical at first, he quickly grew thrilled and fascinated with the possibilities opened by some books. He ultimately extracted so many useful ideas to promote self-growth that it only made sense to share the newly found wisdom with others.

50 Success Classics came out after years of research aimed to find out common characteristics most successful people would share. Having read and analysed hundreds of books, Tom had identified a number of qualities that will benefit anyone looking to become successful, and had summarized key themes of each book to make it easier for reader to see what titles have to be read in full.

Each of the books is described in a separate chapter, provided with a short story of how a book was written and given a summary of the ideas suggested by its author. A few quotes from the original work provide a tasteful introduction to each author’s style, while commentaries by Tom highlight most influential themes and their life-changing impact.

While not retelling, the commentaries found in 50 Success Classics help one to recognize the unique appeal of each book, which forms an excellent guide to the success literature. Not only does this presentation key findings help you to quickly access the wisdom of most useful books ever written on success, but it also allows you to pick with ease and confidence the success classic titles that you know you will definitely enjoy.

Translated into 13 languages and sold in 25 countries, this book inspires so much that it can be read again and again. If you’re looking for a good start to make extraordinary changes in your life and become a truly successful person, 50 Success Classics is the best guide you can find.

Relevant links:

• An official website of Tom Butler-Bowdon
• 50 Success Classics – a detailed description given by the author himself
• 50 Success Classics on Google Book Search (will give you an idea of the style used in the book)

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I’ve read an amazing book last weekend – The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

It’s hard to imagine someone not having heard about it – it’s been out for quite some time, and seems to be quite a publishing phenomenon, but just like everyone else who was really impressed, I feel compelled now to share my own thoughts and recommendations.

The Alchemist is a story of a shepherd boy following his dream. It’s a tale of faith, hope, power, courage, and, above all, wisdom one needs to fulfill his own dreams.

To realize one’s destiny is a person’s only obligation – this was said a few times in this book, and Paulo masterfully shows why and how this is true.

Reaching your Personal Legend is never easy. Life has its challenges for every one of us, and its most difficult tests are saved for the last moments before we truly succeed.

Many people put all their efforts towards reaching a dream and spend years in hard work, only to face a desperation and give up one day. Give up just a few inches from the breakthrough, just a few moments from seeing the light of their personal victory. I think most of us can relate to such experience – we all have had a few points in our lives when we were ready to give it all up because all efforts seemed to be futile. Yet, some of us persistent and became successful. Others regret having failed to achieve their original goal and continue their search for another one.

I found The Alchemist to be most motivating. I believe it to be a classic tale of personal growth and pursuit of your dreams. It teaches you to be honest with yourself, kind with others, wise with your own decisions. It serves as a guiding star to your dream – showing that you’re not the only one who feels lost at times and who thinks about giving up. The book promises that it will be totally worth it when you overcome fears and obstacles and eventually make your dream come true.

The storytelling is very simple and easy to read. In fact, most sentences are so simple and open that it amazes you how thought-provoking they are. I’ve greatly enjoyed reading this book, and think that everyone should read this book at least once.

It takes courage to fulfill your Personal Legend, and when you’re young it’s easier to see it. You’re powerful and naive, abmitions and self-sure, and it’s very importat to use such years to achieve something in your life. As you grow older, various complications show up and make your Personal Legend seem less and less possible, until one day you realize that you can’t do anything about it because it’s just too late.

Go get the book, read it in just a few hours and give your very best to achieving the dreams of your life! Try really hard, believe in yourself, and you will most certainly succeed.

Read more in: Book Reviews.