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There are two kinds of people in this world - masters and minions. A minion is a follower, a slave, a yes-man, and a victim. He is controlled by his emotions, his urges, and his impulses. A master in control. He makes things happen. He is able to control his desires and he sets the terms of his own life. In a world of instant gratification, one way to exercise control over your life is to delay gratification and willingly subject yourself to uncomfortable situations that will benefit you in the future. Anyone can try something for a few days - that is too easy. How far do you need to stretch something to make it hurt and have a long-lasting impact on you? They say it takes 21 days for an action to become a habit. On your road to mastery, I propose taking on some or all of these 21 challenges for 21 days. 1) Cold Showers. They will boost your immune system, wake you up, and reduce your electricity bill. 2) Abstaining from coffee. Caffeine is a drug. This challenge is to prove you can walk away from the addiction at any time. 3) No alcohol. Alcohol is also a drug. See 2) for details. 4) Swimming in a cold lake, ocean, or pool for at least 5 minutes. This challenge is to one-up the cold shower challenge. 5) Try intermittent fasting. This involves not eating for 16 hours. One of the benefits is that it makes your body more efficient in using fat as a source of energy. 6) Exercise for 30 minutes each day. This doesn't have to be an intense effort - a 30-minute walk counts. 7) Do 100 sit-ups. This will strengthen your core and improve your posture, balance and boost your power. 8) Read a book for 21 minutes a day. This improves brain connectivity, reduces stress by forcing you into the present, and lowers blood pressure and heart rate. 9) Keep a journal. Write down what is pissing you off and making you anxious. 10) Track your spending. Take control of your finances by getting a better understanding of your spending patterns. 11) Buy only necessities. This is easier than it sounds. Food is a necessity, but your 5th pair of sneakers is not. Some spending falls into a grey area, and you get to decide. 12) Give away/donate one thing per day. Most of us have too much shit. This shit clutters our homes and our minds - get rid of it. 13) No fast food. It makes you fat and is addictive like porn. Masters are not addicted to anything. 14) Cook for yourself once a day. Putting a pizza in the oven does not count. "Cook" means working off a recipe. 15) Flatter at least one person per day. We crave flattery. This is another people's belief in us in order to bolster the way we see ourselves. You need to make sure it is honest and genuine. 16) Start the day with lemon water - it aids digestion, keeps you hydrated, and is even believed to promote weight loss. 17) Make your bed as soon as you get up and before checking your phone. You will have achieved your first task of the day so it gets you a little motivated for the day ahead. 18) Spend some time in nature. Leave your house and onto the beach, into the park, or nearby forest. If none of these natural habitats exist close to you, grow and tend a couple of plants on your window sill. 19) Take time to laugh. Watch your favorite comedy show on YouTube or call a friend that always cracks you up. Laughter stimulates your heart, lungs, and muscles, and increases the endorphins released by your brain. 20) Sleep at least 7 hours a day. The lack of sleep makes you stupid and weakens your body - enough said. 21) Learn a new skill and try to perfect it over 21 days. This can be as simple as learning how to whistle with your fingers or learning to play the guitar. It is unlikely you will perfect the guitar in 21 days, but whistling shouldn't be too difficult. #lifecoach#motivation#lifecoaching#coaching#love#mindset#coach#inspiration#selflove#life#success#selfcare#lifestyle#mentalhealth#mindfulness#personaldevelopment#entrepreneur#goals#happiness#meditation#loveyourself#healing#motivationalquotes#lifequotes#positivevibes#fitness#businesscoach#motivationalspeaker#business

Modern science has cured so many physical diseases. The problem is that the modern world has introduced many new things that as opposed to making us physically ill, are making us mentally ill. Here they are. 1) Individualism In the US, the share of adults living alone has doubled over the past 50 years. Incidence of divorce has increased on the one side and fewer people are getting married on the other side of the age spectrum. We no longer live in communities. In the old days, you may have been a member of a village that was famous for making whiskey. Some of your identity was tied to this village. Today, it is only the individual that matters which means the burden of performance is unshared and that is a lot of pressure to live with. 2) Meritocracy We are told that anyone can make it provided they apply themselves. In a world where a three-times bankrupt reality TV star can become US president, and an awkward kid born in the southernmost country in Africa can become the richest man in the world if you don't make it you feel like a total loser. 3) Secularism We have turned our backs on religion and this comes with consequences. The great thing about believing in something/someone bigger than yourself is it takes the pressure off you. Secularism removes god and says that everyone is a mini-god with limitless potential. This increase in our sense of self-importance is stressful. 4) Romanticism The romantics will tell you all you need is love, and that one person will make your life complete. Not only does this place inordinate pressure on that "special" person, but it leads us into relationships with people who are very nice in a few ways, but very awful in many other ways, and they make our lives stressful and complicated. 5) The Media The news in its purest form is designed to inform and educate. Modern media, however, is all about getting attention and traffic. There is a difference between what we need to hear and read, and what we like to hear and read. The media focuses on negative and sensationalist topics - sexual scandal, corruption, deception, and doom. This stresses us out and makes us more anxious. 