Make sure your woman feels safe and secure with you.

In this way, she is much less likely to look for

strength and reassurance elsewhere.

But for her, she might just take the easy route and tell herself she deserves it. That is one of the reasons
why women have affairs when their relationship hits choppy waters.

Some women feel this entitles them to cheat on their partners. They want their sexual desires to be
fulfilled, despite their loving partner.

As such, you must be mentally and emotionally available for her. So that both of you can get emotional
support from each other, besides communication, this is one of the bedrock of a healthy relationship.

It’s a good habit to have at least one evening a week for each other, and only each other. See it as a date
night, just like you used to do when you were still trying to win her heart.

it is essential to take good care of your woman, dedicate your time and energy to her and make sure you
know her needs.

To be successful at keeping a relationship together in today’s world, a man needs to know how to
deepen a woman’s love, respect and attraction for him over time, rather than just expecting that she will
stick around because things felt good at the start.

If you are a man with very masculine energy, then you are most-likely going to be a man of your word. If
you promise something, then it’s an iron clad promise that you will stand by no matter what. If you tell a
woman that you will stick with her for life, then you mean it.

To keep a feminine woman in a committed relationship, you have to know how to deepen her love,
respect and attraction for you over time. You can just expect that what she used to feel will be enough to
see you through for the rest of your lives together. You have to actively make her feel more attracted to
you, more respectful of you and more in love with you than ever before.

Hides from his true potential in life behind her and the relationship. In other words, he lacks ambition
and spends way too much time on things that don’t get him anywhere.

Becomes needy, clingy, jealous or insecure in the relationship.

Stops making her feel loved and appreciated.

Puts her down or belittles her too often.

Lacks confidence around confident men or alpha males.

Cries or becomes emotionally weak when life gets tough.

Is overly bossy or controlling of her in the relationship.

Lets her be overly bossy or controlling of him.

Doesn’t follow through on his promises.

While it’s fine to encourage your woman to keep herself looking good, putting her down isn’t the way to
accomplish it. You’ve got to make your woman feel like the sexiest woman on Earth in your eyes, no
matter what she is wearing or how she is looking. From that, she will feel sexy around you and will be
much more keen on having sex with you.

She will feel confident in her sex appeal to you, which will get rid of a lot of the worries about you
wanting another woman. It will also allow her to open her heart more to you and experience the full
potential of the love that you can both share.

By taking that approach, she will then naturally want to look better for you. She will know if she’s looking
fat or if her hair isn’t soft and shiny and she will put in effort to improve that. When she does, you’ve got
to give her compliments about that and find her even sexier as a result.

If you aren’t taking that approach and are instead making her feel less and less attractive around you,
she may get to the point where she begins flirting with other guys to get them interested in her so she
can feel better about herself. The more she does that, the more likely it becomes that she will cheat,
especially if she finds a guy that she really connects with and who makes her feel much sexier than you
do.

I have firm boundaries, and if a girl gives off any red flags that show me she might cheat, I don’t bother
committing to her—why would I? Girls that I’m sleeping with understand that I’m a man of abundance,
and because of that, they respect me.
When a girl senses that you don’t have a backbone, she loses respect for you, and won’t get wet for you.

Having a backbone doesn’t mean to be a dick, but it means that you should have a high level of self-
respect. You should hold yourself to a certain standard, and always put your masculine purpose before
anything else (including your relationship).

In addition to most men being weak and emotionally immature, which is literally just asking for a girl to
cheat on you, they also tend to stagnate. This happens a lot: some girl marries a stallion, and over the
years he gets weak.

He starts watching TV all the time, drinking beer every night, stops working out, stops fighting for a
cause, stops living life with passion…and then, what do you know, she cheats on him. Jeez, I wonder
why?

It’s because he lost his zest for life, and he’s dooming her to a boring existence. Of course she’s going to
crave passion, dude—women need passion in their relationships to be fulfilled.

learn game and find yourself an alpha female who doesn’t need constant validation.

Do fun things with your girlfriend. Go out to concerts, work out together, take up a hobby together, eat
Thai food together, do whatever the fuck you want…just don’t fall into the same boring routines.

A “masculine purpose,” is having a clear, distinct goal in life, that is reflective of what you’re passionate
about, and taking action to turn this purpose into a reality.

Purpose = Lifestyle

A masculine purpose, when fully realized, is something that will bring you money. Not because that’s the
goal, but because money is the end result of helping others improve their lives in some way. If you sell a
great physical product or great informational product, you will get money; plain and simple. The more
people whose lives you improve, the more money you will get.
If you died today, what would you want to be remembered for? Would you want to be remembered for
changing the lives of others? For creating an empire that you can pass down to your children? For
starting a non-profit, or maybe for conquering vast, unknown lands?

If you were going to get paid 50 million dollars a year to do any job in the world, what would you choose
to do? Be a personal trainer? Be an author? A psychologist? A dog trainer? Or maybe a blogger, a
musician, or a professional boxer?

What makes you the happiest? What do you dream about? Do you dream about exploring? Or helping
others? Maybe seducing women?

Do you prefer to pay attention to little details, or the overall big picture?

Do you like to work in long spurts, or in little bits every day?

Do you prefer to work one on one, or via a medium (the internet, phone, email, etc.).

If you’re passionate about knowledge, there’s a lot of ways you can monetize it. Just find a niche that
wants an answer, and give them that answer in the form of an eBook, a video course, or a blog. Most of
the time when guys tell me they have some “weird passion,” that they can’t monetize, I just shake my
head.

If you’re passionate about it, I can guarantee that there’s other people who are passionate about it, too.
And, as any entrepreneur knows, where there’s a group of men who are passionate about something,
you can easily make a product that they will love.

Ask yourself: do you prefer to work in spurts? Then consider launching an eBook, a blog, a YouTube
channel, or a video course. Do you prefer to work every day? Then start networking (online and in
person) with people to consult in whatever area of expertise you have.
In short, he’ll do what he wants to do, rather than doing what he thinks will get him validation and
acceptance.

he became very attracted to him, because she saw that he had firm boundaries and was an alpha male.

So she starts fucking him, and they grow closer and closer. Sometimes she comes over to Jerry’s house
and just hangs out, cooks them dinner, and sucks his dick.

“Wow,” thinks Jerry. “This woman is pretty cool—she’s been real nice to me, I kind of want to return the
favor,” he says to himself.

So he texts her, saying that he has a surprise for her. She asks what it is, and he says she’ll have to come
over and find out. He gives her a nice massage, and then they fuck afterwards.

When you act out of a desire to help, or to give, generally speaking, it’s going to be an alpha male
behavior.

When you act out of a desire to take, generally speaking, it’s going to be a beta male behavior.
Alpha males act, because they want to. They have an abundance of good emotions and resources, so
they aren’t afraid of giving it away to people that they like.

Beta males act, because they want validation. They are desperate for good emotions, approval, and sex,
so all of their actions are calculated and designed to “take” from others. They’re needy, because they’re
always trying to get something from other people—whether it be validation or acceptance.

This is the difference: the alpha male acts because he wants to, the beta male acts because he is needy
and has an agenda.

Beta Male Beliefs/Mindsets

I’m not good enough.

I need others to accept me.

Should I act this way or that way?

I need others to give me validation.

My mood depends on other people.

I act in a way that will get me acceptance.

