The High Thumos Handbook
Written by the members of the High Thumos Brotherhood
Contents
Thumos
Take the OATH
Be the Best
Have a Life Goal
As a Man Readeth
Morning Walks in the Sun
Leadership
A Tribe of Strong Men
The Modern Attack on Masculinity
Life - The Greatest RPG
The Why of Building Muscle
Primal Screaming
A Man Must Have a Code
Mental Pushups
Choose Your Response
Find a Hobby
You Are What You Eat
Strength in Numbers
Climb Out of the Infinite Mind Well
Never Conform
On Mastery
Make Yourself a Weapon
The Key to Stillness
Cold Showers
We Are Happy Plants
Martial Arts Elevates Our Thumos
Scoop the Nuts
The Significance of Art
Invest Early
The Three Pillars
Failure Is Your Friend
Create More and Consume Less
Maintaining Balance
Reach Out
Reject Comfort
Forgiveness, a Man’s Glory
Deep Work
The Fight of Your Life
Habit Builder
Grow
The “No Flinch” Principle
There Isn’t a Better Option
Becoming the Moment
Understanding Relationships
Leave Your Old Ways Behind
Deserving, But Not Owed
Cherish Your Friends
Bring Order to Your Kingdom
Oh Past Me, Listen Ye
The Artist and the Masterpiece
Processing Thoughts
Is Ignorance Bliss?
Limited Time with Endless Possibility
Don’t Leave Crumbs, Leave Seeds
High Thumos Quick Tips
Leave Social Media
No Man is a Master in His Home
The Power Of Stoicism And Polarity
Remember Your Forefathers
The Tears Of A Man
True Rest
Life As A Narrative
The Benefits Of Creating And Fixing
Uncover Hidden Paths
Do What Feels Good
Bathing in Natural Waters
The Power of Tiny Actions
Be in the Fire
Listen to the Whisper
You Are What You Think
High Thumos Booklist
Quotes to Live By
High Thumos Community
Dedicated to all the men in the High Thumos Community.
Trust
Honor
Unity
Masculinity
Order
Strength
Thumos
Thumos is a Greek word expressing the concept of “spiritedness.” It is raw energy, a fire in the
belly that burns bright within some men. It is my belief that the spirit of Thumos is the defining
factor between the great and the insignificant, the weak and the heroic, between a life of pure
struggle or a life of passion and meaning.
The book that you hold in your hands is meant to be a companion along your journey.
Within these pages, you will find a collection of tips and ideas presented to you by myself and
the rest of the High Thumos community. Following this advice can help you cultivate the High
Thumos spirit daily and achieve your life’s greatest purpose.
This handbook was not meant to be read in a particular order and can be opened to any
page. Simply open up and see what catches your interest. It is our desire that you, the reader,
experience the High Thumos spirit and leave your mark on the world.
The Gods smile upon you, friend.
High Thumos.
-
Elisha Longsword, 9/20/2021
Take the OATH
“The most basic form of human stupidity is forgetting what we are trying to accomplish.”
- Friedrich Nietzsche
This book was created to be a companion along your journey towards hitting the big goals you
set for yourself.
Below, take a few minutes to set some goals and chart out a course of action. Write in
ink under each step and sign your name at the bottom of this section. Return to this page
frequently to remind yourself of your mission.
Step 1: Decide exactly what you want. Imagine there are no limitations. You can do
anything in this life. What is it you want? Write it down.
Step 2: Set a deadline. Your mind loves deadlines. Once you set a deadline your mind
will shift gears and go to work twenty-four hours a day to figure out how to make the goal a
reality.
Step 3: Make a list. Write down everything you will need to achieve your goals. What
skills or knowledge do you need to acquire? What people do you need to get in touch with, what
connections need to be made?
Step 4: What is your first course of action. What action do you need to take today to get
started on this journey. Make a list.
Step 5: Get to work on your list of activities. When you run into obstacles or are confused
about what to do next, always ask yourself the question, popularized by Gary Keller, below.
“What’s the one thing I can do, such that by doing it everything else will be easier or
unnecessary?”
The OATH
I, __________________________, hereby take an OATH, to go full-heartedly toward the goals I
have set for myself today and become the man I wish to become.
Date:
If you are a member of the High Thumos community on Discord, you should take a photo
of these pages, and post them in our goals channel.
If you are not a member of our online men’s community but would like to join, you can
sign up by visiting the link below.
https://www.patreon.com/HighThumos
Be the Best
by Mason Miller
The world we live in today is in the most prosperous time ever in human history. We have
access to everything we’d ever need/want. Yet depression, anxiety, and other mental illnesses
are at an all-time high. There are many reasons why this might be occurring, but we can narrow
it down to one. We are becoming weak. In the United States, 73.7% of men are obese or
overweight. More than 60% of the American diet is highly processed food. 98% of men in the
United States report watching porn in the last six months. Only 23% of Americans are getting
the recommended amount of exercise. Vitamin D deficiency is still an epidemic in not only the
United States but the world. On average Americans sit 10 hours a day, and spend another 5.4
hours a day on their phone (not work-related).
Enough with the numbers. We can see there is a problem that needs to be addressed.
Beyond all the numbers, every man should aspire to be THE BEST they can be. No BS, no
cutting corners — no one is going to save you but you. You should aspire to be great, and to be
remembered for what you did with your time while you were here. Life is short; don’t waste any
more time. Grab the gym bag, watch a YouTube video on macros, diet, food, etc., and get to
work. Unplug yourself from consuming all the time and become a producer. Become a business
owner, become aesthetic, become whatever you want to become. For better or for worse, the
man you are is determined by the habits and rituals you follow on a daily basis.
Don’t waste your potential. If you want to become a better man, you must start by
developing better habits. Wake up, hit snooze, rush to work, skip the gym, eat fast food, jerk off
to porn, watch too much TV, smoke some pot, drink some beer, and go to bed. These are the
habits of an average man. Don’t settle for average; it’s time to take life back and become the
strong man you were made to be. Everyone will benefit. And it all starts by taking control of your
habits, so here are some to help you start:
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Take control of your mornings to control your life.
Hone your body, unleash your primal energy, and become the strong man you were
made to be.
Practice regular gratitude and put your inner victim to bed.
Become comfortable with the uncomfortable.
Meditate to clear your mind and control your emotions.
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Expand your mind by absorbing the best ideas from the most successful people.
Plan your day and know your priorities to conquer your goals.
Invest, save your income to create freedom, power, and opportunities.
Get your thoughts, fears, and goals out of your head and onto paper.
Do one thing that scares you every single day.
Help someone else and pay it forward.
Start these habits right now, and you’ll start seeing the change rapidly. Drop all the
excuses, BS, and weakness from your life. Become the strong man you were made to be.
“A country is as strong, really, as its citizens. And I think that mental and physical health mental and physical vigor - go hand in hand.”
-
John F. Kennedy
Have a Life Goal
by Jules The Rocketman
For Elisha, it’s opening High Thumos gyms all over the world. For me, it’s becoming an
astronaut. Whatever it is for you, having an overarching life goal gives you hustle and purpose
every day. It’s a guiding star for the time you get off the path — which will inevitably happen.
Having a life goal will force you to make your decisions in accordance with it. Ask
yourself: what decisions on a day-to-day, month-to-month, or year-to-year scale can I make to
nudge my life into the right direction? What changes do I need to implement to get to where I
want to go? Will my current trajectory lead me to greatness?
I’ll give you an example: like I said, my life goal is to become an astronaut, so that I get
to wave a High Thumos flag on Mars. How do I go about achieving such a huge goal? I align my
everyday actions with it. Right now, I’m finishing up a bachelor's degree in physics, and I will be
going into astrophysics for my master’s. After that, I want to apply for a PhD program and, with
money saved from that, I want to get a pilot license. These are all things that will increase my
chances when applying to the astronaut program ESA offers me as a European. All of these
goals are years ahead, yet I still chip away at them on a daily basis, much like you would go
about digging up a mountain: one spoonful at a time. Kaizen.
If you read all of this and know exactly what I’m talking about, I congratulate you,
because having found one’s life goal is a hard task to do. If, however, you are like most and are
now thinking to yourself: “WTF Jules, I don’t know what I want from life,” I’d strongly urge you to
put down this book after reading this page and ask yourself these few questions:
1. What is something I’ve dreamed of since I was a child?
2. What do I most want from life right now?
3. What would I like my legacy to be?
4. Laying on my deathbed, what memory would I most like to look back on?
I’m certain these questions won’t magically give you the answer, but they’ll put your mind
into a state of contemplation. You still have time to find out, but the earlier you do, the bigger
your goal can be, as you’ve got more time to work on it.
So, what’s your life goal?
As a Man Readeth
by Jake Stormblessed
A man’s bookshelf should be well-tended and full.
Don’t overdo it on the self-improvement stuff, though. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a
F*ck? It’s alright. Jordan Peterson? He’s wise enough. But at a certain point, aren’t all these
books telling you things you already know?
Go deeper. Read fiction.
We humans are a storytelling race. Picture a landscape. A vibrant, starry sky, unmarred
by pollution or city lights. And your ancestors, perched around a campfire, listening to one of
their own weave a world out of whole cloth while the wolves circled round. These are your
people; the story is your birthright.
It’s good to be well-versed in philosophy and psychology and political theory, but far too
much potential, too much life, has been sacrificed upon these altars. A full mind is not a full
belly. Imagine Frodo — called to adventure, the fate of his people hanging in the balance —
telling Gandalf, “You know, I’d love to take the Ring, but…I’m feeling a little directionless right
now. I think I’m gonna read some Tony Robbins, listen to some podcasts, psychoanalyze myself
for a while. Come back next year, and we’ll see how I’m feeling.” Absurd. Adventure can only be
had, and an abundant life only built, through action.
So, where does fiction come in? Well, never mind that you’ll find denser, richer, truer
philosophy and psychology on one page of Dickens or Dostoyevsky than an entire bookshelf of
self-help. Never mind that most political analysts would not be fit to sniff Orwell’s socks. You
should read fiction because ancient soldiers didn’t read theory the night before a battle — they
read the poets. The legends. Stories which not only told them the ideals they should aim at, but
which gave them the courage to fire.
Tomorrow, we’ll fight a battle. We’ll weather a storm of our own. But there will be no
swords or shields or guns; it will be a storm of the spirit. We’ll face more distraction, more
temptation, more opportunity for ease and comfort than any of our ancestors ever did, and if we
want to achieve something great we’ll have to choose to walk a different path. And when I’m
tired and weak and beaten tomorrow, and when the easy road looks not just inviting but
inevitable, I’ll find strength thinking about Kaladin, from Brandon Sanderson’s fantasy epic The
Way of Kings, who not only survived his storm but was blessed by it, and came out stronger on
the other side.
Morning Walks in the Sun
by Elisha Longsword
Wake up and greet the sun. The sun is sacred to humans; it is sacred to life. Every
morning you should rise with the sun, and then as soon as possible, go out into the sunlight and
let it warm your eyes, body, and soul.
You should aim to walk at least one mile in the mornings, taking in as much light as you
can. View this as a way to charge your Thumotic batteries for the day ahead and maintain your
edge as a man. In the summer, wear minimal clothing and ditch the sunscreen. The sun gives
vigor and vitality to the man who consistently holds counsel with it. Morning walks in the sun will
begin to heal your body and mind by increasing levels of dopamine and testosterone while
greatly enhancing your mood.
Walking in the sun will also help you place your thoughts in order, allowing new creative
ideas to bubble to the surface.
Finally, walk to exercise your sense of freedom. Instead of being cooped up in your office
or home, go outside and take up space. Explore the world and give yourself a sense of
belonging to the space around you. Map out the city and take note of certain locations and
monuments. Walk through forests and along coastlines. Say hello to fellow walkers and wish
them well along their journey.
The man of Thumos must continually seek to renew his mind and cultivate insight
through wisdom.
Let the sun be your guide.
“All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.”
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Leadership
by Elisha Longsword
“A leader is a dealer in hope.”
- Napoleon Bonaparte
Everything I have learned about leadership can be summed up with the quote above. It is
essential to understand that throughout your life, you will be placed in certain situations that
require leadership. Whether it’s leading your friend group, your relationship, or people in your
work environment, it is critical to understand the role of a leader.
Most people sit around waiting for something to happen. Being a leader means that you
make things happen. People will support leaders who give them hope for a brighter future. This
is the essence of presidential campaign slogans such as “Make America Great Again,” “Change
We Can Believe In,” or “Hope,” to name a few.
The biblical story of Moses and the Israelites displays this idea of hope-based
leadership. Freed from slavery in Egypt, the Israelites follow the prophet Moses across the Red
Sea and into the wilderness, where they wander for a whopping 40 years. All based upon a
promise from God that they would one day escape slavery and be delivered into the Promised
Land.
Being a leader means that those that follow you look to you for direction, and expect you
to lead them into a better future. People will follow you because they believe in your vision and
the confidence you have going towards it. In your friend group, it means being the one to gather
the men together, while finding quality activities that bond the group. In your relationship, it
means creating a vision for you and your significant other to share together. At work, it means
organizing a team, creating goals, and coming up with strategies to attain these goals.
Leadership isn’t just for CEOs or management positions. It’s for all men, and you have a
choice to take up the responsibility of leading or sit back and be led. Take life by the reins,
shake things up; you have a powerful ability to motivate people and help them. If you’re unsure
where to start, consider what a better life looks like for you and the people close to you. What
changes need to be made?
Create a vision for the future. Go there. People will follow.
A Tribe of Strong Men
by Murad
Maybe you identify yourself as a ”lonewolf”. Or maybe you have friends who keep you
stagnating, perhaps without you even knowing. If that’s the case and you still deem yourself
successful, I salute you. However, if you are like this but find yourself to be in an endless loop of
trying and failing then chances are you need a tribe in order to achieve your goals.
I relate to this. I was 17 years old when I got into self-improvement. That’s when I’ve
decided to get in the gym and bulk up with whatever limited knowledge I have. I’m 21 now, and I
was always in the same spot until I joined a tribe of strong men to help me set ablaze the fire
within. ”You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” We’ve heard this
saying, but when did we stop and take it to heart? Think to yourself, do your friends set you
ablaze or do they extinguish your fire within?
If there was one thing that I could tell 17-year-old me, it would be that I need to
reevaluate my friends and find a tribe of disciplined, well-abled and strong men. Think of our
ancestors, they lived in tribes or a small community at best. Everyone lived for the survival of the
tribe. Leeching was met with backlash, and in worst cases led to the leecher being banished.
Being cast away from the tribe guaranteed your death, for you’re all alone, exposed to Mother
Nature’s ruthlessness.
Humans still operate like this on a baseline. If you’re not convinced, why do you feel the
need to belong somewhere? Why does rejection feel so bad? We need a tribe where men come
together and contribute to the greater good of the tribe. A group where men care for each other,
and give each other a friendly, but stern, kick in the butt when we’re becoming complacent — or
in other words, becoming a leech. How would you feel if you joined a band of brothers where
everyone is on a daily grind to better themselves all while providing you with the guidance that
they learned through hard work and experience, but you let it go to waste because of some
lame excuse?
How would you feel to repeatedly let your brothers down, and not be able to return the
favor? Remember that every tribe has its wise elders, and one day you will live long enough to
either become one yourself or end up banished. Join a tribe, or reform your friends if you can.
But do not hesitate to leave people in the past if they cannot meet life’s demands. You’re not in
this alone. Godspeed.
The Modern Attack on Masculinity
by Mark J. Durdach
Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men.
We have been living in some very good times. This world has become too comfortable. We are
adopting a mentality that masculinity is toxic. This is not true. We need masculinity. We need
strong men.
I attribute these problems to the absence of fathers in the home and the destruction of
the nuclear family. I attribute them to the comforts of the modern world, poor public education
(K-12), and rampant drug abuse. Us men in this community must make it our responsibility to
stand for something different. We must stand for healthy masculinity. We must be the men the
Western world needs, otherwise we risk the human race as a whole.