6) Perfectionism The world tells you you can have the perfect career, wife, family, home, and friends. So what happens when we don't come even close to this? We beat ourselves up, feel weak and convince ourselves we are losers. So what is the takeaway from all this? The solution is simple: find a religious cult with a strong sense of community that encourages polygamy, cuts you off from the media, and celebrates your mediocrity! Joking aside, the solution is simply put into words but a little more complicated to put into practice. The first thing to realize is that you are not a god and not capable of achieving anything you put your mind to. If you are 150cm, weigh 45kg, and are 45 years old, you are never going to play in the World Cup Rugby. You need to go easy on yourself, accept your judgment is faulty, that your passions get the better of you, that you are prey to superstition and irrational fear, and drop things at elegant dinners. This is encouraging and takes the pressure off the belief that everything in your life needs to be perfect. #finance#money#business#investing#investment#entrepreneur#financialfreedom#success#stocks#wealth#trading#realestate#stockmarket#invest#motivation#forex#bitcoin#investor#accounting#cryptocurrency#marketing#wallstreet#startup#trader#personalfinance#entrepreneurship#credit#smallbusiness#goals

Everyone wants to be valued. Here are ten ways to set you on the path to becoming a high-value man. 1) Stop being scared There is a difference between having no fear and being scared. Courage is advancing in the face of fear, not the avoidance of fear altogether. Fear is good because it keeps you alive. Courage is the ability to advance in spite of your fears. You need to accept that public speaking invitation or ask that pretty woman for her number. 2) Avoid pointless fighting Fighting with your girlfriend over who left the toilet seat up is pointless. It will get you nowhere and piss her off in the process. Pick your battles wisely. 3) Take care of yourself When I was young, I never understood this advice - who would knowingly do themselves harm? As I grew older I discovered that we constantly harm ourselves. We eat badly, we listen to the negative voices in our heads and we don't get enough sleep. Treat yourself as you would treat a friend. 4) Do not seek out numbness The modern world is geared toward comfort and leisure. Instead of escaping the world through alcohol, narcotics, and Netflix, throw yourself into the world and seek discomfort. This discomfort will make you grow. 5) Volunteer your time Helping others makes you feel good, gives you a sense of purpose, is contagious, can help you live longer, and will boost your self-esteem. It is nobler to give your time than your money. 6) Don't rely on other people to make you happy You need to be proactive in the pursuit of your own happiness and not wait for others to make you happy. I often see men end relationships because she stopped making them happy. This is a victim mentality and an indication of low value. 7) Pursue your dreams without embarrassment It is better to pursue what makes you happy than to live in the narrow confines of the approval of others. Seeking the approval of others makes everyone happy except you. 8) Be on time This shows you are organized and that you respect the time of others. It is better to be half an hour early than 1 minute late. Give yourself plenty of margin to arrive on time for formal engagements. 9) Communicate clearly Be clear and unambiguous in your communication. We watch swishy-washy politicians talk for hours and not say a word. They commit to nothing and their lukewarmness frustrates us. High-value men make their intentions clear and hold fast to their values. They are assertive and men of their word. 10) Do hard stuff Climb that mountain, run a marathon, swim in the freezing ocean. You want to test the limits of your body and untap the power that lies within you. #finance#money#business#investing#investment#entrepreneur#financialfreedom#success#stocks#wealth#trading#realestate#stockmarket#invest#motivation#forex#bitcoin#investor#accounting#cryptocurrency#marketing#wallstreet#startup#trader#personalfinance#entrepreneurship#credit#smallbusiness#goals

We are hardwired to care about what other people think of us. It is part of our primitive caveman brain and goes back to when we lived in small communities and our survival depended on others liking us and not throwing us out to be eaten by the wolves. The problem is that our brain has not evolved to our new lifestyles. Survival for most of us no longer depends on others, yet we continue to do irrational things such as buying stupid stuff to impress people that are of no consequence to us. Do you think your neighbour cares about the size of your pool, the model of your Mercedes, or where you spend your summer vacations? Do you feel your work colleagues will look down on you unless you wear Hugo Boss suits and Gucci loafers? We think that all these things will impress and ingratiate ourselves to these people. Here are 3 reasons why this mindless spending is a losing strategy. 1) Your neighbour/colleague does not care about you Life is hard and everyone has their heads down and is operating in survival mode. Their indifference to you has nothing to do with you. It is rooted in their own daily struggle against self-doubt, anxiety, and unfulfillment. 2) You don't need to ingratiate yourself with these people with the quality of your possessions and experiences We no longer live in fear of being cast out to the wolves by the leader of the tribe. Our physical survival does not hinge on our relationships with the elders. Sure, success in the modern world is correlated with the strength of our social and professional relationships, but these relationships are based on our integrity, our conscientiousness, and who we are - not what we drive and where we live. 3) This spending can stand in the way of your financial freedom Let's do a simple calculation. You believe that to impress your neighbour you need a German luxury car that costs R1 million. You finance it over 5 years at 9% interest and assume the resale value will be 40% of the purchase price. Your monthly payment will be R15,500. Your friend, who doesn't care about what anybody thinks of his car, buys a reliable Japanese vehicle for half the price. His monthly payment is half (R7,750) and invests the other half in a low-cost ETF that gains 10% per annum. At the end of the 5-year period, you will have a German car worth R400,000. Your friend, on the other hand, will have a Japanese car worth R200,000 and an investment worth R600,000. Your friend has done twice as well and has shown the power of making money work for you. #finance#money#business#investing#investment#entrepreneur#financialfreedom#success#stocks#wealth#trading#realestate#stockmarket#invest#motivation#forex#bitcoin#investor#accounting#cryptocurrency#marketing#wallstreet#startup#trader#personalfinance#entrepreneurship#credit#smallbusiness#goals

