Steve Pavlina, according to Wikipedia, is “one of the most prominent figures in the personal development and lifehack movements.”  He has gone from a 19-year-old “criminal,” to completely turning his life around and earning tens of thousands of dollars per month from his website alone, StevePavlina.com.  He kindly took the time to answer some questions from BipolarNation.

BPN:  When did you first become aware of the idea of personal development, and decide to make it a major focus of your life?

Steve Pavlina:  For me it happened in January 1991.  I’d just been arrested for felony grand theft.  While sitting in a jail cell for three days with nothing else to do, I finally gave my life situation some serious thought.  I was 19 years old.
 
I understood that I was the one who put myself in that cell, not the security guard who caught me, the police officer that arrested me, or society at large.  I recognized in that moment that my own choices led me there, and I had the freedom to make different choices that would lead me somewhere else.  I began to accept full responsibility for my life in a way I never had before.  I realized that no one was coming to rescue me.
 
My situation wasn’t pretty, but I knew in that moment that no matter how bad it was, I’d eventually recover.  The solution, I concluded, was that I would have to grow as a human being. 

That’s where my passion for personal growth began, and over a period of years I was able to successfully recover from that negative situation.  From there I just kept going.  Looking back it’s almost ridiculous how radically different my life is today.  But the irony is that I owe everything I’ve gained since then to a decision made by a 19-year old kid, sitting in a jail cell.

BPN:  If you had to identify one success philosophy for yourself, what would it be?

Steve Pavlina:  I’d say it’s the philosophy of “try before you buy.”  This is something I learned from my days as a shareware game developer.  I liked this concept so much I decided to apply it to personal growth.
 
A shareware product offers you a demo that you can try for free before making a purchase decision.  A free 30-day trial is a common method.  You can start using the software right away with no obligation, and by the end of the trial period, you know enough about it to decide whether it’s worth buying.  Without a free demo, there’s a bigger risk that the product isn’t right for you, so many people will simply do without.  But then they miss out on a lot of great software that might otherwise serve them well.
 
I use this same “try before you buy” method with my personal growth experiments.  If I really want to understand something, I have to experience it first-hand.  If an idea seems interesting to me, I’ll give it a 30-day trial (or longer) to learn what it’s really like.  If it works I make the change permanent.  Otherwise, I dump it and try something else.
 
Even challenging habits are easy to maintain for just 30 days if I know I’m always free to switch back on day 31.  Telling myself I’ll do something new for the rest of my life is overwhelming, but committing to do it for only 30 days is something I can do.  Of course, by the time day 30 rolls around, it’s already a habit, so it’s easy to continue to day 31 and beyond, and I often end up buying by default.
 
This method enabled me to establish many great habits, such as becoming vegetarian and then vegan, getting up at 5am every morning, and regular exercise.  I also use this method to experience other belief systems, so I can understand how my beliefs affect my perceptions, attitude, results, and more.

BPN:  One thing you address a lot on your website is the Intention-Manifestation form of achieving goals.  Could you explain the intention-manifestation philosophy?

Steve Pavlina:  Also know as the Law of Attraction, this idea suggests that we attract into our lives that which is congruent with our dominant thoughts.  In other words, we attract what we predominantly think about.  Our dominant thoughts will find a way to manifest in our physical reality.

BPN:  In your experience, what is the most effective way of getting something to ‘manifest’ in your life?

Steve Pavlina:  Once you put out your intention, which means you’ve clearly articulated exactly what you want, the next step is to get yourself to fully resonate with that intention.  This means eliminating any blocks that would otherwise get in the way.  Those blocks are other thoughts you hold that are incongruent with your primary intention.
 
Every thought is an intention.  This includes your perceptions and your memories.  So the key to manifesting what you want is to get your whole being aligned with your new intention.  This means identifying blocks and working through them one by one.
 
Here’s how to do that:  Imagine your goal is already here.  Suppose you’ve successfully achieved it right now.  Imagine it as vividly as possible, and put yourself in that moment.  Then consider all the rippling consequences that change will have throughout your life.  How will it affect your self-image, your relationships, your career, etc?  You’ll soon realize that there are some consequences you don’t feel good about.  Your challenge is to work through those blocks and resolve them.
 
For example, suppose your goal is to lose weight, and you imagine yourself being fit and thin.  You realize that when you achieve this goal, people will give you more positive attention, and this makes you uncomfortable.  If you want your desire to manifest, you’ll need to work through that discomfort and resolve it.  Otherwise you’ll remain incongruent, and you’ll block your intention from manifesting.
 
