Achieve as a Man by Making Everything into a Goal

It is hard for men to motivate themselves without the presence of some kind of desirable end-state goal. It is even harder for them to motivate themselves if they do not have some kind of painful punishment to avoid. For this reason you must make everything a goal, no matter how small.

Without a goal, man has nothing to aim for, and he will miss every time if he aims for nothing.

“A desire accomplished is sweet to the soul”.

Proverbs 13:19

It is hard for men to motivate themselves without the presence of some kind of desirable end-state goal.

It is even harder for them to motivate themselves if they do not have some kind of painful punishment to avoid.

For this reason you must make everything a goal, no matter how small. Doing this is guaranteed to make even the tasks you hate slightly more tolerable.

If you are someone who likes statistics, this can be done by counting up all the tasks you have to do and converting to a percentage.

Easy, quick, and now you have visible, measurable progress on your goals. To do this, divide the number of tasks you have completed by the total amount of tasks you have to do. If you have 50 tasks and have completed 13 of them, then you are 26% finished with your tasks. [13/50= 26%]

The best way to make everything a goal is to try to improve at every task you are doing.

Ask yourself:
  • “How can I make this action more efficient?”
  • “How can I do this faster?”
  • “How can I get this done using less resources?”.

Switch your brain from “hating your job” mode, into “problem solve” mode.


Once that problem solving area of your brain is activated, you will spend less time thinking about how much you hate your job, and eventually you may become so efficient that you can switch to another job instead. 

Accomplish goals. Weak boys set vague goals and don’t see them through to the end. If you make a goal, keep it, or don’t waste your time making that goal. Nothing satisfies the soul like the progress towards a goal, and then finally the achievement that goal. So make everything a goal and maximize the natural “high”.

Mantra

I will be more efficient. I will look for ways to be faster, more productive, smarter, and a more valuable person.

landscape photography of snowy mountain
Photo by eberhard grossgasteiger on Pexels.com



Application

Switch from job loathing mode to problem solving mode, as mentioned before.

Constantly look for ways to improve the system, then actually follow through and improve it.

Make sure your goals are as clear as glass. You will never achieve goals that are vague.

Small goals count, but they must be clear.

Even if your goal is to fold letters perfectly, that is fine, you have more clarity with that goal then most weak men have in their entire careers. 

Break down every task into all of its component parts.

Start working on the most important piece of each task first and then move on to the next one.

Concentrate on completing each small part as perfectly as you possibly can.

If you have to write a paper and you know it needs a paragraph of introduction, three paragraphs of body, a paragraph of conclusion and five sources of information, then write all these down in a list, or a table and check them off as you go.

Paragraph of Introduction
Three paragraphs of body
One paragraph conclusion
Five research references. 


You can break these tasks down into even smaller tasks.

Break each paragraph into 6-8 sentences. Break the research references down into their separate categories and then break the actual reference down into its component parts of the name of the source, title, author, date and publisher.

Even in this simple example of writing, you can make one large task a collection of small tasks that you can push through and achieve.


Everything in life is achievable if you break it down into small, easily accomplished pieces. 

Conduct yourselves like Men.

The Wager of Faith

Men of faith wager their lives on the existence of an afterlife. Is that a good gamble?

“But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”.

1 Corinthians 2:9

There is an old philosophy from Blaise Pascal that acts as a fail-safe for our faith. It’s called “Pascal’s Wager”. It states that what you believe about the afterlife is a gamble, because you cannot truly know what will happen after death. The main point is that one should behave as if God exists, because the possibility of eternal punishment outweighs any benefit of atheism.

So the atheist wagers that there will be no God, and no afterlife.
The Believer wagers that there is a God and as a result there is an afterlife. 

Both cannot prove what they think in the present moment, that is why it is a wager. Pascal argues that The Christian’s wager is better or safer than the atheist’s.

If the atheist is wrong, he goes to hell. If he is right, he goes to non-existence. His wager is a win-lose scenario, a 50/50 chance of his gamble working out in his favor. 

For the Christian: if he is right, he goes to heaven and eternal pleasure. If he is wrong, he goes to non-existence.

His belief is a win-win scenario, a 100% chance of the afterlife working out in his favor, because there is nothing wrong with non-existence. In fact, some might find the idea of non-existence more pleasing than the idea of heaven. This is a result of the way that weak people in the Church have decided to describe heaven. In reality, men don’t want to sit around singing “Days of Elijah” on an endless loop for all time. That is how the Church describes heaven. That is one reason why men don’t find the idea of heaven very motivating. Some may even leave the Church because of this.