If you ask anyone to empty their pockets, there is one thing that everyone has - a smartphone. Smartphones are fantastic - they allow you to order a cab on the fly, generate an invoice, pay a bill, and connect with your clients. Modern smartphones are however a two-edged sword. With all the convenience they bring, they also bring a nefarious darker side in the form of chronic addiction. When your phone pings with a message or a notification, it releases dopamine in our brains - the same chemical reaction we experience with alcohol, cigarettes, and gambling. Small doses of dopamine are great - they give us an innocent buzz and a pleasant flutter. This chemical reaction can, however, lead to a hard-core addiction. The abuse of alcohol and gambling has broken millions of families and careers. The abuse of all three has led to health and wellness problems. So, how do you know if you are addicted to your phone? Here is a list of warning signals: the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning is to check your phone you rather spend time on your phone than with people your phone is the first thing you turn to when you are feeling down The majority of alcoholics were introduced to drinking when they were children. So let's go back in time to the start of life. When we are born, the only approval we needed was from our parents. As we grow into adolescence we discover that parental approval is not enough, we need approval from our friends and peers - something that most parents battle to understand. But when friends let us down - because they are not as unconditional in their approval as their parents - kids look for other ways to cope. Before smartphones, alcohol was the drug of choice to help them weather the trying times of adolescence. But it is difficult for kids to get their hands on hard liquor and this is for good reason. Authorities know that kids are not equipped with the tools to withstand the addictive qualities of alcohol. Such age restrictions, however, do not exist on smartphones. But smartphones are the gateway to social media, and social media is highly addictive. Allowing children to run amok on social media is like lowering the legal drinking age to 12. Now when kids feel sad and stressed, they can turn to the one thing that is always available and will always give them feedback - social media. Kids today have no reference to a time before smartphones - they have grown up with them their entire lives. Smartphones are as normal to them as television and radio were for us. This is where kids go for approval, validation, and encouragement. They go to a world that is insincere, often false and self-serving, and does not have the best interests of the kids in mind. Social media is like a giant alcohol distributor that wants to get people addicted to their platforms and consume like imbeciles. Facebook will unashamedly confess to this. So what does this mean for the kids of today? A common criticism of modern kids is that they are entitled and this could be true. But I would like to add another trait into the mix - maybe they have a warped concept of time which is more dangerous than entitlement. The smartphone supplies instant gratification and the belief that life is easy and convenient. Same-day delivery, ordering a taxi on your phone, and instant access to films, videos, and songs have created a life of ease and convenience. Teachers tell all kids they are special and hand out participation medals for both the winners and losers. Teachers sometimes award good grades to kids because they are afraid of dealing with angry parents. Kids at university are seen as clients and not students - and the client is always right. These kids then get thrown into the workforce and discover they are not so special. Bosses are not concerned about their sensitivities and their need to be nurtured and handheld. These old-school bosses are focused on the bottom line. This creates a serious problem because it asks these kids to work in a place that does not help them. Either the companies need to change or the kids need to change. It is easier to achieve the former where bosses need to have the emotional intelligence to understand the importance of the well-being of these kids. If you want other people to take responsibility for the growth and development of your children, why don't you (if you are a manager) take responsibility for the growth of other people's children in your company? #finance#money#business#investing#investment#entrepreneur#financialfreedom#success#stocks#wealth#trading#realestate#stockmarket#invest#motivation#forex#bitcoin#investor#accounting#cryptocurrency#marketing#wallstreet#startup#trader#personalfinance#entrepreneurship#credit#smallbusiness#goals

High-value men stand out in their ability to change their relationship with money - instead of working for it, they make money work for them. They do this by earning more than they spend and investing the surplus. Initially, this surplus is small because they are embarking on their careers - they are acquiring skills, learning how to take risks, and building their networks. Over time, they become masters in a very specific area in which they attain exceptional success. That surplus grows exponentially because the growth in their income outpaces the growth in their spending. They invest their surplus income wisely in the stock market or their own businesses. They do not spend their money on stupid shit like Italian sports cars and hairless cats. Those working in jobs have a fundamentally different view of money. For them, a job is a means to fund their lifestyle. The job pays the bills, and the more successful they become in the performance of these activities and tasks, the more lavish their lifestyle becomes. The security offered by the regular paycheck and benefits forces the job holder