The human body is amazing. All it takes is modest exercise + eating well and a zillion things fall into place automatically, including having greater energy, self-esteem and confidence.
If you already have a regime of diet and exercise that works for you, great. You are the type of person who knows how everything falls into place when you take care of your body. And you’ve integrated it into your life and habits so it’s no longer a struggle to stay there.
Your energy level is high and your self esteem is high. You dress accordingly to show off your hard work. And you have reached the point that if you go for several days with out working out, you feel off, and can’t wait to get back to the gym.
However, if you are NOT the guy above, then no worries.
First and foremost we must create habits that become permanent parts of our daily life otherwise it will be a struggle.
Over in the Moving Forward Area of the handbook you can learn about forming new habits. For instance, it’s so much easier when we do “habit stacking” and attach a new habit to one we already have.
The strategy is to think of [exercise + eating] as a single unit. Start with the exercise with the goal of improving your body, and then just change what you eat to support those improvements, which will likely be a higher protein lower carb diet. No need to make radical changes. Avoid setting high goals which may just end up being a set up for failure and disappointment.
Be clear on the fact that your objective is to bring an new unshakable habit into your life. It’s got to be a solid part of your lifestyle. Focus on that and again, the rest will follow. Tell yourself that “fitness is non-negotiable.”
And totally drop the idea that “diet” is related to losing weight, like Diet Coke. Let’s use the word “eating” instead.
YouTube is full of both good and bad resources, so the two videos below will help give you a much needed perspective so that you don’t waste your time being super picky about the way you work out or the food you eat.
For instance, many YouTube fitness gurus will argue over whether you should use heavier weights with few reps, or lower weights with higher reps. Only competitive bodybuilders would care, and we don’t care about that. All activity at the gym is great.
Imagine being a construction worker and you need to carry 15 pieces of drywall into the bedrooms to be put up and you go tell your boss that you can only carry in 6 pieces because that will exceed your reps/weight for the day otherwise you’ll ruin your gains! It’s silly. All exercise is good, and the more the better. You can’t go wrong, especially knowing that within a year you will have automatically discovered what works optimally for you and what doesn’t.
This age old wisdom works every time: Just walk through the front door of the gym and everything will take care of itself. That’s it. There’s nothing else to think about.
It’s gotta be convenient to get to the gym or to access your workout equipment. You don’t want to pick a gym that’s too far away. You know what will happen next.
Maybe you can form a gang of guys that can work together to get some equipment and share a space to work out at, maybe in a rented garage, and share access to it and make it nearby where you all live.
Get to know the people at your gym at least by waving to them, or any other kind of acknowledgement. They become part of your community, and it will motivate you to show up and go work out with them and they will be your inspiration.
If you can’t get to a nearby gym then get your own equipment (second hand) and put it in your garage or under the bed. That’s especially useful as a backup so if there’s something keeping you from the gym you can still do something.
Also, workout partners are great. They don’t seem to last very long, so you’ll have to constantly be getting new ones. 😀
I’ve watched a ton of workout videos on YouTube and they all have something to offer and I draw from all of them so I don’t really have a favorite channel. But there is one guy who for me can do no wrong and that’s Jeff Nippard in the first video below. Who’s your favorite?
© 2018-2023 Markus Halvorson
All Rights Reserved
Status Colors: Completed, In Progress, Waiting
© 2018-2023 Markus Halvorson
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These two things are an inseparable pair.
🔸 One is the “cause” – the Manhood Confusion Attack (MCA)
🔸 One is the “symptom” of the cause – the FoG (Fear of Gay)
And there’s also a “result” of the [cause + symptom] pair that causes men to hide, hesitate and overcompensate, and this is now at epidemic levels. It’s so prevalent guys don’t even notice it.
Virtually all men have experienced this cause/symptom/result, but it has never had a formal name. Now it does. This makes it easy to talk about it, be aware of it, and thus easier to eliminate from our lives.
The [Manhood Confusion Attack + FoG] results in men HESITATING in ways that aren’t even related to sex, like being funny, communicating well and so many other things.
How many guys come up to you at the gym and introduce themselves? Like none. I introduce myself to guys at the gym all the time, and in a way that I learned that doesn’t trigger any weirdness, and now they all nod, wave and smile and and appreciates that I didn’t hesitate. There are so many interesting and amazing people at the gym, but the FoG is pretty thick at the gym. My buddy Alex at the gym is the same way and talks to even more guys than I do. He doesn’t have the FoG.
It All Started On The Playground
When we’re kids, us boys are competitive and set the pecking order at home and at school by calling each other names that call our manhood into question including…
Fag, homo, pussy, wuss, sissy, wimp, cocksucker, you throw like a girl, are you going to cry and tell your mommy?
And it even gets into our language where a bully might say to a nerd “Dude, why are you so gay on science?”
This is the “attack” part. Even dads attack their boys, and it’s in so many movies and stories.
Well, before most of us boys even know what sex is, we start hearing about this “gay” thing, whatever that is, but apparently it’s horrible, disgusting and seriously fucked up.
Boys hear about guys getting beat up and even killed. They hear about politicians banning gay stuff and drag queens fighting back. “Gay” gets associated with femininity of any kind. So don’t act gay.
