9 Things Every Man MUST DO (not nonsensical clickbait).

When I thought about writing this list I did a little digging about other lists like this online. They’re clickbait.

No time nor thought is put into them. They’re littered with non-essential things like ‘having a threesome’ or ‘buying a luxury watch’. They’re filled with stuff, not experiences that men actually need to experience but are either lost or taken for granted in our society.

In this list you’ll only find things that men should actually do. These are things you need to do to be good at being a man or feel as though you’re actually fulfilling your role as a man.

This has nothing to do with ‘success’, as society defines it, but in feeling the value of fulfilling a role that is as old as time.

1. Hunt.

For thousands upon thousands of years, men have been hunters. We’ve went out into the wilderness, found animals, killed them, brought them back to our cave or camp and provided our tribe with sustenance.

Hunting is about more than taking a life, it’s what we have done for millennia, it’s the act of doing something yourself. Hunting is hiking on steroids. It brings you to places where the average man just doesn’t venture.

Use a bow or rifle or shotgun. Find food that’s better for you than anything you’ll find in a grocery store or at a butcher, and bring it home for your family.

On a moral level, hunters are conservationists. They maintain the balance in nature that’s been thrown off by human expansion. I’ve never been around people that love wildlife and wilderness more than hunters.

2. Procreate.

Protect, provide, procreate. At our base, that’s what we’re here for. We’re also here to create something, to give the world something of benefit, by all means, have that ‘something’ be the child you raise and teach.

As a culture, we need more fathers who stick around to raise their seeds. Be one such man. The ultimate measure of a man is the family he provides for and protects. The simple act of having a family is a vital aspect of fulfilling your role as a man. (Read This: 10 Lessons Every Father Should Teach His Son)

3. Travel to a place you’re scared of.

Go to places that make you uneasy. You’ll find that, often, the uneasy was just the unknown, the unfamiliar, and once it became familiar it became enjoyable.

Theodore Roosevelt is a great example of this. He was scared of the west. So he headed to North Dakota, bought a ranch, and became a cowboy.

How did he deal with his fear? He acted as if he wasn’t afraid at all.

“There were all kinds of things I was afraid of at first, ranging from grizzly bears to ‘mean’ horses and gun-fighters; but by acting as if I was not afraid I gradually ceased to be afraid.”

Act as if you’re not afraid and you shall cease to be afraid. Facing fears makes you stronger. Living a life of safety and ease makes you weaker.

It can be argued that staying safe for your entire life, never venturing beyond your zones of comfort, isn’t actually life. It’s merely existing, waiting for death in a purgatorial state.

Living, the verb, demands that you act and improve. What now brings you fear should, in time, cease to make you afraid.

4. Fix your own vehicle.

Before Youtube existed, my old man relied on the ‘For Dummies’ books. He must have had all of them.

He isn’t naturally a handy fella, but he taught himself to fix things around the house. Such has been the way of men for every generation in existence except for our most recent few.

We want everything now. When we do work around the house or on our vehicle there’s a sense of accomplishment that’s tough to replicate at work, which is, by-in-large, in an office today and devoid of the sense of accomplishment that comes with fixing something or building something with your hands.

Repairing things that belong to you teach you things that we’re seeing less and less today.

It teaches you to be patient, and to not freak out when you can’t find the solution to a problem right away. It teaches you to solve your own problems rather than pawning them off onto someone else. It gives you pride that cannot be found in much of the work we do today.

5. Build something, anything.

This goes, again, to actually doing things with your hands.

I’m as useless as they come with fixing things. So if I can do a few things, anyone can.

This summer I’m going to build the fences on either side of my house. It’s something that should last a couple decades. Having someone build them for me is an option, but the satisfaction that comes from building them myself cannot be measured.

It will take a ton of time, time that I will have to create. This is where priorities come in. I genuinely see the importance of building said fences as far greater than the money saved instead of having someone else do them. It’s not about money. Not everything is about money.

I’ll have to create the time to build the fences by working longer than normal hours and going without a day off a week for a few weeks.

