Steve Pavlina is  a man on fire.

Well it’s literally true, but Steve Pavlina does have some great ideas. About 9 months ago I was searching the internet for some information about my calling/purpose in life and what I should do with myself and came across Steve’s web site Steve Pavlina.com. There seems to be a lot of great information on this subject out there, which I found interesting and so I thought I would share some of the resource that I found and thought were useful. Steve Pavlina’s was one that I liked a lot for a number of reasons and I like to promote sites that I think are useful and helpful.

I got really involved in this site for a while and still regularly go back there when I am looking for resources or inspiration, as Steve Pavlina seems to have a down-to-earth approach about what he is doing. First and foremost it’s about helping people move forward and valuing themselves. His book and tag line is “Personal Development for Smart People:” and the book was a really good read. On his site you will find lots of posts, (I believe over 3000) and some podcasts as well. There are a variety of subjects, from finding your purpose in 20 minutes, raw food diets, self discipline, to creating a blog and much more.

This is where I got my inspiration to build my own blog. Steve Pavlina’s site may not be the definitive resource on all these subjects but I found it a great place to begin and get my mind thinking. Some of the titles are very intriguing and I tend to go along with Steve’s philosophy, such as “Ten reasons you should never get a job”. As I have worked for myself mostly for the last twenty years, I’m not sure how well I would work for someone else in a 9-5 job. I think it might be a little confining and then there is always the bit, where I will probably be told what to do rather than blazing my own trail, for better or worse.

It’s a little like tuning into a reality show at times on Pavlina’s site and very dramatic, although it is simple and low key with not a lot of hype. Whether he is encouraging people to take the next step with courage, talking about religion, money, career, meditation or one of his experiments that he is performing, usually on himself, it’s all good. There are also Pavlina’s more personal stories, such as his polyamorous relationship (open marriage) with his wife and their eventual separation. Pavlina shares his learning in the process of doing these things and his willingness to share the results, and be open to the feedback that comes his way. I always learn something from my visit. I really like the fact that he does not try to hide or pretend, that what he is doing is anything else but that which it is. From reading his posts I find that he’s a very what you see is what you get kind of guy, which is kind of refreshing in a world where it is often hard to know where people stand and whether what you see and hear is fact or fiction.

He claims to make money doing his blog, but by his own admission he is not very greedy. Steve Pavlina explains his reasons for promoting a few select products, most of which are to help you get ahead but he does have other motives and I quote him,  ”Of course my sinister ulterior motive is that I need to make sure you have enough money to buy my book , not to mention copies for all your friends and family! I know… I’m evil, but it’s a good kind of evil.”

So my thoughts are that he gets two thumbs up for his site and his approach, and it is well worth the time to go check it out. It would be interesting to hear your comments on Steve Pavlina’s site, so please feel free to leave a comment about your experience there.

I admit it! I’m in it for the money, but not just for the money, I’m in the blogosphere to grow and to open up new doors that I haven’t been able to before. I’ve noticed that when I work for an hourly wage I exchange my time for a set amount of cash. When I hire people my time becomes more valuable as a manager and I make more, but my time is still taken up looking after people and other parts of the business. I need the time and resources to do the things that I like to do in midlife. Like follow my dreams and watch them unfold.

“Follow your bliss.”

Find where it is, and don’t be afraid to follow it.

Joseph Campbell

Recycled Alberta wheat pool elevator

I’ve used this philosophy in the past and it always seems to work out. I’ve tried my hand at many things in my life, one of which was to build our 2000 square foot home out of recycled material for less than $30,000 dollars. I didn’t have a lot of money when I bought my first piece of land and as luck would have it the real estate market was down at the time. I knew where I wanted to live, but lived about 450 miles away.

I use to receive the real estate paper from Vancouver Island while in Calgary and I found a 5 acre lot that I could not afford to go and see, after a bit of negation I was able to purchase the land sight unseen and it took about another 6 month before I was able to afford to come and see it for real. I figured that even if it was Florida swamp land, it wouldn’t be the end of the world and it was time to take a bit of a gamble to spice my life up, or continue on the same path that would have been nice, safe and would probably been more of the same.

On seeing my 5 acre estate covered with trees, I was a lot more impressed than I thought that I might be. For the next 3 years I collected good windows, doors, wood siding and anything else that I thought I could use to make my house with. I even went as far as to help demolition an Alberta Wheat Pool grain elevator for the wood and beams. Then I loaded the materials and my possessions  into a 48’ semi with the help of some friends and shipped to my property. It took a while to build the house but at the end I had no mortgage. The  friends that had thought that I was crazy in the beginning doing this, had to eat their hats (and NO! I had no building experience, however by the end I could carpenter, wire, plumb, drywall and a host of other skills.) Don’t let fear and common sense get in the way.