How do we do this? It is very difficult and will be a lifelong process. Here are some ways:
-
train our bodies
eat right
abandon modern comforts and pleasures (porn, social media, junk food, etc)
take up a purpose or mission
learn new skills
absorb useful information
meditate and pray
-
choose our women very very wisely
remain stoic and lead others
build large families and raise strong sons and daughters
Despite the overwhelming pressures from society, the media, and pop-culture, masculine
men are still needed in this world. Stop living such a comfortable life. Get out of the
psychological womb. Read a book, hit the gym, go to work, and take care of your family. When
the time comes, it will come down to the strength, determination, discipline, and willpower of
able men to answer the call.
Life - The Greatest RPG
by Craig Smith
As an inductee to the realm of self-improvement and general life-betterment, at some stage you
have probably come across the idea of “gamifying your life.” This process involves treating your
life like a video game, and leveling up as you perform certain tasks. For example:
- Hit the gym today (+10 STRENGTH)
- Talked to a new person (+15 CHARISMA)
- Spent 30 minutes learning a foreign language (+30 INTELLIGENCE)
This is a great way of looking at it: leveling yourself up & earning real-life rewards once
you reach a certain number in a particular stat.
We can extend the idea of gamification further, by viewing our goals, aspirations and
tasks as a series of quests that can be completed. The most important of these will be our Main
Quests, with the less important ones becoming Side Quests.
Main Quests - Life Goals
The main characters in games always have life-changing goals — defeat the Big Bad,
rescue the princess, save the world. These are the Main Quests of the game, and it’s clear what
they are. You’ll probably have constant reminders about it as you play through the game. Your
life should be no different.
You ought to have a good idea of what you want to achieve in your life, and how you’re
going to do it. Many people have a faint idea of what they want, or no idea at all, and that’s
perfectly fine for a time. At some point though, you’ll need to take a good, hard look at your life
and think about what you want to achieve. Perhaps you decide you want to launch your own
business, create an incredible physique, or be the best in a particular field. These would be your
Main Quests, the things that have the maximum impact on your life. These need to be written
down and viewed often, as people who write out their goals are far more likely to achieve them.
Once you have your Main Quests, you can work backwards to establish the steps that
will take you to your goal. Start by blocking it into large milestones, then gradually break these
down into more easily achievable checkpoints. For example, if a 250-lb individual wanted to
drop down to 175 lbs, it might break down as follows:
-
Main Quest: 250 lbs > 175 lbs
-
Milestone: 250 lbs > 225 lbs > 200 lbs > 175 lbs
Checkpoint: 250 lbs > 245 lbs > 240 lbs > 235 lbs > etc.
Checkpoints act like their in-game counterparts. They are an opportunity to save your
progress from the previous checkpoint and show that you are indeed moving gradually closer to
your goal. Milestones are moments where you can observe that not only have you progressed a
good portion of the way from your starting point, but also towards your goal. They are also
opportunities to reassess the path to your goal, as you are likely to have gained a better
understanding of what is required to get you there. Like buying new weapons and armor for a
more difficult section of the game ahead, you are better preparing yourself for the challenges
that await you.
Side Quests - Life Enrichment
As is often the case, some people are not interested in side quests at all - the main
quests of a game are all they are interested in. We can probably all think of individuals who
approach life in this way. Those of us who love a side quest, however, are often rewarded
greatly. Oftentimes, we meet truly incredible characters, visit wondrous places and unlock the
best armor and weapons simply by investing time in things outside the main quests. Again, we
can extend this to the real world.
Side Quests can be viewed as optional things which can enrich and improve your life if
you choose to implement them. Perhaps you want to be more social and expand your social
circle, try your hand at growing some vegetables in your garden, or expand your culinary skills
by cooking foods you’ve never made before. These Side Quests push you beyond your comfort
zone by tackling novel experiences which provide you with an opportunity to grow. They are
also deeply rewarding in that they provide tangible rewards at the end of it. You may make a
great new friend with whom you can now cook incredible dishes using your own home-grown
produce!
Games vs Reality - Intangible vs Tangible
Life can be a cruel RPG at the best of times, and especially to those of us who drift
aimlessly like NPCs. Games provide us with a great escape from reality, but the achievements
we unlock there remain there. Still, for many of us, games also provide incredible inspiration and
motivation.
I believe that we should be motivated by some of the characters we see in games —
characters who set out to achieve great things while also helping people and improving the
world as they go along. We are capable of improving so much in our lives, if only we know what
we want to achieve and how to tackle it. We can reach a state of existence we’ve only dreamt of
before, receiving accolades and recognition which may unlock many doors and opportunities for
us.
The game is already playing. It is time to start controlling your character.
The Why of Building Muscle
by Ludvig Digné
“No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a
man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.”
- Socrates
Stepping in the gym for the first time was one of the defining moments of my life. Standing at 6’3
and a whopping 130 pounds, and having been called skinny my whole life, I was done with it. A
part of me started the journey for validation from girls, which I do think is a completely valid
reason to start because it makes you step foot in the gym, but once it became a habit I quickly
realized that there was so much more to it.
Fast forward a couple of years and 50 pounds of lean mass later, I have experienced
many benefits I did not even consider going in. In a chaotic world, one of the few things you
have absolute control over is your body. The habit of taking good care of it, and consistently
seeing yourself become stronger in your lifts, will keep at bay the feeling of stagnation — a
feeling all men should be wary of. Even if other parts of your life are at a standstill (or even
deteriorating), you will still have one of the most important things in life, something that most
people lack, which is a strong and healthy body. With all the inexplicable things happening
around you, things that are out of your control, you can find refuge in the sanctuary of the gym,
where 225 pounds of iron will always be 225 pounds of iron.
So: you have been consistent in paying your dues in the gym, and now you are starting
to fill out your clothes a little better. People suddenly start treating you differently; you are
treated better and with more respect. This is not a time to become nihilistic and call people
shallow. People treat you better subconsciously and it is only natural because your physical
stature speaks volumes of your character without you even opening your mouth. People can tell
just by looking at you that you are a man of self-respect, discipline, and strength.
One of the most profound effects of this is you commanding more respect from other
men. Strong men want to ally themselves with other strong men, and your stature projecting
good character and strength makes you more likely to associate with these men. There are a
myriad of other benefits that come along with building muscle, such as being able to move
things easily and girls throwing second glances, but I find the ones above outshine the others.
On your journey you will find your own personal reasons why spending time in the iron temple is
immensely beneficial. To disregard it would be folly and one of the greatest mistakes of your life,
and you would not even know it.
Primal Screaming
by Zell the Tyrant
We have all gone through at least one traumatic experience through our journey of life. For
many of us this happened in childhood — broken home, bullied, lost loved ones, etc. These
experiences will either make or break you. It’s understandable why many of us push the pain to
the side and bottle it up — it’s a scary thing to face the demons that haunt us from our past, and
it’s often easier to just ignore the pain via escapism. If you do not muster up the courage to fight
back against these demons, they will destroy you. I know this from first hand experience. Let me
teach you how to release the pain from the past.
The method is called Primal Screaming.
First you must learn what Primal Screaming is and how to perform it safely. Primal
Screaming is very simple — you build up emotion and scream to release the emotion, similar to
a child throwing a tantrum. Children throw tantrums because it is a natural way to release
emotions. As we get older society tells us that this is childish and immature — men don’t throw
temper tantrums, right? That’s what little kids do. Or so society says. Now, I’m not saying you
must throw a temper tantrum every time you feel angry. What I’m saying is, allow yourself to
express emotions when appropriate.
When performing the Primal Scream you must scream from the lower regions of your
stomach. DO NOT scream from your throat. You must allow yourself to lose control when Primal
Screaming so you can release the trapped emotions. After Primal Screaming, you’ll notice your
voice will be deeper the next day, you’ll breathe deeper (less tension in your body), and you will
feel grounded.
This method helps fight depression. If you are depressed you need to express. A great
way to do that is with Primal Screaming. You might feel pure rage, then become overwhelmed
with sadness, and then cry tears of joy. This is good. You are expressing the emotions that have
been depressed within you for so long, and now they are finally surfacing. Do not be afraid.
Embrace it.
Now, you might be thinking, “This is great! But where can I do this without getting the
cops called on me?” The best place for almost anyone reading this is in a car. Park somewhere
discreet, blast heavy metal, and unleash the warrior spirit.
Good luck brother. Keep the Thumos High.
A Man Must Have a Code
by War Bear
Life is often boring. You go to work, go to the gym, hang out with friends, watch movies, etc. All
these things are enjoyable, but boring in the sense that your life is not on the line. Your
adrenaline is not rushing. As you level up in life, as you make more money and buy more
expensive things, and as you start going out with more attractive women, men will begin to test
you. They will try to take your things from you — your possessions and more importantly, your
manhood. How will you react when this happens?
The way you react to these situations depends on your code in life. You must have rules
and principles that you live by, and are willing to die for. One rule as a man should be that you
must never allow anyone to disrespect you. Whether it’s in the form of someone stepping on
your shoes or flirting with your girl or using you, disrespect must never be tolerated. Set your
boundaries from the very beginning, never let anyone cross them. Those who don’t know you
will often test your boundaries, and as soon as they do, you must respond without hesitation
and stand your ground. Otherwise you will have a reputation for being a weakling that people
can use.
Notice how I said you must be willing to die for your code. That is not hyperbole. You
must be willing to lose your life for it. As an example, a man with no code might not say anything
to the big scary dude that stepped on his shoes, because to him, the risk of getting beat to
death is too high. He’d rather just ignore the situation, but if he did that, could he look at himself
in the mirror in the morning?
A man with principle will speak up, regardless of who stepped on his shoes and how
many friends he has with him. Having a code and living by it is what brings honor to your name.
Lastly, you must make yourself into someone strong, both physically and mentally, so that
others cannot force you into breaking your code. You must be able to enforce your code. Be
able to defend yourself when someone steps on your shoes and decides to throw a punch when
you speak up. Be able to walk away from your girlfriend when she decides to do something
disrespectful to you.
Mental Push-Ups
by Stepan The Stepbro
Some people think they are “bad” at meditating. They’ve tried it a few times (for 99% of them it
was some “be aware of your thoughts” practice), but found it hard for some reason and said:
”Not for me, guess I can’t meditate.” My claim is, you are not bad at it, you probably had a bad
teacher.
For me, the goal of meditation is the training of “One Pointed Mind” which stays where
you ask it to stay (some think it’s the calmness but we’ll get to that). “One Pointed Mind” doesn’t
stray to some random thought halfway through the studying session, it keeps its focus on the
task.
The meditation consists of two parts: focusing technique (an action) and No Minds State
(a goal). This is where the “mental push-up” comes from. When you are in the middle of the
push-up set, there is no way you are thinking about your ex. You think only about the rep.
Meditation should do the same for you. For example, you sit in your chair and count your
breaths. After a while you notice your mind wandering to something different. You pull it back to
counting the breaths and repeat the process over and over. The act of putting your attention
back on the track IS the mental push-up that builds your “One Point” muscle.
The goal of mental push-ups is achievement of the “No Minds State” — the second part
of meditation. Here you digest emotions and experience the calmness I mentioned. The speed
and comfort at which you arrive here is fully determined by the focusing technique you applied.
And just like regular ones, mental push-ups can be hard for beginners.
Our bodies are different and so are our minds. That is especially true when it comes to
meditation. Many of you found out about meditation from “new age” instructors through their
YouTube videos. While offering good advice they use only one technique (or a couple at best)
which won’t suit everyone’s cognitive fingerprint. Imagine a person with ADHD trying out
mindfulness and hearing: “Let the thoughts come and go”. He/she is already overwhelmed by
the current of their mind (which is probably the reason they started meditating). For them, letting
go of the grip means breaking the dam and causing a flood.
Here are my suggestions for focusing techniques:
-
-
For people prone to ADHD, go to a loud place and make your mind jump from sound to
sound as quickly as possible. It will exhaust your brain, making it drop all the thoughts.
For those who lack confidence, go outside, look at the tree and ask yourself: ”Is this tree
perfect?” Ask again when your mind wanders. The answer you are looking for is: “This
tree can’t be any other way, and it’s perfect the way it is.”
If you lack social awareness or have a giant ego, find a proper third eye technique on
YouTube (I personally recommend ones by Dr. K — aka Healthy Gamer — or by Master
Sri Akarshana).
And remember, you are not bad at it, you probably had a bad teacher.
Stay on point.
Choose Your Response
by Capital Steve
I grew up as the only male in a household of two women — my mother and older sister. I never
knew what it took to manage my emotions, let alone what it took to be a man. I saw my father
on weekends; I never felt comfortable in my own skin as I felt I had no masculine energy
growing up. I was small, skinny, and bottled up how I felt on a daily basis. I felt extreme shame
and always acted up in order to gain the acceptance of others.
This can often create an inferiority complex as one gets older, which may lead towards
negative attachment to vices that create an outlet for self-expression. However, this situation
does not need to be looked at as “negative”. For me, I had to switch up my perspective. Many
men are not taught how to manage the obstacles that life throws our way, we get swept away
through mindless thinking and emotional turmoil in this reactive modern world filled with
distractions.
Blaming external factors for how we feel, think and behave is very common within this
paradigm. We tend to point the finger at others in order to pinpoint what exactly has aggravated
us, whether it be childhood, environment, a boss, parents, or simply things just not going right
for us. This victim mindset, which we have all been in at one point in our lives, says that we can
allow the external environment to control us. We take little responsibility for what happens in our
lives and create a lifestyle that is not congruent with solid values and principles.
For me, the word “responsibility” states we have the ability to choose a response. 10% of
life is what happens to you, 90% of it is how you choose to respond. It is our interpretations of
events that cause us the real harm; our attitude toward the event is often the only factor we
have control over. As men, we need to rise above our immediate response and stop allowing
external factors to affect us. You are responsible for how you feel, not anybody else nor any
event in your life.
Think of reality and how it is neutral; there is no concept of good or bad until we label
events that way. Everything is as it is until we voluntarily give it meaning. The same goes for our
childhood, our conditioning, our past mistakes — we get to choose how we see these things. Do
we choose to look for the lessons that these experiences offer or do we continue to dwell about
how we’ve been dealt an unfair hand? There is always someone worse off than you, someone
that may be fighting for their life or struggling to make ends meet for their family. It is our
obligation to deal with what life has given us and do so with gratitude, for most of us live very
privileged lives. If you have clothes on your back and a dream to chase then you can deal with
the problems that life brings.
Switching up your perspective is not an easy task, I struggle with this on a daily basis.
However, journaling about this topic and talking about it to other people keeps it fresh in my
mind, which gives me hope that I will sooner rather than later embed it into my subconscious. It
is a daily grind to live this principle, but it gives life all the meaning that we need to keep striving
for something better. As the prayer says, “Lord, give me the courage to change the things that
can and ought to be changed, the serenity to accept the things which cannot be changed, and
the wisdom to know the difference.”
Find a Hobby
by Ethan “Ubermensch” Natalius
Every man needs something outside of his work that allows him to think creatively and recollect
his thoughts. A hobby can be as simple as video games with friends. While this may seem like a
waste of time, you will be engaging in competition while relieving your stress.
Find time in your day to engage in your hobby in order to break apart from the mundane
nature of your daily routine. One of my hobbies is frisbee golf. This helps me become more in
tune with nature while competing to win against my peers. It makes me realize what I truly enjoy
doing with my time, and allows me to become more peaceful and mindful of my thoughts. I urge
you to find a hobby of your own that takes you away from work and brings you into a state of
passion. Thumos is the fire in the belly and the peace in the mind, and I believe a hobby will
give you both.
“No man is really happy or safe without a hobby.”
-
William Osle
You Are What You Eat
by Che
“Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.”
