Personal Development For Smart People: Free Sample Chapter
September 11th, 2008
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Steve Pavlina’s book Personal Development for Smart People: The Conscious Pursuit of Personal Growth is still over a month away from its release. If you haven’t heard of this book yet, you can read my Personal Development for Smart People pre-review. The quick summary is that it’s about the seven core principles of personal development (truth, love, power, oneness, authority, courage, and intelligence), and how they form a holistic framework for solving any problem in your health, career, finances, relationships, etc.
As a little appetizer while we wait, Steve has released a free PDF containing the introduction and first chapter. He says that while the PDF lacks the formatting and page design of the printed book, the content is the same. (But I have to wonder if they fixed the typo in the first paragraph.)
The first part of the book (chapters 1-7) is about the theory of the principles, and the second part (chapters 8-13) is about their practical application. The free chapter in the PDF (chapter 1) is about truth, which is one of the seven core principles and also one of the three primary principles. He talks about the five key components of truth, the blocks that prevent alignment with truth, and how to become more truthful.
I found it very interesting, especially what he says about 7s (when you rate areas of your life from 1-10). And it ends with a great poem for people like me, who don’t like poems.
The free PDF is definitely worth a read. If you like it you can pre-order it now, and it will ship when it’s released on October 15th. The list price is $24.95, and the current price on Amazon is $16.47. If the price drops before it’s released, Amazon guarantees you the lowest price.
So what are you waiting for? Do you want to be aligned with truth or not? 
September 11th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
I didn’t realized he released a PDF containing the intro and first chapter. Thanks for the link!
Stacey / Create a Balances last blog post..9/11 Morning Pages
September 12th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Hi Hunter – Cheers. I had no idea there was a sample chapter available. Did you sign up to do the review? I did, but I’m a bit worried that my book won’t arriving in time – hopefully they’ll send it airmail.
September 12th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
This looks like an interesting book, but I’m a little curious as to why he’d open up with an anecdote about how he was dishonest (about his “priors”) and how that benefited him immensely, and yet one of the cornerstones of his philosophy is “truth.”
September 12th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
I’ve dowloaded my PDF and am eagerly awaiting the entire book! Can’t wait! Thanks for the review!
Wendi Kelly-Life’s Little Inspirationss last blog post..A Letter to the World
September 12th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
Thanks for highlighting about the free chapter to his book. I’m going to download from your link here! I’m hoping to learn something new!
September 12th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
@ Stacey, I got this info from his newsletter, but then I saw that he also posted about it on his blog today. Enjoy!
@ Cath, yeah, I’m doing the review thing. I’m not sure but I think they said they’d be mailing the books around September 15th, and we don’t have to review them until October 15th or thereabouts.
@ Paula, that’s interesting. Yes, he lied by omission about his priors and thereby avoided going to jail for a couple years. But that was many years before he came up with truth, love, and power as the three primary principles. If he could do it over again with the knowledge he has now, I’m sure he never would have started shoplifting in the first place (not sure if this falls more under truth or love). This would avoid the need to lie about his priors, because there wouldn’t be any priors.
@ Wendi, me too! Have fun with it!
@ Evelyn, I’m sure you’ll learn something new from the entire book. As for what you’ll learn from this chapter, that depends on how well you’re currently aligned with truth. Steve says that he’s most aligned with truth and power, while his wife Erin is more aligned with truth and love. So I guess we’ll all learn the most from the chapters about our biggest weaknesses.
September 14th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
I heard about your site after reading The Last Lecture. Abundance is an idea that has been absurdly prevalent in my life lately. I’ve been checking your blog semi-often for the past couple weeks.
This book sounded interesting, so I read the PDF. I love the approach he describes to finding the “laws for personal development”, and I just pre-ordered the book on Amazon.
Thanks!
Jeremy Blanchards last blog post..The Mystery of The Cookies
September 14th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
One other thing I wanted to mention was the reason I’m picking this book specifically. Recently, I’ve had a feeling that I really need a framework for thought. I’ve been thinking a lot lately, but I get this sense that a few fundamental rules (besides logic itself) would be really helpful. This book seems to really close to that.
September 15th, 2008 at 12:23 am
@ Jeremy, I always like to see people arrive here from The Last Lecture!
Steve says that like many personal development authors, he had been writing about the branches, but he wanted to write about the root. In other words, you can’t get any more fundamental than this. I have no doubt that it will be a great book.
September 15th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
I normally stay away from personal development books, but this sounds interesting. Thanks.
Vered – MomGrinds last blog post..Almost-Wordless Wednesday: Correct Your Nose Without Operation!
September 16th, 2008 at 12:44 am
@ Vered, I tend to stay away from books of any kind, unless they’re free, or I know the author, or they look really good.
September 16th, 2008 at 2:00 am
Hi Hunter,
I’m guessing Steve with see a lot of success with this book. I’m going to download the PDF and see if I learn anything new. Thanks for sharing the link.
Barbara Swaffords last blog post..NBOTW – Determined To Be The Best
September 16th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
@ Barbara, I’m sure it will be a success too. It hit the Amazon top 100 bestseller list back in July, even before it had been sent to the printer.
September 18th, 2008 at 11:35 am
I think it is a great idea that they have decided to do this, i’ve just received the whole book via PDF so I’ll be doing a review soon
Glen Allsopps last blog post..10 Things You Are Not
September 18th, 2008 at 11:54 am
@ Glen, wow, that’s so cool that you have the whole book already! I’m expecting to receive a physical copy soon because I signed up to do a review. I’m guessing that’s what you did, but they sent a PDF because of your location?
October 14th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
[...] about this book (before I read it) in my posts Pre-order Personal Development For Smart People and Personal Development For Smart People: Free Sample Chapter, so I’ll try not to repeat myself too [...]