into a greater sense of comfort with every passing year. He, therefore, acquires more shit using his payslip as collateral for long-term mortgages and auto loans on luxury cars to impress people he doesn't even like. Before he knows it, he gets caught up in what is known as a luxury trap. By the time he turns 50, he realizes that his only real skills are the specific processes of the different companies where he has worked. He yearns for freedom, but he is so burdened by debt and the financial obligations of putting his four kids through private schools, that he turns to alcohol, mind-altering drugs, and an affair with the large-breasted office secretary. Careers are meaningful and fulfilling, while most jobs can potentially be bullshit. In 2018, anthropologist David Graeber published “Bullshit Jobs: A Theory” about the rise of bullshit jobs in the modern economy. The author contends that more than half of societal work is pointless. He describes five types of entirely pointless jobs (source: Wikipedia): flunkies, who serve to make their superiors feel important, e.g., receptionists, administrative assistants, and door attendants; goons, who act to harm or deceive others on behalf of their employer, e.g., lobbyists, corporate lawyers, telemarketers, public relations specialists, and community managers; duct tapers, who temporarily fix problems that could be fixed permanently, e.g., programmers repairing bloated code, airline desk staff who calm passengers whose bags do not arrive; box tickers, who create the appearance that something useful is being done when it is not, e.g., survey administrators, in-house magazine journalists, corporate compliance officers, quality service managers; taskmasters, who manage—or create extra work for—those who do not need it, e.g., middle management, and leadership professionals. There are five risks to working in a bullshit job: Risk 1: You are Living in a State of Delusion and Unhappiness You spend large chunks of your day writing pointless emails, in boring meetings, and your annual performance review is based on your perceived productivity. You have very few objective performance metrics. The only way to get through the day is to convince yourself that what you are doing is important to the organisation. Risk 2: You are Supremely Dispensable When times are tough – for example when you are living through a global pandemic – your value (or lack thereof) to the corporation is amplified and you are the first to get the ax. Risk 3: You are Not Learning any Useful Skills The top job skills in the 21st century are creativity, collaboration, communication, adaptability, leadership, and social skills. Hanging around the water cooler and drooling over the length of the receptionist's skirt does not qualify as social skills. If you are working in a medium to large-sized corporation, you are becoming an expert in the internal systems and processes of that company, and these skills are not transportable. Risk 4: Your Tolerance to Risk Declines over Time The lure of a steady income with medical and dental, a retirement plan, and paid vacations are often too strong to ignore. These benefits make you feel comfortable. If you are stuck in a bullshit job that does not move you out of your comfort zone, your tolerance to risk is reduced. This creates a dilemma if, after 20 years, your loyal employer calls you into his office and tells you the company is taking a new direction and you are not part of it. As a redundant worker that has become a specialist in the bullshit procedures and systems of one company, your employment options are limited. Your only option may be to throw yourself into the tempestuous seas of entrepreneurship. The longer you stay in that bullshit job, the more difficult it will be to adjust to this new higher-risk environment. Risk 5: The Longer You Stay, the Less You Get Paid According to Forbes, employees who stay in companies longer than two years get paid 50% less. Conventional wisdom flies in the face of this statistic. For the longest time, loyalty and dedication to a particular employer have been heralded as the hallmark of the ideal employee beyond just being good at their job. Unfortunately, the stats show that if you decide to stay in a bullshit job for longer than 5 years, not only will it kill your soul, but you will also be paid less in the process. So how do we unpack this? If having a job is risking your personal and financial future, should everyone stomp into their boss's offices, plonk down their resignation letters and follow their passions? That would be foolish and irresponsible, especially if you have financial dependents. The journey to financial freedom is exactly that – a journey. It is a process that requires an immense amount of work, effort, and courage. It requires self-belief, determination, discipline, commitment, and a long-term road map. It does not require you to be a genius but it does require you to be curious and open-minded. Albert Einstein said, "I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious". #finance #money #business #investing #investment #entrepreneur #financialfreedom #success #stocks #wealth #trading #realestate #stockmarket #invest #motivation #forex #bitcoin #investor #accounting #cryptocurrency #marketing #wallstreet #startup #trader #personalfinance #entrepreneurship #credit #smallbusiness #goals

Humans are not adapted for paradise and security. Look at what happened in the Garden of Eden - Adam and Eve were left to their own devices, surrounded by luxury and pleasure. Instead of leaning in and enjoying this life, they got bored and decided to tango with the serpent. This is not to say that humans do not like a degree of security - sure we do, but we also need to have our foot in a world that is less secure and uncertain. This is what makes us feel alive - this is what makes people climb Everest, ride a rollercoaster or swim with great white sharks. These things make us feel vibrant and alive. To better understand this need for risk, you need to understand the structure of the human brain. The left hemisphere is logic and reason. This is what you know. The right hemisphere is emotion and intuition. This is what you don't know. You want to live somewhere in between. You don't want to live your life hanging off the side of a cliff. You also don't want to live in a padded palace