At some point every boy must become a man. These days that time is dictated by age because we no longer have rites-of-passeges that enable young men to be accepted into the tribe. Age change never really sets the stage like a rite of passage because there isn't a big enough influence or impression on the mind. So we are stuck at an eternal youth, hiding away our bad habits and just getting by.

Wake up and stop messing around. The beauty of a philosophy that centers around death and detachment, like Stoicism, is often enough to kick one's ass into gear: this life is fading. Before you know it we have entered a realm where work is the central theme, family is a given and you go on vacation once a year—if you're lucky.

What can we do? Besides, we are just a wheel in a giant cog moving at a slow pace, making sure society doesn't ask too much of us and doesn't really know we exist. Video games, movies, porn, junk food and simple work is just enough to keep our brains from becoming too masculine and not offending anyone.

• I seem to have been like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. — Sir Isaac Newton

Your manliness is gone and any fire that was once in that spirit of yours is dead. There is no rite-of-passage and you live each day in an effort to one day become emasculated by a woman who knows exactly how to keep you in line. Remember being in nature? Remember being alone and content? Where did he go? The freedom you felt as you drove a car by yourself, all alone without worry. Come back to yourself.

Here are a few pointers to get you in the right direction:

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Go Outside Everyday

Each day you need to find yourself alone and in nature. Being in a crowded city is no excuse. There are parks and coasts and roads that are built exclusively for this purpose and I have seen them all over this world. Get there and start walking. Collection of your thoughts is mandatory because the world is helping scattering them all over the place. Social constructs and past education has screwed you all up. Ads, billboards, commercials and scantly clad broads have changed you for the worse. Get outside and start walking: Daily.

Exercise Daily

I don't care about any rule that says there are "rest days," you can figure out a daily split of lifting/cardio/lifting/random sport to recover and keep you busy and in shape. If you are reading this and can feel several rolls around your gut: get in shape fatboy. Stop eating junk, drinking crap and living like a slug. Get moving, get fresh air and feel your strength again. The last few generations have gotten weak and pathetic. Every man should know how many pushups he can do, 40 for me, and should be able to get down and do them.

Watch for Beta-attitudes

The whole alpha/beta world is a real science but has gotten skewed for gaining skills on how many women you can rack up in the bedroom. That in itself is beta in my opinion. No amount of external pleasure can compare to the glory of self-mastery and discipline. Watch your language and stop apologizing for everything. Relax around people and be comfortable with looking dumb on occasion or talking too much. Just do your own thing and stop looking for group approval.

Eat Correctly

Nutrition is a major world and requires many posts and comments about getting it right. For now I will say stick to whole foods and ditch the high-fructose-corn-syrup. If you can't understand an ingredient list, then forget it. Make some bread yourself and eat it. That leads to the next one:

Make your own stuff

Becoming a craftsmen is about getting back to what your body and mind sharpen itself with. By crafting bread from dough, beer from barley, chairs from wood and the hundreds of other arts you begin to sharpen yourself like a machine. You have gotten soft, your mind and your body, so you need to keep them fresh. Again we lead into the next rule:

Read from the greats

Reading from the wisemen of history will move you in ways I can't explain. There's no absence of wisemen or resources and Google has made everything available to you. If you want the PDF instead of a bunch of book links to Google Books, just type PDF at the end of whatever you are looking for. More resources in the sidebar to come.

Do something people around you don't do

In other words: Be Original. If you are a gamer, play some oddball game at the end of the day that makes you think different. Basically any other game then a FPS will do. Another way of saying this rule is: think outside the box. You currently reside in a set number of movements on any given day, and they will all be repetitive and "safe" if you track them down. Stop it. Be spontaneous and courageous. Go nuts and just be gone for the day. See what it is like to pack a lunch and just travel for the day. You will finally sleep better.

Last but not least: There is one main rule of them all for complete adulthood, manliness, courageous, Stoic, philosophic key to all of life, read carefully:

Do not let pleasure or pain get the best of you

Keep going no matter what.

• This it is to have studied what a man ought to study; to have made desire, aversion, free from hindrance, and free from all that a man would avoid. I must die. If now, I am ready to die. If, after a short time, I now dine because it is the dinner-hour; after this I will then die. How? Like a man who gives up what belongs to another. — Epictetus