-
Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
The modern day world poses many challenges for a man. We are living in the most peaceful
times, with the best medical care, public health sanitation, and abundance of food, but yet are
becoming increasingly miserable and unhealthy.
Anthelme Brillat-Savarin never meant his quotation to be taken literally, he simply was
stating that the food one eats has a bearing on one’s state of mind and health. We all know this.
But the extent – we are only starting to find out.
Living with each of us – on our skin, in our mucosa, and in our gastrointestinal (GI) tract
– are microorganisms whose number dwarf the number of our own cells and genes. This is
called our microbiota. Their presence is indispensable to our survival. They metabolize food we
can’t digest by ourselves. They break down drugs, toxins, and protect us from infections,
chronic inflammation and possibly immune-based disorders. Just as with the heart or the lungs,
when an environmental agent alters the function of the microbiota, the result can be disease. No
two people have exactly the same composition of bacterial species in their guts; they’re as
unique as a fingerprint.
Gut bacteria produces hundreds of neurochemicals that our brain uses to regulate basic
physiological processes as well as mental processes. For example, our gut bacteria directly
stimulates afferent neurons of the enteric nervous system to send signals to the brain via the
vagus nerve. Through these varied mechanisms, gut microbes shape the architecture of sleep
and stress reactivity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis – influencing memory, mood, and
cognition, and are clinically and therapeutically relevant to a host of disorders. Research has
shown that certain gut bacteria can influence our social behaviour, anxiety, stress and
depressive-like behaviour.
Take advantage of this information. Cut out sugar and processed foods. Sugar can
cause gut dysbiosis. Research shows sugar hijacks our reward pathways, causing surges of
dopamine and serotonin similar to abuse of drugs. Eat whole and organic, with plenty of fiber
(prebiotic). Reduce stress, not only psychological but environmental — extreme heat, cold &
noise. Ensure you get at least 7-8 hours of sleep a night and prevent the disruption of your
circadian rhythm. Your sleep is imperative; stop treating it like it’s expendable. Don’t take
antibiotics unnecessarily, they don’t discriminate in the bacteria they kill. Less exercise means
less microbes, so make sure to get exercise, both aerobic and anaerobic.
Take care of your gut; it is your second brain.
Strength in Numbers
by Nikko “Atlas” Pimienta
Far too often men associate with the idea of being a nomad. We praise animals like the wolf and
lion for their characteristics of being alpha roamers in their respective kingdoms. Ancient warrior
archetypes like the Ronin and Outlaws are fantasized and worshipped. In my opinion, I believe
these views are problematic and lead to an increase in isolation amongst young men in today’s
society.
Topics such as exercise, nutrition and hobbies have all been touched upon in the High
Thumos Handbook. My contribution to the text would be to emphasize the importance of
seeking guidance from others. If you’re the smartest person in your group, it is time to find a
new group. If you’re the strongest in your gym, find a new gym. If you have the most money in
your group, it’s time to boss up. You never want to be on top ALL the time. You limit yourself
from obtaining new opportunities if you surround yourself with the same people that don’t force
you to grow. It is imperative that you seek new ways to grow on a consistent basis.
“The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your
best.”
-
Epictetus
As men, it is important to study the lessons of those who have come before us. We can
view these teachings through philosophy, history, or old records of spiritual practices. This is
another way to obtain new information from others as opposed to remaining a wanderer. Life is
difficult enough as it is, why not make it easier with a few friends along the way?
“Only a fool learns from his old mistakes. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others.”
-
Otto Van Bismarck
Climb Out of the Infinite Mind Well
by Jacob RisingFist
Right now you may be reading this in the form of an ebook, or perhaps just a few minutes ago
you were checking your phone. We often allow ourselves to be overconsumed with the world
around us, with things that don’t provide any substance or meaning to our lives, and it leaves
many with a sense of overwhelming exhaustion. “Am I missing out?” is one of the most common
questions that may result from this. There is so much going on in the world. But does it all
matter? Throughout time, we’ve made our own lives much more complex. However, life was
meant to be simple, and we often allow ourselves to overcomplicate our own situations.
This isn’t to say technology and innovation is bad, but let’s take a step back to reflect on
the world and events around us. If we go back thousands of years ago, or even just a few
hundred years ago, man only had but a limited amount of distractions. These distractions came
directly in the form of the environment and space he had physical contact with. Fast forward to
now. We are connected to the rest of the world 24/7 — all through the aid of a device that is less
than half the size of a brick, and is often carried around in everyone’s pocket throughout the
entire day and which can be easily accessed just in the palm of your hand.
Today, the amount of distractions that we are exposed to are practically infinite. Often,
we may find ourselves falling down into what feels like an infinite mind well. You may see it all
the time, or perhaps you realized you’ve done it before yourself or still do it to this day, but
people will allow themselves to browse through a magnitude of websites, forums, social media
applications, news articles, and really just anything that will pull their attention away from reality.
It doesn’t have to be just electronic either, mindless consumption of physical
entertainment in excess can hinder the same effect. Often, this is done subconsciously to
prevent the mind from creating and processing mental thoughts that sometimes it may not feel
ready to perceive. However, this mindless consumption can become a mental addiction that
may develop unnoticed through the subconscious and will block your freedom of expression. To
avoid this infinite mind well, limiting your access to meaningless distractions will be the overall
goal. However, In order to actually combat this it is important to practice mindfulness.
Meditation is often the key for most to becoming self aware, however practicing
mindfulness does not need to stop there. To effectively practice mindfulness throughout the day,
you should allow yourself to mentally pause during moments where you may feel like you aren’t
or haven’t completely processed the ramifications of your event. However, it doesn’t need to be
complex. Maybe you are talking to a friend and realize that the topic or your replies don’t align
with your beliefs, which will allow yourself a moment to refind your ground. Finally, practicing
moments of mindfulness will only allow yourself to be aware of the mind well in which you may
have fallen into. In order to step out of that well completely, you must escape from your head
and get within your body. If you train and move with the body the mind will follow. Life wasn’t
meant to be complicated, so don’t let yourself fall down the well. It may feel infinite, but that’s
only because it’s within your head.
“The greatest freedom is to be free of our own mind.”
-
Osho
On Mastery
by Jake the Sunbrah \[T]/
One of the most important things a man can do in his life is to develop mastery in his craft(s). In
any society across time, a man has only been as valuable as what he can create and provide
for his tribe, and he is tangibly rewarded for it; proportionately, too, given a fair market and
sound negotiation. Can you build a bench? Write clean code? Speak more than one language?
Design compelling copy? Lead a team? Fold sheet metal? Create transfixing music? Fix a car?
Are you a good storyteller? Besides the inherent joy of creation and mastery, men with skills are
paid more, have higher social status, and will generally be happier than their unskilled
contemporaries. These things are obvious, but I think that the role and responsibility of acquiring
mastery is unique to the time we live in.
The definition of technology is the “application of scientific knowledge for practical
purposes, especially in industry.” The “practical purpose” is, generally, to increase the ratio
between work output and consumption of resources (see the Agricultural and Industrial
Revolutions). Currently we are living in what some are calling the Digital Revolution, where
analog electronics are being replaced by exponentially refined digital technologies. You
understand what this means: smartphones, personal computers, the internet, etc. A byproduct
of this revolution is the rapid automation and obsolescence of unskilled labor and many sectors
of skilled labor.
I do not know when, or even if, we will create or discover artificial general intelligence
and thus render all human labor obsolete, but the fact remains that jobs, let alone lucrative
ones, are becoming increasingly reliant on your ability to process information and adapt to new
tasks quickly. In other words, your survival is more dependent on your skills than ever before.
So, what do we do? Consider the fact that it is now easier than ever before to learn and
to showcase your work to the world. You no longer need a record label to widely distribute
music, a publishing company to sell stories, or a physical storefront to sell physical products. For
the most part, you can learn anything online for free without the hefty price tag of a university
degree. You can form relationships, professional or otherwise, through online communities for
practically any niche imaginable.
With every opportunity, we have bullshit to sift it out from in equal measure. Social media
apps designed by the world’s smartest minds to keep you stuck as a braindead consumer. Our
own brains thirst for novelty and information, useful or otherwise. Pornography, video games,
news feeds, drama of the elite, and other forms of mindless entertainment.
The key to acquiring new skills, in my estimation, is the combination of deep, focused
work and doing it regularly. Even for only two hours a day, if the work is focused, intentional, and
most importantly, distraction-free, then you will be far more productive than the majority of
people.
From Atomic Habits by James Clear, there are four things that compose building a new
habit:
1. Make it obvious
2. Make it easy
3. Make it attractive
4. Make it satisfying
Let’s say, for example, you wanted to pick up reading everyday. Put the book in a place
where it is easily visible, write down an intention like “I will read [book name] at [location] for
[duration] at [start time],” and pair your book with a food/drink you enjoy. I love bulletproof
coffee. Assuming I hated reading, if I only drank bulletproof coffee while I read then, by some
Pavlovian mechanism, I would probably start to hate reading less.
Some more practical tips I have about learning and keeping free of distraction:
1. A sound, healthy body that is adequately exercised, fed, and rested is better at
learning than the opposite. I should not have to say this.
2. Take notes on what you read AFTER you read it, not during. This helps to make sure
you’re actively paying attention, and not just regurgitating the message verbatim.
3. Ask yourself honestly if you can teach the material to someone unfamiliar with the
subject competently. Better yet, try it.
4. It helps retention and focus to pair new ideas with ideas that you already understand.
How do the concepts apply to other things you’ve been thinking about or events going
on in your life? Where does it fit in your overall body of knowledge on a subject?
5. Highlighting things in a book is bullshit and doesn’t help with retention that much.
6. Don’t have your phone or any other distractions nearby if you can.
7. Set time limits on your phone with an app blocking tool like StayFree.
Make Yourself a Weapon
by Elisha Longsword
Life is cold and does not care about your success or happiness. The world does not care if you
are depressed or unsatisfied; it does not care if you are weak, broke, anxious, or miserable.
Men of the modern world must ride this wave as best as they can. They must become
dangerous and make themselves into weapons at all costs.
The greatest deception we face is the acceptance of weakness among the men of our
nations. Let us look to Aesop’s fable of the lion and the farmer’s daughter as a warning for what
happens when we lose our edge:
A lion once saw a young woman and fell in love with her. The lion went to the woman’s
father, a farmer, and asked for his daughter’s hand in marriage. The farmer was too afraid to
refuse the lion’s offer. He said to the lion, “I have no problem in marrying my daughter to the
king of the jungle. But you will have to take your claws and teeth off so that my daughter does
not get terrified of you.” The lion was madly in love, and so he agreed. The next day, the lion
went back to the farmer without his claws and teeth — defenseless and harmless. The farmer
thrashed the lion and clubbed him to death.
The farmer is the world, the daughter the pleasures, and we are the lions. A lion must
not be so obsessed with pleasure that he loses his edge. He must consistently train himself
mentally and physically. He must stand out amongst the crowd and conquer that which seems
unconquerable. Make money, earn freedom, grow strong, learn how to fight, learn how to speak,
learn how to command, protect and build, create and restore.
To be a lion you have to roll with the lions. Go on the hunt alone, with no positive
support, and you’ll soon find yourself best friends with Timon and Pumbaa, smoking blunts,
watching cartoons, and eating Cheetos. Surround yourself with killers in the dojo, strongmen in
the gym, and the best in the business. Seek knowledge from these experienced men. Be
humble. Listen more than you speak. When the student is ready, the master will appear.
The surest way to get your head bashed in by the world is to seek all it has to offer while
neglecting your soul. Stay strong, my friends, and embrace the High Thumos lifestyle. Embrace
discipline and she will serve you better than any lover. Seek knowledge and you will never go
hungry. The weaker you are, the easier you are to control. Resist the chains of mediocrity and
embrace the freedom of the hunt.
We are the lions.
High Thumos.
The Key to Stillness
by Francisco The Rebel
The two biggest things that have tortured me for most of my life are anxiety and regret. So many
times in life, anxiety stopped me from doing what I knew was right or what I wanted to do
because I was afraid of what may happen. “What will they think about me?” or “What if she
rejects me?” were some of the questions that I would ask myself in many of these
circumstances where I had a chance to grow, but chose to remain safely in the quicksand of
comfort.
Unfortunately, I crumbled to it more often than not and was only left with regret. Always
thinking about how my life would’ve been better if I would have just pushed through and faced
my fears. Then, when the next opportunity showed up, I would paralyze and the cycle would
repeat itself again. But I found the solution in stillness—the single most important thing that I
learned in this self development journey. The ability to feel whole in the present moment with
peace of mind, regardless of the circumstances. Stillness is like a shield that protects you from
the obstacles you face while giving you clarity to tackle them calmly. “Why does this matter?”
you may ask. Because stillness is the antidote to both anxiety and regret.
Anxiety is born from living in the future, from bracing oneself to what could or will
happen. Regret, on the other hand, is born when one cannot accept the mistakes of the past
and refuses to move on. Stillness counters them by keeping you neither in the future nor the
past. It keeps you in the “right now,” in the present. Your mind reacts to how your body acts. To
reach stillness, you must quiet the monkey mind and have awareness. Slowing down your
movements, inhabiting your space, and breathing deeply through your nose are the core
elements to being comfortable in your own skin. Whenever you feel you are starting to rush
again, like walking faster or breathing heavily, simply say “tempo” to remind you to slow down.
Meditation is a good way to start, but practicing mindfulness by taking your attention back to
what you are doing each moment throughout the day expands upon that.
Whether it is knowing you are reading a book, tasting the flavors of the food you are
eating, or feeling your muscles contract when doing a bicep curl, essentially, what you need to
do is to actually vocalize it, either out loud or in your mind, by stating the action that you are
doing. For instance, if you are brushing your teeth, actually say “I’m brushing my teeth” and you
will notice how quickly you become present and recover focus. When doing this, do so without
distractions and embrace silence.
A great way to apply all of these ideas is to walk in nature. Nature has a healing effect
that will make you feel calm. Walk slowly, aware of everything around you and the fact that you
are there in the vastness of its beauty. Appreciate the trees, the birds, and the sky. Be grateful
for the opportunity to do so as that short moment in time will fade in the blink of an eye.
“Be present. And if you’ve had trouble with this in the past? That’s okay. That’s the nice thing
about the present. It keeps showing up to give you a second chance.”
- Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key
Cold Showers
by Spenez
There’s no getting around it; the modern world is extremely comfortable, and as a man, you are
biologically wired to seek challenge and discomfort whether you are aware of it or not. If you are
reading this, then I will assume you are aware of this and would like to do something about it.
There are many ways a man can increase his T, and by extension, his THUMOS! I’m sure my
fellow men have described them much better in the rest of this book than I can. However, if you
are looking for a quick way to get out of your own head, your worries, and would like to light a
fire under your ass in two minutes tops, then read on, my friend!
The process: There are a few ways to skin a cat, as the expression goes, so many would
say that when it comes to a cold shower, you should let that sucker run cold and jump in. If this
is for you, then go for it! However, the way I do it is slightly different, and will perhaps result in
less procrastination.
So have your normal shower, and just before you hop out, switch that sucker all the way
to cold and embrace the icy realization that you are a man and you are alive! This will be
extremely uncomfortable at first, however, I can attest to the fact you will never come out of a
cold shower feeling worse than when you stepped in. All those things you were worrying about
become trivial, and strangely enough, I find the process actually warms your body up. If I ever
have a normal shower, which is rare indeed, I always step out feeling cold and weak.
The benefits: Aside from the obvious mental benefits that we have just gone over, cold
showers will improve your immune system (I’ve been sick maybe once or twice in two years),
and your skin and hair quality have been linked to cold showers also. Perhaps the best reason
of all is that it toughens you up and gets you motivated. I mean, you are willingly putting yourself
in an extremely uncomfortable position every day just by getting clean. Most people are in la la
land while they shower in the morning, but not you! You’re taking on the world and you haven’t
even had breakfast!