This entire wager is a buffer for us as weak men. We will doubt our faith, doubt God, doubt the afterlife, but this wager can be a tool that we use to combat the doubt. I know there are some pusillanimous people who will freak out when you try to use anything besides mindless “faith” and emotional “belief” when it comes to your motivation to do what is right. Many days you will have to conjure up some sort of external motivation. 

Hell deters us from evil. Pascal’s wager deters us from leaving the faith. Use this tool to maintain the faith when you are particularly weak. 

Mantra

Faith has no downside.

Wager. Gamble

Application

Use the wager to beat your doubts. When your emotions begin to fail you, use your rational mind to maintain the faith. Pascal’s wager is designed to appeal to the rational mind. Use the wager to remind yourself that your “gamble” about the afterlife has the best possible outcome. 

It is in your best interest to behave as if there is a God. No immediate pleasure is worth eternal punishment. Always be mindful of that.

Conduct yourselves like Men.

Read On

Concentration

The ability to concentrate is exceedingly rare. So rare that it is incredibly impressive when you find someone who can concentrate consistently. So impressive is the concentrated man that he is invited to give public speeches just to talk about this rare “gift” he has. It is no gift, it is a skill built over time.

Developing the skill of concentration will immediately improve your value to society.

“Concentrate your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”

Colossians 3:2

You walk out of the church building. You didn’t hear a word of the sermon, can’t remember a single thing that was said the whole morning. Why? You couldn’t stop thinking about football. You couldn’t stop thinking about sex. Maybe you were thinking about eating lunch, taking a nap and playing video games later. You have no concentration. 

Inability to concentrate is one of the hallmarks of a beta.

Literally, beta brain waves are associated with awakeness and alertness, but they are also rapid and unfocused. Alpha brain waves are present when you are asleep, or practicing meditation or mindfulness. This is the difference: Alpha waves represent a more mindful and focused state of mind while beta waves represent the complete lack of focus that most men have. Beta waves are jittery like a rabbit, just like the majority of weak men. This is also why mindful meditation is incredibly important. 

The ability to concentrate is exceedingly rare. So rare that it is incredibly impressive when you find someone who can concentrate consistently. So impressive is the concentrated man that he is invited to give public speeches just to talk about this rare “gift” he has. It is no gift, it is a skill built over time. 

The inability to concentrate is the cumulative effect of years of not even trying to concentrate.

A person with concentration has done the opposite if this. His focus is the cumulative effect of years of practice and dedication to the art of concentration. 

You too can build this level of concentration.

Make concentration a priority for the sake of your worship.

Build your focus so that when time calls for it you can work and destroy any task at hand, or so you can worship in spirit and in truth. 

Mantra

Complete Concentration

Concentration. Focus. Concentrate

Application

Research the idea of “Access Concentration”. (Try this). The exercises are simple, but they build focus. One exercise is to lightly pinch your index and thumb, and concentrate completely on the sensation between the fingers. The pressure is very light, very difficult to stay focused on, but it builds the concentration skill. 

Apply concentration to your work. Whatever the task at hand is, concentrate completely on it until it is finished. Your concentration muscle will be weak, so build it. Don’t be discouraged by your complete lack of concentration at first. Most men fail at building any habit just because they want results too quickly. This is the state of society. Earn it. Work for it. Do not be the pathetic man who wants overnight results, be willing to put the effort in to building concentration, or to building any habit you want. 

Another tool for building concentration is to eliminate distraction. Everyone knows this, but so few apply this tactic. It is simple, remove every unnecessary, distracting item from your workspace. Make it so you have nothing to do but work when you are in your work area. Set up some filters on your computer to block social media between various work hours of the day. (Try getcoldturkey.com). 

If you eliminate distraction, you can accomplish in 3 hours what used to take you 9.

Use that efficiency to be successful.

Set small time goals for concentration before you attempt long spans of time. If you cannot concentrate for 15 minutes, then trying to concentrate for an hour is going to get you nowhere. You have to build up to those numbers through training. When you do your concentration exercises, make the first goals very small and achievable. 

Aim for 1-2 minutes at first. Only when you can complete those 1-2 minutes with perfect focus (no intruding thoughts, pure mind control) should you move up and attempt 3-5 minutes. Slowly level up your training and don’t expect immediate results. Improvement always takes time. Endure the pain of change.

Conduct yourselves like men

Apply

To Apply knowledge is the only true form of learning.

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”

James 1:22

“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

People walk into the Church building, sit for an hour or two, then walk out. They learn nothing and make no changes to their daily actions. Their life goes on from week to week in this same manner and they still think they are doing what is right. They live a life of ease with no application of knowledge. Constantly “learning”, never applying. 

