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I think Steve Pavlina is amazing. And I think Tim Ferriss is amazing. Both of these guys are incredible in their own right, and each has contributed wonderful things to the personal development and entrepreneurship worlds.

Lately, I’ve given a lot of credit to Tim Ferriss for his insightful tips on business building and ruthless time management. Credit well deserved. If you still haven’t read that book, do it!

But after inadvertently surfing my way to StevePavlina.com recently, I realized just how much Mr. Pavlina had already contributed to these same issues - and in articles you can read for free right now to boot!

So here it is, folks: a list of my very own Top 10 Steve Pavlina Articles. These are must reads!

Giving up TV
33 Rules to Boost Productivity
The 50-30-20 Rule
Overclock Your Audio Learning
Efficient Email
How to Become an Early Riser
The Law of Attraction
30 Days to Success
10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job
10 Ways to Relaxify Your Workspace

These are in no particular order – trust me, that’s way too much to ask. Choosing 10 is hard enough. Enjoy!

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Does your business plan resonate with your personal beliefs?

Much of what makes an entrepreneur is the ability to build something out of nothing – to take an idea, believe in it, and make it grow.

The most successful entrepreneurs are those who keep their business running from those tough beginnings to the most profitable and developed stage.

I recently listened to a seminar by Marc Allen on becoming a millionaire. Of course, Marc delivered the talk in his typical “lazy, type Z” style (a manner which I find very encouraging and refreshing within the often high-strung, rah-rah motivational business genre).

In the seminar, Marc emphasizes using affirmations and purpose when building a business from the ground up. I have used affirmations on-again and off-again for several years, but Marc’s seminar inspired me to revisit my own.

Through this process of renewing my personal and business affirmations, I came to understand something very important about goal-setting: If your personal values and beliefs about the world conflict with your goals, it becomes very obvious very quickly.

This is one major point I believe too many people miss in all this “Law of Attraction” and “The Secret” marketing-hype. The aim of affirmations and other such tools is not to simply get what you *think* you want. The aim is to really figure out what it is you want in the first place and then to start moving in the right direction.

As these crucial understandings occurred to me, I began to realize why some of my affirmations just didn’t have the same click anymore. The problem was not the affirmation; the problem was my lack of resonance (or lack of positive energy) with it.

One major key for successful entrepreneurship is to choose a business niche that reflects who you are and what you value. Sure, one day the business may become much bigger than you alone, but you’re the original seed-planter. For the longevity of business growth, the initial planting is crucial.

Affirmations, as Marc Allen suggests using, are a great way to really figure out what will and what will not resonate with you. As Allen points out in the seminar: once you really begin to move in the direction of your purpose, then lots of support starts to suddenly show up (or so it seems, as much of it was likely there all along).

Here’s a quick plan for putting this to work in your own life:

1. Make a list of 10 things you value (prosperity, love, etc.) and narrow the list to the 5 most important values.

2. Make a list of 10 goals (start a business, improve your finances, etc.) and narrow the list to the 5 most important and immediate goals.

3. Write an affirmation for each goal that reflects positive, on-going development (this is key!). For example: “I am now creating a profitable internet business that generates over $500 per day in profit.”

4. Look carefully at each affirmation and revise each to improve the connection between your values and your goals. (Spend just a small amount of time on this now and return to it later once you allow for time to process the affirmations.)

5. Repeat these affirmations to yourself at least twice per day. The suggested times are first thing in the morning and last thing at the end of the day. Try that out if it works. If not, do it when you can. The objective here is to begin processing these all day, so repeat them in your mind when your mind drifts (driving in the car, waiting in line, etc.). Think of these as meditations.

This first part of the process is a bit clunky but immensely valuable. Use these same affirmations for a few days (one week is best) and just see what happens. Again, let your subconscious do the sifting. There’s no need to make any specific effort.

At the end of this initial week-trial, review the affirmations. (How does each make you feel? Which, if any, seems to pop up most? And so on.)

I think you’ll be surprised with how productive this process can be for both your business and your personal life.

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Entrepreneurship is no walk in the park. Long days (especially during transitional periods). Countless obstacles. Unfulfilled objectives. Unexpected challenges. The list goes on…

The typical entrepreneur begins alone. Everything is riding on you. That’s why we often see lists of desirable “entrepreneurial traits.” You know – dedicated, intelligent, hard-working, creative, effective, efficient, tireless, resourceful, etc. The list goes on.

But how are these folks made? Or, can they be made at all? In other words, what does it take to become an entrepreneur and how do you get there?

Entrepreneurship – Do You Qualify?
Personally, I’m split on this question: who does qualify? While I do think some individuals are “natural” entrepreneurs, I also believe that these traits and skills can be developed. In fact, I don’t think there is a single entrepreneur who couldn’t benefit from personal development.