I don’t accept myself.

I’m not okay with myself.

I’m insecure.

Now, contrast some of those beta male beliefs, with alpha male beliefs.

Alpha Male Beliefs/Mindsets

I’m good enough.

I accept myself.

I act how I want to act.

I am strong enough to give others validation.

I generate my own mood.

I am genuine, and not afraid to be myself.

I am okay with who I am.

I’m very deeply secure with my flaws.

Do you see the difference? Alpha males and beta males have different belief systems, which build
different BEHAVIORS!

Lift weights

Meditate

Read

Practice social skills

For example—if you have a very deep seeded insecurity, ask yourself: where did this belief come from?

Trace it all the way back to its roots, which is likely your childhood. Then ask yourself: “Is the person who
taught me this belief worth modeling my life after?”

More often than not, the answer will be no. It was probably a fucking loser who gave you this belief.
Maybe an alcoholic parent, a needy mother, or an abusive step-father. Or maybe a certain bully or a
teacher who made you feel stupid.

Either way—it was a fucking loser who gave you this belief. What kind of an adult would put this belief
into a kid’s head? Seriously – how fucking pathetic do you have to be to teach a child that they’re
worthless, or stupid, or not good enough?

Having a purpose is the most important thing that a man could ever have. It will put fire in your belly, it
will give you will and drive, and it will push you to achieve and conquer.

If you haven’t discovered your purpose yet, finding it is a great way to become an alpha male.

Alpha males understand that their purpose in life transcends everything else. Their purpose is more
important than anything else, even their lives.

This may sound melodramatic, but it’s true—when you completely embody a purpose, suddenly you’ll
find that you don’t put up with bullshit.
Your purpose validates you—you don’t need other peoples’ validation. You feel complete, because you
have a purpose. Thus, you don’t seek completion from others. What type of man spends hours trying to
figure out how to act like an alpha male? Clearly, a man without a purpose.

A man with a purpose doesn’t give a fuck how people interpret his actions—not in a negative or mean
way, but just because he’s okay with being himself, even if he’s not the richest, tallest, or whatever.

And he’s okay with being himself, because he feels that his life has meaning—a purpose gives him
determination, decisiveness; it gives him energy and vitality. These things are all characteristic of alpha
males and you’ll find that once you have a purpose your beliefs change.

For example—right now, I’m writing this article in a coffee shop. There’s a hot woman over in the corner
who’s been staring at me and playing with her hair, and it’s pretty obvious that she wants me to go talk
to her.

But fuck that, because I want to write this article for you men. This is my purpose right now. This is the
path that I live in this moment.

My purpose is to write this article—I’m INTENSELY focused on churning it out, and everything else in my
life becomes stupid and trivial…for now. Do you see the fundamental belief here?

The fundamental belief that I have right now is that “my purpose is more important than women.” My
purpose is more important than getting some girl’s number. Who the fuck cares about getting some girl’s
number when I’m embodying my purpose?

This is an example of how having a purpose will naturally set your beliefs straight. Once you learn this,
your self respect will 10x in value.

Here are some alpha male traits:

Confidence

Decisiveness
Assertiveness

Dominance

Purpose

Courage

Calmness

Confidence

Alpha males are confident in who they are, period. It doesn’t matter what you think of them—because
it’s their opinion that matters.

When you’re an alpha male, you’re not concerned about the opinion of sheep… because you’re a lion.

Alpha males have the confidence to go for what they want, and they’ve go the willingness to make their
goals come to fruition.

Decisiveness

Another key characteristics of alpha males, is that they’re very decisive. They know what they want, and
they take action to get it.

They don’t spend hours flip-flopping here and there, over dumb shit. Most men spend WAY too much
time worrying about dumb shit and never actually pulling the trigger.

This isn’t what alpha males do.

Instead, they’re decisive. They know what they want, they create a plan to get it, and they just fucking
take action.

Assertiveness

Alpha males know that it’s a dog-eat-dog world out there, and you have to be willing to fight for what
you want. You have to be assertive.
Without assertiveness, you won’t accomplish anything. You must be willing to scream out to the world:
“This is what I want, and I’m taking it.”

One of the key alpha male traits is that of assertiveness. They’re willing to assert themselves, their
needs, and their wants, very easily.

Dominance

Another key trait of alpha males is that they’re dominant. Not in an insecure way, where they feel the
need to dominate everyone, but just by their very nature they’re dominant.

They’re leaders, by nature—they’re at the top of the totem pole. They’re willing to stand up for those
they love and care about, above all else.

If you want to be an alpha male, you need to spend some time learning how to be dominant. A lot of us
have mental blocks towards this.

Dominance is important, however. It means you always come out on top in any situation—and it’s
exactly what alpha males do.

Purpose

Another strong indicator that someone is an alpha male, is that they have a very clear masculine
purpose. Most men fuck this part up.

In fact, your purpose should come before everything else. Your purpose should come before women.
Period. No exceptions.

When a man puts his woman before his purpose, he deprives the world of his authentic self.

When he puts his purpose before all else, he can accomplish great things—in fact, that is the only way
that you can ever accomplish great things.
Courage

In life, you must be willing to take risks. You must be willing to follow your fear, and do that which scares
you must.

…and this is exactly what alpha males do. They have no second thoughts about taking risks, even if they
may seem scary.

The only way you can ever accomplish anything worthwhile in life, is by taking risks… and if you aren’t
willing to do so, you will live a quiet life of desperation, in the words of Henry David Thoreau.

Having courage is one of the key characteristics of alpha males… because without it, nothing worthwhile
will ever be accomplished.

Calmness

Another key alpha male trait is calmness, especially under pressure. Alpha males know they’re on top, so
they have no need to prove themselves.

Have you ever seen those men who always try to start fights? They’re always looking for some way to
prove themselves.

This is not alpha, but rather it’s beta. Only beta males feel the need to prove themselves and put others
down.

Men who are real alpha males don’t give a fuck what other people think, because they know that they’re
always on top.

Common Questions

There’s a lot of confusion surrounding how to be an alpha male, from behaviors to style, grooming,
fashion, and more.
The core thing to understand is that becoming an alpha male comes down to self respect, learning to live
your life, and becoming a leader who is confident in his purpose in life.

Everything else is just minor details, but still, I want this article to be as comprehensive as possible, so
here are the answers you want.

What About Looks & Money?

Lots of men wonder if having expensive things or luxurious fashion and style will help them become
more of an alpha male.

The truth is, that while getting them doesn’t hurt, it’s not going to change your core confidence, self
respect, or any other alpha characteristics.

It doesn’t matter if you’re the richest man in the room or not—if your self respect is lower than the floor,
nobody will view you as a leader.

Sure, still do some looksmaxing and make money, but your main goal should be to raise your self respect
and live your real purpose in life.

How Does Confidence Tie Into This?

The core of being an alpha male isn’t expensive things, being the richest guy in the room, or having cool
hairstyles (although that all helps).

Really, it all comes down to being a strong man who isn’t afraid to live life on his own terms, and who has
a high level of confidence and self respect.

People like that inspire other men to respect and follow them as a leader, which is the core of being an
“alpha male”—a leader of men.

How Long Does This Take?

If you want to build real confidence and real self respect, it’s not going to happen overnight—you will
have to stay strong, persevere, and fight for it.