We Are Happy Plants
by Ryan Eastman
We Are Happy Plants. That was the name of the YouTube channel I had subscribed to in the
last quarter of 2019. The channel was focused on documenting all known footage of the late
Terence McKenna, a psychonaut and plant researcher who advocated the use of psychedelics
way beyond the hippie moment. One of his later videos, “An Anthill Is A Mind,” led me down a
rabbit hole of abstract ideas and jargon-based thinking. I was already stuck in my head at the
time, completely neglecting my physical and emotional well-being. The summer of 2019 had hit
me hard. Imagine sitting in a corner listening to Radiohead all day, waiting for that girl to text you
back for two months. Eventually you let go of your suffering, in exchange for answers. I needed
answers, truth! The real life experience hurt me. That wasn’t nice. “Damn it, maybe one more
video will give me enlightenment. I don’t actually need to experience anything,” I thought. And
so I continued my quest for the holy grail, the fountain of youth, as my roots continued to decay.
As a youth, I was never like that. I didn’t need to look for answers. I didn’t need to stuff
my mind with all this “knowledge.” I would be like a happy plant, living and being as I should: as
me. But things had changed, for some odd reason. I had become fragile, my leaves wilted, my
body aching and hunched over without the power of the sun to photosynthesize my spirit.
Throughout that spur of mental masturbation I discovered gardening, a silver lining to a
massive grey cloud. McKenna, of course, was an experienced botanist, and I found myself
obsessed with botanical research. So obsessed, in fact, that I actually began to take action. I
faced my fear of leaving the terradome of my mind, and breathed new air into my life. My heart
was too loud for me to ignore. I started out by growing a basil plant from seed; I added it to my
breakfast burrito. I planted a lemon tree with my father; I’d been neglecting my parents for far
too long. Eventually I began working at a local community garden at one of California’s historic
Ranchos, and by then I had enough gardening experience that I didn’t need to watch McKenna
anymore.
The truth is, I never watched McKenna for the information on ant colonies, anti nutritions
in plants, or even psychedelics. I watched him because I thought he could tell me something
that would save me. I was overstimulating myself, like a broccoli getting white rooted from too
much rain. I was growing in the wrong direction, like a jasmine’s vines climbing in a shaded
place. The thing is, our bodies know information hoarding and immobility are unnatural. And the
more time I spent in the garden, observing the complex psychology of plant life, I began to see
myself as no different from a basil leaf. Is this what McKenna was talking about?
Suddenly, a negative emotion was not only a negative emotion, it was an instinctive
response from my body telling me something was wrong—because your body loves you. Just
as a plant wilts from a lack of nutrients, so does our face develop acne without the proper diet. If
a plant is watered ten times a day, of course it is bound to shrivel up and die. Similarly, if you
have the body of a 20-year-old and the information of a 200-year-old, of course you will be
faced with a plethora of mental health issues. When I am pruning trees and bushes, sometimes
my team has to cut back the leaves and shoots, removing up to 75% of a plant in order for it to
survive. This triggers a stress response in the plant, and like a true self improvement Chad, it
grows back healthier and stronger to make up its losses. And you best believe it grows in the
right direction.
And so, if I can leave you with a question, it’s this: What direction are you growing? What
information are you feeding yourself? Next time you are looking for answers to these questions,
please, don’t make the mistake I did. Podcasts and documentaries only help so much, if at all.
Instead, go observe nature. Find a plant in your yard, and watch how it grows. Eventually you’ll
find out wonderous things about yourself, and this is what McKenna always advocated for.
We are happy plants.
Martial Arts Elevates Our Thumos
by Samuel “Prince of War” V
The importance of martial arts in a man’s life is underrated. At this point I can no longer count
the amount of times I have left Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Practice broken, thinking how I missed my
opportunity to come out victorious out of a certain sparring session and instead feeling defeated
about the outcome. And while this initial statement might sound like a great reason to stay away
from it all, it is actually meant to make you feel the total opposite. I believe that in life being
honest with ourselves and our shortcomings could easily be the fastest way to improve and
ultimately overcome our obstacles and limiting beliefs. Uncomfortability is often the true spark or
catalyst of growth, in all aspects of life. And Brazilian Jiu Jitsu makes me uncomfortable very
often.
Another significant aspect of martial arts is its ability to bring competition to a man’s life.
A sort of competition where we are 100% responsible for the result, unlike team sports. I believe
every man should dedicate some of his life to learn how to defend himself—not only to be able
to protect himself, but most importantly, those he cares for or those who will not be able to
protect themselves.
I believe hardship is essential to a man’s life, especially the kind of hardship we can choose.
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and ultimately what makes you stronger makes you a
better man.
“The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in combat.”
-
Richard Marcinko
Scoop the Nuts
by Jan the Shaman
Brother.
Scoop the nuts and stop hiding from your emotions. They are what makes us feel alive.
The fire in the belly that wants you to scream out. The burning in your mouth when you eat that
garlic. But also, that sadness and pain after a breakup. That anxiety when you prepare to jump
from 10 meters down into the pool. The rush of euphoria when you kiss a new girl for the first
time. The remorse of knowing you treated yourself worse than you should have, or of not being
there for a friend who would have needed you. Allow yourself to witness all the emotions that
you have, the way they show themselves in your body. You can’t hide from them; push them
away, and they will wait for you in the dark corners of your mind and find you while you sleep.
So scoop your nuts, stop pretending, be honest to yourself and others about the human you are
and the emotions you feel. Allow yourself to be. With your doubts, uncertainties, insecurities,
your sadness, anger, hatred, aggression, envy and whatever else is there. Change will come if
you accept yourself the way you are now. Hide behind a mask and you will remain the same
under that mask. Be humble and honest with yourself and strive to become better.
High Thumos.
The Significance of Art
by Ryan
Art is one of the most vital things in life. Yet we often don’t acknowledge the importance and the
impact it has on us. Often we see the artistic mediums as something we can mindlessly
consume and distract us from the real matters. However, I believe we as men should all
understand how vital art is as a form of education that can be used to create a thriving society
filled with meaningful expression and creativity.
The world of art is essential for physical, emotional and mental well-being. It’s a way to
express yourself and become self-aware on numerous topics. After investing themselves in art,
some people can truly discover a part about themselves that they have never recognized
before.
As a tribe, it is important that we can all understand each other, which is not always easy
in this complex world. A lot of convoluted issues we have faced on earth have been simplified
using works of art. These allow us to think critically about important issues, and they show us
what truly matters in life. Not only does art help with these important issues, it also helps us
come together more emotionally. Art can reassure us of the normality of pain and sad feelings,
something that is often hard to share, as we very quickly learn to put on a cheerful facade for
the rest of the world. Art with strong negative emotions doesn’t have to depress us, but rather
can visibly and more publicly help us accept that confusion, suffering, loneliness and distress
are all part of the human condition.
Art returns glamor and beauty to its rightful place, highlighting what is worth appreciating.
It often tries to paint the mundane of everyday life in a beautiful picture. This allows us to
observe and often feel present in the moment when viewing such things. In return, it also makes
us see the beauty in the small things in everyday life, which strengthens our observational skills.
The importance of observing deserves an entire page worthy of itself, but building this skill will
change your view of the world, and therefore change you. Observing also allows you to truly
understand the world better and obtain wisdom in everyday life.
And we don’t just need to consume. Producing art also has many other benefits that
have not been mentioned yet. It will help you with hand eye coordination, a better understanding
of the world, and it allows you to creatively think and solve solutions. Furthermore, it teaches
you to pursue excellence and a search for perfection and meaning with each work you produce.
While doing so it allows you to be fully free and dream, and more importantly visualize that
dream to make it a reality.
Invest Early
by Andy “The Admiral” Matta
The best advice I was ever given in my life was the ideal of investing early. This advice has
helped catapult my life financially and personally. The idea of investing early has two meanings.
The first meaning is, as one might expect, the idea of investing one’s earnings early into stocks,
real estate, etc. The second idea, and the most important idea of investing early is the idea of
investing in yourself as early as possible.
Investing your money early is one of the best things a young man can do to set himself
up for his later years in life. Compounding is the means through which early investors gain
massive returns on their principal. Compounding is interest that accumulates on your
investment slowly over time, but over a few years grows exponentially. The difference in 5 years
of a $1,000 investment with lets say 6% interest is $300. Year one’s end total is $1,060 and year
5 is $1,338.23. These numbers might seem inconsequential, but imagine the return with larger
investments held for long periods of time. IRA’s, Roth IRA’s, and mutual funds are all great ways
to invest and grow your money. Cryptocurrencies are also great but hold more risk. Another
investment that helps one gain wealth is real estate. Holding onto homes and Rental Homes
helps fight inflation, and homes carry equity and the ability to make money through renting
them. These should all be researched, but they are all great ways to get into investing.
Investing in yourself should be done as early as possible. Weightlifting, learning
languages, developing new skills, mastering a trade, and going to college are all great ways to
invest in yourself. You are your own greatest product, so you should be doing everything you
can to become the highest version of yourself you can be. Doing this early is a necessity to
becoming great, because it takes time to learn things, build muscle, and so on. Best to use your
time wisely and get the work done on yourself as early as possible. Life will not wait for you to
put in the work.
The Three Pillars
by Liam “The Lanky King”
There are three pillars of personal growth: body, mind and spirit. The body is a beautiful
mechanism that is used to perform extraordinary feats, whether it be to lift heavy objects, to
create life, or, as I am doing now, to write down thoughts to benefit the lives of others. The body
is a bridge that connects our internal to the external world. Utilizing the body with its best
potential facilitates actions that yield the best potential outcomes. Listening and being present
with the body makes us feel more connected to the Self. The act of physical exercise is an
incredible way to become more self-aware and, as demonstrated by scientific evidence, to feel
less stressed—benefitting our mental well-being and making other areas of life seem less
intimidating. Taking care of the body and treating it righteously is therefore a rite of passage for
personal growth.
The mind is an ever-confusing concept to digest. Science has never been able to fully
understand it. However, each of us can develop a strong understanding of our own mind. The
mind can also make or break our quality of life. Through neuroplasticity (fancy word for the
rewiring process in our brain), healthy and unhealthy habits are created through repetitive
actions, and specific life events like brain injuries, death of loved ones, and breakups. When we
harness the ability to rewire our brain that creates these habits, we will eventually turn into the
type of person who is associated with the habits. This is why entrepreneurs, professional
athletes, and other successful people preach the power of a healthy mindset and living with
healthy habits to achieve their desired goals. Our mind is thus an important asset to consider.
If I asked you to show me your spirit, you wouldn’t find any way to prove it exists. Like
the body and the mind, the spirit is internal and it’s always been with us, from birth till death. The
spirit can be used to understand our place in the universe and ‘why’ we exist. Spiritual growth
through self-awareness practices, like meditation, fasting, prayer, or pilgrimage, helps us digest
the existential properties surrounding issues related to the past, the present, and the future.
Further understanding our position in the universe helps us find out who we are, why we are
here, and what we need to do. You don’t have to be religious to perform spiritual growth either.
Simply wondering who you really are through self-reflection is spiritual growth in and of itself.
Spiritual growth gives us purpose and is necessary for self-actualization.
When you focus on these three pillars of personal growth, you will soon notice they are
all interlinked. When you lack purpose, the mind has no problems to solve and the body emits
emotions that keep us in this state of purposelessness, which breeds depression. When the
body is sick with illness, the mind focuses on survival and our spirit is stagnant on the ego to
keep us alive. Encompass these three pillars of personal growth and you improve the Self in the
most straightforward, authentic way possible – helping you manifest your ideal life.
Failure is Your Friend
by Issac M
Responsible self-talk is the core of resiliency. Consider: you’ve been beating yourself up for
decades. Every little misstep is cause for intense self-hatred; every stutter brings an avalanche
of shame. Is it any wonder that you’re frequently anxious when you’ve subjected yourself to
such Pavlovian conditioning? From here on out you incentivize yourself to take calculated risks.
This means always congratulating yourself when you fail.
Failure is your friend.
The next time you fail with a woman (or in any endeavor), you should feel excellent. Not
just okay, but great. If you’re not failing, then you’re not pushing the limit. In order to get the
opposite of the results you had in the past, you need to feel the opposite emotions. Failure is
your daily multivitamin. Every failure is an opportunity for you to treat yourself well and thereby
increase your future appetite for risk.
It does not matter what level you are operating on or how badly you have failed. Do not
hesitate. Forgive your failures immediately. Permanently. Profoundly.
You can also neuter your fear by embracing outlandish, unlikely outcomes. Humiliation is
bound to come. Loneliness and pain are a given part of a healthy life. Meditate on deep fears
and practice embracing those outcomes—even the unlikely ones. This is akin to the baseball
practice of swinging the bat with a weight attached before stepping to the plate.
Eliminate internal blocks caused by past violations of these principles. Any deep
emotions you felt in the past are going to manifest in your life today. When you have spent
decades wiring yourself wrong it can take intense reflection to identify and eliminate these
hang-ups. Your limiting beliefs can even take the form of mental images, people, songs, movies,
or phrases. Anything tied to emotion can be an anchor holding you down. Conduct an
inquisition. Meditate daily.
Once you’ve dealt with failure, you’ll be prepared to deal with success.
Create More and Consume Less
by Ivan Rebolledo
We have to spend more time creating and less time consuming. More time doing activities such
as making music, art, videos, crafts, tools, writing, gardening, programming, cooking, or any
other activity of your choice that adds value to your life or the lives of others. And less time
doing activities such as consuming social media, video games, junk food, digital or physical
media, buying things we don’t need, or other activities that are done as a source of ephemeral
pleasure and to escape from reality.
It is necessary to find a balance between these two types of activities, where creating
should be the main activity and consumption should come later to rest and recover energy. If
consumption becomes the main activity and is not limited, it will be very difficult to avoid an
excess of consumption. Nowadays, the economy thrives on the excess of human consumption,
and modern products (digital or physical) are so shiny, efficient, and easy to use, that it is very
easy to get hooked and consume them excessively.
It is also necessary to understand that, by creating something, one also creates oneself.
By doing difficult activities that require mental and physical effort, each person will become
aware of his or her strengths and weaknesses. These activities will help shape a person’s
essence, tastes, preferences and personality, which means that there will always be a small
amount of personal growth each time these activities are done.
In addition to shaping people, creating something gives the opportunity to add value to
society—by sharing creations that are useful or provide enjoyment to others, that are
aesthetically pleasing, or that are informative for present and for future generations.
Uncontrolled consumption, on the other hand, lends itself to an excess of ephemeral pleasure
that may feel good in the short term, but in the long term can bring feelings of disappointment,
overstimulation, and confusion.
That’s why I invite you to create, shape yourself, and possibly add value to society. And
when the time is right, rest. Relax, distract yourself, and nourish your body properly. Do all this
intentionally and with limits, so that consumption serves as a tool to rest and recover energy, not
a way to overstimulate yourself and escape from reality.
Maintaining Balance
by Stefan Kovačević
In today’s day and age, everything around you is trying to get your attention and keep it for the
sole purpose of consumerism. The negative side effect of this phenomenon is the addiction
which is being formed in the process. In this way, the goal of everything you’re consuming is to
keep you invested in it for someone else’s goals, at the expense of your control over yourself.
Just as you can get overly consumed by the negative influences in your life, so can you
get consumed by the positive influences as well. A radical approach to anything will not bring
about a good outcome, as you will get lost in your never-ending tunnel vision. Do not mistake
tunnel vision for a bad thing, however, as it provides the focus which you need to achieve your
goals.
In this case though, it must be achieved differently, not by addiction or obsession, but
discipline and flow. The road you tread upon should be supplemented with the tools to help you
establish much-needed discipline and the power of flow, both of which should be utilized for this
purpose. In this way, you will be able to control your willpower in order to focus on important
tasks, and once exhausted, you have the opportunity to give yourself breathing room to not fall
behind in the game of life. Taking small breaks to enjoy yourself can be regarded as a reward
for your productivity while remaining on your path towards your main goal.