being fed oysters and champagne. We are mobile creatures - we need to work towards something. It is this process that we love. Dostoevsky said you must pursue a noble aim. The emphasis is on the words pursue and noble. We do not experience any positive emotion unless we have an aim, we are making progress towards this aim, and we believe that the aim has some value. So, here is a quick recap - we first need to find a goal, and secondly, we need to convince ourselves the goal is worthwhile Thirdly, we need to enjoy the journey towards the goal, and finally, we need to be aware of the sadness that comes after achieving the goal. Have you ever noticed how you feel the day after a great achievement - after acing an exam, closing a lucrative deal, running a perfect race, or surfing the perfect wave? You feel a little depressed. This anti-climatic feeling is due to the fact the game is over - and you need to find a new game. Getting to the top of Everest cannot be the thing that drives you. Attainment cannot be the thing that drives you because attainment forces the game to end. You need to enjoy the process. The real satisfaction comes through the journey, and not the destination. Enjoy all the small towns you travel through. Stop to appreciate the progress you are making. Document your path, celebrate the people you meet, and the things you learn about yourself and the outside world. #lifecoach #motivation #lifecoaching #coaching #love #mindset #coach #inspiration #selflove #life #success #selfcare #lifestyle #mentalhealth #mindfulness #personaldevelopment #entrepreneur #goals #happiness #meditation #loveyourself #healing #motivationalquotes #lifequotes #positivevibes #fitness #businesscoach #motivationalspeaker #business

Men have always been considered the privileged sex – we get the best jobs, we get paid more, and we are spared the pains of childbirth. Yet many men today are broken mentally, physically, and financially. We are told our masculinity is toxic, to get in touch with our feminine side, and to be vulnerable and emotional. We don’t have access to our kids. We are either unemployed or stuck in bullshit jobs. Here are 10 reasons why now is the worst time in history to be a man. 1) We are Expendable Men are taught their lives are expendable. When there is a war, who is sent out onto the front lines? When terrorist planes plowed into the World Trade Centre in New York in 2001, who hurled themselves into the collapsing building? More than 90% of deaths in the workplace are suffered by men. Men put themselves in harm's way in law enforcement, in the building of high-rises, on the oil rigs in the middle of the ocean. In the face of this harsh reality, it is easy to come to the conclusion that as a man, your life is cheap, and that sacrifice is a natural part of existence. This affects us emotionally and mentally. It strips away our value and makes us question our purpose. 2) We are More Suicidal Between the age of 9 and 11, boys and girls are equally likely to take their own lives. By the time boys have passed through puberty, adolescence, and are young men above the age of 25, men are almost 6 times more likely to put a pistol in their mouths and pull the trigger. According to stats from the World Health Organization, almost 1 million people commit suicide every year in the world – the vast majority of which are men. Suicide is the single biggest killer of men under the age of 45. A big contributor to the gap in suicide rates between the sexes is the propensity for men to bottle up their emotions and ignore the causes of depression and anxiety. We like to keep all our shit inside! We are taught that boys don’t cry, and this inability to communicate is disastrous. 3) We are Told Our Masculinity is Toxic Feminism has moved past the fight for equality. It is now focused on power. So, when did they cross the line? The moment they labeled masculinity as toxic. They took the gloves off and started playing dirty. Women no longer wanted to be the "same" as men – they now wanted to inflict as much pain on masculinity as possible. They are attacking the essence of our being by saying that certain “traditional” masculine traits are linked to aggression, misogyny, and negative health outcomes. Toxic masculinity is what keeps the lights on in our cities and is what gets the crops harvested on our farms, but we are being forced to be ashamed of it. Inherent male qualities, such as strength, courage, independence, leadership, and assertiveness, are not toxic. We need to embrace and nurture them. 4) We are Told the Future is Feminine Boys want to go out and wrestle with their friends, climb trees, strip their bikes and get their hands dirty, but they are taught that the future is female. When these boys grow into young men, we are told to get in touch with their feminine side, to be sensitive, to be agreeable, and not to take risks. This softness flies in the face of their natural male instincts. Men are supposed to be men and women are supposed to be women. The problem is that men are being told to be more like women. We are breeding a generation of pussy men who are losing touch with their masculine strengths. 5) We are Battling with the Transition from Muscle to Microchip and Mental Robots and automation are eliminating blue-collar jobs. For example, over the next 10 years, 1.7 million truck drivers will be replaced globally by self-driving trucks. We are having trouble making this technology transition. Good honest blue-collar labor is being displaced by robots and technology and men are being left out in the cold. The global economy is also tilting towards services where the mental side is more important than the muscle. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are now 109,000 more women working than men. It's believed by experts that this trend will continue and gain more momentum as the number of working women increases, while the number of men in the workforce declines. The continued growth in employment for women parallels the economic shift away from so-called traditional male-dominated jobs, in sectors such as manufacturing, toward a service-based business model. Sectors that employ more women are growing, whereas jobs historically associated with men are in a decline. 