Steve Pavlina Newsletter #55 - June 4, 2013

StevePavlina.com Personal Development InsightsNewsletter

Issue #55 - June 4, 2013 - www.StevePavlina.com

New Subjective Reality Audio Program Update

After an extended travel break, I'm back in Las Vegas to continue working on the new Subjective Reality audio program. I have several hours of material recorded so far, and I'm aiming for about 10-15 hours of total content.

As you may know, I was originally going to do this program as an ebook, but I switched to audio during the design phase. In retrospect I think that was the right decision. I think you'll appreciate the extra expressiveness as well since it makes the material easier to grasp.

After the audio program is released, I may have it transcribed into ebook format, but that won't happen right away. At this time I really feel that audio is the best format for this material.

If you like depth, detail, challenging ideas, and practical action steps, with the dots between them meticulously connected, I think you'll love this new program. But if you're in the mood for some lighter or more vanilla material, I'd steer you away from this one.

My priority for this product is to make it of very high quality. For this type of creative work I often have to do a lot of experimentation, which can be unpredictable at times, so I'm not targeting any specific release date. Based on my current travel schedule and rate of progress, the best release estimate I can give at this point would sometime in the second half of July. I'll be sure to keep you posted on my progress. Once all the creative work is done and we only have editing work remaining, then I'll be able to offer a more accurate release date.

Upcoming Meet-ups

I recently returned from a 30-day trip to Europe, visiting Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Along the way we had free meet-ups in Berlin, Amsterdam, and London, with great turnouts for each (25-40 people per meet-up). It's always nice to bring growth-oriented people together in person.

This summer I have upcoming trips to New York City (late July), Minneapolis (early August), and Oslo (late August), so we'll likely have meet-ups in those cities too. I normally announce new meet-ups on my blog,Twitter, and Google+ pages.

Possible European Workshop in Early September

Earlier this week I was video-chatting with Morten Hake and Knut Johannessen, who organized the Morten Hake Summit in Oslo, Norway last year. They're doing the summit again this year, and I'll be speaking there along with another great line-up of speakers. This conference had such a terrific energy last year, so I'm really looking forward to going back.

Morten and Knut suggested the idea that I could do a full workshop after the summit, possibly using the same facilities. This would be in Oslo too.

At this point I'd just like some feedback to gauge the level of interest in doing a European workshop, basically a 3-day affair similar to the ones I've done in Vegas. If a European workshop interests you, and you expect you'll want to attend, please reply to this email to let me know. Timing-wise it would probably be in early September, perhaps the weekend after the Morten Hake Summit (which is Aug 31 to Sep 1).

Why Oslo? I'll already be there for the Morten Hake Summit. Obviously I could do this workshop in other cities too, but this is a very accessible opportunity since I'd have local help with the logistics, and we may have a lot of people who want to attend both events.

No matter where in Europe we might host a workshop, some people will suggest other cities that are more convenient for them. But I think that just about any city in Europe will be a lot more accessible to Europeans than Las Vegas, especially since flights within Europe are inexpensive compared to transcontinental travel.

At this point a European workshop is just in the idea stage, so no promises. If such a workshop interests you though, please do let me know.

Spring Forest Healingfest - Free Online Event

Learning Strategies is hosting another free Mindfest, starting on June 10 and going for 6 days. This one is about Qigong, an Eastern energy healing practice.

If you'd like to learn more about Spring Forest Qigong, I encourage you to watch this 8-minute news videoabout it.

Here's the link with all the info you need to participate: Spring Forest Healingfest. Again, it's totally free.

Direct Dating Summit - New York City

If you live in or near New York City and you're a guy who's interested in improving your ability to be direct, honest, and confident in your relationship life, you'll likely enjoy the upcoming Direct Dating Summit, July 27-28.

This will be my third time speaking at DDS. It's a fun and lively conference with a practical, down-to-earth focus. The speakers at DDS share a variety of effective ideas to help you create a happy and successful relationship life for yourself.

You can register for DDS for a deep discount if you do so soon -- it's a fantastic deal for the whole weekend.

Are You a Worthwhile Investment?

If people aren't investing in your success, you probably haven't created a reliable record to help them see you as a worthwhile investment.

People are often willing to be helpful, but intuitively they don't want to waste their time and energy where it won't likely produce anything worthwhile for anyone.

You may get love-based investments such as a family member who will loan you money no matter what, or friends who will keep sharing basic referrals with you, but if you'd like to expand the network of people who will bring you ideas, opportunities, timely advice, etc., then it helps a great deal to demonstrate that you're worthy of such help. You can do this by respecting the time and energy it takes others to help you, by graciously accepting their help when offered (and when it makes sense to do so), and by reciprocating when you can.

