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Best of VVV – Steve Pavlina – Embracing the Path with Heart

stevepavlinaSteve Pavlina and I shared a fun and insightful conversation covering a wide range of growth stories and a ton of laughs…instant best-of show!

Steve Pavlina Podcast:  Steve's mission is

  • explore, clarify, and elegantly codify conscious growth
  • challenge the status quo, to take intelligent risks, and to experiment
  • strengthen our global society's alignment with truth, love, and power
  • advance conscious growth ambitiously, tenaciously, and sustainably
  • balance inspired innovation, co-creative teamwork, and disciplined execution
  • progressively embrace the highest standards of excellence and mastery
  • lead and inspire with authority, audacity, playfulness, and love

In short, his mission is to help you discover your truth, explore your desires, and develop your power.

Steve Pavlina Podcast:  Family upbringing focused on mental performance

  • His parents and family were very focused on all things mental and intellectual.
  • Steve is not interested in having a “sexy” body, but being able to do new fun things.
  • All through high school, he was vrooming not interested in anything athletic or related to using his body.
  • In college he veered…deciding to study martial arts.  He focused on creating new psychical abilities like braking boards and learning to spar, and do amazing kicks.
  • In the 90's Steve ran the LA marathon.
  • He exercised everyday for 25 minutes for 1 year…he didn't miss one day.
  • His diet also evolved from Standard American Diet to vegetarian to vegan.
  • Steve finds it more effective to set “FUN” fitness goals instead of boring fitness goals.
  • The benefits of improving your body also improve your mental performance and your emotional health.
  • Great book called “Spark”

Steve Pavlina Podcast:  Vrooming with a Fear of public speaking

  • Starting in the 1st grade he was terrified to speak in front of people.
  • He had a good friend who was not afraid, but very calm speaking in front of people.
  • He faced his fears.  He took opportunities to speak while working in the computer game community.
  • He found it more fun to speak about topics he wanted to talk about, and it was less frightening.
  • There was a real reward, when people thanked him for sharing his knowledge.

Labeled an introvert as a small child

  • Before high school he was labeled a shy kid, and an introvert.
  • He went to a high school that was focused on academics, so being smart made you a cool kid.
  • Because Steve was smart and a high achiever, he started to become more of an extrovert in High School
  • Steve eventually joined Toastmaster's and was a member for about 5 and 1/2 years.
  • He eventually joined that National Speakers Associations for a while.

Vrooming with a fear of touch

  • Grew up very much touch adverse.
  • His family didn't hug much out of affection.
  • Friendly and affectionate touch was something that was alien to him as a child.
  • In High School he remembers seeing girls greet boys with a hug, and that seemed very strange to him.
  • People would never do that with Steve.
  • Steve figures now that people can get a sense of whether someone is open to hugs and affection.
  • In college, while studying with a woman friend, his friend began to stroke his forearm.
  • Steve freaked out and made and excuse to leave and it was awkward.
  • Steve avoided her for the rest of the semester.
  • His veer was very gradual, he realized he was bad and accepting touch.
  • He started pushing himself to touch more.
  • Steve was like the therapist in the movie 50/50.
  • Once he started he wanted to veer to master touch and enjoy touching.
  • Steve tells the story of Daan Buckinx who learned to hug more during Steve's workshops.
  • He was getting strangers to hug him in less one second.
  • In 2010 he got cancer, but still came to Steve's Workshop.
  • Because of Daan's example, Steve started to hugging hello to everyone when they show up to his workshop.
  • The hugging really changed the event and warmed up more quickly.
  • Daan pasted away in 2011, and his facebook page is still getting posts about hugging.

Veering to life on the road

  • Steve and his Girlfriend have started downsizing their possessions to get down to only owning things that will fit in a laptop bag or a carry on bag.
  • When Steven sells his house, then they will start living and working on the road staying with friends, hotels, or Air BnBs.
  • His girlfriend has already moved out of her permanent house and is now in Paris, she's travelling in Europe.
  • Experimenting with travelling for free moving from invitation to invitation.
  • He plans on staying each place two or three months.
  • For Steve it's a temporary thing to travel full-time for a while.

Interview Links

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