Homeschool Fiction

I first heard of Steve Pavlina about five years ago. While I’d been a vegan for a few months (and vegetarian for quite a while before that), my children were just starting to explore this lifestyle (they have been vegetarian their whole lives and vegan for the past several years). So, I was reading on the VegFamily website for how to raise vegan children when I became familiar with the name of the (then) owner/founder, Erin Pavlina. Fast forward a year or two and during my research on developing my companies (ZenActOS, Do Life Right, and my fiction writing), I found Steve Pavlina’s website, aptly named StevePavlina.com (which is chock full of good information on business development, personal development, and much much more). I recognized the last name, but didn’t put two and two together until I read that Steve was a vegan and that his wife’s name was Erin (who is super cool in her own right — check out ErinPavlina.com). What a small world was all I could think!

I’ve been regularly following their sites for quite a while now, enjoying the new and old articles alike. I was extremely thrilled at the announcement of Steve’s new book titled Personal Development for Smart People: The Conscious Pursuit of Personal Growth. Since I take my own personal development quite seriously (and make considerable efforts to improve myself in all areas of my life regularly), I was anxious to read this book (especially since I’ve had several major setbacks over the past 12 months — which I’ve now reframed as “growth opportunities” rather than “failures”). Upon opening the book I was instantly attracted to it since the first quote is one of the ones in the quote rotator on my site:

“When I’m working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.” - R. Buckminster Fuller

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QUICK REVIEW: If you only read one book this year (possibly this decade or century) for your personal growth (i.e. self help), this should be that book. This is a book that needs to be in audio form, also, in order to reach more people. As Mr. Pavlina himself says about the book: “If you forget everything else from this book and remember only one piece of advice, it is simply this: The most intelligent thing you can possibly do with your life is to grow.” Since I’ve created Do Life Right’s mission statement to be “Empowering all people to reach their full potential in life”, I love this advice!

LONG REVIEW: Mr. Pavlina does not disappoint. He’s taken his expertly crafted writing skills, knowledge and experience from observing and living in the world, and a fun wit and combined them into a fascinating triangle of core principles that I’ve never seen meshed together before. While on the Do Life Right website I’ve briefly touched on many of the concepts presented in this book, I’ve never quite grasped their interconnectivity in this way before. In fact, having now realized this, I will be able to tackle my own personal growth frustrations and business growth issues in new ways - especially the parts I’ve been having difficulties with.  I already have new ideas to try and the knowledge that even if the new ideas don’t work long-term, they are part of my own growth (and thus, a really good thing).  Nothing is a “failure” if it gives you new knowledge.  This reminds me of the Thomas Edison quote: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

You’ll have to read the details in the book for specifics on Steve’s seven universal growth principles. I was confused when I read the introduction, but after reading the entire book it all fits together so perfectly it’s obvious! You need all the pieces of a puzzle in order to have a fully developed and beautiful scene, just as the above Bucky quote states.  I love that Steve Pavlina was able to take the time to see and describe all of the individual pieces in detail before describing the overall picture itself.  I wasn’t seeing it, but now I do.

What specifically is this book about? Well, in a mere 250-some pages, it’s more than a combination of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, What Color Is Your Parachute?, Becoming Vegan, A History of God, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and The Dance of Intimacy all rolled into one. It doesn’t bog you down with “expert” authoritarian commands and details like some books do. Personal Development for Smart People is empowering since it helps you realize, come to terms with, and put into action your own responsibility for your own life in ways that no other book (or website) out there does!  Yet there are enough examples and anecdotes to concrete the concepts in place.

Thoughts: Yes, I always have my own strong opinions on everything. I agreed with about 99.9% of this book (which is about 75% more than most books I read, so that’s pretty awesome). Yet, I’m disappointed that parenting wasn’t brought into the picture as an example of putting the principles into action (although I can see that he was trying to keep the book generally applicable to all people). While I’ve discovered the majority of my own personal development through raising my children, Steve hasn’t brought up his own growth due to having children. I’d love to see him explore the eye opening, empowering and enriching life of Radical Unschooling (a.k.a. “Life Learners”). If his family embraced the unschooling lifestyle, I bet they’d be huge proponents since living an unschooling life is completely about living principles and taking responsibility rather than arbitrary rules created by those who supposedly know better. Unschooling opens up more opportunities for learning and growing rather than limiting ourselves to mere textbooks, classrooms, and field trips. Steve has dedicated his career to empowering people in their own personal development. Unschooling is exactly that, but starting at birth rather than adulthood so that adult empowering isn’t necessary; natural empowerment is a built-in side effect of having been allowed to live a mindful life from the beginning. As an unschooling parent, I’ve been surprised when other parents segregate various parts of their children’s (and their own) development. Life doesn’t work that way - it’s one big mishmash. Learning to navigate the parts and realizing that all are important (from health to education to spirituality to relationships and more) are what life is all about. Steve Pavlina’s book breaks it down further and shows us that all of the aspects of life are guided by core principles — seeing this is astounding!

Personal Development for Smart People is a book I am going to highly recommend to anyone I know who is floundering in any aspect of their life. Everything and everyone in life is connected — this book shows you how this is true with the triangle diagram of principles. I only had two weeks to review this book (which is usually significantly longer than I’d need), yet this is one of those books that should be savored, not swallowed without tasting. I’m off to reread a few of the exercises again…

I’ll end with my favorite line from this book: “As human beings, our only real safety lies in our intelligence, but fortunately that’s all we need.”

Enjoy!

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• Top 10: Reasons Why I’m THANKFUL We Discovered Unschooling
• 12; Twelve; A WHOLE Dozen
• Top 10: Favorite “Adult Non-Fiction” We’ve Read in 2007

By: Lisa