This being said, anything worth doing once is worth doing right, and the payoff you get from developing
a real alpha mindset is worth it.

It may take months, years, or decades, but the level of self respect that you’ll have once you get there
will 10x your life in ways you can’t even imagine.

Modern day men have been robbed of this once common idea.

Now, it isn’t politically correct to say things like this. Some people might find it “offensive,” but do you
know what? See how far those people get in life. They won’t get far at all.

Strength remains of the biggest differences between men and women, if not the biggest difference, and
when you put in the effort to become strong, you reap all kinds of rewards.

When you’re physically strong, you become mentally strong.

Physical strength bleeds into all other areas of your life. Do you think that a mentally weak person would
be able to deadlift 500 pounds? No, they would’ve given up at 135.

When you’re physically strong, people will respect you more.

Maybe it’s shallow, maybe it’s not, but either way it’s true. We’re animals by nature, and have a
subconscious respect for people who could beat the shit out of us.

As you grow in physical strength, you’ll find that others will start to respect you more. Other men will
naturally look up to you and respond to you differently on a subconscious level.

When you’re physically strong, women are more attracted to you.

They respond to the confidence that you have—and being able to overhead press twice your weight
makes you very confident, believe me. Plus, having a lean, shredded physique doesn’t hurt.

For increasing strength and building muscle, check out the following articles:

4 Fundamental Supplements for Building Muscle

Which Workout Routine is Right for You?

How to Get a Six Pack (From Someone Who Actually Has One)

If you’re starting off trying to integrate good habits into your life, I highly recommend that you start with
working out. The reason why is that a strong body means more energy and vitality, that you can direct
towards other pursuits.

2. Meditate

good habits meditation

A strong body is best complemented by a strong mind. What use is a strong and powerful body, if you’re
too damn stupid to improve your life or have an interesting conversation?

As I said, building physical strength will naturally cultivate a strong mind—it will cultivate decisiveness,
assertiveness, and confidence, which are crucial emotional characteristics if you want to succeed.

But having a strong mind isn’t as simple as being decisive, assertive, and having will power—it’s also
about being serene and calm, without a trace of ego.

One of the best ways that you can cultivate this peace of mind is through meditation. Meditation is not
just for Buddhist monks and hippies, contrary to popular belief—it’s for anyone who wants to improve
their mind and emotional state.

In fact, some of the most powerful and influential people in the world meditate, from Richard Branson to
Tony Robbins to multiple presidents and tons of CEO’s. Whenever this many successful people have a
certain habit, it’s time for you to take note.

Why is meditation such a good habit, though? Well, meditation will dissolve your ego, making you far
more open to improvement. It will give you a growth-oriented mindset over time, and will immediately
start making you more calm and collected.

This is one of those good habits that you don’t want to miss out on.

3. Read Every Day

good habits reading private library

If a man has a private library, you can bet he’s a millionaire

We literally have experts in their own fields spending years compiling evidence and theories into a single
book. All of their knowledge, from years and years of experience, put into a little collection of papers for
easy access.

And then, we have editors that take it a step further, and organize the books so that they’re free of
spelling mistakes and errors. THEN, we have publishers, who help the authors set up the books in a way
that is congruent and easy to read.

And after all of this, when years of knowledge and expertise are distilled and organized down into a
single little collection of papers, what do most people say? “Fuck that, dog—I don’t like to read.”

Are you literally fucking kidding me? How stupid do you have to be to not take advantage of this amazing
opportunity? YEARS, and sometimes even CENTURIES of knowledge, is condensed into a single little
book, and you don’t want to take advantage of this?

When you read you expand your mind—you learn from others’ mistakes, and you gain access to
knowledge that you would’ve never had before. Want to learn about psychology? You can literally find
thousands of books written by world-class psychologists, and purchase them for like $10 on Amazon.
Want to learn about building a business? You can literally find thousands of books written by successful
business owners, sharing all of their secrets. We live in a world of unprecedented information flow—take
advantage of it.

Every single man who has accomplished something worthwhile reads on a regular basis. There are no
exceptions to this rule.

Never has it been easier to read books. Peasants would’ve had to pay literally an entire year’s salary to
get a single book 700 years ago, and now? We can get them for an hour of minimum wage and have it
delivered right to our door in just a few days.

Take advantage of this, I’m serious. If you’re not reading every single day you are literally going to be a
fucking train wreck. Don’t just read anything though, you have to read some of the best books for men
that will improve your life.

4. Actively Improve Your Social Circle

good habits improve your friend group

Having a large social circle is an incredibly powerful asset. In fact, it may be one of the most powerful
assets in existence—it can land you opportunities that money or skills couldn’t alone.

It means that you have more business opportunities, more friends, and more women to choose from,
and it will ultimately make you a better person.

Having a large social circle of alpha males, for lack of a better term, will keep you on your toes. It’ll keep
you constantly improving; being surrounded by hard-working, determined men tends to bring out the
best in you.

The key is quality over quantity, however. It’s better to have a small social circle of really cool men and
women, than a large one of losers. Weak men that buy into stupid truisms tend to slowly rub off on us
and make us worse.
Don’t use this as an excuse to alienate your entire social circle if they’re losers, however—building a
social circle is a process of slowly filtering through different people that you meet. When you first start
off, you may only have a few friends. This is fine.

Slowly they will introduce you to other people, and those people will introduce you to other people, and
so on – through this process you can can filter people in and out of your life.

Having a large social circle can be accomplished in several ways:

Cold approach (meeting strangers in bars, clubs, etc.)

Similar interest groups (join a yoga club, book club, charity event, etc.)

Through an already existing social circle

I’ve left behind plenty of “friends,” because I didn’t feel like they were very valuable to my growth—I
understand that it can be hard to do this. The initial break is tough, but, if you stick with it, you’ll be
thankful you did.

Summary: Create Good Habits!

randy cage good habits

In reality, there’s plenty good habits for men to have—however these “fundamental four,” should be the
basis of every man’s life.

By lifting weights, your health will grow. By meditating, you will develop a serenity in the face of
adversity. By reading, your knowledge will accumulate. And by actively expanding your network of
friends, your social life will flourish.

If you don’t have any of the good habits mentioned in this article, I recommend starting with one. If you
take on too much, it’s easy to lose will power, give up, and relapse back into your old ways.

When you’re trying to integrate good habits into your life, it will be difficult at first—I think it’s best to
start off by working out, and then slowly work some other good habits into your life.
Do whatever you want to do, though—massive change is possible if you have the will power to do so.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, let me know in the comments section below. I hope
you guys enjoyed the article and I’ll see you next time around.

Core confidence is your trust in yourself. It’s a basic, fundamental trust in your ability to face the
challenges that lie ahead.

I’ll talk more about this later, but core confidence is basically what happens when you spend a REALLY
long time developing a skill you suck at.

For example, maybe you suck with girls. You’re absolutely terrified of talking to girls, and you have no
idea how they work.

Then, you learn how to get a girl’s number. You gain some success, and after a few years, you’re a total
stud with women. Every girl wants to date you.

This will help you build CORE confidence. Why? Because you’ll learn that you can accomplish ANYTHING
you set your mind to!

Core confidence comes from years of struggling, overcoming obstacles, and building skills. It cannot be
built overnight, plain and simple.