Instead, hide (wear a hoodie), hesitate (don’t say anything, don’t be funny or extroverted), or overcompensate by being overtly masculine. Distance yourself from homos.
The cool thing about the term FoG is that we all live with this kind of actual fog all around us, like air pollution, and we’ve become so accustomed to it we don’t notice it anymore.
And even if we aren’t affected by the FoG any longer, we still have to live with it showing up all around us – kind of like being a non-smoking employee working in a smoke-filled Las Vegas casino.
The FoG causes boys to hesitate getting close to another guy and thus inhibiting them from forming deep brotherhood bonds with other guys that are so essential to a guy’s well-being.
It causes them to doubt themselves more and get out and meet women less, for example.
And it confuses the hell out of them. Now there is this artificial line drawn between gay and straight, and no one knows where it is. They realize that when they’re masturbating and getting the maximum orgasm out of themselves they’re actually learning all about having sex with a dude.
And they’re afraid to look at other guys, but if you don’t, how does a guy learn what a sexy man looks like?
And worst of all, it causes guys to be afraid of checking out this handbook which is the ONLY way to clear up the confusion.
This is a great example of how screwed up things are. Guys have no problem learning about and getting good at anything else in life EXCEPT when it comes to be a well-put together man so that the best in life shows up for us as a result, like women, and work opportunities, and on and on.
We’ll stop here.
The rest of this topic and it’s solution is covered in throughout the handbook including in the Confusion Area and the Sex Area.
© 2018-2023 Markus Halvorson
All Rights Reserved
A MAN is a human whose gender identitiy is predominantly male, he feels like a man, he feels comfortable in the world of men, and feels he belongs in the world of men. Full stop.
MASCULINITY refers to the following collection of “chunks” of human attributes (characteristics) almost always amplifed in men.
© 2018-2023 Markus Halvorson
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Yanker words are words where, the instant they’re used, they yank us back to the very place we’re trying to get away from.
We avoid using all the yanker words you see below throughout the handbook. Sometimes there’s a preferred alternative.
© 2018-2023 Markus Halvorson
All Rights Reserved
If you have access to ChatGPT, ask it “What is masculinity” and here is its reply…
“Masculinity is a complex and multifaceted concept that varies across cultures and societies. Broadly speaking, masculinity refers to the set of attributes, behaviors, and roles traditionally associated with men and boys. These can include qualities such as strength, assertiveness, independence, courage, and leadership. However, it is important to note that the understanding of masculinity has evolved over time, and there is increasing recognition that it is not limited to a fixed set of traits. Different cultures and individuals may have their own interpretations of what masculinity means, and there is growing awareness of the importance of embracing a more inclusive and diverse understanding of gender roles.”
Clearly it reflects the confusion that exists in our world. This explains so much, eh?
© 2018-2023 Markus Halvorson
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It looks like the handbook catches a lot of people offguard. A video is being made that gives a proper introduction to what is unusual and different about it. And it has to be this way like it or not.
Here are the elements that are a part of why no one has seen anything like this before.
Years ago I started assembling a list of no more than 150 men, the widely acknowledged size of a “tribe,” whom I personally know and who have expressed interest in the handbook. It’s now time to engage this tribe and have them start experiencing the handbook, in the incomplete state it’s in now, and help refine it before it gets exposed to the open internet of millions of men.
I want to thank all my brothers, buddies, friends and professional contacts who stand together with me now to help see this sailing ship finally become seaworthy enough to be pushed away from the dock and set out to sea in the coming month(s).
I’m so privileged and grateful. Thank you!
(Highlighted names are the guys I’ve reached out to.)
A “tribe” is a group of around 150 people. It’s a special number because for humans, that’s about the limit of how many people we’re able to get to know and feel like they’re part of our community.
There are companies where when a location grows past 150 people, it will split off into a new location so that the employees at any location will all get to know each other well and work together as a tight knit community with all the productivity benefits that yields. Belonging is a powerful human instinct and need.
This is a photo of a tribe in New Guinea.
© 2018-2023 Markus Halvorson
All Rights Reserved
© 2018-2023 Markus Halvorson
All Rights Reserved
This brings up some information like a definition, a long list, an image, whatever.
Click the red arrow at the upper right to close it.
If you wondered about this photo, it’s a picture of the the crew of an aircraft carrier. The crewmen in brightly colored jerseys work on the flight deck and their role is color coded. Check out the orange References and Notes Show/Hide bar at the bottom of this START HERE section for more details on what the colors mean.
Extra Credit: There are a few women in this picture. Can you find them?
© 2018-2023 Markus Halvorson
All Rights Reserved
If we say for a moment that each of these independent human attributes listed below was only an on or off, one or the other, binary kind of thing, then to calculate the number of combinations of human beings that are possible, this list of 60 items can be calculated as 2 to the power of 60…
260 = 1,152,921,504,606,846,976
or over 1 quintillion combinations of human beings.
But there are actually far more combinations than that because most of the attributes are spectrums, ranges, and sometimes multiple choice. And this list keeps growing because now there are 71 items below. But we’re in the general ballpark.
Long story short, no two human beings who have ever lived are alike.
© 2018-2023 Markus Halvorson
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“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!”
Hunter S. Thompson
© 2018-2023 Markus Halvorson
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© 2018-2023 Markus Halvorson
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