You do not want to lose battles to win a war, nor the other way around, but to dominate
your way forward. This does not mean ignoring absolutely everything which isn’t directly related
to your goal, however. Rewarding yourself every once in a while will give you a sense of
progression rather than making you fall behind, as long as you maintain control. This can be
most easily achieved by scheduling your tasks and activities in advance in order to establish
boundaries and priorities. By incorporating this system you can maintain a solid control over
most spheres of your life whilst not straying from your path, nor overly distancing yourself from
the world around you. Programming yourself to see the possible distractions as possible
rewards will both limit you from getting too invested in the wrong things, as well as remove your
fear of missing out on what the world has to offer in terms of enjoyment.
Reach Out
by Noah Maxwell
“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
-
Mahatma Gandhi
Not all of us were destined to be a Gandhi and devote all of our waking hours to the service of
others. Life is taxing and many of us carry countless responsibilities on our shoulders. This
weight can often bring us down to periods of darkness, loneliness, and feelings of despair. A
way to pick yourself back up from these moments is, paradoxically, to pick up others. This act
does not have to be something as time-consuming as going on a mission trip to another country.
It can be as simple as picking up your phone, scrolling through your contacts, finding someone
you haven’t seen in a long time, and messaging them.
Reach out to an old friend, or maybe even just an old acquaintance, and send them a
short message about how you were going through your day and a memory of them popped into
your head. Tell them that you hope they are doing well. Perhaps this moment could blossom into
reconnecting with someone, or maybe you won’t receive a text back at all. It makes no
difference either way. It feels good to show love to others expecting nothing in return. This is a
simple tactic to remind yourself of the love you have in your heart, and lift yourself back into
good spirits.
Reject Comfort
by Dave “Bushman” Kneipp
Every day, life will give you a new set of challenges to overcome. With each of these challenges,
lies a path to take. Do you take the comfortable road, that which is safe, or the road of difficulty
and the unknown?
Comfort is a slow-acting poison, which will kill you, drip by drip—if you let it. Comfort is
sleeping in, engaging in vices that you know deep down are hurting you, and taking the easy
choice. Comfort is skipping the exercise, working the “safe” job, and telling yourself “next time”
and “it doesn’t matter.” Comfort is a moment of weakness that becomes easier every time you
give in. The more you give in, the worse you’ll feel, the more you need comfort to feel better. It
bleeds your life of spirit and leaves you a shell of a man.
In this, however, lies a beautiful opportunity. You can take the easy road (as many
around you might), or you can grab hold of the comfort and throw it far out of the way,
embracing the difficulty in front of you. Whether the task is a minor nuisance or inconceivably
difficult, if you charge forward against the challenge, you will grow. Your life will begin to
transform, slowly but surely. Comfort will always be at the door, knocking its insidious hand—but
once you experience a glimmer of what you can accomplish, you won’t look back.
You as a man are capable of far more than you can comprehend. Rise to the challenges
in your own life and forsake that which holds you back. Life’s richest rewards lie behind the
cloak of difficulty, and yours are waiting. Learn to love the challenge and to live for the fight;
nothing will stop you.
Forgiveness, a Man’s Glory
By Ethann
Many people wrong us in our lives—our fathers, mothers, friends, wives, partners, brothers, and
even ourselves. Many men go about their lives being shaped by the actions of others.
We think control and freedom are obtained through taking vengeance. But when we look
back, we see that that whole season of our lives was not being ruled by us, but by the bitterness
we produced in response to the other.
To be a man is to be forgiving. What is forgiveness?
“But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek,
turn to him the other also.”
-
Jesus Christ
What is happening here? Forgiveness is not the opposite of justice, but the fulfillment of
it. Justice demands an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Many are always caught in the cycle
of taking account of how others treat them, and then responding or reacting accordingly.
When you are reacting and responding to how other people treat and value you, you
have no frame, and have become the product of others’ perverse and distorted lenses.
Forgiveness is absorbing, covering, and taking another’s wrong upon yourself, to reveal
who you really are, and that you believe them to be better than they are acting. Forgiveness is
love. Forgiveness is freedom from bitterness. From others deciding what, who, and how you
are.
“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else, but
you are the one who gets burned.”
-
The Buddha
“Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.”
-
King Solomon
Deep Work
by Lwazi The Limitless
All men, in my opinion, need to have a certain period during the day where they focus on a
certain task that correlates with their passion. In this session, I recommend everyone use the
Pomodoro Technique, working on this passion task for thirty minutes then taking a five-minute
break, repeating this four times then taking a 30-minute break. One can either continue working
or decide to be done for the day. In this way, one can be solely focused on a task, eliminating all
distractions.
For me, it’s working on coding projects after school for two or more hours using this
technique. I’ve found that as I keep doing this method, my skills in coding are increasing, and
overall, I feel great having dedicated hours to work. I recommend that everyone find something
they are passionate about and use the Pomodoro technique for it. For Elisha, it’s probably video
editing and researching topics for the next video. For others, it can be drawing, schoolwork, or
writing. Hope this helps!
“What we choose to focus on and what we choose to ignore—plays in defining the quality of our
life.”
-
Cal Newport
The Fight of Your Life
by Emil Forssell (AKA Based Brothers)
One of the most important insights I’ve had in my life is that I want to live a life that is authentic
to me, that is authentic and true to my soul. To live a life that is in accordance with what I truly
want out of this experience, no matter what happens, regardless of the circumstances. Because
I realized that if I do that, that will be a full life. It’s not the years in life that matter, but the life in
the years. This means that I always have to do everything in my power to work towards
achieving and creating the life that I truly want to live. To be based and live out my soul
regardless of the opinions of others.
“Care about what other people think, and you will always be their prisoner.”
-
Lao Tzu
And while I’m on this quest, I want to feel the fullness and richness of all that the journey
has to offer. The journey is the goal. To live this way, I have to take full responsibility for making
my life fall in accordance with what I truly want. The point is to never give up on pursuing and
living the exact life you want to live. Those dreams you have, those things that you truly desire
in life—your soul goals—never, ever, stop pursuing them. Live as if your life depends on it,
because it truly does. What you desire may change over time as you grow in life, that’s natural.
What’s important is that you always listen to what you truly want out of life and that you do not
neglect that. That you do not let failures, disappointments, and circumstances make you give up
the fight of your life.
Never let setbacks kill the light inside you, the hope for you to live the life that you want
to live. Never, ever let that happen. As long as you continuously pursue what you truly want out
of life, you are winning.
“If you are not afraid of dying, there is nothing you cannot achieve.“
-
Lao Tzu
”It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.”
-
Marcus Aurelius
“Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now, take what’s left and live it properly.
What doesn’t transmit light creates its own darkness.”
-
Marcus Aurelius
“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any
time.”
-
Mark Twain
From a universal perspective, with this limited time on Earth, why would you not go after exactly
the life you want to live?
I want to be able to look back and say, “Dang, that was one hell of a journey and it
resonated with my soul, with what I wanted out of life.” When you are blessed with waking up in
the morning, you should feel that fire and desire of living the adventure and the life that is true
your soul. You have to work for that to happen. The world is not going to magically give that to
you. You have to take extreme accountability over your life, make sure that your life aligns with
what you truly want out of this experience, and settle for nothing else.
If you are playing video games all the time, taking drugs, watching porn, and coping with
other crutches, it may be because you feel like your life is not aligned with what your soul wants
out of this experience. You just can’t let failures, circumstances, things happening in your life kill
the light inside you. So I’m asking you to pick up the sword. Go on the adventure. Answer the
call and live the exact life that you want to live. Go on that journey. If you do that, you will live a
rich life.
High Thumos. Stay based.
Habit Builder
By LucasSmith2001
Habits are what make up people. Your habits define your actions and your character. Bad habits
will lead you to destruction and despair, while good ones will lead you to victory and happiness.
According to behavioral psychologist James Clear, on average it takes about 66 days to form a
new habit—though that can vary from person to person.
It takes time to start doing something consistently. Be patient and stick with it. If you
relapse, it’s okay. Keep trying. Because eventually if you’re persistent, you’ll form that good new
habit and slay the bad ones. Start small and build your way up to it. Rome was the largest and
most powerful empire in the ancient world. But everything comes from small beginnings. You’ve
heard the phrase, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Well, neither are people. Stay strong and keep
going. High Thumos.
Grow
by Chris_La_Dozier
Life is growth, death is stagnation.
We must become kings, by cultivating supreme authority over ourselves.
The pinnacles of supreme authority are awareness, knowledge, and power. These
pinnacles are a portal to our palace. A palace, where we become masters over our feelings,
thoughts, and actions. Where the will is freed, and we’re no longer slaves.
It is our hidden purpose to take grand control of evolution. To create a bloodline of small
gods, and direct the fate of existence, so the world may fully blossom.
Grow.
The “No Flinch” Principle
by Ryan “Liu Kang”
As men that walk the narrow path, we often encounter obstacles that delay us on our search for
greatness. These obstacles may sometimes hinder our journey and set us back if we are not
careful and let them consume us. These obstacles may manifest as a friendship gone south, a
physical confrontation with another man, or a colleague giving you a hard time. The potential
negative effects these can have on your long journey ahead can be mitigated and managed
through the implementation of the ‘No Flinch’ principle.
The concept is exactly as it sounds: controlling your body to prevent a reaction in a
stressful situation. The reason this is an important tool in your arsenal is because it makes you
significantly harder to read. What makes most people susceptible to forms of manipulation is
that they tell others what they’re thinking through the motion and language of their body. They
are quite literally leaking the thoughts and emotions their minds experience and pouring them
out to people who mean harm. By controlling your body, you control the leak.
Now, although you may not react physically in a stressful situation, it is important to
begin reacting cognitively in order to devise a decisive and swift action. This method is only
meant to conceal your plan by making you appear mentally absent; it doesn’t mean that you
actually should be.
Your mind and body are two sides of the same coin; as one side turns, the other follows.
If you force either one to calm and settle, the other will follow eventually — it is an inevitability.
This is the reason why sometimes, although even cryptic in nature, our words may reveal our
actions far into the future and the past. The truth for the reverse also holds as explained earlier.
The best gamblers do not flinch when they bluff; even the slightest out-of-place movement and
the entire table will read you like a book.
Not flinching isn’t only a measure against people giving you a hard time, it also
demonstrates the mastery over your body that you possess as a man. Over time as you learn to
relax your body and control its natural reflexes, you will begin to feel less tense and more
relaxed; your movements will possess grace and flow as you begin to put purpose behind every
action your body makes. It will no longer serve others, it will serve you. It will hide your cards,
and become the soldier your mind requires to enact calm, calculated and precise action. Action
with reason and with no derivation in anger or fear.
There Isn’t a Better Option
By Essan’Utep
Being a productive person and always working towards your goals is not the easiest thing to do.
Waking up at a reasonable hour, saying no to pleasurable but detrimental activities, not wasting
time, cutting certain people off, changing your habits and building new ones — this makes for a
very uncomfortable existence sometimes. There will be instances where you fall off and struggle
to climb back on the horse, but you need to always get back on regardless of how you feel.
You understand that you’re working towards a better life for yourself, becoming a better
you. If you refuse to work on yourself and improve your circumstances because of how difficult it
is, you will only end up in a worse position later down the line. Sure, it’s easy to stand in one
spot instead of sacrificing blood, sweat, and tears, but you will surely rot faster than you can
imagine. Your mental health will decline along with your physical health. The bright light at the
end of the tunnel will dim, leaving you alone in the darkness.
Stagnation is not much different than death. I guarantee that you have done something
in the past that you sometimes look back on and think, “Man, that was amazing. I really felt
alive.” Those moments are usually few and far between when you live a mediocre life. What I
mean by mediocre isn’t necessarily status or money; I mean lifestyle, the lifestyle of taking
action towards your goals on a daily basis. You don’t need to aim for a Lamborghini and a
mansion. It’s all about what you personally want. It could be building a small log cabin. The only
thing that matters is that it’s going to make you feel accomplished and alive. There’s a long road
ahead of you, and it’s filled with obstacles of all types. Don’t be discouraged, my friend. Just
remind yourself, “There isn’t a better option.”
High thumos.
Becoming The Moment
by Tullius Rooney
What do I mean by becoming the moment? I, too, had this question when seeking the different
philosophies in life. Scrolling through many YouTube videos trying to fill the void, I was on a
quest to find peace within myself. By chance, I stumbled across this Ice God named Wim Hof
who found peace within himself after his wife had committed suicide.
Intrigued, I scrolled, clicked, and witnessed his mastery in controlling his body and
emotions. After my examination, I said “Fuark it, I want what this guy’s got.” So I began my
journey using the Wim Hof breathing method. A brief rundown on the method, it consists of 30
deep breaths in and out, then a hold for a 30 second count that increases by 30 seconds each
round, and finally a 15 second release of breath. Also, you can do this for 2-6 rounds depending
on your immunity to holding your breath.
Again, what do I mean by becoming the moment? Well, you can only understand if you
do the practice yourself. It’s true that words can’t describe the sensation of breathing through
your struggles and fighting the air with your determination. But let me tell you, my friend, once
you defeat the fight against your breath, you will feel as if you’re standing on the mountaintops
victorious. Then, a wind of peace brushes upon your hair, skin, and eyes. Suicidal thoughts,
depression, anxiety, hatred, and jealousy don’t belong on the mountaintops. You become
greater than all those things and live with power.
We as men need to find the peace that is in us, because it is our birthright. Become the
peacemaker in your homes and in your work. You can only find peace in yourself because
nobody will give peace to you. Peace is High Thumos energy, brothers. Stay based!
Understanding Relationships
by Ethan “Ubermensch” Natalius
When finding the woman of your dreams, tread lightly. This is an important decision that will
affect an enormous portion of your life. Your goals, habits, and thoughts may be shifted due to
the woman you choose, so choose wisely. In the simplest of forms, there are two types of
women: low-value and high-value. I would define a low-value woman as one that would be
prone to cheat, manipulate you, treat you and others with a lower level of respect than is
deserved, and simply be unattractive.
Clearly, a high-value woman would be the opposite: loyal, kind, respectful to you and
others, attractive, and someone that you could see as fit for raising your children. In the book
University of Destruction by David Wheaton, he states that there are several questions to
ponder over when considering a woman as a potential mate.
They are as follows:
- Do we share the same beliefs and values?
- What is this person’s character?
- Would this person be a good mother?
- Would my family like this person and do I like her family?
- What are this person’s goals and ambitions?
- Do we have some common interests?
- Can I envision myself married to this person for the rest of my life?
“A man is only as strong as the woman who holds him.”
- Beverly Jenkins
Leave Your Old Ways Behind
by John AKA “TeamGirth”
It is absurd to think that one can change without changing anything. If you are discontent with
your current self and you want to change, the first and only possible step is to do something
different. Over time, you’ll begin to change more and more things in your life and eventually you
will become the person who you strive to be. You can’t get a nice physique without lifting or
counting macros. You can’t get a girlfriend without talking to girls. You can’t move out if you don’t
have money. Identify what needs to change and your life and do it. You’ll be amazed by the
difference it makes.
Deserving, but Not Owed
by Jack Miles
Growing into adulthood as a young man can be a challenging and frightening thing. We are
faced with things in our control that require great amounts of self-discipline, as well as things
outside of our control that we need the strength and patience to learn to accept. We may grow
to learn more about ourselves and what truly matters to us most in regards to spiritual and moral
fulfillment and pleasure, but how many of us stand firm in our belief of what we deserve?
Every man should know himself well enough to be able to say, “I know that I want this
and I deserve to have every bit of it,” yet also be gifted with the humility and wisdom to realize
that he isn’t owed anything from anyone and that only his hard work can yield desired
outcomes. But as we continue to work hard and push ourselves constantly to be the better men
we have the opportunity to be, may we remember that we aren’t owed the smiles from passerby,
the company from females we admire, or the respect from our fellow brothers.