Why? Because if you spend YEARS grinding and hustling to develop one skill, you know that you can use
that same work ethic and determination to build another skill.

It’s really that simple—once you develop a certain skill to an extremely high level, whatever it may be,
you will start to develop core confidence.
I would argue that core confidence is actually what guys want. They want to be confident not in just one
area of life, but in all areas of life; I’ll talk more about how to do this later.

What is Self-Esteem?

Confidence often times gets confused with self-esteem, but in reality they’re two entirely different
things.

Confidence is your trust in yourself to perform a certain task. It’s pretty simple. Self-esteem, on the other
hand, is much different.

Self-esteem is how highly you value yourself. It’s how much you respect yourself and how much you love
yourself.

Do you feel like you deserve success? Do you feel like you’re lovable? If not, then you likely have low self-
esteem.

Having low self-esteem typically stems from an emotionally dysfunctional childhood; you don’t get the
love that you deserve as a child, so because your parents didn’t love you, you feel as if you don’t deserve
love.

This is one of the biggest issues when it comes to depression, as well. I wrote an article on how to get
out of depression, which I urge you to read.

I had cripplingly low self-esteem for YEARS, but I’ve managed to overcome it—and in this article, I’ll
teach you how to do just this.

The Biggest Confidence Myth

hippie confidence advice

“Just love yourself man, the confidence will come…”

A lot of the self-development community is filled with complete and utter hogwash, and learning to
become more confident is no exception.

A lot of the woo-woo spiritual guys out there claim that self-confidence should come from some sort of
“Self love, man…you gotta realize that we’re all the same spirit, man…love yourself, brother, and you’ll be
confident.”

Well, what I would say to that, is to shut the fuck up.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love spirituality. In fact, I’ve even written about the best spirituality books on
this blog before. That’s how much I love it.

BUT, confidence does not come from “loving yourself.” It doesn’t matter how much I love myself; if I’ve
never repaired a computer, I won’t be confident in my fucking ability to repair a computer.

Confidence comes from competence. Repeat this phrase 5x.

Confidence comes from competence. Confidence comes from competence. CONFIDENCE COMES FROM
COMPETENCE.

If you are not COMPETENT in a certain area of your life, you will not be CONFIDENT in that certain area
of your life.

This is the secret to building confidence. Don’t “look inwards,” and don’t “learn to love yourself.” Just
learn how to be decisive, and get out there and work on what it is that you want to be confident at.

This is literally the only way to develop confidence. Become competent at what it is you want to be
confident at.
How to Develop Confidence

confidence quotes zig ziglar

First, ask yourself: what do you want to be confident at?

Most men reading this will actually be trying to develop core confidence, so if that’s the case, scroll
down to that section.

But what if you don’t give a fuck about core confidence, and you just want to be confident at a specific
thing? Well, then go out there and do it.

You want to be confident in the gym? Okay, then go out there and work out. Start lifting weights, cutting
fat, and building muscle.

You want to be confident in bed? Okay, then learn how to cure premature ejaculation. Gain some
experience, and learn how to last longer in bed.

Or maybe you want to be confident in your ability to record YouTube videos? Okay, then go out there
and record some damn YouTube videos.

There’s no magical trick or hack to develop confidence. You just have to do what it is that you want to be
confident at.

You want to be confident in your ability to confront someone? Okay, then practice a martial art and get
good at confronting someone.

You want to be confident that you can seduce a woman? Okay, then get out there and practice. Learn
how to turn a girl on and practice it.

It’s literally that simple. Like I said though, I think that most guys actually want “core confidence,” which
is a different, but related, animal.

Core confidence, as I said before, is basically your underlying belief in yourself; it’s a general sense of
confidence that isn’t area specific.

For example, I’ve worked pretty hard on developing core confidence (which I’ll talk about later in this
article), so even when I take up something new, I’m confident that I will succeed.

Now, keep in mind that core confidence isn’t about being delusional.

When I started Masculine Development, I had zero knowledge of blogging. I had no idea what in the
actual FUCK I was doing here.

So, I didn’t delude myself into believing that I’d have the best fucking website in existence after a month
or something like that.

Rather, I was confident that WITH EFFORT (and that’s the fucking key) I could make it a great blog, and
make money online with it.

…and because of that, I did. I’m now making $15k/month from this blog, but only because I had the
humility to acknowledge I didn’t know everything.

I put in the work, started learning about blogging, and spend countless hours practicing the advice I was
given.

This is how core confidence works. Now that I’ve built a blog from pure scratch into a money making
machine, I’m confident in this.

I’m confident that, you could put me in the middle of nowhere, with no business, and I could build it
back up in under a year.
This is how core confidence works. You can only develop it by repeatedly mastering skills that you suck
at. There’s just no other way.

Go From Student to Master Multiple Times

The best way to develop core confidence, is to go from student to master multiple times. In other words,
master skills that you suck at.

When you start out at something, as a complete beginner, and then spend YEARS cultivating an ability,
you go through a long and arduous process.

This process consists of multiple things, such as:

Overcoming multiple obstacles

Learning to trust yourself even after failure

Learning to not take rejection personally

Learning that if you put in the effort, you will get the results

These traits, over time, develop into core confidence.

Think about it: if you’ve spent YEARS becoming more disciplined, and you went from being a white belt
to being a black belt, how the fuck could you NOT be confident in other areas of your life?

You need to learn to start a business? That’s a fucking walk in the park. The same skills that you
developed from getting a black belt are applicable.

And this doesn’t have to be martial arts, either. Going from a newbie to a master at ANYTHING will set
you on the path of developing core confidence.

Learning game, learning how to build muscle, learning how to shred fat, learning how to do ANYTHING
for that matter.
Whatever it is, when you go through years and years of struggle, and come out on top, you start to build
what’s known as core confidence.

Of course it fucking takes forever. Evolving from being a whiny little bitch into being a better man takes a
LONG TIME.

We live in a culture of instant gratification. Everyone wants the results without having to put in any of
the work, but do you know what?

You cannot develop core confidence without putting in effort.

Core confidence is something that takes YEARS to develop. I’ve been on the journey of self-improvement
for almost a decade now, and I’m JUST STARTING to develop a high level of core confidence.

And even then, it isn’t 100% there all of the time; sometimes I get insecure or down on myself. Such is
life.

But what’s important is that I’m still persisting; THIS is how you build core confidence! You persist
regardless of the circumstances. You don’t give up.

Stop being a bitch. You are 100% in control of your life, even if you don’t realize it. You have all the power
in the WORLD to transform your life.

Core confidence takes a long time to develop, yes, but 10 years is going to pass by whether you like it or
not, so you might as well spend it doing something good for yourself.

And don’t get discouraged—it isn’t like you’re depressed and insecure for a decade and then suddenly
you snap into “core confidence,” mode.

In reality, if you start developing your confidence you’ll feel the effects within a month or two.
Sometimes, even faster.
Your confidence will slowly improve over the months, which will give you motivation to keep going; so
don’t give up.

Just get started, and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

How to Develop Self-Esteem

how to build self esteem

Self-esteem is an entirely different animal than confidence or core confidence. A lack of self-esteem
typically stems from a dysfunctional childhood, whereas a lack of confidence is simply due to a lack of
skills.

Like developing confidence, developing self-esteem will take a while. It won’t happen overnight. This is
just the nature of self improvement.

