I’m going to take a break from the norm this week, and shift gears slightly. This blog is meant to represent me, Drew Tarvin, to the world, and as such, I feel like I’ve been neglecting a very prominent part of myself in my posts to date.

I’ve always been a huge believer in my own personal development, and that was strongly amplified after a particularly hard break-up in a long relationship (I attempted to improve myself in ways that I thought would “win” back the lost lady). I am also a big believer in “giving back” in the form of sharing some of the things that I’ve learned throughout my various journeys (such as the Smarty Pants show we did on Friday night for “At-Risk Teenagers” aka “teenagers caught using or selling drugs” where we talked about getting back on the right track and how improv, or passion in general, can help).

So if you combine those two things, you’ll realize what I’ve been neglecting, and understand why I’ve decided to do a “Personal Development Week” (or PDW for short). Over the next seven days, I’m going to talk about various aspects of one’s life that can often be improved. The posts will most likely be longer, with a more “serious” tone, but it should be an interesting week, and we’ll see what we can learn from it.

I’ve decided to break the week down into 5 major categories plus an intro and summary, adding up to *trumpets blare* 7 posts (1 for each day, amazing I know). Here’s what we have coming up for PDW:

1. Introduction (today)
2. Goals and Discipline
3. Success
4. Wealth
5. Health
6. Happiness
7. Summary

Now I understand that I am by no means an expert in any of the above categories, hell, I’m 23, how could I be? But I do believe that I have achieved some success in each of the 5. And success is not to be misconstrued as having “made it” or even being satisfied with where I am (I attempt to do something to improve every single day, a la the Fitness Challenge or my resolutions). Success here really means “experience in.”

My goal is to write my thoughts and experiences for each of the categories, as well as provide links to other sources that I’ve found incredibly helpful (for general self-improvement, I’m a huge fan of Steve Pavlina’s blog, and LifeHacker).

A quick tech side note: In an age of information overflow, it can be a challenge just to stay caught up with everything. One thing that helps me stay up-to-date on the various sites I visit is using RSS Feeds (I personally use Bloglines). The idea of RSS feeds is that they send you an alert any time content is updated on the site, and places like Bloglines aggregate all of those alerts and links in one location, so you can quickly peruse a number of your favorite sites by simply going to one spot. You can even add my blog to your subscription list by clicking the orange “subscribe” button to the right, or simply clicking here.

To give you an idea of some of the sites I subscribe to, here’s a few on my list: Cincinnati Enquirer – Top Stories; craigslist | tv/film/video/radio jobs in cincinnati; Dilbert; ESPN; Funny Indian; I Will Teach You To Be Rich; Men’s Health; Steve Pavlina’s Personal Development Blog.

So if you’re interested in finding out ways to improve your quality of life, get ready for a fun and challenging week. If you come here just for the laughs, then you are welcome to take the week off, while the rest of us start to take steps to become more amazing than we already are.

Fitness Challenge Update (the original numbers are in parenthesis):

• Weight: 134.0 lbs (even)
• Waist: 29.5″ (even)
• Chest: 35.0″ (+1.0)
• Biceps (L/R): 12.5″/12.25″ (-.5/-.25)
• Quads (L/R): 19.25″/20″ (+.25/even)
• Calves (L/R): 13.25″/13″ (+.25/even)