Steve was born and raised in Los Angeles, the eldest of four kids. During his childhood, Steve went to a private Jesuit high school. He claims that this was the impetus he needed to turn his life around, he also claims that he was let off a much worse sentence owing to a mistake in the legal process. Prior to starting his
personal development site, Pavlina founded Dexterity Software, an independent computer game developer and publisher. He described in a blog post how he transitioned from one identity (as a game publisher, forum participant etc.) into a public speaker and self-help blogger, by removing shortcuts from his desktops and favorites, reducing anything gamer-related, such as contacts, obligations, e-mails, and relationships, in order to be surrounded by an environment that completely reinforced the new identity. Steve Pavlina served as
Vice President of the
Association of Software Professionals (ASP) in 1999 and
President of the ASP in 2000. The ASP's
Hall of Fame page describes him as having had "a significant, lasting influence on others via his articles and postings". On October 15, 2008,
Hay House published Pavlina's book
Personal Development For Smart People. The book expands upon several topics featured on his blog. ==Personal development blog==