There are several things that you can do to develop self-esteem, however, that will greatly speed up the
process. Here they are.

Meditate Your Way to Healthy Self-Esteem

When your self-esteem is low, it’s usually because you have a bunch of negative repressed emotions that
you haven’t dealt with.

For example, say that your parents didn’t give you enough love as a child.

Maybe they weren’t around very often, or they didn’t pay attention to your needs. This is often what
causes low self-esteem. It’s always from childhood.
In order to get rid of these negative emotions and thus improve your self-esteem, you must learn how to
meditate. This is absolutely essential.

Meditation clears your mind of bullshit emotions and paves the way towards presence and happiness.

When you confront the underlying negative emotions causing your low self-esteem, you will accept
them and move on.

I cannot recommend meditation enough, not just for developing a healthy level of self-esteem, but for
literally excelling at LIFE.

Learn Game

Interestingly enough, learning to attract women actually forces you to develop a healthy level of self-
esteem. Why is this?

Well, because when you get good at attracting a lot of women, you start to realize that you’re good
enough for any girl out there.

This is why I write so much about dating advice on my blog. I’ve seen the transformation guys go through
when they learn how to get laid.

A lot of guys’ self-esteem is tied to women, too. They feel like if they can’t get a girl they’re proud of,
then they aren’t really that worthwhile.

Game changes all of this, however. When you learn how to attract women, you are forced to confront
your inner demons.

A lot of people think that game is manipulative… but do you know what? It’s actually the best cure for
low self-esteem that I’ve ever found.
When you follow the principles of seduction that I lay out on my blog, which are meant to make your
natural personality attractive, you will come to realize that you ARE enough, and your self-esteem will
sky rocket.

Cultivate Healthy Relationships

A huge part of having a good level of self-esteem is to develop functional relationships with both men
and women, where you both grow and benefit.

Eventually, at some point during your self-development journey, you may have to leave old friends
behind.

Some friends are just too negative to deal with. Some are losers who sap your energy and bring you
down. You must leave these people behind.

If you want to learn how to be more motivated, then start to replace the negative people in your life
with more positive people.

You’ll eventually start to develop what’s called an emotional ecosystem. This is where you have a whole
bunch of different people and activities that feed into your life and create a wonderful emotional state
24/7.

I should probably write more about relationships on my blog (that’s been something I’ve been meaning
to do lately), but for now, just follow your gut.

If someone makes you feel shitty, don’t hang out with them. Replace them with people who make you
feel amazing.
Conclusion: Advice For Your Journey

joseph campbell confidence cave fear quotes

In summary, developing confidence, core confidence, and self-esteem is one of the most difficult things
that you will ever do in your entire life.

But, the trade off is incredibly worth it. When you grow your level of confidence, your entire life seems
to fall together.

Your social life improves, because people naturally flock to you. Your sex life improves, because women
are drawn to confident men.

Your financial situation improves, because you have the confidence to follow through with your vision,
and make more money.

Most importantly, your emotional health improves, because you’ve taken the time to create a healthy
foundation for confidence and self-belief.

I genuinely hope this article helps you develop confidence, my friend… and if you have any comments or
questions, just let me know down below!

I recommend that, if you want to get ripped, you sleep nine hours a night. This is absolutely, 100%
mandatory if you want to get jacked.

You break down your muscles in the gym, you give them the nutrients they need in the kitchen, and you
repair them while you sleep.

How far do you think you’ll get if you don’t sleep enough? Not very far, obviously. Sleep is the critical
component to getting shredded, because it repairs your muscles and boosts fat burning hormones like
Testosterone.

Alright. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s talk about some of the tips you can use to get
shredded faster than you can say “six pack abs.”
Tip #1: Count Your Calories

paleo diet

There are three primary “macronutrients” as they’re called, and each one is critical to understand if you
want to lose fat: protein, carbs, and fats.

To build muscle and gain strength, you need to have enough protein. Even if you’re training every day,
without enough protein, it doesn’t matter.

The general rule of thumb if you want to get shredded, is to have one gram of protein per pound of your
lean body weight goal… per day.

So, if you want to weigh 185 pounds of lean muscle (not high body fat), then you should aim to eat 185
grams of protein per day. This is WAY fucking more than most people eat, and they wonder why they’re
not jacked.

Whey protein helps a lot with this, but again, that’s just one part of the equation—another very
important part is your carbohydrate intake.

For losing fat, less carbs is better. See, when you eat carbohydrates, that spikes insulin in the
bloodstream. Insulin is a storage hormone.

In other words, more carbs usually means putting on more mass—whether it’s muscle or body fat. So,
aim to only have carbs after your training.

Tip #2: Do Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting, sometimes abbreviated as IF, is the idea that you only eat your daily macros and
calories during a certain time window.

So, for example, some people might choose to only eat from 2pm-10pm. Some might choose to eat from
6pm-10pm. And some, more extreme people, might choose to only have ONE GIANT FEAST at the end of
the day.

Most people find that restricting their meals from 2pm-10pm is sufficient to lose fat, however. This is
what I would recommend doing.

Intermittent fasting is perhaps one of the best and easiest ways to start getting a jacked, shredded
physique with almost no effort at all.

First off, losing fat is a breeze—you hit the gym on an empty stomach, get your training over with for the
day, and then have some protein after.

Second, you’ll be able to focus for 6-8 hours after waking up, so very little self control is required (you
won’t be having any calories for lunch).

Third, you can eat out at restaurants more for dinner, because the higher calorie content of restaurant
food will actually help you hit your macros (since you aren’t eating earlier in the day you have to eat a lot
later!).

Fourth, it’s good for your hormonal health. Intermittent fasting has been shown to have a ton of
benefits, and I’ve been doing it for years.

In fact, I wrote a whole article on the benefits of intermittent fasting, so consider reading that one if
you’re into health and bodybuilding.

Be sure that you have a strong cup of coffee, though—preferably a couple hours after you wake up. This
will suppress hunger levels.

That way, you can ride your body’s natural cortisol spike when you first wake up, and once you start to
get hungry, the coffee will help suppress your appetite and keep you laser focused.

Tip #3: Up The Water Intake

GOWAD stands for gallon of water a day. This is perhaps one of the most efficient ways to shed pounds
of weight. Drinking tons of water not only hydrates you, which makes your body run more efficiently, but
it also speeds up your metabolism.

When you intake a large amount of water, your body will naturally have to up its metabolism to deal with
the water, bring it to cells, and excrete it.

Personally, I prefer to use a plastic jug like this one. It’s super easy, because I just fill it up each morning
and make sure to drink the whole thing before the day ends. I tried using a milk jug for a while, but it
was too flimsy for my taste—and the blue BPA-free bottles break extremely easily.

“But Jon, won’t I piss every 30 minutes?” I can hear you say. Well, you will at first. But after your body
adjusts, you’ll only pee a few times a day.

Bonus Guide: Learn How I Gained 21 Pounds of Muscle in 60 Days...

…and even if you do have to pee a lot more, isn’t it worth it to torch off pounds of fat? Just do GOWAD
until you’re thin, and down the water intake if it makes you pee that much. Don’t be a bitch and make
excuses.

Tip #4: Take Cold Showers

Cold showers are perhaps one of the best things a man could add to his morning. They speed up your fat
loss progress, and much, much more.