6) We are Facing a Crisis of Sexuality Young men between the ages of 18 and 30 in the US are abstaining from sex. Ten years ago, the percentage of men in this demographic that had not had sex in the past year was 10%. Today, this number has spiked to almost 30%. There are several reasons for this sex drought. Young men are withdrawing into the online world and are consuming more pornography. They are also living longer with their parents, which is a real boner killer. But possibly the strongest reason is that women are becoming more selective about who they drop their panties for. They are focusing more on their careers, and delaying marriage plans or canceling them altogether. As women progress in their careers and start to unlock their economic potential, they also see how their sexual market value increases. Women are hypergamous by nature – they only want to hook up with people on the same socio-economic level or higher. Given that men are in a throes of a crisis, this pool of dateable/fuckable men is declining. 7) We Have less Testosterone A study has shown that men’s testosterone levels (T levels) have been falling by 1% per year since the 1980s. This means that a 25 year today has the same T levels as a 50-year-old man had in 1997. That is a terrifying statistic, especially given that low T levels can lead to mood swings, irritability, stress, anxiety, and depression. There are numerous reasons for declining T levels – more sedentary lifestyles, the lack of strong father figures for young boys, tight underwear, and even an increase in climatic temperatures. Obesity is also driving T levels into the ground. Men these days are less likely to follow their caveman-like instincts (being outside and wrestling saber-toothed tigers and terrifying the local villagers) and more likely to be indoors playing video games and jerking off. 8) Boys are Growing up Fatherless It is becoming more common for boys to grow up without fathers. Divorce rates have been on the increase for decades as the stigma of divorce disappears. The global COVID pandemic has also increased traffic through the divorce courts. Family law almost always favors the mothers. Many boys are now being raised with minimal or no father involvement. Boys with less-involved fathers are more likely to drop out of school, drink, do drugs, become delinquent, and end up in prison. 9) We are Facing a Crisis of Purpose In the old days, men had clear sense of purposes: being a warrior, a leader, or a sole breadwinner. These purposes are fading. Many young men these days are experiencing a "purpose void," feeling alienated, withdrawn, and addicted to immediate gratification. Compounding this issue are addicting video games that lead to distraction and ADHD. 10) We are Getting Less Educated Young men now account for only about 40% of recent university graduates. Likewise, boys drop out of high school at nearly double the rate of girls. Traditional boyhood pursuits have been curtailed in schools, with a significant decline in activities such as physical education, sports, woodwork, metalwork, and break times. This prevents boys from letting off steam and expending natural energy, leading to inattentive boys in the classroom. In addition, the vast majority of teachers in high school are women, again creating an environment void of male role models. As men get less educated, so to does their market value in the workplace decline. They are less likely to find well-paying jobs, and the velocity of their downward spiral accelerates. So what is the solution to all this mayhem? The first step is admitting there is a crisis. The second step is building a community that is obsessed with finding solutions, and not with wallowing in self-pity and self-destruction. Million Man aims to create a million high-value men. We want to reverse this trend of masculine decay, and through coaching, mentorship and community help young men lead meaningful and valuable lives. #lifecoach#motivation#lifecoaching#coaching#love#mindset#coach#inspiration#selflove#life#success#selfcare#lifestyle#mentalhealth#mindfulness#personaldevelopment#entrepreneur#goals#happiness#meditation#loveyourself#healing#motivationalquotes#lifequotes#positivevibes#fitness#businesscoach#motivationalspeaker#business

For 99% of human existence, we lived in communities. These were groups of twenty to thirty people who lived together, worked together, and died together. Then we started living in apartments, condominiums, and suburbs. We started working with people with whom we did not share the same values. We started eating alone. In 1954, Swanson invented the TV dinner. Millions of lonely people set up their folding tables in front of their TVs. Urbanization and urban densification officially put an end to our tribal existence, and we are now paying the psychological price. So what happens to life outside of this tightly knit community? The first thing that happens is that we become acutely aware of being lonely, and therefore become very concerned about finding that special something/someone that will complete our lives and make us eternally happy. Our need for connection can morph into a strong desire for success, fame, and recognition when maybe all we need is some good friends. Million Man is a tribe – it is a place where we can regroup, lick our wounds, bitch and moan about the women in our lives, and then work on a collective plan to get ourselves out of this hole we are all in. The trick is to unteach ourselves from all the lies we have learned about being a man. Here are FOUR reasons you should join the Million Man tribe. 1) Being Part of a Group There is strength in numbers. When you are part of a tribe, you are accountable to other people. This sense of connection helps to build your sense of self-worth. You become recognized. Your contribution is valued. You feel supported. It takes the pressure off you because you realize you are part of something bigger than yourself. 2) Sense of Purpose Men today are battling to find purpose and meaning. They have no interest in religion and the traditional purpose of being the breadwinner in a family is fading as fewer young people are getting married. Million Man is founded on the purpose of building high-value men. It is this common purpose that will provide you with direction and a sense of purpose. 3) Support “Boys don’t cry”. “Take it like a man”. All these cliches have a place. We are men. We are strong and you can rely on us. But men also need support. We need people to talk to and we need a non-judgmental place to do this. We need a manly tribe. 