SteR said:
Just out of interest, what do you do Atom? What would you tell your younger self if you could go back?
I'm a semi-pro musician (guitarist), own a computer network design/administration business, and another business that I can't identify because it might reveal my identity. It has to do with mechanical engineering and vintage machine restoration.
My advice to young Atom Smasher:
Understand that 10% of eveything you earn is yours to keep. Do not pay your bills with that 10% or piss it away. Put it aside and invest it wisely and you will retire a millionaire. It is yours to keep.
Make Hard Work your best friend.
Understand that the opportunities of today WILL NOT be there tomorrow. When you are young you think that you can take advantage of opportunities later. Opportunities are the occasional rare gift that life gives you if only you will seize it today. Tomorrow life will snatch it away from you as sure as I'm sitting here typing this.
Take care of your body. Work out in whatever way is right for your body and physical condition. A man who works out carries himself as a man of authority and garners respect. The majority of women seem to be attracted to a man who obviously works out but is not obsessed with it. If you don't have a triangular upper body, creat that.
In the areas of life where you are weak and have little self-belief, act anyway until you become good in that area. As Shakespeare said, "Assume a virtue if you have it not." Also look at my signature.
In keeping with the above paragraph
fail ruthlessly until you succeed in your weak areas. Look at a baby learning to walk. He fails
ruthlessly and later becomes a star running back, a track athlete, or a guy who likes to walk/run for his own betterment. All this because as a baby he was a BEAST learning how to get up on his feet. Apply this to all areas of life.
Immunize yourself against failure. Failure is a great thing. It is unavoidable to a man who tries. It indicates that you are in the game and living life. Look at an older, successful man standing on a mountain of success. That mountain is made of massive numbers of failures and some successes. Every "failure" is a new rung on the ladder of YOUR success.
It does not matter in the least where you are on the track to success. It only matters that you are on that track. Whenever you fall off the rails, remember that you are only one tiny decision away from getting back on and continuing your journey. It only matters that you are on the track. Being on the track is the very essence of success. Success is NOT the destination, but rather the track. You will fall off again and again, but it doesn't matter because you're the same BEAST who ruthlessly taught himself how to walk as a baby. All you do is get up and get back on track.
Example, you are on a healthy eating plan, have a rough week, and two weeks later you find that you have been eating comfort food and have become bloated. You have not "failed", you have only fallen off the track. None of your previous efforts were wasted. Just make a decision now to climb back onto the track and continue with no self-recrimination.
As a baby you reached out for whatever you wanted. What made you change and stop giving yourself permission to take what you want?
You posses intellect, a rational mind, physical strength and
VISION. Women have none of these. Women were created to be helpers and supporters of men. They are made to maintain a nest and to support and encourage their man. They are emotionally arrested at 12 years old. Therefore take NOTHING that they say seriously.
Your woman needs guidance, discipline and boundaries set
by you, as do children. What most men don't realize is that every woman craves this deep down inside, even if she complains on the surface. Treat women with a stern hand but also with love, protection and compassion. It is a balance.
Never, EVER let a woman disrespect you. Call them out on their behavior. Never, EVER let a woman shame men in general. Call them out with logic and reason. She will not understand your logic, but she will get the message that her shaming tactics will not be tolerated.
Erase your personal history. The past does not have to equal your future. Regard yourself as a new creation every morning. Yesterday doesn't matter. What are you going to do TODAY as a new creation?
Learn to accept the things that you absolutely can't change. Be ruthless in devising a workaround. There is always a workaround.
Understand the power of tiny, baby steps. When you attack a problem or task in the tinest little steps, you do it under the brain's radar and therefore do not trigger the brain's overwhelm and fear mechanisms. This is the source of my power over my many weaknesses.
Settle your accounts with God. He is in a position in which he MUST deal with sin, else He wouldn't be just and righteous. He has provided a way to settle those accounts for you, because we cannot do it for ourselves. Learn what that way is and become free.
Now run along, little Atom Smasher, and grow up to be a man who garners respect in this world. The path of a man who lives by principle is a hard one, but provides rich rewards.
