Linkage: 24 October, 2017 #TheTriggering

However, at this point I must tangent somewhat. Aaron’s video is actually quite important. In it he describes how awful the dating market is, not just now, but when he was at its mercy back in the 90s, as was I. And he makes a really prescient point. Women rejecting you does not reflect so much on your own inadequacies but rather on their own. In other words, it’s not you; it’s them.

A great salesman does not go out hunting for yeses. He’s looking for noes. Because he understands that every person who says no means that he is another step closer to finding one who says yes. But there is another aspect to it. Every person who says no was most likely inappropriate for you in the first place. And if they shoot you down in a cruel way, their bad behavior is a clear sign that you wouldn’t have wanted anything to do with them.

Which means far from getting discouraged at being rejected by women, rejoice in the clear messaging that you are receiving. You are trying to find a match, and a match means someone who fits with you. The rejections matter because by receiving those rejections, you are weeding out them.

This is an extremely powerful concept because once you fully grasp it then you are really on your way to being in control of your personal life. Being rejected matters because that is the only way that you can sort through the chaff to find the grain.

And speaking of chaff, that is the other ultimate benefit of Tinder. It collects unsuitable women and removes them from the general dating marketplace. Any woman who is actively on Tinder is not looking for personal relationships out in the real world, and any woman who would demean herself by being on Tinder is unsuitable to begin with. Tinder reduces the signal to noise ration for those of you who are prepared to get outside and meet women the old fashioned way.

https://pushingrubberdownhill.com/2017/10/19/tinders-anti-male-commercial-is-fantastic/

Thus, once you move past the simplified, Cliff Notes version of the OODA Loop, you find that it’s actually pretty heady stuff.

It’s not “groundbreaking” in the sense of revealing insight never before conceived; rather, its power is in the way it makes explicit, that which is usually implicit. It takes the basic ways we think, decide, and operate in the world — ways that often get confused and jumbled in the face of conflict and confusion — and codifies and organizes them into a strategic, effective system that can allow you to thrive in the heat of battle.

It is a learning system, a method for dealing with uncertainty, and a strategy for winning head-to-head contests and competitions. In war, business, or life, the OODA Loop can help you grapple with changing, challenging circumstances and come out the other side on top.

I have spent the last month diving deep into the OODA Loop – reading everything available on it, from Boyd’s briefing notes to biographies to analyses of the theory by other authors. I also met with Curtis Sprague, a former U.S. Air Marshal and Lead Instructor at the Federal Air Marshal School in Dallas, and an avid student and instructor of the OODA Loop, to get his insights. Below you will find a synthesis of what I have learned. My goal is to provide the most thorough, but also accessible primer on the OODA Loop out there. To begin your journey in mastering the “Tao of Boyd,” read on.

http://www.artofmanliness.com/2014/09/15/ooda-loop/

The Benefits of Bodyweight Workouts

You can do them anywhere. Don’t have time to make it to the gym? Travel a lot? Locked up for 5-10 years? Great! You can do the prisoner workout anywhere…bedroom, office, hotel room, or solitary confinement.

It’s free. Don’t have the money for a gym membership or purchasing your own equipment? That’s not an excuse for not exercising. With a few simple bodyweight exercises, you can create a full-body workout that’s completely free.

Strength+cardio in a single workout. By increasing the tempo and decreasing the rest between sets and exercises, you can turn a bodyweight workout into both a high-intensity cardio session and a strength workout. In 30 minutes, you’ll be done with your exercise for the day.

http://www.artofmanliness.com/2015/08/05/the-prisoner-workout/

The thing that helped me finally understand situational awareness was framing it within the OODA Loop. For those of you who haven’t read my in-depth article on this important cognitive tool, here’s the CliffsNotes version:

The OODA Loop is a learning system and decision-making process that was first laid out by Air Force fighter pilot and military strategist John Boyd. The four steps of the OODA Loop are Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. In a head-to-head competition, like air-to-air combat, a violent confrontation in a parking lot, or even political contests, the person who can cycle through the OODA Loop the fastest wins.

Obviously, the Observe step in the loop is what most people associate situational awareness with.

But it’s the second step in the OODA Loop – Orient — that answered my questions about what developing situational awareness actually involves. Orientation tells us what we should look for when we’re observing, and then puts those observations into context so we know what to do with the information.

. . . . .

Situational awareness is a mindset that you have to purposefully cultivate. You want to get to the point that it’s just something you do without having to think about it. To get to that point, you have to practice it regularly. Starting today, consciously remind yourself to look for entry/exit points whenever you enter a new building. Start observing people and establishing baselines and generating possible anomalies while you’re at work, at the gym, or on a date. And then start coming up with action plans on what you would do in that specific situation if you see a possible threat. Don’t be paranoid, just mindful. Do that day in and day out, and situational awareness won’t be something you have to intentionally think about, just something you do naturally. And not fake farmer natural, but Jason Bourne natural.

http://www.artofmanliness.com/2015/02/05/how-to-develop-the-situational-awareness-of-jason-bourne/

I then began a 90-day experiment to see how diet and lifestyle changes could boost that number.

The reason I started the experiment at that point is because I know a lot of guys who live my last-August lifestyle all the time, and I wanted to see what would happen to an “average” guy who turned things around. At the same time, there was no “normal” time in my life which would have been better for me to start the experiment. My stress level and diet fluctuates throughout the year anyway, so at any point, factors in my current lifestyle would have influenced the results. I wanted to begin at “ground zero.”

After 90 days, I had my testosterone tested again. My total T had gone up to 778 ng/dL and my free T had risen to 14.4 pg/mL. I had doubled my testosterone.

I know the experiment didn’t simply bring me back to my pre-August levels because of the fact that when I learned that the original test I took can sometimes overestimate your T levels, I took a more accurate test around four months after the start of the experiment (I’ve continued the lifestyle changes made during the experiment) and my total T had gone up again to 826.9 ng/dL.

If you’re already healthy, making the changes I list below will probably not double your T levels. But if you’re starting at ground zero, then you should see pretty dramatic results.

Alright, with that all out of the way, let’s talk about exactly what I did to double my T levels in 90 days.

http://www.artofmanliness.com/2013/01/18/how-to-increase-testosterone-naturally/