Hopefully life feels less burdensome when you start to view your life in an honest and
sincere frame and abandon the hopeless mindset of a victim. May we be humble enough to
admit we aren’t owed, but inspired enough to insist we can get what we want with perseverance
and effort.
Cherish your Friends
by Oliver
The value that friendship holds is enormous. Humans are social creatures — pack animals, if
you will. We are meant to work together, not roam as lone wolves. We may need solitude from
time to time to recharge, but we most definitely all need friends. Many friends in our life come
and go, some not so close, and others very close. It is deeply important that we cherish and
value each and every close friend we have, for they bring experience, lessons, or simply just
comfort at the right time into our lives. You do not need to nurture and build a relationship with
every acquaintance, as this is a waste of your time and energy — however, some people will
stand out that you just click with, and these people don’t come along very often. So when they
do, you must recognize the importance of this friendship and not take it for granted, as I once
did. I had a solid friend for a long time; we were tight. One day I stupidly betrayed his trust. It
was the worst move I have ever made, and it was irreparable. There are no excuses, though; I
cannot change the past. I can only become a better man and a more solid friend to other
people. Know the value of your friends.
Bring Order to Your Kingdom
by Elisha Longsword
Do not neglect the little things. So many of us are focused on getting ahead that we let the little
things get behind.
Your life will be much easier if you maintain order in your kingdom. Do not neglect the
things around you or they will die. Change the oil on your car, keep your room and work areas
clean, water the plants, clean the bathroom when it gets dirty.
It’s the maintenance of small things, things that make up our daily life, that assists us on
the path to achieve great things.
Oh Past Me, Listen Ye
by Benjamin Socrates
I call upon you now to step above your trivial carnal desires and rise. I seek your utmost
dedication towards reaching your highest potential. I am consulting you as yourself to yourself,
from another time and another space, yet ever the same.
Always look up.
Then win.
In times long forgotten, but always remembered, your ancestors did listen to your call for
help. Help in the eternal struggle. Help in the battle for victorious light. Help in the name of all
that is sacred.
No different are you, than the organisms of yore that strove to go on, by the light,
through the darkness. For like your own universal spar, the struggle is ever the same. But with
greater capacity for life, comes greater responsibility, and yet greater mysteries.
Breathe intently.
Then be strong.
Strong are ye. Powerful are ye. Know this, and go forth with pulsating pride. You are
ripper…tearer…gouger! You are the teeth in the darkness, the talons in the night. Yours is
strength and lust and power. You inhabit the spirit of Beowulf. You inhabit the spirit of Leonidas.
The everlasting fire is scorching within yourself. Rip and tear through the facades. Beat the
maze. Be benevolent and pure of heart, yet also severe and firm.
Prioritize sleep.
Then see more clearly.
Do you want to be a malignant slug or a fiery blue tiger-lord of instant primal esteem?
Render yourself unaccomplished, old friend, and set sail for the distant horizons of danger and
high adventure. Come there and meet me at the high apex of the Yore-Mountain. Let us from
there climb ever higher, towards the glistening stars.
Hoist big weight.
Then realize eternal glory.
The Artist and the Masterpiece
by: Ray ‘Silvertongue’ Lanfranco
“Everyone holds his future in his own hands, like a sculptor the raw material he will fashion into
a figure. But it’s the same with that type of artistic activity as with all others: We are merely born
with the capability to do it. The skill to mold the material into what we want must be learned and
attentively cultivated.”
-
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Everything that you have ever been influenced by in your existence has created the personality
that you call your own today. All of your greatest achievements, your traumas, the men and
women you have been inspired by, and all of your favorite works of art — whether albums,
books, or movies — these things moved you, and they made you. They are responsible for your
beliefs, your prejudices, your fears, your desires, the way you behave, dress, and speak. Our
egos are formed by a series of stories that we tell ourselves about our relationship with the
world, and you have had many identities throughout your life. Just as beasts adapt to survive in
their environments, so too do you manifest personality traits in order to operate within the world
— and just like the camouflaging behaviors of chameleons and octopi, you are capable of
changing the shape and color of your persona at will. The camouflage — and in this case, your
new identity — first begins as a shoddy mess of color, but within minutes, it becomes so refined
as to be near imperceptible to the naked eye. As with all disciplines, crafting an identity is a
practice, and it is cultivated through imitating.
“A wise man ought always to follow the paths beaten by great men, and to imitate those who
have been supreme, so that if his ability does not equal theirs, at least it will savor it. Let him act
like the clever archers who, designing to hit the mark which yet appears too far distant, and
knowing the limits to which the strength of their bow attains, take aim much higher than the
mark, not to reach by their strength or arrow to so great a height, but to be able with the aid of
so high an aim to hit the mark they wish to reach.”
-
Niccolò Machiavelli
Tomorrow, when you wake up, observe the things that you give your attention to, the
thoughts that you rehearse and entertain in your head, and the language you use in describing
yourself, others, and things in your world. Make a note, whether literal or mental, about the
things that you noticed. When you do, begin to craft a rudimentary schema of the man you
would like to be in 1, 2, 5, and 10 years — what are the differences between you and each of
these men? What are the habits that categorize their day-to-day existences? What does their
mental diet look like? How do they articulate themselves? How do they look? Give them
nicknames and titles if you want. What are the stories behind each of them? In something as
simple as creating a mental sketch behind these potential selves, you have provided yourself
the means by which to begin shifting your identity. The next step is to act as one of these selves
that you have created — you’ll suck at first — but it is important to fail at this, because it will aid
you in refining the models that you have created.
Purchase one of the outfits you imagine your future selves wearing — and when you do,
do something that your future self would do: walk as if you have a crown placed on your head.
Spend an evening writing from the perspective of the new you, and in doing so, discard any of
your current concerns — when you write, write as if all you had planned to achieve were
achieved. Write as if you are concerned with maintaining order in the world that you created for
yourself as the future you — what would you be concerned about in the future? The purpose of
these exercises is to demonstrate to yourself one fundamental truth — the only difference
between the you of the present and the future is the frequency with which you behave like him.
He is depending on your active participation for his survival — be a friend to the you of the
future, because he exists as you, right now, and when you fall short of imitating him, remember
that time is the only distance between the artist and the masterpiece.
Processing Thoughts
by Ben Maker
Isn’t it funny how we can’t sit still for just a minute without the need for some sort of quick
gratification? Our youth, our friends, even our own mothers and fathers haven’t taken the time in
their lives to learn how to be at peace with their thoughts. This is a big component of why people
try to stay so ‘busy’ working, chasing a dead end, just so they can steer clear of their toxic
thoughts in their alone time — or should I say, the time they don’t spend alone.
This might be a great way to explain why a mid-life crisis is so common among men. It
can explain why marriages fail and divorce rates are so high. It can explain why the children of
those failed relationships end up as a spitting image of their mother or father, if not worse, when
having to struggle with social media and the expectations put on young adults. The solution is
that mindfulness needs to be practiced every day to ensure we are at peace with the actions we
take. No action should occur without processed thought and intent. Once you conquer the urge
to give into bad habits which the mind pushes so hard into your subconscious, you are finally
free of the shackles that hold your spirit down.
That feeling to watch another video, to scroll another feed, to watch another story, let it
pass. That feeling of pulling out your phone when you have nothing to do? Sit with it and let it
pass. That missing gratification that pushes your mind to open up toxic websites, or indulge in
poisonous foods? Just let it pass.
As Ryan Holiday states in Stillness is the Key:
“To have an impulse and to resist it, to sit with it and examine it, to let it pass like a bad smell –
this is how we develop spiritual strength. This is how we become who we want to be in this
world. Only these people know that real pleasure lies in having a soul that’s true and stable,
happy and secure.”
Take control of your thoughts and your mind. Practice meditation. Practice mindfulness.
Spend time putting your mindful thoughts into actions rather than letting your mindless thoughts
become your actions.
Is Ignorance Bliss?
by Gavin Kirkwood White
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
-
Socrates
You have most likely heard the phrase “ignorance is bliss.” People throw this around all the time,
but is it true? Are you better off not knowing? Is it true that what you don’t know can’t hurt you?
The idea that you may somehow be saved from the burden of existence by simply being
ignorant to the world may very well be true for some. Those with mental deficiencies or those
who simply lack any drive towards wisdom may live happily ever after without a clear sense of
the world around them. Of course, they sacrifice the ability to compete in any high level
competitive job market, or in any form of excellence at all. So is it worth the trade off? Is a life of
bliss with no strong sense of self worthwhile? Or is an examined life with an understanding of
suffering and the tools to bear the load the proper path for a man? The choice will always be
yours, but let me say this: it is a damn shame to not live up to your full potential.
You see, living your life to its fullest potential should not be a daunting staircase that you
look up in horror, where even the idea of climbing to the top makes you feel sick. Instead it
would be wise to look ahead, see the first step in the staircase and be glad that it’s there for you.
You can then take your first step towards an examined life, a life worth living.
Your full potential is not a chore, it is a gift. One that you not only owe to yourself, but to
the world.
Limited Time with Endless Possibility
by Nick the Liberator
Life is short. Look at it from the outside. 1 in 20 people get to live to 100. Meaning you have
approximately 5200 weeks to spend. That is if you live to 100. Some people die from a car
accident before 20 or die of cancer in their 30’s. So, realistically, you will have even less time
than that. Every day is a life or death gamble, where some people strike out and are gone. This
is an unsettling feeling because usually we don’t comprehend and view our lives from an
outside perspective. We don’t like to think about the possibility that there is a “last time” we will
have to see someone or do something. It is important to move past this morbid truth and turn it
into a fulfilling reality.
What is really important to you? What do you keep putting off? If you don’t try and at
least think about it, then nothing will change and you will only get older. It’s also interesting to
think about all there is out there to distract you, to keep you away from using that precious time
for yourself. It’s very easy to get lost in all the games to play, movies to watch, books to read,
mundane work, and unfulfilling relationships. So I ask you to see your life for what it is: limited.
And use that light to shine the way ahead, to do the things that you need to do, to see those
people that are important to you while you can. Use your precious time wisely, for your
possibilities are endless.
Don’t Leave Crumbs, Leave Seeds
by Maurice “rice” Muse
How do you spend your time? Are you spending it on things that are going to better yourself or
dig yourself deeper in a hole? From a young age, I have had an uneasiness about the possibility
of myself being in Hell. I’ve witnessed it firsthand by observing my mother from a young age and
from the power of my own vices. When most people think of their mothers, they think of a caring
person who will do anything for them and brings joy to their life. This has not been the case for
me. In fact, it is the complete opposite. Growing up with an alcoholic mother put me in a lot of
strange situations when I was younger. One time when I was spending the weekend with her
(luckily my father had custody), she brought me to a family member’s house whom I had just
been introduced to that day and soon left, without me.
To be fair, she did say she was going to come back and she might’ve but I’ll never know.
Luckily, one of the family members that was there brought me back to his house, fed me, and let
me stay until my father brought me home that night. These visits with my mother weren’t
scheduled; she would ask to see me and my father thought I should see my mother. So, she
made the decision to see me and then I ended up less important than the drinking she wanted
to do that day. I learned that I am alone in this world and I’d better know how to fend for myself.
When you leave behind crumbs, someone has to clean up the mess you’ve made. In this
instance, that family member and my dad were affected by my mother’s addiction.
Addiction isn’t always as transparent as alcoholism. Sometimes you can be addicted to
something that isn’t so obviously detrimental to you and the people around you. Taking an
honest assessment of how you spend your time, the things you like to do, and how they have an
effect on the other aspects of your life is necessary to bring about a reality in which you are
enriching people with your actions. For example, I have been smoking weed since I left high
school. Prior to this, I wasn’t a slave to any vice, especially with my family history. There was
always this narrative that weed isn’t addictive, but I’m here to tell you that is a lie. There is a
mental addiction to weed that is often not discussed. It varies from person to person but I
noticed that there was a strong force that weed had on me. When you smoke weed, all your
problems go away, and while that seems cool in the moment, long term it isn’t a good strategy
for living a High Thumos life as a man.
When I smoke, I am less likely to wake up early, less likely to work out, less likely to
hang out with friends, and less likely to want to make progress in life. In short, it causes me to
become stagnant. Now, maybe when I’m 80 and I have an entire life of hard work and
accomplishments to look back on, it will be okay to be stagnant. However, I believe that there is
a shitload more to be accomplished in my life and I cannot stay the same and expect to change.
With that being said, pay attention to how you spend your time and the quality of things you are
doing throughout the day. Jordan Peterson once said, “Do what is meaningful, not what is
expedient.” One of the keys to living a high thumos life is to distinguish what in your life is going
to plant seeds for your future and what crumbs you are leaving behind for others to clean up
behind you.
High Thumos Quick Tips
by Joseph with the Eye
Confront Problems ASAP
The sooner you face your problems, the sooner they will be resolved. If you can confront a
problem at the source, it’s most often the best time to do so. Allowing a problem to continue
existing will only make it harder to confront.
Why allow a snowball to become an avalanche?
Two Ears, One Mouth
You, probably, were born with two ears and one mouth. This design is symbolic. You should
listen twice as much as you speak.
The key word is listen. Listening does not just mean hearing. There’s a difference
between listening to music and merely hearing it.
Another way to view two ears, one mouth is like a sort of blender or juicer. You take all of
these things you listen to and blend it into your brain, and then your brain filters out the mixture
via your mouth.
Have you ever listened to something (including thoughts) as you’re talking and had a
Freudian slip? The art of listening can be difficult. Going back to hearing vs. listening, there’s a
reason you can tune things out. You have to be mindful of what you listen to. As you become a
skilled listener, your mouth’s filter becomes better as well, or in other words, a better speaker.
Think of someone you know with a “bad filter,” or no filter at all.
Everyone Is Helping You, One Way or Another
Your mom is hounding you for sitting around the house all day, which led to you moving out and
becoming a free independent man.
Your boss is not giving you the respect you deserve, which got you to leave for a better
job.
The girl who rejected you after you nervously asked her out made you reevaluate your
approach.
That bully who used to make your life harder led to you signing up for Jiu Jitsu and
learning self-defense.
Leave Social Media
by Jimmy Singh
Real life or reel life? Too many of us end up wasting our lives chasing likes, women, attention,
and love on the internet, such that we lose our purpose in real life. We get carried away
watching the best and happiest moments of someone else’s life, which leads to a drop in our
self-confidence and an addiction of comparing our lives to others.
Further, with the rise of dating apps, men are losing their communication skills and
self-worth. Men have become more and more awkward around women because of the
convenience of having virtual conversations with females. A lot of these men can do better than
that, but they end up subscribing to OnlyFans accounts and paying for premium dating app
memberships.
It is easy to talk to women on the internet, but difficult to approach them in person. Social
media lets us hide this fear. In addition, social media is dividing us when it comes to politics,
gender, religion. There is no peace on the internet. We engage in meaningless wars on Reddit
or Twitter, wasting our time, energy, and attention. This same time can be used for your purpose
to help you grow as an individual.
Get off social media. Make friends in real life. Approach women in real life. Work on your
purpose in real life. Stop relying on social media for everything. The world existed before it and
humans were able to socially interact effectively. Feel the joy after you get a woman’s number in
person. It is indescribable and worth more than the temporary dopamine hits you get from social
media.
Now, I do not believe social media is 100% negative. If you have a business, social
media is beneficial for its growth. If you are a part of a club or group that brings value to your
life, it is great to have social media. Have a specific reason on why you are on social media. Ask
yourself: does it bring a purpose to my life? Is it helping or hindering my personal growth? Can I
live without social media?
You are the main character in your life. Grow physically, mentally, emotionally, and
spiritually.
Compete with who you were yesterday, not with people on the internet showing their
best life.
