Alex Shalman . comPractical Personal Development

Steve Pavlina is self-described as “one of life’s runaway experiments who challenges people incessantly until they ascend to a higher level of consciousness.” Steve’s personal development blog is one of the first that I have ever read some two years ago. During this time I have read each and every one of Steve’s articles, and can say without a doubt that I attribute many paradigms, and thought patterns due to what I learned from him.

Without a doubt in my mind Steve is one of the most growth-oriented individuals that I personally know. Who else do you know that finished college in three semesters with a double-major in Computer Science and Mathematics, ran the L.A. Marathon, trained in martial arts, maintained a 100% vegan diet since 1997, as well as maintained the #1 personal development site ever? Just Steve.

Steve is passionate about sharing his personal growth lessons with anyone who desires to improve themselves.

Steve’s purpose in life is:
to live consciously and courageously;
to enjoy, increase, and share peace, energy, passion, and abundance;
to resonate with love and compassion;
to awaken the great spirits within others;
and to fully embrace this present moment.

The first time I heard Steve use the phrase “for the greater good of all”, it resonated with me, and played itself back in my head thousands of times. Now I know that that message lives on through me.

His two most popular articles of all time are 30 Days to Success and How to Become an Early Riser. I’m sure once you get to his site, you’ll be permanently hooked and never leave.

1. How do you define happiness?

I define happiness very simply, as an emotional feeling of well-being.

2. On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your happiness now, versus when you were a child?

When I was a young child, the average was about a 4. When I discovered computers at age 10, it shot up to a 9 almost overnight and then hovered from 6-10 during my teenage years. Today I normally range between 8 and 10, but I can dip well below that at times.

3. What do you do on a daily basis that brings you happiness? (and how consistent is the feeling of happiness throughout your day)

My particular feelings can be all over the place during the course a day in response to events, just like everyone else. I’m not a super emotional person, but I experience my share of anger, disappointment, stress, etc. However, a happy, contented, and even passionate state is my daily default.

What produces this state? For me the answer is focusing on what I want. The more I think about what I want, the happier I become. The more I focus on what I don’t want, the more frustrated and unhappy I get. For example, thinking about my upcoming book being released makes me happy, since I’m very passionate about the ideas it contains. Feeling grateful for what I have is another happy thought.

4. What things take away from your happiness? What can be done to lessen their impact or remove them from your life?

Thinking about what I don’t want is to quickest way to become unhappy. Whenever I catch myself doing that, I stop and say, “Wait a minute. You’re dwelling on what you don’t want. What is it you do want?”

Negative thoughts aren’t entirely bad because they help reveal new desires. For example, if I find myself feeling down, I can recognize I’m feeling that way because there’s a cool new desire waiting to be acknowledged. I don’t see a need to completely remove negative emotions from my life because they serve a useful purpose. What really traps people is when they resist their negative emotions or try to drug themselves to feel differently.

It’s better to tune in and get the message. For example, if you’re feeling very depressed, it normally means your current situation is too far from what you want. So in that case merely observing what you have (and don’t want) will make you unhappy. You’re better off spending less time wallowing in your current conditions and more time setting goals and thinking about them - a lot!

The more you think about what you want, the more inspired you’ll become to start taking action, and that will move you away from what you don’t want and help you feel better right away. We all encounter circumstances we don’t want, but we don’t have to remain there forever by staring at something we dislike, as if the mere act of staring will somehow change it.

5. What do you plan on doing in the future that will bring you even more happiness?

As I see it, there’s no such thing as future happiness. Happiness only exists right now, in the present. You don’t need a new future to be happier. You can be happy right where you are, regardless of your particular circumstances.

When you envision a positive future, however, that means you’re thinking about something you want, so that very act can create happiness in the present. It feels good to think about what we want, to allow new desires to flow through our minds, to imagine countless positive outcomes and to enjoy them in advance. Waiting to be happy is the same thing as deciding not to be happy.

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To get more info about what the Happiness Project is and isn’t, please visit the Introduction Post. To see a running list of all participants, which I will be updating as things happen, please visit the Happiness Project Page.