In my view of entrepreneurship, I put personal growth first. Since you the individual are the backbone of your business, you must have your ducks all in a row. Or… you must be in the process of getting those ducks lined up.

Here’s my vision of the ideal personal-business development plan:

Begin with Self Improvement
Start with you. This should be obvious enough. If you can’t get up in the morning because of depression, anxiety, or illness, you’re not going to be ready to build a business. And you’re definitely not going to be successful.

I identify five key areas for personal growth for entrepreneurs. Look this list over carefully and identify your weakest area. Be honest. Then, get to work!

• Self Worth

No one is going to be an advocate for you. You’ve got to be your own cheerleader! It’s not uncommon for other people to criticize your efforts. There are tons of reasons for their negative outlook on your plan for success. But with a strong sense of self worth, purpose, and direction, the way other people see things will matter very little. I put this area first because it fuels the remaining four.

• Health & Fitness

The mind-body connection is a reality. Go to the gym. Start a diet. Spend less time sitting at the desk and more time walking around and meeting people. Health and fitness is a strong second here since you would be useless without it!

• Time Management

Time is your most precious resource. Entrepreneurs succeed or fail by their use of time. If you’re still working a day job, you’ll need to be especially efficient. Learning about and applying time management strategies in your personal life will also impact your business in these early stages.

• Stress & Emotions

There are tons of tools out there for handling inevitable stress and emotional turbulence. Meditation. Progressive relaxation. Entrepreneurs who are often hard-working and tireless by nature often push the envelope well beyond even their limits. But, of course, we all have limits. Some of my closest friends do a great job of reminding me to have fun and enjoy life now regardless of how much I accomplish in a day.

• Positive Frame-of-Mind

Stay focused on the best things happening. Businesses – especially new ones – have a way of creating consistent problems or challenges. Use The Law of Attraction, Intention-Manifestation, and Creative Visualization to maintain a positive, uplifted attitude regardless of what’s going on. Keep your eyes on the prize and smile through the rough spots.

Watch Your Business Grow
If you setup a plan for personal development success that focuses on even one of these key areas, you will see much greater results in your business efforts. Your purpose will become clear. Customers will come flocking. Profits will soar.

I firmly believe the number one key to success for entrepreneurs is sense of purpose. Usually, when entrepreneurs get started their highest motivator is something abstract – financial freedom, time freedom, greater happiness, independence, etc. These are excellent goals to have but too vague to bring results.

Begin with personal growth, and you’ll find greater clarity about what it is you want to do. Once you achieve clarity, it is easy to apply the necessary steps to take action and make things happen!

Entrepreneurship itself is a form of personal development. Your current day job could be a major obstacle to your future growth. The typical workplace environment can be unfulfilling, negative, and demoralizing for many of us. If the average employee spends 8 hours or more at work every weekday, he or she will be drained and dejected by the weekend with little enthusiasm left for enjoying life.

Get Started Today
If you’re already an entrepreneur, set a personal development goal. Choose one of the areas listed above and start reading books, listening to audio, and attending seminars.

If you’re considering starting a business, take time out to examine how prepared you are for the challenge. You might want to take a week – or even a month – to focus exclusively on the personal development work before moving forward. Again, this will help clarify your sense of purpose. It may seem like a loss of time upfront, but the investment will reap huge rewards later!

If you’ve never even considered entrepreneurship, consider it now. I don’t mean to suggest that owning your own business is necessary for personal growth. You can pursue self improvement outside of entrepreneurship. But owning a business could be a great carrot to motivate your personal development. Set a time-specific goal and think in terms of financial reward for improving your self. For example: I will spend one month enhancing my sense of self worth and life purpose. At the end of the month, I will begin developing my business, which will bring great financial reward.

Whatever your path, start working at this today. Set your goal and begin with something simple. I guarantee the effort will pay off!

Related Articles:

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• Introduction to The Law of Attraction
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In my recent article about how to stop smoking, I identified three key areas for rising above an addiction or bad habit: focus on what you want, change your identity, and prepare for setbacks.

When developing my outline for that article, I wondered if “Prepare for Setbacks” would be an appropriate section to include. The idea that setbacks will develop along the way might suggest inevitable failure. Such an outlook contradicts the idea behind creating your world the way you want it and attracting into your life only those things that bring great satisfaction.

Even still, when we are moving towards new goals it is inevitable that obstacles will develop between Point A and Point B if we see the “obstacles” as obstacles. When a personal growth plan is unsuccessful, obstacles take on a great deal of power and control over our intentions. When we are successful, our goals and objectives have control over reality and the obstacles take a backseat.

What is Your Reality?
The ideas I have been exploring lately through some profound writers and thinkers – The Law of Attraction, Subjective Reality, Personal Creation – point right to the heart of the problems many people experience when implementing change in their lives. The fundamental principle is that change begins on the inside. Perhaps the idea is cliché and overworked, but it really is that simple.