4) Battling Loneliness The modern world is lonelier than the world that preceded it. We have never been more connected, yet we have never been so lonely. Loneliness is the disease of the 21st century. Million Man aims to put an end to that. Million Man is built on 4 uncompromising foundations: 1) Kindness – high-value men are friendly, generous, and considerate. 2) Shared vulnerability – a tribe is a place where we can be open about our worries and anxieties, and the problems that throw us off balance. 3) Understanding – everyone has their own quirks and idiosyncrasies. We embrace and learn from our differences. 4) Reassurance - we believe that everyone (man, woman, and child) has a special superpower. We have the ability to give something to other people that these people crave, and that is reassurance. We are all haunted by doubts about our value. We are all concerned about the future. We are haunted by things we have done – they cause guilt and embarrassment. Everyone you meet, regardless of who they are, is being plagued by varying degrees of insecurity. Can you believe that even supermodels are insecure of their appearances? These people are desperately waiting for someone to say something to them. Million Man believes in the power of reassurance. Members need to hear they have a right to exist, and that we are on their side. Words like: “I think you are going to be fine”, “everyone goes through this”, “there is nothing to be ashamed of”. #lifecoach #motivation #lifecoaching #coaching #love #mindset #coach #inspiration #selflove #life #success #selfcare #lifestyle #mentalhealth #mindfulness #personaldevelopment #entrepreneur #goals #happiness #meditation #loveyourself #healing #motivationalquotes #lifequotes #positivevibes #fitness #businesscoach #motivationalspeaker #business

High-value men are interesting, and if you ask any woman, they will tell you that interesting is sexy. What does it mean to be interesting? Interesting people tell incredible stories and lead unusual lives. The source of their magnetism is their curiosity. They are always excited to explore the world, and this curious energy radiates outward. The first step to becoming interesting is exploring the history of the world we live in. So, buckle up, because I am going to take you on a crash course in everything you need to know about the world (in my opinion). This is going to be a mega summary. I am going to exclude plenty of stuff. I am going to try and condense trillions of pages of information into a few thousand words. I have broken this into chapters. This is chapter four. Chapter 4: Renaissance to the Cold War One of the biggest victims of the Black Death was feudalism as landowners needed to reinvent themselves. This opened the road to capitalism and Renaissance man. This was an age of discovery, curiosity, upheaval, and questioning EVERYTHING. European powers dominated the world. Initially, the Portuguese and Spanish Empires dominated the hood. Their union resulted in the Iberian Union, the first global empire on which the "sun never set". How cruel history can be? A few hundred years later, in the 21st Century, Spain and Portugal were identified as the PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain) of Europe on account of their weak economies. Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar must both be turning in their graves. Empires rise and empires fall – such is the pattern that can be observed in history. The English, French, and Dutch began to dominate the Atlantic. In a series of wars fought in the 17th and 18th centuries, culminating with the Napoleonic Wars, Britain emerged as the new world power. The Europeans set their sights west and did their best to destroy local civilizations, fucking up the Aztecs and the Incas in Mexico and Peru respectively. Portugal claimed Brazil. Spain claimed the rest of South America, Mesoamerica, and southern North America. Britain colonized the east coast of North America but was never able to convince them of the beauty of the sport of cricket. France colonized the central region of North America, and to this day, the French continue to refuse to help American tourists in Paris with directions to the Eiffel Tower. In 1762, amid the Seven Years' War, France secretly ceded most of its North American claims to Spain in the Treaty of Fontainebleau. Thirteen of the British colonies declared independence as the United States of America in 1776, ratified by the Treaty of Paris (a city in which all Americans are vilified) in 1783, ending the American Revolutionary War. Late Modern Period (1800 to present) The 19th century was dominated by the British. The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain and used new modes of production—the factory, mass production, and mechanization—to manufacture a wide array of goods faster and using less labor than previously required. The Age of Enlightenment also led to the beginnings of modern democracy in the late-18th century American and French Revolutions. Not content with their own little island, the Brits colonized Australia (initially set up as a penal colony), New Zealand South Africa, and the Indian sub-continent. In the late 19th century, the European powers divided up the remaining territories in Africa (the catastrophic Berlin treaty where they divided the continent up with a pencil with scant regard to tribes, languages, cultures, and ethnicities. One tribe would wake up one morning having discovered that half the tribe was in one country while the other half was in another country! Colonial powers claimed they were concerned about the souls of the poor Africans and proceeded to ram Christianity down their throats. If the truth is told, there was scant regard for their souls – this was a savage land grab and the only thing that mattered was money. Profits from the slave trade accounted for 5% of Great Britain’s gross domestic product during the industrial revolution. With the dawn of the 20th century, Europe dominated most of the world directly or indirectly. The rest was dominated by two highly industrialized nations – the United States and Japan. China had been pummeled into submission by the Brits, French, and Americans during the Opium Wars between 1839 