If I’m feeling tired or run-down, sometimes I’ll skip them to give my body a rest, but if I’m running at
peak capacity, I’ll always take a cold shower… especially after the gym.

There’s a massive amount of benefits to taking cold showers every day, including:

More Testosterone

Build Self Control

Improve Recovery

Grow Inner Strength

Increase Fat Loss Rate

…and more

Cold showers will also help you with losing fat, for two reasons.

First off, cold showers cause your body to release a series of hormones that are known for their ability to
decrease fat, even with the exact same diet.

These hormones are known as testosterone and leptin, and they’re great for building muscle and
burning fat, in too many damn ways to count.

Second, cold showers decrease your core body temperature.

This means your body will have to burn some extra calories to increase it back up to homeostasis, and
where do you think those calories come from?

Yup, that’s right—those calories come from your waistline. If you aren’t comfortable taking a cold
shower, because you’re a massive bitch, try putting an ice pack under your neck for 20 minutes like Tim
Ferris recommends in The 4 Hour Body.

Tip #5: Drink Apple Cider Vinegar

Apple Cider Vinegar, sometimes abbreviated as ACV, has been shown to help weight loss when
consumed with meals. I use it every single day.

I can’t remember where I read it, but I saw a study once that said just consuming 2tbsp of ACV per
day,and doing nothing else, led to an extra 2 pounds of fat being burnt a month.

That’s a fucking ton for just one little trick.

Basically just put a couple tablespoons of this stuff in a glass, mix it around with 8 ounces of water, and
drink half of it before your meal, and half during.

It’s important that you get it raw—this means that it isn’t pasteurized.

Pasteurization, although it increases the shelf life of certain foods, also kills off the enzymes and
probiotics that dwell within certain foods, and ACV is no exception.

ACV has a ton of probiotics, which help digestion, improve your immunity, and make you feel really good.

Even when I’m not trying to lose weight, I still have a couple tablespoons of Apple Cider Vinegar with
every meal for the other health benefits that it provides.

Tip #6: High Intensity Interval Training

For years, it was thought that steady state cardio was the best way to burn fat and get in good aerobic
shape, but now science is starting to disprove this oh-so-common myth.

High Intensity Interval Training, which is also abbreviated as HIIT, is a form of cardio where you go all out
for a short period of time, and then rest for a while, repeating this cycle multiple times.

Numerous studies have shown that high intensity interval training is actually far better for fat loss, and
overall health, than steady state cardio. And, you can save time doing it.

I can’t remember where, but I saw a study once claiming that a mere 20 minutes of HIIT twice a week
was more effective for losing fat and cardio-vascular health than a whopping 45 minutes, done five days
a week.

In other words, you’ll get shredded—and you’ll do it in a fraction of the time by using high intensity
interval training for your cardio workouts.
An example of HIIT, which I like to do, because it’s low impact, would be getting on the elliptical and
doing the following:

Warm up for 3 minutes

Go all out for 30 seconds

Go slowly for a minute and a half

Repeat this process of going all out for 30 seconds and resting for a minute and a half between 6-8 times.

If you’re new, you’ll probably have to start off with just 4-5 times, or even 2-3 times. The first time I did
high intensity interval training was after I just recovered from surgery on my left hand (I cut it open real
bad, severed two tendons and a nerve).

I hadn’t worked out in literally 4 months (the doctors forbade it), but me, being a dumbass, decided
“FUCK IT!” and went all out doing HIIT for like 8 cycles. I puked afterwards.

But do you know what? I literally felt AMAZING for the next two hours—loads of endorphins were
rushing through my veins.

I even noticed a massive change in how others treated me. I guess I was just so happy and relaxed that
others could sense it.

Regardless, HIIT is one of the most effective ways to burn fat in less time, while also giving your mood a
huge boost. There’s a reason why I talk about it so much in Body of an Alpha.

Summary

Losing fat and building muscle will take time, lots of training, and effort, but it doesn’t have to take
nearly as long as you might think it would.

If you’re using the strategies that I recommend here, in combination with working out, you will easily
drop 3-4 pounds off a month, maybe even more if you factor in inflammation.
Either way, if you don’t change anything, nothing is going to change. If you keep on eating the same
crappy diet, you’re going to stay fat.

If, however, you just decide to make a change, you will lose weight, and your life will become far better in
general.

I’ve used every single one of these tips to get shredded for my upcoming photo shoot, and they’ve
worked wonders. And if they’ve worked wonders for me, they can for you, too.

You just have to take action and employ them into your life. If you have any questions, comments, or
concerns, be sure to leave them down below—and, as always, I’ll see you guys next time.

1. Take Control of Your Life

Far too many people refuse to take control of their own lives. “It wasn’t my fault!” they’ll say, or “I didn’t
do that!” they’ll spout off. Bull. Fucking. Shit. You are accountable for your own life, because if you don’t
get your shit handled, then nobody else will.

If you don’t have the kind of salary that you want, then upgrade your life. If you don’t have the dating life
that you want, then upgrade your life. If you don’t have the physical health you want, then upgrade your
life. Take accountability for your life, and take action to change things.

It’s funny how when you start to really improve yourself, you’ll start to notice just how delusional most
other people are. I recall I was driving around with one of my friends several years ago, and we were
discussing what her plans were for the future. “I guess I’ll just go wherever life takes me,” she said.

I wanted to grind the car to a screeching halt and ask her what the hell was wrong with her. Wherever
life takes you? What are you a fucking leaf in the wind? You are a human being and YOU have control
over your own life. You are the architect, the engineer, the captain, and the master of your own fate.

If you want something, go out and get it. First figure out what you want—what you REALLY want. Not
what your parents want, not what society wants, but what YOU want. Then, make a plan on how you’re
going to get it. Take massive action. You will likely fail, but you’ll make progress. Make another plan. Fail
better. Repeat until you succeed.

2. Stop Watching Porn

A lot of people will argue with me on this one. A lot of people are wrong, and a lot of people have
miserable lives. Jerking off to porn on the internet completely saps you of your libido, your testosterone,
and your masculine drive. All successful men guard their testosterone levels like a treasure trove,
because that’s what it is.

Stop watching porn. Stop masturbating. See how you feel after just two weeks—most men can’t even
make it a few days. They’re completely addicted. We live in the age of instant gratification, and if you can
jerk off to some hot girl in ten minutes without having to really put in any effort, then what’s the
motivation to get shit done in life?

Like it or not, the drive to fuck is what pushes most men to become successful. We make money to get
more women interested in us. We climb the dominance hierarchies to get more women interested in us.
We create great art, very frequently, as the result of a love affair or a woman we’re obsessed over.

When you jerk off and watch porn every day, you completely sap this masculine force and energy-
charged libido right out of your body. Don’t believe me? Try cutting porn and masturbation out of your
life for just a few weeks, and then talk to me later.

The amount of problems that men have cured from just following this piece of advice is absolutely
unreal. In fact, it’s so effective that I’ve named it one of my “7 Strategies to Develop Your Masculinity.” In
just a couple of weeks men report life-changing results like more confidence, more motivation, more
women attracted to them, and virtually no social anxiety.

3. Commit Yourself to A Cause

The amount of men that drift through this life without ever truly considering their purpose is absolutely
staggering. You will not be happy unless you have a greater purpose. Ever heard of the term “existential
angst?” It’s pretty damn common today, and it isn’t hard to see why.