In my view, the problem often is not that we don’t understand the idea. The concept of “personal creation” is an integral part of virtually every world religion, belief system, and personal growth paradigm. We get it! Yet really making creation happen requires more than just “getting it.” It takes real implementation.

I like Dr. Wayne Dyer’s analogy about implementing change: If you want to learn how to swim, you can’t just sit around reading books and thinking about swimming all day! You must get into the water and make it happen.

And to take Dyer’s idea a step further… as you’re learning how to swim, you may very likely struggle in the water – that is, you may have setbacks. But, to answer the overarching question here, you will create exactly the kind of world you want by responding to these setbacks (either as part of the path towards change, or as frustrating signs of your failure).

How Do You Change Your Reality?
To return to my example on quitting smoking, you alone decide what the “setbacks” are. You create your own reality. If you focus on the obstacle and give it power over you, you will continue to attract the obstacle into your reality. You will create that. If you focus on the goal and give power to it, you will attract the goal into your reality.

By preparing for setbacks, you’re disarming them. You take the lead by communicating with yourself ahead of time and during the moment when they arise about what it is you really want. The setbacks will pop up and entertain your old vision of reality. Since you are already a creator, you have to take responsibility for the things already present in your reality.

These changes that you create will generate more power with time. Think of all the time you have spent in the past creating the world you see today. If you’re new to this way of seeing, you may be beginning only now to see things consciously and embracing your control. Making the move from powerless actor and responder to powerful director and creator will take time and will require adjustment. But once you begin to embrace the change, you’ll begin to see exactly the world you want.

A few weeks ago I updated the inspirational-message board that hangs on the inside of my front door. It now reads…

The brief outline serves as a reminder to invert my expectations about achieving or getting happiness. We almost always think of happiness as existing at a distant point beyond initial desires, intentions, and finally… manifestations. The irony, of course, is that such a model really prevents you from ever becoming happy since happiness is forever connected to some outcome or goal. (Even once you’ve reached the goal, another replaces it.)

I decided to really start implementing the “Happiness First” model of living life after a strange but uplifting encounter with an old friend. I was visiting my hometown about one month ago and decided to stop in at a café. Inside, I ran into the friend. We had a brief conversation before parting ways. On his way out the door, quite unexpectedly, he looked at me with a sense of directness and said,

Seems obvious enough, right? Most of us would agree that this simple statement contains profound truth. Yet, in this moment, I reached a new level of understanding about the meaning of “accept happiness now.” There are likely many more similar realizations to come.

Happiness and The Law of Attraction
Much of my writing in the last few weeks has attempted to explain and interpret The Law of Attraction and the intention-manifestation model. These are great tools for inviting positive change into your life partly because they help clarify dreams and partly because they offer a taste or preview of those dreams today. This last component, I believe, is essential.

As a recent visitor expressed in his comment, we must improve our lives and situations from a position of strength. In other words, we must be happy now if we expect to be happy later after achieving a goal or reaching an objective.

I’ve titled this article “Manifest Your Dreams Today” to point out the real power each of us has to create what we want right now – to be happy right now. This is what The Law of Attraction and intention-manifestation is really about: creating a link between the present moment and our future desires.

The classic example for intention-manifestation is a new car. Let’s suppose you want to manifest a new car into your life. That is your dream. If you want to manifest your dream today, you can do so at anytime. Of course, there’s always visualization: Sit back and visualize the car you really want to have. See yourself driving it, feeling good, and looking good. Really focus on the feeling the new car brings into your life.

You may very well wish to have a new car. That can be part of your dream(s). But, in my view, the thing you really want is the feeling the new car will bring - the happiness it will deliver into your life. A big part of this is also having a sense of control. By getting the new car and experiencing the positive feelings, you will feel a sense of control in your life - a satisfying and empowering place to be.

My question is - Why wait until the new car arrives to start feeling good? Why put yourself in a position where you’re always living at Point A and only allowing happiness to exist at Point B? In a discussion about this concept last night, my girlfriend made an excellent point: Why not conceive of a path in terms of Point A, B, and C – where A is your point of departure, B your current position, and C your destination. At least that model illustrates some process or consistent growth.

Manifest Your Dreams NOW
I would take this idea a step further and package all three of these “points” in the present moment… in the NOW. This allows for a greater degree of congruence between all three and is consistent with the true nature of time. After all, where lies the past and future but inside the present moment? It’s wonderful to look back on the past and make out a narrative of progress and growth that led you here, and then to look out on the future and project a similar narrative of progress and growth that will take you further ahead. But the point of departure is always NOW.

Take this concept with you into today. Acknowledge where you’ve come from. Look out onto the road ahead. But remember to live your dreams today. Be happy today. Make that choice NOW.

Tags:now law of attraction manifest intention dreams dream today

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