Immediately after kicking off the new articles section of the site with an introduction to the qualities that should be apparent in any man that understands his worth, I knew I wanted to follow it up with something on what men are actually supposed to do with those qualities.
Taking Responsibility
As great as it is to be strong, intelligent and confident in your abilities, if you never create an outlet for your best aspects to be put to use, then you might as well not even bother. What a man *is* can only ever be as valuable as what he *does*, and what men do is accomplish things. A man believes he can do that to which he sets his purpose and can accomplish what he wants whether he has a cheerleading section behind him or not. When he succeeds in his goals he celebrates, takes full credit for his victory, and moves on the next level. When he fails he takes full blame, identifies where he could have done better, and tries again. He doesn’t whine and point the finger at other people for not supporting him or not giving him a break or any other defeatist nonsense.
Embracing the Challenge
Life itself is a challenge, and every moment in that life is also a challenge, but in the pursuit of excellence the greatest and manliest challenges are the ones that *you* make for yourself, the ones that exceed the basic challenge of survival and elevate you beyond mere animal-like subsistence. The obvious first step in leading a goal driven life is to actually have some kind of major goal. That’s unique to each individual, and sometimes hard to envision in a world where everything you’ve ever been taught about success involves getting along, sharing nicely and being liked. It’s necessary to break free from that mentality and start identifying real world means of accomplishment in order to develop anything resembling a meaningful plan for success. You have to actually become *good* at something, and then use that skill set to create opportunity.
Drawing the Roadmap
Goals are not dreams, goals are things that have serious intent and structure. They need to be drawn up clearly like a roadmap and reassessed every so often for evidence of progress. That’s why so many fail to deliver, even with the right intentions, because what *should* be structured goals are left in the dustbin of dreams and never given any shape in the real world. Every major goal needs to be broken up into minor goals, or milestones, and every minor goal needs to be broken up into daily tasks that go toward achieving that milestone. Every single day needs to be treated like an excellence mission, and something significant needs to be accomplished by the end of each. The bigger your goal, the more clearly defined and mapped out your plan needs to be, and the more fortitude you’ll need to stay focused. But that is the way of manly excellence.
Breaking Away
Much like the nature of crabs, who will pull down any other crab bold enough to try to escape a crab pot, you will be thwarted at every turn by many of the people around you that are happy enough when all you do is dream, but become nasty, negative and slanderous as soon as you start showing signs of actually doing something about it. These people only have as much impact on your life plan as you allow. These people are nothing but obstacles and will never come around because their distress isn’t based on a proper evaluation of your skills and commitment and chances, but from bitterness and envy at being able to take charge of your own life. As a man you need to be able to break away from social dependence and stand on your own feet without holding hands. Stand up, man up, and accomplish something with your life.
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Author: HammerOfThunor
I was going to suggest such an article, but you all beat me to it. It makes it clear that what must be done is in fact simple, but simple does not mean easy. Summoning the personal courage for excellence is what most of lack despite knowing what what must be done. Breaking away is one of the most lonely things a man can do, unless he is in the company of wise friends. Cheers to the Hall.
“It makes it clear that what must be done is in fact simple, but simple does not mean easy.”
The article comes off as sort of an obvious-ism, but unfortunately it’s necessary because people in the Westernsphere are no longer taught winning as a virtue. When you seriously start trying to attain achievement in your life, it’s *always* at the expense of others, and that’s just not nice.
The “obviousism” is not always so obvious. Quite often it presents itself a longing in the mind that needs the clarification of something else to be able to articulate it. The point when the realization that simple does not mean easy sets in is often when men give up. They got along just fine until they started really trying to achieve, they rationalize, so why not keep playing nice?