No Man is a Master in His Home
by Elisha Longsword
“A man may be a messiah to everyone except his Wife, Children and his Horse.”
A simple fact that you should come to accept early on, is that the people in your
immediate environment will never believe in you or realize your potential for greatness as much
as you would like them to. The sooner you accept this, the fewer headaches you will have and
the quicker you can move towards your goals.
Understand that our social circles and the people we grow up with, see a different side of
us than the image we present to the rest of the world. Do not be dismayed when friends neglect
to purchase your first album, when your aunts laugh at your crazy ideas, when your parents
don’t believe in your business idea and tell you to “go to school or you’ll be homeless.”
It is natural for those who grow familiar with us to take our talents and skills for granted.
However, do not waste time trying to prove them wrong; they are not the ones you need to
make into believers. Go about your business, believe in your ability, and question the reasoning
behind their doubt. Never allow your ego to grow so big that you neglect the obvious writings on
the wall.
“If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you but make allowance for their doubting too.”
-
Rudyard Kipling
Instead of trying to win the admiration from those around you, seek to cherish them and
be supportive. Keep in mind, peace with family and friends is far superior in helping you reach
your goals. Stirring up strife while making enemies will only make things harder on yourself,
dampening your progress. Slowly over time you will carve out a path in the world, meeting new
people who recognize your unique greatness.
The Power Of Stoicism And Polarity
by Rene Halttunen “R4ne”
“If you are pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs you, but your own
judgment about it. And it is in your power to wipe out this judgment now.”
-
Marcus Aurelius
In life, you’ll inevitably encounter many situations where you’ll find yourself wondering what
would be the best choice of action — and often regretting the response you took. Maybe you let
your emotions take over, or perhaps you were pressured by the expectations and opinions of
other people.
There aren’t necessarily right or wrong answers; you might’ve never even brought
yourself to that situation, yet you have to endure the situation’s harshness. Life is unpredictable,
and so are people. People have many expectations for you, and almost demand you to fulfill
them; this is the problem of many leaders.
There will be unavoidable polarity in the things you do and say. This is why it is vital to
remain true to yourself and stick to your purpose. Only then will you find the people you are
supposed to meet. Keep them close, and share a common purpose with them. If you keep a
mask on, and hide your true intention, it’s going to exhaust you and take away from your
concentration towards your own journey of life, as well as decrease the quality of your
well-being.
In this situation, like in most situations, you aren’t able to control the external forces of
the world. The outcome of any given moment, the fate of the universe, even the reason for your
death. The only power you hold is the power to choose how you respond to any given situation.
This power is called Stoicism.
When you have harnessed the power of being Stoic, you become much more efficient
and purpose-driven. Since you direct your focus away from other people’s opinions, your
headspace becomes much clearer, and you can make choices based on what you truly think, as
well as see things from many perspectives.
If you lose friends, because of your true opinions, that friendship wasn’t meant to be.
Move on, and don’t get too hung up on it.
With this, you can increase your concentration towards the things that really matter to
you. And strive to become the best version of yourself.
Remember Your Forefathers
by Amir “Sun Lad” Shammasov
Since the dawn of time, people have respected and revered their forebears. Veneration of the
dead was and still is central to many religions and beliefs. But in Europe, even after conversion
to Christianity and the abolishment of ancestor worship (among other pagan practices), respect
to one’s predecessors still blossomed. Back then a person who denied his tribe’s or nation’s
heritage would’ve been considered a madman. However, in the last century it has started to
change. Now it is fashionable to disregard your ancestry. But there are few things more foolish
for a man to do than to cut his own roots, for a few reasons:
Nobody will argue that we live in the most prosperous time in all of known history.
However, being well-fed and having a roof over one’s head wasn’t always a given. Before the
industrial revolution and modern medicine, growing up to be an adult was a feat because of high
child mortality. Even after the end of the ice age, when the climate became warmer and most of
the monstrous animals went extinct, life was harsh. Wars, famines, diseases, you name it. Point
is, people from your family had to go through a lot to pass down their genes to you. Don’t they
deserve a little admiration? Wouldn’t it be nice for them to know that their descendants still
remember them, and still light candles in their names?
Knowing your genetic and cultural background and identifying with it creates a strong
sense of self, an inner axis mundi, if you will. And knowing which group you are part of will, in
turn, give you a place in this world.
Knowing and respecting your ancient blood-kin was a fundamental principle of societies
all over the globe for eons. I personally believe that the root cause of the identity crisis in the
West is the detachment from our forebears, and the only way we can stop it is by reconnecting
with our own ancestors. Celebrate the traditional holidays, learn about the history and customs
of your people, spend more time with your family if you have one, create a culture that
remembers and respects your forefathers, and spread it wide.
Be a person who remembers his heritage, and your heritage will, in turn, be
remembered.
The Tears Of A Man
by Wick
“Men cry not for themselves, but for their comrades.”
At age 13, I read this quote on the loading screen of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. From then
on, I found myself pondering what it meant for a man to cry.
I had never really seen my father cry. Growing up, he was the strongest man in my
world. Entering my teenage years, I drew upon this ideal; a strong man does not cry. So
throughout my boyhood, I withheld my tears, even against the harshest waves of sorrow thrown
at me. I had seen my mother cry well over a dozen times, and I solidified in my mind that it was
the man’s job to remain stoic and unwavering while women weep.
The new-age society has tried to normalize emotional men. The problem with this…well,
boys often misunderstand things. To most of us as growing boys, this translates to “be a weak
little crybaby,” and thus we would turn into mere twigs in the wind, as opposed to our fathers, the
stoic mountains.
But against what society tried to mold us into, I had not cried for close to a decade. After
all those years, at the age of 20, I was leaving home…and for the first time in my life, I saw my
father shed tears. They were the manliest tears I had ever seen, so much so that they did not
leave his eyes, sinking back into their sockets. It was my coming of age, my graduation from the
safe arms of my strong father. I saw it as a sign that he was passing on the torch of being the
mountain over to me. He could finally rest.
When I finally got to my new room, the emptiness, the lack of familiar voices sunk in. The
silence bounced off the walls. Away from anyone’s gaze, I cried my eyes out. For the death of
my childhood, for the friends, family, and memories I had to leave behind. It was cathartic,
liberating, my first tears as a man.
Then I understood, justification of tears lie not in the if, but the why. If you cry for
yourself, your own pain, your own weakness — then you are not a strong man. You are still a
boy.
To truly cry as a man means not to surrender to your emotions. So that line from Final
Fantasy made sense to me now. Soldiers are strong men. The comrades that fought by your
side, their deaths you cannot reverse, the fact that you will never get to share another beer in
times of peace with them. That is worthy of a man’s tears. As for me, time does not move
backwards, I will never be a carefree child again. My parents will wither away and vanish before
me, and I will never control that destiny.
I concluded that infants cry for attention, children cry for their needs, girls cry for
emotions, boys cry for themselves, mothers cry for joy, fathers cry for pride, women cry for love,
and men…a man cries for what he cannot control.
So men, cry for what is worthy of your tears. And be strong.
True Rest
by Ivan Rebolledo
Many times we think that resting is about doing passive activities such as watching television,
reading a book, playing video games, doing something we like, or any activity of this nature. But
if we think that we really rest by doing passive activities of this type, it is possible that we are far
from reality, because most of the day our mind is processing large amounts of information while
we live our daily lives. Activities such as working, studying, driving, walking, communicating,
using the cell phone, and all the other activities that we repeat daily are using brain power. That
is why, in reality, the aforementioned concept of “resting” leaves us even more tired and less
rested. So all these activities that require us to watch, read or do something, require our brain to
process equally large amounts of information as we do during our active hours in the day.
Therefore, I invite you to take some time to stop being active for a while, give your brain
a break, and truly rest. Go for a walk, have a cup of tea, meditate, spend time in silence and
reflection, pray, sleep, spend time with people you care about, or just contemplate and pay
attention to your surroundings. All this sounds boring, but you have to embrace the boredom,
learn to enjoy it and let your brain recover. Because you have to be truly rested to stay on the
path and to become a man who is the example of his community.
Life As A Narrative
by Daniel The Navigator
As children, our parents read us bedtime stories and sang us nursery rhymes, feeding our
imaginations. Our imaginations began to overlap the real world. Tree branches became swords.
Our blankets became our capes. Trips to the supermarket with our parents and playing with
friends became quests. If you think back to your earliest conceivable memory, the moment you
became conscious of your own self, that was the beginning of your story. Chapter One of a
great adventure you forgot you were the hero of. Until now.
Art and life mirror each other. The plays and movies we watch, the songs we listen to,
and the novels we read have beginnings, middles, and endings. Build-ups, tension, climaxes,
and resolutions. Like myself, many of you no doubt have thought of your life as a movie or book,
with everyone else playing a supporting role to lift us up when we are down, to crush our fingers
as we climb, to love us or hate us, yet all the while teaching us lessons along the way. Of
course, that means they are the lead roles in their own lives, and we are side characters to
them.
Our stories develop as we interact with others, and on a much greater scale we call it
history, or “his story.” The Story of Man. “Historia” in Spanish means both “history” and “story.”
The problem is, can we trust who is telling us the story? Humans embellish details to make
stories more interesting, and influential people in power can easily alter or omit certain events of
the past to give themselves legitimacy, tarnish the names and reputations of their enemies, or
erase them altogether. Most people who show even the mildest curiosity and awareness come
to learn that a number of events did not transpire the way they were taught in school, or were
simply not taught at all. The establishment news media is another institution of storytellers,
reading scripts, narrating to us not only which current events we should know and care about,
but also what stances we should take and when, should the narrative conveniently change in
real time.
Information puts us in formation. Thanks to the internet, politicians, educators,
revolutionaries, religious leaders, news channels, and now popular content creators, have no
limits to the lengths their words and ideas can travel. As long as they invoke the right emotions
in us and weave a narrative captivating enough to buy our attention, they can put us under their
spells, construct for us a small narrow window for us to perceive reality through, and mold us in
their matrix into characters suitable for their own agendas if we are careless, complacent,
ignorant, naive, and unaware.
I felt this was the case with myself. With the deluge of information we are subjected to
daily and all the different versions of history people claim is the truth, the more I read and
studied to feed my insatiable curiosity birthed from what I call the “knowledge famine” during my
time in the public school system, the more the ground I stood on to view the world kept
crumbling and turning to sand beneath me. There seemed to be no bottom. I couldn’t help but
wonder if the human condition is ultimately a never ending battle of master writers competing for
The World Narrative. Which tales will be accepted and believed in the minds of the people?
Which authors will amass the most followers? Who among them will be immortalized in records
for the ages?
If we are all characters relegated to our own scripts, how can we relate to others? How
do we inspire? How do we learn? Can we alter the course of history, or are we doomed to be
rolled under the wheel, repeating the same mistakes of the past? Do we have a choice? YES.
We may not think there is, but we can always decide. It is time we remember now: we are not
just characters, but writers!
History is man’s collective story, but what about his individual story? Namely, yours. The
small, silent good deeds you do daily may go unnoticed and forgotten in the textbooks, but not
in the hearts of those whose lives you influence in the small corners of the world you inhabit.
You may not be able to control events or other people, but you can learn to control your mind
and use discretion with what you allow to enter it.
This is my perspective based on my experiences, observations, interactions, and
studies, and standards by which I also am striving to live by. To not be the hero of your story is
to be a pawn in someone else’s. Be the hero. Develop your character. Learn skills, languages,
improve yourself, lead by example, and be a pillar of virtue for your community or your people,
whoever you consider that to be. You have your own story to write, your own script, your own
path to walk down. Others have theirs. The road we are meant to travel is dangerous, but not
nearly as perilous as walking someone else’s, or one that another lays out for you. There will be
endless distractions and temptations to lead you astray, and at times they will succeed, but stay
the course.
We’re going to make it.
The Benefits of Creating and Fixing
by Florian ‘‘Flo Flow’’ E
Have you ever experienced your car making a weird noise? Let’s just bring it to the mechanic
because he will fix it, right? Did you ever think about displaying your books on a nice looking
bookshelf that looks exactly how you want it to? Let’s just browse the Ikea website and choose
one that looks the closest to your wishes, right? Perhaps you had an old comfortable chair but
the fabric ripped and the wood had some wear so you just bought a new one. It is easier to get
something fixed or to buy something new than to do it yourself. That’s why I want to talk about
the benefits of creating and fixing stuff.
Creating and fixing share similar benefits, one of the best feelings about creating that
custom bookshelf or fixing that weird noise on your car is the feeling of accomplishment. Letting
someone else do the work doesn’t even come close to the feeling you get when you finish the
job and you stand there for a moment admiring your own work, it really makes you proud that
you picked up the tools, some elbow grease and got it done yourself. The feeling of
accomplishment is good for your mind, and so is working with your hands. A moment where
you’re away from a screen, music, or people and just alone with your tools, the object that
requires work, and your mind can be just as good as meditating. Creating and fixing stuff also
fuels the mind in different ways which are also very beneficial. It increases your knowledge
about different objects and it also increases your ability to think outside of the box when trying to
solve problems.
A great example is your own car. Cars often have problems, and to many men, even the
idea of working on your own car seems like rocket science. It might be scary to start removing
bolts and clamps from the vehicle that drives you to work everyday but in this case books and
the internet are your best friend. Everyone has to start somewhere and while working on your
car may seem overwhelming you can start with small things like changing the air and oil filter
when maintenance is required. For every car there’s instruction manuals, youtube tutorials and
internet forums with experienced users that will help you out. The key is to start small and to get
out of your comfort zone which is another benefit that also applies to other things in life. If you
work on your own car you’ll also become more knowledgeable about it, and next time there’s a
weird noise you might already know where it’s coming from.
Creating something will also get you out of your comfort zone. Many men are afraid to
mess up something while creating it. There are a lot of things you can mess up while making a
bookshelf — wrong measurements, not cutting the wood straight, or getting marks while
painting it. The thing is, if you are too afraid to mess one of these things up, you’ll never
overcome that fear, because you need to put in work and learn from mistakes in order to
overcome it. It’s not the end of the world if your bookshelf has some marks and is not perfectly
straight, you still put in the work to make it and next time you work with wood and paint you
know how to avoid these small mistakes and improve your work.
The last benefit I want to talk about is becoming more independent. If you know how to
create objects that you can use yourself, you become more independent from manufacturers,
and if you can do maintenance on your vehicle you become more independent from the
mechanic. Being independent is necessary in order to become a man of high value.
Uncover Hidden Paths
by S. “Bast” Pranger
You come to a crossroad. It is up to you to decide which way to go. However, it is also up to
your judgment to choose a path which will lead you to a place you want to be at. This can be
great, because in theory you could always choose the best possible path, provided your
judgment is perfect. On the other hand, you might not be able to assess each path depending
on visibility and experience. If you can not see more than two meters into a foggy path, or if you
have not learned the difference between a stone path and wild grass yet, choosing the best one
will turn out to be difficult. In reality most paths you could choose will probably not even be
visible to you, and therefore you do not even get to choose to walk it.
In my opinion, the ability to choose your own path of life is priceless and should not be
ignored. One way to uncover new paths is to sharpen your vision and gain experience. The
former can make you able to notice new branches that might lead you somewhere better. With
the latter you can assess your chosen way to go from this growing array of possibilities. So how
do you get vision and experience?
One way to improve your vision for new opportunities is to cultivate awareness. Reflect
on the current status quo. What do you want? Why do you want it? Is it possible that you might
have a flaw in your thoughts in some way? Open your eyes to those possibilities, question
societal norms set upon you and behavior patterns in yourself and other people. Things might
not be as set in stone as they might appear. If you shift your awareness and dismiss fallacious
rules, a brick wall might turn out not to be a stop, but an object to climb for a new better view on
the scenery ahead, with its own opportunities.