In the mid 1900’s a French philosopher by the name of Jean-Paul Sartre coined the term “Existentialism.”
He noted that, after the industrial age began and societies began progressing forward, most peoples’
main source of meaning in life (religion) was thrown out the window.

I am not making a statement about religions and whether they’re true or false, or helpful or not. I’m
simply saying that the days where you can sit on your ass, go to church every day, and be told your life is
meaningful—those days are gone. It’s on you to find your purpose now.

Finding a cause that you can commit yourself to will make you a better man in every area of your life.
Every single thing that you do will be imbued with a new type of energy, previously nonexistent. That’s
what having a purpose does—it makes everything you do a little bit better, because there’s a REASON to
do it better.

Friedrich Nietzsche, a German philosopher and one of the most brilliant men to ever walk the earth, said
that “He who has a why can bear almost any how.” This could not be more true. When you have a
purpose, you don’t care what you have to do in order to get by and achieve it—all that matters is that
you have a reason for living, so you go on living.

4. Practice Introspection

The greatest men of all time have many things in common; one of which is that they all had a journal of
some sort. Now I don’t know about you, but when great men such as Leonardo DaVinci, Thomas Edison,
Aristotle, and Nikola Tesla all had something in common, I’d say it’s a pretty safe bet to do the same
thing.

When you practice introspection, which is often done through journaling, you see your own flaws and
weaknesses. It always amazes me at how delusional most men are; half of the time people aren’t even
aware of their own strengths and weaknesses, and the other half of the time they’re only barely aware
of them.
Learning to reflect on yourself teaches you humility. It teaches you where you’re going wrong in your life
and it allows you to spot patterns of both success and failures. It allows you to see your vices and virtues.
It allows you to see yourself for who you actually are—not for who you simply want yourself to be.

This is why I journal as a part of my morning routine and night time routine every single day. It forces me
to acknowledge things that I’m succeeding at, and more importantly, why I’m succeeding at them.
Likewise, it forces me to acknowledge things that I’m failing at, and more importantly, why I’m failing at
them.

Without this type of self-knowledge you cannot get very far in life. You will continue to fail, and fail, and
fail again, until you first understand that you’re failing. Then, you must notice the patterns of your failure,
and figure out WHY you’re failing. Then, lastly, you must implement a plan to stop failing, and to start
succeeding. This is only possible with introspection.

5. Make Tons of Money

This is one of those sensitive topics that a lot of people have their own opinions on. “You don’t need
money to be happy!” some will say. “Don’t be greedy like the top 1%” others will spout. While obviously
you shouldn’t rely on money to become happy, it’s pretty damn important that you make tons of money.

Money can’t buy you happiness, but it can buy you experiences that can buy you happiness. It can let
you go on cool trips to Hawaii and Canada and Brazil with your friends. It can allow you to take girls out
to nice five star restaurants, to buy fast sports cars, to invest in the best education for your children, and
to do literally whatever the fuck you want.

“B-b-but making money is bad!” says the poor little office drone. No. Making money is not bad, it’s not
evil, and it’s not “greedy”—that’s just you justifying your own laziness, incompetence, and lack of ability
to succeed. The fact of the matter is that making more money is a good thing. Period.

Re-program your brain to view money as a good thing. Save up a little chunk of money and start
investing in Bitcoin. Instead of purchasing that ridiculously overpriced subscription to some stupid
magazine, TV network, or Hulu, why don’t you buy a book instead? Invest in yourself, and invest in your
life—you will be repaid 10 fold.

The Bottom Line

In the words of the immortal Henry David Thoreau, “most men live lives of quiet desperation.” Rather
than taking action and improving their lives, they simply settle for what’s given to them—but this
doesn’t have to be the way that it is. It may be someone else’s life, but it doesn’t have to be YOUR life.

You have the power to attain a better life, but only if you try. Nothing will get better until YOU get better,
and nothing will change until YOU decide to change. There’s many ways to do this, but these are a pretty
solid five ways to start.

Take accountability for your own life. Stop blaming other people for your own problems. Stop wasting
your time watching porn. Find a cause greater than yourself and commit to serving it. Look at yourself
deeply and be honest with yourself about your failures and your life. Make bank. Live a great life. Be
awesome.

If you guys have any questions or comments feel free to leave them in the comments section down
below—and, as always, I’ll see you next time.
Reading

Jon spends just 30 minutes a day reading a high quality book, while Jerry decides to spend that 30
minutes watching an episode of Family Guy every night after work.

The difference might not be apparent at first, but over time, the slight edge will take its course:

After 1 month, Jon might seem a little bit smarter, but not by that much.

After 6 months, Jon is much more focused, organized, and is starting to have a better vocabulary. He can
articulate his thoughts much easier.

After 1 year, Jon’s can easily articulate difficult concepts and thoughts, apply different theories to his
work, and recall examples from books and how they relate to the problems at hand. Jon’s boss notices
this and gives him a promotion.

This promotion allows Jon to save up some money, and after 2 years he quits his job and starts a
consulting company from scratch.

After 5 years, Jon is a millionaire, because his constant thirst for knowledge has led him to have a better
understanding of business, the stock market, human psychology, and various ways of seeing the world.
It’s not only allowed him to improve his business strategies, but also his relationships, his health, and his
lifestyle.

Do you see how something as simple as reading 30 minutes a day can have such a massive effect when
compounded over time? This is the power of the slight edge.

Meanwhile, Jerry is still stuck working the same old job, arguing with his ugly girlfriend, and 6 months
behind on his credit card bills. Yet, he continues to “relax at the end of a long day’s work,” by watching
Family Guy, not realizing that he’s the one causing the problems in his life.

Meditation

Say that Jon decides to spend 30 minutes meditating every day. Again, at first he won’t notice much of a
difference, but compounded over time, the slight edge that meditation gives him will be drastic:

After 1 month, Jon is a little bit calmer – when his girlfriend starts bitching at him, he doesn’t grow angry
as quickly.

After 6 months, Jon has very good frame control. When his girlfriend starts shit testing him, it doesn’t
arouse his emotions.

After 1 year, Jon is no longer depressed or anxious. Rather than feeling sorry for himself, he begins to
improve other areas of his life.

After 2 years, Jon has a better girlfriend, a better job, and a better body, because he’s become so in touch
with himself that he’s realized he needs to drastically change his life if he wants to be happy. There is no
ego involved in his actions, he simply does what he wants regardless of what others will think of him.

Do you see the point? Any activity that’s good for you, even if you only do it for 15-30 minutes a day, will
add up over time to create a massive difference in your life. This is the power of the slight edge.

Again, say that Jerry decides to watch his daily episode of Family Guy instead of meditating. Rather than
being in a calm, collected, state of mind after a while, he’ll still be in the same place as before.

When his girlfriend starts arguments, he’ll lose his shit and start screaming and yelling at her. He’ll be
depressed and anxious all of the time, and won’t know why. He’ll be stuck working the same dead end
job for the rest of his life, all the while blaming “the system” for his own lack of action.

Working Out

Let’s say that Jon decides to make a little bit bigger of a commitment – he decides to integrate my “Body
of an Alpha” workout routine into his life. Jon is a scrawny little man, and he’s fed up with it. He’s fed up
with feeling insecure in his own body and he decides to make a change. He decides to use the slight edge
to his advantage.

