What is your relationship with pleasure like? Do you experience and enjoy pleasure when youre in the mood for it? Do you have an addictive relationship with it? Do you have an on-again, off-again relationship with it? Does your relationship with pleasure feel healthy, supportive, and fun? Is your relationship with pleasure simple or complex?&

https://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2020/12/your-relationship-with-pleasure/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=your-relationship-with-pleasure

Each relationship that youve had, whether short-term or long-term, can be interpreted through the lens of spiritual purpose. Why are you and your partner in each others lives? What are you here to do for each other spiritually? Id learned of this concept during my 20s but just in a very limited way. The idea&

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People often frame their manifesting skills as something spiritual, mental, or a combination of the two. Manifesting is often treated as something akin to prayer. Ask the universe for what you desire, and hopefully youll receive it. But what if manifesting is actually a physical skill in disguise? Other mental skills, including reading, writing, speaking,&

https://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2020/12/is-manifesting-a-physical-skill-a-mental-skill-or-a-spiritual-skill/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=is-manifesting-a-physical-skill-a-mental-skill-or-a-spiritual-skill

Many years ago one of my goals for public speaking was to design and deliver my own three-day workshop on the Las Vegas Strip. I first achieved that goal in 2009. That was a goal of doing. Another goal I had for public speaking was to develop such strong comfort with public speaking that I&

https://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2020/12/goals-of-being/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=goals-of-being

If youre committed to learning and growing, youll need to get used to making decisions that others disagree with. Its inevitable that youll eventually face decisions that are opposed by some social resistance. Maybe youd love to pursue the path of entrepreneurship, but your family thinks its a bad idea. Maybe youd like to upgrade&

https://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2020/12/making-unpopular-decisions/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=making-unpopular-decisions

Are you thinking about doing a 365-day challenge for 2021? Im already thinking about doing another one. I still have 4 weeks left on my 2020 daily blogging challenge, which actually started on December 24, 2019. It feels like an easy coast to the finish line after blogging for 345 days in a row. Doing&

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When you explore something new, youre exploring relative to a previous baseline. When you explore a new diet, your baseline is your previous way of eating. When you explore a new travel-rich lifestyle, your baseline is your previous stay-at-home lifestyle. When you explore a new relationship and you werent in a relationship right before, your&

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Some people assume that when constraints are imposed upon their lives, they have fewer possibilities, and therefore life becomes more limiting. This isnt actually true though. In each case you probably still have a ridiculously high number of possible choices, way more than you could seriously consider, let alone act upon. So for all practical&

https://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2020/12/expansion-through-constriction/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=expansion-through-constriction

Today is the final day of NaNoWriMo. I added about 2000 more words to my novel-in-progress this morning. My final word count for the month came in at 55,051 words. The challenge of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is to write 50,000 words of a new novel in 30 days, so I exceeded this target&

https://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2020/11/nanowrimo-day-30/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=nanowrimo-day-30

I crossed the 50K-word NaNoWriMo finish line yesterday morning, writing 51,262 words in 28 days, so I achieved this goal 2 days ahead of schedule. When I updated my word count yesterday, I received a congratulatory video, a bunch of links to claim the NaNoWriMo prizes (discounted promotions for various writer tools and services), and&

https://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2020/11/nanowrimo-days-24-29/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=nanowrimo-days-24-29

What do you do when friends of yours turn nutter on you, such as when they descend into conspiracy theories, Trumpism, etc? If theyve otherwise been good friends, it can be distressing to watch them go down such a dark path. You may wonder if something happened to their brains, like a buildup of toxicity&

https://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2020/11/when-friends-turn-nutter/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=when-friends-turn-nutter

As I mentioned in a previous post about NaNoWriMo, the Q factor is a semi-surprise element that the main character of a story can use to solve a problem or escape a trap, especially in the final act of the story. The term comes from James Bond movies where the character known as Q gives&

https://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2020/11/the-q-factor/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-q-factor

I often do diet experiments in the form of 30-day trials (or longer). I define a crisp plan to follow, and then I strictly adhere to those boundaries for the time of the experiment. Usually before I begin a clearly defined challenge, I first go through a period of whittling away temptations. This phase typically&

https://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2020/11/the-runway-to-a-30-day-challenge/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-runway-to-a-30-day-challenge

One way to shift your character – and your life – in a new direction is to set a goal thats incompatible with the limitations of your current character. In other words, set a goal that you would would never set. Then work diligently to pursue and achieve that goal. Thinking you cant do something&

https://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2020/11/set-an-incompatible-goal/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=set-an-incompatible-goal

My novel is at 41,347 words now. I’m averaging about 1800 words per day, on pace to hit 50K words on November 28. I recently decided to tackle the most challenging part, which was to figure out the Q factor and how I’m going to end the story in Act 3. I opted to just&

https://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2020/11/nanowrimo-days-20-23/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=nanowrimo-days-20-23

The USA just reached 10 million reported COVID infections earlier this month. Now its beyond 12.5 million and is on track to hit 14 million by the end of the month. Its been estimated that at least 3 million people are probably infectious right now, and many dont know it because theyre asymptomatic. The real&

https://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2020/11/cancel-thanksgiving/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=cancel-thanksgiving

In yesterdays post I wrote about expressing and exploring Big Love. Now lets consider the receiving side. Be receptive to other peoples expression of love, even when its not individually directed to you. Allow yourself to feel gratitude and appreciation for the gifts that other people share with the world, as if those gifts were&

https://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2020/11/receiving-big-love/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=receiving-big-love

Loving another person is one form of love, but you can also love a grand purpose or vision that doesnt directly involve loving a specific person. By expressing love at the individual level, you may make another person happier. But by channeling love into an expression of purpose, you may delight or inspire a great&

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My novel is up to 33,835 words now. The daily writing has become pretty habitual, so it feels like smooth sailing till the end. Mapping the Field As I write scene after scene, I feel like Im mapping out a field of possibilities, not just for my story but also for what I can do&

https://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2020/11/nanowrimo-days-18-19/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=nanowrimo-days-18-19

While you may have plenty of experience of making lists, such as for your to-dos and goals, have you ever thought of making a meta-list? A meta-list is a list of lists. Which lists do you think it would be worthwhile to create? Heres an example of a meta-list: Places to visit Goals to achieve&

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