Through seven key principles, Steve Pavlina encourages you to grow consciously in his new book "Personal Development for Smart People". In a nutshell, the book is definitely worth reading. While you may not agree with everything Steve has to say, there's more than a few gems that may make a big difference in your personal growth. I'll touch upon a few here.

1. Truth - Steve's first key principle is truth and within truth, he discusses prediction. The best piece of advice I took from this section is to tackle fresh challenges constantly and expose yourself to new ideas. Repeating the same experiences over and over won't help you in any capacity.

2. Love - One of the most important sides of love Steve talks about is connection. He explains how we often prevent ourselves from growing by blocking ourselves from connecting with anyone or anything. To grow, you need to connect with what you want and disconnect with what you don't want.

3. Power - Rounding out the core three principles is power. The inclusion of power in the book actually surprised me when I first came upon this chapter. After reading further though, it actually made perfect sense. Steve mentions how you need to exercise power at crossroads in life and make real choices.

4. Oneness - This is the most intriguing principle Steve discusses. Oneness is about being connected to everyone already. Steve says that meeting someone knowing you're already connected on a different level changes the way you interact with that person. A great chapter!

5. Authority - Another great chapter. Two great key points Steve makes: 1) Don't be afraid to make decisions that might fail; 2) Failure and success aren't opposites. Rather, failure is a necessary (and unavoidable) part of success.

6. Courage - The most important message of the whole book is in this chapter: Follow the path with a heart. If your path doesn't have a heart, you're on the wrong path. The courage comes in when you realize you're on the wrong path but don't know what the right one is. You need courage to get off the wrong path to start.

7. Intelligence - Throughout the book, Steve explains how the seven principles all relate to one another. One of the aspects of intelligence Steve talks about is authenticity. He exclaims that there's no point in keeping up relationships that cause you to be someone other than your true self.

Steve intertwines all seven principles throughout the book and ensures that you understand how and why they all relate to each other. He doesn't demand that you agree with his ideas but instead ensures that you're exposed to them. For that very reason, I think it's worth your while to give Steve's book a read.