The things on this list are inconvenient, which is why so few of us will actually do them. Be one of the few. (Read This: 9 Ways You Can Become More Manly)

6. Get in peak physical shape.

Every man should know what it feels like to be elite. Being in truly great shape, where you combine strength, power, and endurance, enables you to do things that others cannot do.

You can go places where people can’t go. You can climb mountains, hunt animals, explore nature, and live life dangerously while everyone else is held captive by their weakness.

In life you’re essentially trying to break down barriers. The less standing between you and the life you want to lead, the better, more exciting your life is going to be, and the more successful it will be.

At least once in your life, feel what it’s like to get in impeccable shape.

7. Gallop on horseback.

One of the things I love to do when visiting a new place is to explore the countryside on horseback.  I didn’t grow up on a farm and I wasn’t raised around horses, so getting on them is still something that’s new to me, but men have hunted and explored on horseback for thousands of years.

The purpose of the actual gallop as it pertains to this list, is to do something thrilling.

Going full speed on horseback on the countryside or in the foothills of the Andes like I did in Argentina, is thrilling. There’s something awesome about hopping on the back of these majestic and powerful animals. The rider has control, but not 100%, complete control, which adds to the thrill. If something pops out from the bushes, the horse is going to get spooked.

Think of something thrilling that you’d like to do, and do it. Don’t wait. It’s these little thrills that make us feel alive, whether it’s cliff diving or scuba diving or hunting in grizzly country with a bow, living isn’t meant to be boring.

When people say they feel ‘alive’ it’s usually because they’ve done something thrilling. Danger is a good thing. It should be a compass, not a deterrent.

8. Get in a fight.

Our greatest fear is death, and the cousin of that fear is bodily harm.

People who think that getting into a fight isn’t a necessary aspect of a man’s life are stupid and afraid. And yes, this is a rare instance where we can paint an entire lot with a broad stroke.

Men have been warriors far longer than we’ve been this soft, sedated, safety-obsessed lot that we’ve become.

For one, if you’ve never been in a situation that demands you fight, then you’ve never thrown yourself into daring enough situations. You also don’t truly stand for what you believe.

Fighting is barbaric, sure. It’s archaic. It’s seen as something we no longer need to do by people who call names but would never put themselves in harm’s way.

Men need to fight. You need to fight. Join a boxing gym and spar, do something that will bring you back to one of our major purposes, which is to protect and defend those we’re charged with caring for.

Please, don’t brush this one off as being Neanderthalic. When you get over this fear you’re going to be a better man for it, and not just for you, but for those around you.

9. Accomplish one massive goal.

There are massive goals that most of us treat like dreams. It may be to own a mansion or make a million dollars in a single year. Maybe it’s to travel to every country on the planet.

Who knows what it is, but we all have one that means a lot to us and our image of what accomplishment and success is. Meaning and purpose are closely linked to accomplishment. If you want to live a fulfilled life, get married, have kids, do things for others, lead others, and win.

Win at what you think is important.

This takes decades. It isn’t won by luck or chance, but persistence. In the end, it’s worth the long hours and the grit that the long journey required of us.

Acting As If

Define who you want to become, and then act as if you are him.

That’s the ‘secret’ to getting what you want in life. It isn’t easy. The guy you want to become is likely accomplished, thus, he’s a worker, he’s disciplined, he’s frugal, he knows what to invest his time and money into and what to avoid.

He’s also likely daring. He’s not obsessed with safety, like most people are. He wants adventure. He wants to feel alive.

This means you’re going to have to face your fears, which isn’t something we naturally do.

You’re going to have to take risks and train your body to be able to withstand said risks.

About The Author

Chad Howse: Chad’s mission is to get you in the arena, ‘marred by the dust and sweat and blood’, to help you set and achieve audacious goals in the face of fear, and not only build your ideal body, but the life you were meant to live.

You can contact him at –
http://www.ChadHowseFitness.com/
https://www.Facebook.com/ChadHowseFitness
https://www.YouTube.com/ChadHowseFitness