I like to step out on a limb and try new ideas and midlife should be no different. The whole blog idea is one of those ideas. I really enjoy the process as I’m learning about blogging and computers and thing I didn’t even know existed. From the feedback that I have received so far, other people have found the subjects I have written about interesting, useful and even inspiring too. The feedback that I receive is also gratifying and inspiring to me on my midlife quest and helps me  keep my blog on track.

I really like this forum because it forces me to be honest with myself and also to take chances and risks that I could normally avoid by not full showing up as I am without an image to uphold. Midlife is more enjoyable and gets lighter as I find others in the same place that want to move forward and they also have some great ideas to share.  I find living on the edge brings me to life again. As someone once said “Don’t be afraid your life will end. Be afraid that it will never begin”.

So a couple of thoughts that I think are worth sharing is that blogging is fun, rewarding and whether you make a fortune or not, it really doesn’t matter. I have found that it’s a journey, a process, and the trip has opened up possibilities and avenues that I would not have experienced in life otherwise. It also has brought new friends into my circle. As I write about my past experiences I realize all the things that I have accomplished in my life that I normally overlook, and don’t give myself a lot of credit for, are in fact real achievements.

Secondly as part of my multi-point plan, I need to make an income, enough that I can afford to do the things I want to do and follow my dreams. I also want to follow my heart by doing something rewarding while making that living. I feel a great passion and excitement creating and sharing this blog, because it meets my purpose for being on this planet.  By sharing my experiences and hopefully helping and inspire others to grow and take the next step I hope I can help others to create their dreams. It’s really easy to sit and wait for something to happen, but it’s a lot more exciting making a choice to create the next steps and see what unfolds, like a flower coming out of its bud.

It’s a bit like being a scientist doing a blog, I get to try all kinds of things out, some will work and some will not, there are no failures, just ways that don’t work, as Edison said. So if you should get inspired to give it a shot “Don’t let fear and common sense get in the way”

YES MAN! I watched this movie the other night at a friend’s house. Jim Carrey is a single, divorced guy, who is working in a dead end job. As usual Jim Carrey did a great job portraying his character.

The plot goes like this, stuck in a rut for 3 years; he bumps into a friend, who has just gone through a personal growth course, called “Yes Man”. He finally decides that he should check the course out and after some reluctance make a covenant with the facilitator of the course, to say  “YES”; to every situation that he encounters rather than “NO” or “MAYBE”.

As you can imagine this leads to all kinds of situation that  normally would not have happened. Besides being a really funny movie, it made me thing how often I say “NO” or “MAYBE”, before I have really given myself a chance to think about the opportunity that has just be presented to me.

“YES”! I usually say “NO” out of habit, fear or a past experience. I can give you all kinds of reasons and justifiers, even some good stories to prove my point, why I said “NO”, but I don’t tend to just say “YES” and jump in. This may sound like a wiser, smarter move to not just jump in, but this is where the spice of life is.

When I was in my twenty’s. I found that I would say “YES” a lot of the time, to see what happened. Several times I sold everything and caught a plane, landing in a foreign country, with just my back pack, a few cloths and a camera.

I remember being in Cairns, Australia, walking down the street and a man came up to my friend and me and asked whether we would like to sail up to Papua New Guinea. It sounded like fun, so we turned up at the dock and a short time later we were on our way to PNG. We sail through a Cyclone (Hurricane on this side of the plant), where the waves were so high that when we were in the trough of the wave the mast of the 45ft sailboat was at the crest of the wave and we could see the shoals of tuna running in the wave beside us.

This went on for 5 1/2 days and nights, until we hit the coastal waters of Papua New Guinea, then the weather broke and it became calm. Crystal blue waters with dolphins riding in the bow wave of our boat and palm trees all around. Every day was a new adventure, diving, climbing up to the rim of a still smoking volcano, going into the tunnels where the Japanese had housed their fleet and men. Lots of the boats, subs and equipment where still in there.

Japanese ship in a tunnel.

The people of PNG were great and I made many friends in my time there. They say that PNG is like ” every place you have never been before” and they are right. I would have missed it all if I had said “NO”. Yes, it might have been safer, wiser, less risky, to stay home and do  ”normal thing”, but where’s the fun in that and I would not have had this story to share with you or such an amazing experience.

I have come to realize, that doing what I think I should or what is safe and smart is just another form of slow death and where as I don’t recommend stupidity when saying “YES”, I do think that taking more chances is a good thing. So I encourage you to say “YES”, as often as you can in your life. I plan to recommit to saying “YES”, as it bought a quality to my life that is normally not there, when I just go with the safe and wise choices.