“But now that there are this many paths, won’t I feel overwhelmed by the sheer quantity
of possibilities?” No. A lot of those paths won’t be attractive, because in most cases you would
not choose to go the path that is stuffed with venomous snakes, or even one that does not have
any fruits that will nourish you. The stronger you define your values and goals, the easier it is to
filter through those paths.
And for experience, well…you gain experience by doing things. Take a path and see
where it leads you. If it leads to an unwanted outcome, learn from your choice and do not pick a
similar path in the future if you want to have a different outcome. But if the chosen path leads to
a good time and helps you progress in your mission and growth, that’s a great bonus. In every
case, learn from your choice, and do it consciously, and you will know better the next time a
crossroad opens up.
Be open to new opportunities and opportunities will open themselves to you.
High Thumos.
Do What Feels Good
by Tatara
It is completely natural for humans to pursue whatever makes them feel good. Most of us
choose our actions according to what we deem makes us happy, what feels good to us.
However, major differences in our actions start by how we define the words “good” and
“happiness.” Some of us choose to lift weights or write a book, others choose to jerk off and
binge-watch Netflix shows. Both of the parties are acting according to their definitions of
“happiness.” While the ones that take action are delaying their gratification and working for their
future, the passive ones are getting dopamine right at this moment without any discomfort.
Which one of these can be realistically called happiness? The latter is feeling pleasure at
this moment, but he will for sure be miserable right as the ephemeral rush of dopamine leaves
his system. The lifter or writer might not be feeling large amounts of dopamine entering his
brain, but he is aware that the happiness felt after he finishes his work feels a lot more real and
gives a sense of purpose to life.
It’s our choice which happiness we pursue. There is no objective right or wrong in
defining happiness. If you choose to live your life being a slave to your hormones then so be it.
Just know that your happiness will never be enough.
Bathing in Natural Waters
by Erik The Trustworthy
There is stillness to be found for men courageous enough to return to the ways nature intended
them to bathe.
To anyone reading this, think about a time when humans didn’t have to complain about
the exact water temperature they’d like their bathtub to have and when they weren’t able to just
jump into perfectly convenient chlorinated swimming pools whenever they would like. A time
when Men bathed in vast oceans, faced the freezing temperature of cold lakes and flowing
rivers, being in touch with nature's forces, no matter the weather.
I want to encourage Men to seek for a place, to not only to just have a wee swim but to
replenish the soul. Jump into an untouched wild river, facing nature's forces, facing the cold
moving water that is trying to knock you over, and you will experience a deeply fulfilling
sensation that carries away any emotional baggage or brain fog. A feeling of groundedness will
flow through your whole body, replenishing the mind and the soul. And no, for starting out it
doesn’t have to be a freezing cold river with rapids so forceful that they could kill you. It doesn’t
matter if it is a river, the ocean or a tiny lake just outside your town. Find a place you can seek
solitude, a place where you can go to and do this practice whenever you feel the thumos low.
Do not mistake this as the next big thing that is going to completely change your mind —
it won’t, after all, it is just a habit. But the power within this practice lies much deeper than just
going out there and jumping into fresh and clean water. This is about getting in touch with nature
again, overcoming your fears and facing the unknown. Because once you experience the
connection to nature's forces flowing through your whole body, while facing the pain of the cold,
there is no going back.
If you live the pirates life, this will hook you, leading to you seeking further, for new
waters to explore, each getting more extreme, until you get to a point where you first have to
break through layers of ice to get into the water or where you battle powerful rivers and their
extreme force of flowing water that is trying to knock you over while you stand in the middle of a
rapid. It is the key that you find some place that isn’t some little pool-like lake that is so
comfortably warm that you could fall asleep in it: Find something you are scared of, and face the
challenge. It is this process, combined with facing nature head on, that makes this practice so
extremely beneficial. It will ground you, free your mind, and offer you a stillness only few men
these days are able to access.
The Power of Tiny Actions
by Rendani
I lived most of my adolescent life trusting that the important things in life would simply happen to
me, much as they seemed to do to other people. Today, this still seems to happen to ‘most’ of
the people around us. In reality, that is not the case. There comes a time in all of our lives when
we are taught that things don’t just happen and this can be quite jarring.
An important piece of wisdom I remember hearing helped bring the message home: “At
the end of the day, the work needs to get done.” And you’re most likely the one who has to do it.
We lie to ourselves that we don’t have to do as much as we know we should in order to get what
we truly want in life — and this can apply to any level. The feeling of anxiety or dissatisfaction
when putting off cleaning your room or dealing with conflict in a personal relationship are in their
essence much the same thing. You wish there were someone else or some external influence
that could make dealing with what is right in front of you much easier. The solution is to get
stuck in and deal with it.
I admit, that is much easier said than done, but I believe we feel this way because we
expect ourselves to put in much more effort now than is even necessary. If you’re trying to
become a better learner, try to focus less on the material itself and more on the actual process
of learning. Effectively, any tiny action can be seen as a gym repetition, because sort of it is.
I remember being hard on myself when trying to get myself to train regularly. Much like
most of us, I would expect myself to work out 3-4 days a week consistently and to feel sore at
least two of those days. After years of going through this cycle and having learned about the
value of tiny actions, I told myself that I would work out three days a week for at least ten
minutes, no matter how much energy I had left in the tank. This was infuriating, but in the best
way possible. I was trying to get myself to become better at starting a workout and not on the
workout itself. In so doing, I was proving to myself that I was someone who trained regularly
because, at the end of the week, I actually was.
I have noticed my understanding of this wisdom and the effects it has on my life manifest
itself in different ways. I started my first programming job in 2020 and was understandably very
keen to learn as much as I could in as little time as possible, so I made it a habit to improve
myself in that space. My goals, however, were not set on the present but rather on the future. In
the times when the process got difficult and discouraging, one of the things that kept me going
was the hope and excitement I had to see and be the better version of myself a year from then.
Giving up was boring compared to being what I knew I would be in a year’s time.
As a parting message, I encourage you to get stuck in. Do the work consistently. Prove
to yourself through action that you are what you say you are. By doing so, you will effectively
‘raise the floor’ of your life and in time notice, if you take a moment to look around, that
everything is just that little bit better. Go out into the world, brother, and build the strong base the
rest of your life needs to go further. Your life now is the sum of your time spent before. Use the
time you have now so you can live well later.
Be in the Fire
by Jake Gushard
For a piece of meat to be cooked, it has to be in the fire. For a man to grow, he has to
experience hardship. Do not expect yourself to have the ability to emotionally handle a new
hardship immediately. Why would you assume you have the mental toughness if you have not
trained for it?
A piece of meat cannot be cooked by telling itself that it is cooked. A man cannot be
mentally strong by telling himself that he is mentally strong. Mental toughness does not come
without experiencing pain. You need to experience difficult emotions before you can master
them.
Throughout your life you will be thrown into the fire by force. Take this time to grow
through your suffering and become stronger because of it. Do not ignore the lessons that
present themselves to you. If you never sit in the fire to cook, you will never be ready for life’s
challenges.
Listen to the Whisper
by Ryan the Overlord
Everyone loves sharing life advice, but there is only one voice that truly needs to be listened to.
Growing up, I was never satisfied with my romantic relationships. I was very awkward
and timid, and, even though I had decent luck getting girls, I felt like I always ended up ruining
everything. A prime example of this phenomenon is an interaction that took place back in the
olden days: a dark, desolate era commonly known as middle school.
I was hanging out with my friend Caleb, and, out of the blue, a certain girl, who I thought
to be the most attractive lady in my school, invited me over to her house for a “Mario Kart and
Chill” session. This girl had clearly shown interest in me for weeks; she had even made the first
move in multiple situations, such as randomly holding my hand and even asking for a kiss.
Caleb was aware of this obvious interest and told me that I needed to go meet up with her
immediately. I was a little less sure of myself, but he hyped me up and told me that this was an
obvious invitation to take things to the next level. With eyes nearly tearing up with pride, he
looked at me, wished me luck, and sent me off into the night. His obvious confidence in me
rubbed off on me and had me amped up. As I made the walk to her house, I got ready to deploy
into the depths of a foreign land. But, things did not go exactly according to plan.
Upon arrival, the tension in the air was as thick as the spicy señorita herself. We sat next
to one another, each waiting for the other to make a move. The tension intensified, and my mind
told me to go for it. But, I hesitated. Next thing I knew, I had been hesitating all night, and it was
time to go. I failed to listen to my instincts, and everything went downhill from there. Things were
highly awkward between us, and we quickly stopped talking at all. After that heart-crushing L, I
took to the internet to learn how to be more assertive. For a long time, I fully leaned into
self-improvement habits such as meditation, cold showers, and working out, but when I tried
talking to girls, I was the same nervous wreck I had always been. All that was about to change.
Years after the aforementioned incident, I walked into a new class at my high school.
Before I could take a seat at the back of the class, a whisper in the back of my head told me to
sit next to the cute blonde girl in the front. Without any time to think, I took a seat next to her.
After only knowing one another for a couple days, I secured her number. I could not believe how
easy it was once the initial resistance was broken down. So, rather than turning to the internet
for guidance like usual, I listened closely to that newfound inner whisper. It told me to pursue her
further. Finally being the one to take the initiative was intimidating to me, but I began to realize
that growth could only be found where I least wanted to look. The more I just went for it, the
better things went. Soon, I found myself in the most fulfilling relationship of my life.
I never needed a “self-help” miracle cure; my instincts were there all along, waiting to
guide me. Next time you’re out, listen to that inner whisper. Is it telling you to start a
conversation? To do a good deed? To approach a girl? Well, then listen. Only when you start
obeying the deepest part of you will you begin to reach the infinite potential destined for you.
You Are What You Think
by Jag ‘The Incensful’ Mode
We have all been there. After watching another motivational YouTube video by another
motivational speaker about how to accomplish your fitness goals, you finally decide to put the
phone down and claim your destiny. You put on your workout gear and make your way down to
the track or gym, the words of the speaker still reverberating in your mind. You pick up the
weight, convinced that your determination will result in you hitting that personal best; you start
your stopwatch committed to shaving a whole minute off your two-kilometer run. So, you start
your run and three minutes in, only a few reps into your third set you begin to fatigue, gasping
for breath. Instantly, all the motivation and drive has vanished, your mind plagued with the “I
hate this, this sucks” voice. You collapse, stop running, and walk back home to the comfort of
your phone, retreating to being amped up yet again by inspirational videos only a few hours
later. You convince yourself that just because you got up and exercised for 10 minutes you
deserve a break, even while knowing that you should have done at least an hour’s worth of work
to see any difference.
Why do we fall into this cycle of getting motivated, hitting reality, giving up, and then back
to getting motivated?
This is not only applicable to physical fitness, but perhaps to that new web design course
you decided to start, or that new musical instrument you decided to learn. Hey, you might even
be fired up after watching an Elisha Long video on building resilience and High Thumos. The
popular belief is that if you just show up and just do something it will lead you to victory;
however, most of the time it is just not enough for you to get fully invested into what you want to
accomplish, and many people after seeing little progress give up completely. As has been said
earlier in the book, we fall back into our old habits very quickly once something upsets these
routines that we have begun.
So how can one overcome the “I hate this, this sucks” voice and gain tangible progress
in your desired goals? I believe it is about rewiring your thought process at its core, to shift from
viewing difficult things to thinking of them as easy things.
How might one do that? I will reference the fitness example again. When that moment of
motivation shatters and the mental anguish begins to override your mind, simply pushing the “I
hate this” voice into audible words and rephrasing it verbally as “I hate this, but I love this at the
same time” is enough to put your brain into a mode of cognitive dissonance. If you hate this task
so much mentally yet you are smiling and saying, “This pain will make me better tomorrow, so
it’s good for me” physically, your mind will go “I can’t hate this if I’m smiling and love the pain,”
and this will slowly begin to internalize the experience as positive.
Even if you do stop working out only 30 seconds later, you have in your mind begun a
chain reaction of slowly breaking down your negative thought processes to neutral, and through
time they will become positive. Look at a long course lecture and say “Let’s do this,” punch the
air, and force your body language into one that looks at a situation and thinks of it as a fun and
engaging task. This will be the beginning of the shift from a motivational approach to life to a
disciplined approach. As time goes on, the forced nature will become second nature, and thus a
paradigm shift will occur. Will the hard work still be difficult? Of course, but hard work with a
happy attitude is leagues better than hard work with a miserable attitude.
As G. Michael Hoff puts it: “Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good
times. Good times create weak men. And weak men create hard times.”
If you can create hard times in your mind, you will undoubtedly create good times for
yourself externally. But, if you consider everyday both as a hard time and a good time, you can
reap the benefits of both enjoying the struggle and enjoying the betterment of yourself as an
individual. And remember, you want to become that speaker that inspires people, not remain as
the guy who only listens to them.
High Thumos Booklist
Compiled by the High Thumos community
Sun & Steel by Yukio Mishima
The Name Of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
The 48 Laws Of Power by Robert Greene
Deep Work by Cal Newport
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
The ONE Thing by Gary Keller
The Molecule Of More by Daniel Z. Lieberman
Alexander The Great by Philip Freeman
Bloodsong by Anthony Ryan
Pitch Anything by Oren Klaff
Oversubscribed by Daniel Priestly
The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
Flow by Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi
Bronze Age Mindset by Bronze Age Pervert
Gates Of Fire by Steven Pressfield
The Rational Male by Rollo Tomassi
When I Stop Talking You’ll Know I’m Dead by Jerry Weintraub
As A Man Thinketh by James Allen
Influence by Robert Cialdini
The Way Of The Superior Man by David Deida
The Way Of Men by Jack Donovan
Tribe by Sebastian Junger
Quotes to Live By
“The longer I live, the more I am certain that the great difference between men—between the
feeble and the powerful, the great and the insignificant—is energy, invincible determination—a
purpose once fixed, and then—death or victory! That quality will do anything that can be done in
this world, and no talents, no circumstances, no opportunities, will make a two-legged creature a
man without it.”
-
Thomas Fowell Buxton
“The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried.”
-
Stephen McCranie
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest
accomplishment.”
-
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Poverty, I realized, wasn’t only a lack of financial resources; it was isolation from the kind of
people who could help you make more of yourself.”
-
Keith Ferrazzi
“If you look at your circle and don’t get inspired, you don’t have a circle, you have a cage.”
-
Nipsey Hussle
“Growth is sluggish and incremental, decay is rapid”
-
Seneca
“Throw me to the wolves and I will return leading the pack”
-
Marcus Aurelius
“Daily life is rarely exceptional.”
-
John Danaher
“For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love.”
-
Carl Sagan
“Kindness is invincible.”
-
Marcus Aurelius
“Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you
criticize them, you are a mile away from them and you have their shoes.”
-
Jack Handey
“If you accomplish something good with hard work, the labor passes quickly, but the good
endures; if you do something shameful in pursuit of pleasure, the pleasure passes quickly, but
the shame endures.”
-
Gaius Musonius Rufus
“Get jacked, stacked & fucking racked.”
-
Mason “The Great” Miller
‘‘Go to the gym, lift the bar, up in the air, it’s not hard.’’
-
Imar Kerskes
“Once you’ve found a fire in your belly, fuel it with everything you got as if your life depends on
it. Let it consume you, so that you may find peace within it’s flames.”
-
Jacob “Rising Fist”
‘‘Filled with Thumos is the man, when what he does is follow his plan.’’
-
Imar Kerskes
“Thumos is our will to fight, our need to rebel against that which is intolerable. It is what makes
us stand up and declare ‘I will not be silenced!’ It is what makes us dive headlong against the
devastation of this world, what compels us to courageously fight the good fight.”
-
Mason “The Great” Miller
High Thumos Community
The High Thumos Discord is a community for men. We are a community that upholds the values
of…
Trust
Honor
Unity
Masculinity
Order
Strength
If you would like to join our ever-growing tribe of men all across the globe, use the link below.
https://www.patreon.com/HighThumos