Jon tells his friends that he’s going to start working out, and they laugh at him:

“Haha, dude that’s so dumb, you aren’t going to have any time to hang out with us.”

“Bro that’s a waste of time.”

“Dude girls hate muscle heads.”

“Come on man, you have to learn to relax every once and a while.”

But Jon is committed—he starts working out. At first, he doesn’t notice that much, but eventually he’ll
reap the rewards. This is the slight edge in action: little efforts each day compounded over time.

After a couple weeks Jon is a good bit stronger. He starts focusing on eating better, because he’s going to
the gym so he might as well eat healthy, too.

After 6 months Jon has put on a huge amount of muscle—he starts to act more confidently around
others and he notices his friends start to give him shit for being a “meat head.”

After 1 year Jon realizes that his friends are pathetic and weak, so he leaves them behind, makes friends
with the guys at the gym, and develops a genuine camaraderie based around self-improvement with
them.

After 5 years, Jon’s strength has bled into every area of his life: he no longer accepts “I’m too tired,” as an
excuse to bitch out. He has developed an iron will and does what is necessary to succeed.

8 Slight Edge Principles & Habits

the slight edge book

In reality, there’s a lot of slight edge habits. The slight edge can be applied to nearly every area of your
life:

Investing early

Eating healthy

Working out

Meditating every day

Reading every night

Taking pride in your appearance

Going the extra mile at work

Practicing positive self-talk

There’s a million ways to effectively utilize the slight edge into your life, but remember: it also works the
opposite way. If you have tiny little habits that are bad, they’ll also effect your life in a negative way
compounded over time.

Jerry Eats Unhealthy

To refer back to the “Jon and Jerry” example, let’s say that Jerry likes to have some ice cream every night.
“It’s not that big of a deal,” he says. “Yeah, it’s not that great for me, but I mean come on! You have to
live a little, right?”

Here’s what will happen to Jerry due to the negative slight edge:

Immediately, his performance will be sluggish. He won’t have as much mental or physical energy because
ice cream is loaded with artificial garbage that saps your performance and puts stress on your body.

After 3 months he’ll start to gain some weight—this will make it more difficult to even move around or
be active.

After a year he’ll stop caring about his appearance in general, because he’s already pretty fat. He won’t
shave as often, he won’t get a haircut as often, and he won’t bother buying clothes that fit really well.

After 5 years he’ll be in the same place he was before financially—nothing will improve, because he
doesn’t have enough energy to work hard and improve his monetary situation.

After 10 years his doctor will tell him that he has high cholesterol and is at risk for heart disease. He’ll
have to go on some medication with a ton of side effects to prevent him from having a heart attack.

If Jerry just stopped eating the fucking ice cream every night, this could have all been avoided. But that’s
the point. Now, he’s stuck in a negative self-amplifying feedback loop.

The slight edge is easy to use positively, but it’s easy to use negatively, too. Slight edge habits are easy to
do, but they’re easy not to do. Eating an apple instead is pretty easy to do, but it’s also easy not to do.
It’s easy to eat ice cream instead and just not eat the apple.
Jerry Watches TV Instead of Reading

Instead of reading a high quality book, Jerry decides to watch TV for 2 hours every night.

He justifies it in all sorts of ways:

“Everyone else does it, I’m just doing what’s normal.”

“I’ve had a long day at work, I deserve to relax.”

“Enjoying life is important! I don’t want to burn out.”

But the fact of the matter is that Jerry has a negative slight edge habit—one that has a very small
negative effect, but compounded over time will be quite drastic.

After a month nothing really changes, so Jerry keeps watching TV.

After several months nothing really changes, so Jerry keeps watching TV.

After a year, he starts to get fatter, but doesn’t really care, so he keeps watching TV.

When he’s on his deathbed, Jerry realizes that he’s wasted hours and hours every day watching TV
squandering his gifts when he could have been doing something productive and living an amazing life.

And do you know what’s sad? This is 99% of Americans. Most of us waste our lives away watching TV.
Most of us aren’t even living.

TV is one of those sneaky little slight edge habits that works against you, because unlike eating ice cream
or smoking, it won’t really cause anything bad to happen. It’ll just cause you to stagnate and stay where
you’re at.

One day you’ll wake up and realize that you’ve done absolutely nothing with your life, because instead of
watching TV for 2 hours every night you could have spent those 2 hours:

Building a blog, like me

Working on developing a client base for consulting

Launching an eBook, trying to escape the rat race by earning $100 per day

Writing that book that you’ve always dreamt about writing

Taking up a new hobby, like playing the piano or painting

Don’t Succumb to Negative Slight Edge Habits!

the slight edge by jeff olson

Some of the slight edge habits that are negative include:

Eating unhealthy

Getting into arguments with loved ones

Watching TV

Inactivity

Smoking

Drinking

Doing drugs (unless it’s for introspective purposes)

Negativity

I want you to scan your life for any of these habits right now—they’re a lot sneakier than you think.

It’s very easy to let them slip into your life without you even realizing it. But I want you to ask yourself a
question: if you don’t stop this habit right now, what will it end up costing you in 5 years? If the answer is
something bad, then get rid of the fucking habit.

Now, don’t misunderstand me—there’s a time and a place to relax. Human beings need rest, but 99% of
people need to work more than they do to rest. Only very high achievers need rest.

Sometimes it’s good to have some ice cream with your girlfriend or to relax and watch a movie, but the
point is that it isn’t a habit. It’s just something that you do every now and then (like a few times a month
rather than every day).
Utilize Positive Slight Edge Habits!

slight edge book

Some positive slight edge habits include:

Eating healthy snacks

Working out 3-5x a week

Going for a brisk walk every night

Meditating

Practicing positive self-talk

Reading

Doing yoga

Playing chess with a friend once a week

Investing 10% of your salary into some good stocks

Literally anything that, over time, will lead to a positive change in your life, is considered a slight edge
habit. The best slight edge habits, like lifting weights or eating good food, will create a noticeable impact
within just a few weeks. Others might take longer, like reading or investing, but you should still do them,
too.

But remember—good slight edge habits are just as easy to do as they are to not do!

The next time you hear yourself saying “Ehhh, maybe I’ll just do it next time—I’m tired.” I want you to
slap yourself in the fucking face, stop being a bitch, and do what it is that you don’t want to do.

If you spend that extra 30 minutes a day improving yourself by just 1%, within a year you’ll be leaps and
bounds ahead of your competitors. I hope that you choose to use the advice that I’m giving you, because
either way, the slight edge is working in your life. You just have to decide if it works for you, or against
you.
Before you go, take massive action and answer these questions, either on a piece of paper, or in the
comments section below:

What’s one negative slight edge habit that’s been hurting your chances of success?

What’s one good slight edge habit that you could replace it with?

3- Sexual Curiosity to Try New Things

There are three big red flags to look for: being very protective or secretive with her phone, missing
money or taking regular large cash withdrawals from the ATM, and missing chunks of time

f your partner can't tell you where she was for a part of the day, or seems evasive about it, it's a clue that
something interesting is happening. Having lots of random coffee dates or meetings with people you've
never heard of or never met is also a clue. The biggest red flag is being wacky with the phone — if the
phone is always locked and never leaves her sight, even when she's in the shower, I'd worry."