You’ll find that even the most seemingly positive intentions can be blocked by secondary negative thoughts.  At first glance the intention looks great, but when you imagine it as real right now, you suddenly realize there will be some unwanted side effects.
 
I usually work through these blocks in my journal.  Sometimes it’s just a matter of shifting my perspective.  Other times I realize the side effect is so undesirable that I have to re-formulate the original intention to avoid it.  There’s no right or wrong way to work through these blocks.  It’s largely a process of getting clear about exactly what it is you want.  Your primary intention opens the door, but once you step into through that door and look around, you have to reach the point of being able to accept and desire the whole package.
 
When you reach the point of feeling totally congruent about your intention, it will manifest easily and rapidly.  This, however, is the real challenge of intention-manifestation.

BPN:  Could you share any experiences or “wow” experiences you had when manifesting anything in your life?

Steve Pavlina:  When my wife and I were on a date once, I convinced her that I could manifest coins anywhere we went.  After seeing me do that, she said, “Forget about coins — if you can do that, I’m going to manifest a dollar!”  As we walked back through the parking lot at the end of the date, about 10 feet from our car we found a dollar bill just lying there flat on the ground.
 
This was one of many unusual events that led to the launch of the Million Dollar Experiment.

BPN:  You wrote an article about how to make money online.  Could you describe what you went through to first make money online?

Steve Pavlina:  I set up my first web site in 1995 to sell shareware games I’d developed.  People could download free demos and then come back to purchase the full version if they liked it, usually for $10-20.  It started out slow, but when I finally released a decent game, it was very effective.  There are lots of outlets for distributing game demos, so anytime someone found one of my demos, I had a chance to make a sale and gain a new customer.
 
What I didn’t like about that model though was the technical support and the fact that only a tiny fraction of web site visitors ever buy anything at all.  A $20 sale is a relatively small amount of money, but a technical product like a computer game can generate a lot of technical questions, especially from people who aren’t computer savvy.  Computer games tend to go obsolete fairly quickly as well.
 
With my personal development site, I gradually moved into an advertising-donations model.  I find that approach very effective.  I also like that every article I write is an income generator, but articles are a lot easier to maintain than software.  Technical support is minimal, and most of what I write will still be useful decades from now.  Running StevePavlina.com is fairly easy, and it’s now generating over $10,000 per month in income.

BPN:  A lot of people seem to experience learning curves at the beginning when they try something new – it’s almost as if nature is testing them to see if they’re willing to stick with it.  Has this been your experience in personal development?

Steve Pavlina:  Of course.  One of my favorite expressions is, “There never was a winner who wasn’t as some point a beginner.”  Being a beginner at anything can be awkward and clumsy, but I find a certain joy in trying new things I’m not very good at.  Even though I fail more often, I also learn more quickly when I’m a beginner.
 
For example, I’ve been studying Reiki for the past month (Reiki is a form of energy healing), and I’m making new distinctions every few minutes I work with it simply because it’s new to me.
 
Because beginners experience so much growth, I try to take this attitude into my personal development work.  Even though I’m technically an international expert in the field, I don’t find it helpful to think of myself in that way.  I prefer to think of myself as a personal development explorer.  I like to keep blazing ahead into new territory, since that’s where I experience the most growth.  It also prevents me from becoming stale and gives me a constant flow of new ideas to share.

BPN:  This is a selfish question, but what’s the best strategy to promote and increase traffic to my own website, BipolarNation.com?

Steve Pavlina:  I believe that great content is the best marketing there is.  Great content generates word of mouth, and word of mouth builds traffic.  Forget about traffic-building tricks and gimmicks, and focus on providing real value to your visitors.
 
What is great content?  In my opinion the best content you can create is the deepest truth you find within yourself.
 
What do I mean by that?  Most people write about what they’re certain of.  You’re certain about your knowledge.  You’re fairly certain about your opinions too.  But when you write about these things, you aren’t sharing a deep enough truth, so it isn’t going to resonate with people except in a superficial way.  You’re simply creating disposable content, competing with a zillion other sites doing the same.
 
On the other hand, if you explore your uncertainty, you’ll be going much deeper.  What are you unsure of, fearful of, or resistant to?  What ideas bother you, but you can’t figure out why?  What is your heart telling you that your mind can’t yet accept?  These are the key topics to explore in your writing.  When you dig deep within yourself, find new insights at the edge of your uncertainty, and share them, your writing will really resonate with people.  And that will generate all the traffic you could ever want.

BPN:  Finally, if someone looked up “Steve Pavlina” in the encyclopedia 100 years from now, what would they read?

Steve Pavlina:  Steve Pavlina (1971 – present).

BPN:  Nice answer.

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