We opened registrations for the new 2016 workshops last week, and we have people signed up for all four workshops now, with more signing up each day. The most popular one so far is the Conscious Abundance Workshop (CAW), which is just three weeks away: July 29-31. That was the most requested topic for a workshop this year.

Please note that the $100 early bird discount for the Conscious Abundance Workshop ends on July 11th, so the price goes up by $100 starting on July 12th. Typically about 80% of the people who attend a workshop take advantage of the $100 discount and sign up early.

We’ve also arranged 20% discounts with three nearby hotels (all within a 5-minute walk from our venue), and these hotels are all very affordable to begin with. You’ll receive an email with those discount codes when you register for any workshop.

Each workshop’s web page is designed to provide some value to you as well, so regardless of whether you go to a workshop, you might enjoy reading each of those pages to learn more about the topics. You’ll find them all linked from the Events page.

I hope to see you at a workshop this year. They’re a lot of fun and really make a difference in people’s lives. 🙂

I’ve been doing a lot of one-on-one meetups lately since many people came to Vegas for the 4th of July holiday weekend. I’ve also been hearing that some people almost didn’t ask to meet up because they felt a bit shy about doing so.

I really enjoy these meetups — I have another one this afternoon and one or two more later this week — and I’m happy to encourage more people to go for it. This is my version of social media. Real conversations. Real smiles. Real hugs. What a concept!

I like talking to all different types of people, not just extroverts. I especially want to encourage people who feel shy, socially timid, or introverted to please feel free to request a meetup if you’re coming to Vegas or if I happen to be traveling to your city. I’ve met with plenty of people who identify themselves as socially awkward, and we still have great conversations once they realize I’m genuinely interested in talking to them.

A meetup is just a conversation. It’s not an interview, a coaching session, or a performance. We talk about life, the universe, and everything. It’s a nice chance to connect like real human beings.

Consequently, yesterday I added a new Meeting in Person FAQ to the site. It isn’t necessary to read it, but I thought that if I shared more details about what these meetups are like and what people can expect, it would help put some people more at ease and encourage them to go for it.

A reader named Jon shared the following story, which he gave me permission to publish:

I just wanted to write you a quick, long-overdue thank you. Four years ago, during my senior year of college, I realized I should have majored in CS. It would have taken 3 years to switch majors (from business) and get a CS degree, and I didn’t have the money to continue going to school past graduation, so I decided – based entirely on your posts about how you got your CS degree in 3 semesters) – to start a Software Development associates at the local community college while finishing my senior year of business school. After 3 semesters of 35-40 credit hours I completed that degree, just a few months after graduating from the other university, and I’ve been a full time iOS engineer ever since. While I know it was my own hard work and perseverance that got me here, it was you who originally sparked the idea and got me to think outside the box. If I hadn’t read your posts I never would have never even considered a condensed course load as an option. Those posts made a substantial impact on my life, and I really appreciate it.

Congrats, Jon! Nicely done! 🙂

Here are some of the articles related to Jon’s accomplishment, in case you’d like to earn a degree faster as well:

• Do It Now
• 10 Tips for College Students
• Graduating College in 3 Semesters

Site Built-It is currently running a discount special through July 5th, so today and tomorrow the price of an annual SBI subscription is $197 (instead of $299), and SBI for WordPress is $97 (instead of $149).

SBI is an all-in-one service for starting an online business. It’s been very popular with StevePavlina.com readers because it combines tools, education, and social support into a single package. See my SBI review for details.

Earlier today I watched Michael Moore’s latest documentary, Where to Invade Next, not knowing anything about it beforehand. I thought it was his best film to date and his most touchingly human one. If you haven’t seen it yet, I’d highly recommend it.

Based on the title, it may sound like it’s a movie about war, but the invasion is just a metaphor. It’s really a movie about what the USA can learn from other countries that have achieved strong results in education, lifestyle happiness, drug abuse, women’s rights, and more.

I especially resonated with the segment on taking more vacation time, which was a lesson I didn’t learn until my late 30s. I largely credit my pro-vacation conversion to various Canadian and European friends who opened my eyes to the pleasures and benefits of taking time off for travel… and learning to regard vacation time as an essential part of the human experience.

I’ll be in Winnipeg July 15-25 for the Winnipeg Fringe Festival. If you’re in the area, let’s meet up — I love Canadians! If enough people are interested, perhaps we could do a group meetup as well. The last time we had a Winnipeg meetup was in December 2010 at The Forks, and we had a pretty good turnout.