Many people are poor receivers of help. They may request it, but when it's offered to them, they fumble and drop the ball. They borrow money but don't pay it back in a timely manner. They ask for advice but seldom apply it or test it. If you behave in this way, you condition other people to predict that they can expect more of the same. Soon they'll conclude that you're a bad investment, and you'll see such help and opportunities drying up.

Over time this will also reduce the quality of the help you receive. Smart people will invest their time and energy elsewhere. Only more emotional, less rational people will stick around and continue to help you, but their advice and referrals will be of lower quality in general than that which comes from more sensible people.

It's not that people need to receive a direct payback for their help, but they'd probably like to see some positive impact from it. It feels good to offer someone help and see them leverage it fully. Then you know you played a part in their success, even if it doesn't benefit you personally. Continuing to invest in someone who constantly drops the ball isn't rational, and so rational people will eventually abandon helping such people.

If you establish a pattern of squandering opportunities, especially by being lazy or bumbling in your affairs when help is offered, you can expect that help to be diverted elsewhere, away from you. You've unfortunately taught others to regard you as a bad bet and a waste of their time and energy. Many people make this unconscious mistake, and then they wonder why the only help they seem to get is of poor quality (or nonexistent). The reality is that the high-quality, rational advice, leads, referrals, and opportunities are being given to those who are worthy of them.

On the other hand, if you take the ball and run with it fully when help is offered, you teach people that you're a worthwhile investment. This will encourage them to invest even more in you down the road.

This dynamic can be seen in many teacher-student relationships. Poor students often condition their teachers to see them as bad investments, while good students train their teachers to invest extra time and energy in their development and education, such as by attracting internship offers and positive letters of recommendation.

A nice example of rational investments winning out over emotional ones can be found in the book/movieMoneyball, which is the story of how baseball was transformed by a drive for more rational investments in players who can contribute the most to winning games, as opposed to intuitive impressions, hunches, and other less rational analyses of players.

How to Become Investment Worthy

How do you become investment worthy? You do so by making a serious commitment to your education, skill-building, and habit development. It's basically the same approach you'd use to become a professional baseball player. You must practice a lot to become as skilled as you can. Your value to others (within the scope of the game) can be seen in your performance stats.

In Moneyball it was learned that the best predictor of future performance is past performance. That's what rational people bet on.

A common mistake people make in terms of predicting their investment-worthiness is overvaluing their intentions, motivation, and perceived level of commitment.

Lots of people have goals and intentions, but so many of them have lousy track records. Consider, for instance, the person who keeps sharing ambitious goals and intentions on their Facebook page, but the only consistency they demonstrate is posting pictures of their dog. Or consider someone who seems to change careers every six months. From the perspective of rationality, these people do not look like wise investments. Any help you give them will likely fizzle.

Now consider someone who takes the time to create a positive track record. Perhaps this person takes on fewer goals, but she makes a point of really committing to each one. Her friends and associates begin to see that she's an achiever and a doer. When she sets her mind to something, she gets it done without delay. This person will be perceived as a better bet, and intelligent people will begin flocking to her, knowing that helping her will produce some results, such as positive ripples for society as a whole.

If you occasionally wonder why your network only brings you shallow, stupid, or scammy ideas and referrals, take a good look at your established track record. You may very well have conditioned the smarter people to perceive you as a bad bet. Perhaps you've shown a consistent pattern of weak or erratic performance that turns intelligent people away.

There's no mandate that says you must increase your investment worthiness. But if you wish to stretch yourself and tackle bigger goals at some point, you'll surely need help. If you see yourself eventually moving in this direction, now is the time to begin building and demonstrating patterns of reliability, consistency, and persistence.

Please follow me on Twitter and Google+ for inspirational messages and quick updates.

Steve Recommends

Here are my recommendations for products and services that I've personally reviewed and which I believe can help you on your personal growth journey. This is a very short list since it only includes my top picks.

Site Build It! - Build an income-generating website.
Getting Rich with Ebooks - Earn passive income from ebooks.
Lefkoe Method - Permanently eliminate a limiting belief in 20 minutes.
Paraliminals - Accelerate your personal growth.
Sedona Method - Free Audio - Learn to release blocks in a few minutes
The Journal - Keep a secure journal on your PC.
PhotoReading - Read books 3x faster.
Life on Purpose - Discover your life purpose.

Until next time, live consciously!