What they do is like going to law school, passing the bar exam yet never stepping into the courtroom. Or going to college, then medical school, residency and internship and yet never applying what you learned in a medical practice. Christians live the same way, going to Church at all the “right times” and in all the “right ways” while wearing the “right clothes”, yet never actually doing the things they need to do. 

The Bible is a book of actions, not one of weak emotions.

Pathetic men are the ones who sit in the pews week after week and still do nothing with their faith. This is wrong. The Word is a Weapon, a Sword that must be used against enemies. It is not good enough to know what to do and it is not enough to want to do it, it must be applied. The best workout plan in the world will do nothing to transform your body if you don’t actually do the workout plan.

Weak men talk.

Real men Do.

Be a Man.

Mantra

To apply is the only acceptable behavior.

Application

How do you apply the philosophy of application? By doing. It’s not complicated. It is consistent action over time. That is what brings victory in any endeavor. 

Whenever you are learning a new skill or reading a new book, try to absorb something you can immediately start using in your life. If no behavior change takes place, then we aren’t really learning. 

Applying what we know also accelerates learning. Because by testing our new knowledge, we can determine if it is true or not. Whatever you are doing, you must apply it. Resist the urge to read books just for the sake of reading them. Avoid doing things to try to look “cool”. Apply knowledge so you improve as an individual. 

Conduct Yourselves like Men.

The Importance of Dark Moments

When you experience a dark moment, do not be discouraged, for those dark moments are strength training for your mind and emotion.

Men pride themselves on being stoic. Men consider themselves masculine when they can control their emotions and reactions in all settings, public or private. Modern culture is trying to undo this by telling men that “it’s okay to cry” or to “get in touch with your feminine side”. This feminization of men is not a change for the better. Feminization does not help men deal with dark moments.

Darkness. Dark

While it is usually not a good idea to Repress emotion, is is vital for men to Suppress emotion and desire. A man must Suppress his sexual urges in society. A rapist is an example of a man who has stopped attempting to control those urges and gives into them completely. It is important for a man to suppress and redirect his anger and violent thoughts. A murderer is an example of a man who has given up on trying to control or redirect his anger.

Suppression of emotion is not simply important for men, it is vital to the function and survival of society.

Man grows his ability to suppress and control his emotion by experiencing moments of darkness.

For most modern men, the moments of “darkness” are nothing compared what men in the past have dealt with. A man might get stuck in traffic for a few hours and have to spend extra money somewhere and call that moment “dark”. While men of the past charged into storms of lead, staring into the face of death without flinching. Nevertheless, every dark moment is important, not matter how intense or feeble is may seem. Because without the darkness, we can never fully appreciate the light. Without the darkness, we can never improve our ability to control our emotions and thoughts in difficult situations.

The process of becoming more masculine or improving the ability to handle darkness is a process without a final destination, like many of the skills men can build.

Modern culture exclusively thinks in binary, black-or-white terms. This two-sided, simple thinking is not the case in reality. Just as someone who has trained his body for two years is in better shape than someone who has not trained his body at all. And he who has trained for five years is in better shape than he who has trained for two years. So also men become more masculine and stoic on on a gradient scale based on what darkness they deal with and for how long they deal with it.

“Small” moments of darkness improve the man who has not endured many dark moments. But that same small, dark moment may do nothing for the man who has experienced years of darkness and is mentally strong. There are levels of masculinity that can be trained and improved just like men train and improve their physical strength.

When you experience a dark moment, do not be discouraged, for those dark moments are strength training for your mind and emotion.

You improve your mental strength and resilience by enduring those moments that seem to last forever and bring nothing but pain and suffering. You grow your ability to handle greater adversity by handling small adversity. No man should be made fun of because he strains against a small dark moment. Just like no man should be mocked because he just began to train his body and strains to list 50 pounds. You improve by handling yourself in those small situations and by controlling your emotions in the small details of life.

How do you react when you get stuck in traffic for a few hours?

What is your reaction when you lose a little money in the stock market or on a bad purchase?

How do you react when you break something in your house?

These are small details that do not matter all that much in the grand scheme of life. But these are also events that bother the majority of men.

You must improve your ability to handle adversity with strength and power – This is done by elevating your perspective, removing yourself from unnecessary emotion and changing your thinking. This can only be done through practice during small moments of darkness.

Know that without dark moments, we cannot hope to improve as men. Just as a muscle will never increase its strength or endurance until it is pushed beyond the levels of its current ability, so also we will never improve our mental and emotional control unless we experience dark moments that are beyond our current ability to handle.

Darkness is the strength training of the mind.

The next time you experience darkness, do not be discouraged, but be excited because you are now improving your mind.

Conduct yourselves like Men.

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