Drop me a message via my contact form if you’re interested in meeting up. Rachelle and I (and our good friend Isabelle) will be seeing a bunch of Fringe plays, so we’ll be all around the area where the venues are. You might catch us hanging out at the Starbucks at Portage & Main when we aren’t seeing shows.

Rachelle isn’t doing a show of her own for this Fringe — the Fringe lotteries were mean to her this year — so we’re just going to immerse ourselves in human creative expression. That way we’ll be bursting with creativity when we fly back to Vegas for the Conscious Abundance Workshop.

I’m delighted to announce that registration is now open for all of our 2016 workshops. 🙂

See the updated Events page for a quick overview of each workshop.

Here are the web pages for each event:

Conscious Abundance Workshop – July 29-31, 2016

Conscious Mind Workshop – August 19-21, 2016

Conscious Life Workshop – October 14-16, 2016

Conscious Entrepreneur Workshop – October 21-23, 2016

All of these workshops will be in Las Vegas.

I upgraded our registration system, so now you can register for multiple workshops at once if you so desire. Just click the “Register Now” button on any workshop page, and you’ll have the option to add other events as well.

There are more payment options available too, so you can register by credit card, PayPal, Amazon, or Bitcoin. Yes, you can use your Bitcoins to register for every workshop this year!

All of the workshops are discounted by $100 for the early bird registration period, so right now each one is only $497 instead of the regular price of $597. Each workshop has a different early registration period, with the dates marked clearly on each workshop’s web page just below the “Register Now” button. The early registration period for the first workshop (CAW) goes through July 11th.

We’ve also arranged 20% discounts with three nearby hotels (all are within a 5-minute walk from the venue). When you sign up for a workshop, you’ll receive an email with those details.

If you have any questions about the workshops, feel free to use the contact form.

I look forward to seeing you at a new workshop this year — they’re going to be a lot of fun! 🙂

It’s official that Las Vegas is getting its own NHL hockey team, starting with the 2017-18 season. This will be Las Vegas’ first major league sports team. The team will be formed by pilfering (i.e. drafting) one player from each of the other 30 NHL teams.

The games will be played at the new T-Mobile Arena on the Vegas Strip, which can seat about 17,500 people for hockey games. More than 15,000 season tickets have already been sold, so apparently this has been a popular idea.

The team doesn’t even have a name yet, and its players won’t be selected till next year, but some casino sports books are already accepting bets on how the new team will perform. Supposedly the odds of Las Vegas winning the Stanley Cup are set at about 100-to-1 against.

One potential name for the team that’s been floating around is the Black Knights, which doesn’t seem very Vegasy to many locals. The official name will likely be announced in the Fall of 2016.

I’ve never been to a hockey game as far as I recall, but I find it inspiring to live in a place that treats physical reality like software, always capable of being reprogrammed and upgraded. You never know what will sprout up next. Did you know that more than 2 million people live here now?

A new team will soon be playing ice hockey in a new arena in the desert. Why? Because some people wanted it badly enough and made it happen.

Your goals are probably easier. 🙂

Here’s another article about brain training that popped up in my news feed this morning, about a study finding that any perceived benefits may simply be the placebo effect at work, while the training itself is potentially irrelevant.

If you want to learn more about this topic, I’d recommend the book Smarter by Dan Hurley, which is a journalist’s story of delving into brain training programs and sharing the results. I read it last year. Unfortunately he got very little measurable benefit from it, despite months of effort.

Note that one brain training company, Lumos Labs (creator of Lumosity), was recently fined millions of dollars by the Federal Trade Commission for deceptive advertising.

There’s a lot of hype surging about brain training programs, especially in the online affiliate world, but the current results suggest that you’re better off saving your money, and your time would be better spent playing video games, which have demonstrated cognitive benefits.

The placebo effect has been proven to work as well, so I’ll give you one for free: You’re brilliant! It’s amazing how much smarter you are today. I truly admire your genius. You’re about to have one of your smartest days ever! 🙂

Learning Strategies is hosting a free online streaming event June 20-25, 2016. It’s called Spring Forest Healingfest and features Qigong expert Chunyi Lin.

You can access the Healingfest via your web browser or phone.

All six days of the Healingfest are free, with new sessions posted each day. Each session can be streamed for free for a limited time. After that Learning Strategies will be selling the recordings.

Get free access to the Healingfest here: Spring Forest Healingfest