and 1860. It is worthwhile delving quickly into these wars because they are now having some impact on the modern world. In the late 18th Century, the Brits started exporting opium to China in exchange for tea. At first, a handful of Chinese were getting high – but the news spread, and pretty soon, a large portion of the population was getting baked. The Chinese government pushed back – but contraband was still getting into China through smugglers. By the mid-1800s, shit got real. China confiscated boat loads of opium and also pissed off the French, Japanese, and the US – who had also gotten in on the action. Two wars ensued and the Chinese were pummeled into the ground. The Brits, French, US, and Japan, instead of being gracious in victory, proceeded to humiliate the Chinese after their victories. Hong Kong was ceded to the British, and they proceeded to make life hell for the Chinese who entered the century of humiliation from 1839 to 1949. China now wants its revenge on the US, and hence the race for world domination in the 21st century. Back to the 20th century. The first half was ripped apart by two world wars. The first world war did a great job in destroying the Austro-Hungarian, German, Ottoman and Russian empires, in addition to dealing a severe body blow to Great Britain and France. Another thing that Word War I generated was plenty of strong feelings of hate and anger. We saw a strong upsurge in militarist fascist dictatorships in Germa ,Italy, and Spain. The world fell into an economic depression in the 1930s, and the rise of a very unpleasant little man by the name of Adolf Hitler, who quickly assembled a satanic crew of psychopaths to systematically kill over 6 million Jews and try and take over the world. The loss of life in World War II (WW II) was astounding. It is estimated that between 70 and 85 million people perished – or 3% of the world’s population. Germany lost between 7 and 9 million lives. The Soviet Union lost 24 million (of which 10 million were soldiers). Twenty million Chinese perished (only 4 million were military and the rest were civilian lives). How the hell did so many Chinese civilians die? China was the unsung ally. China was the first country to enter what would become WW II when Japan invaded China and they clashed outside Beijing. Japan did this as a sign of force on the western world. They desperately wanted to avoid the same fate as China in the 19th century when they were humiliated in the Opium Wars. They figured that by attacking China, they would be sending a strong message that they should not be fucked with. The attack of Pearl Harbor in 1941 was a preemptive strike on the US to send the same message to the US – don’t fuck with us because we now plan to become a global power. This forced China to join the allied forces – the enemy of my enemy is my friend. The humiliation of the Opium Wars at the hands of the Brits and the US were still fresh in Chinese minds – but the clear and present danger of the Japanese forced them to put those hard feelings aside for 4 years. On June 6, 1944, the Allied Forces of Britain, America, Canada, and France attacked German forces on the coast of Normandy, France. With a huge force of over 150,000 soldiers, the Allies attacked and gained a victory that became the turning point for World War II in Europe. Paris was liberated in August, and after three brutal years, the Russians had the Germans with their tails between their legs retreating to Berlin. They stormed and captured Berlin in late April of 1945. By the end of April, Hitler had committed suicide and unconditional surrender was signed in May. Japan refused to surrender, so in August Hiroshima and Nagasaki were nuked and Japan quickly surrendered. WWII saw the defeat of the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) at the hands of the Allied Powers (Britain, US, China, and Russia) opened the way for the advance of communism into East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, China, North Korea, and North Vietnam. Great Britain was already in decline, so the two real victors from the war were the US and Russia – and with this, we entered into the cold war. The fact that nuclear weapons had now been developed and tested on two Japanese cities made the cold war even more interesting. Both powers were suspicious of the other. Communism and capitalism go head-to-head in a 45-year standoff that yields three important results. Firstly, the containment of Russia. Russia came out of WWII feeling they had defeated the Nazis and they were ready to build on this victory. They the highest cost of the war in terms of human casualties, and the US and Russia were true de facto allies, but there was plenty of passive-aggressive tension – this marriage was heading for the rocks quickly. You have watched the spy movies and you know that the relationship is always complicated and unclear. Stalin did not help matters when in 1946 he said that World War II was an unavoidable consequence of “capitalist imperialism” and implied that such a war might reoccur. Stalin then quickly extended his control into Eastern Europe. It took over the governments of Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, East Germany, Poland, Romania, and, Yugoslavia. Only Greece and occupied Austria remained free. Churchill deeply distrusted Stalin, and Stalin, famously paranoid, didn’t trust anyone. From the start, FDR found himself in the middle, soothing Churchill’s fears of a Communist takeover of Europe while feeding Stalin’s aspirations for the Soviet Union’s entry into the upper echelons of political and economic power. One of the top priorities for the US after the Second World War was to contain Russia’s expansion plans and this they executed with flying colors. Secondly, the development of the hydrogen bomb – more than 1000 more deadly than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Americans got there first – detonating a device innocuously named Mike deep in the Pacific in November 1952. It left a crater at the bottom of the ocean 1 mile long, destroyed numerous nearby islands, generated a mushroom cloud 100miles long and 25 miles high, and sent the Russians scrambling for their calculators and whiteboards to work on theirs. One year later, Russia launched theirs, the UK in 1957, China in 1967, and France in 1968. Half a century later, North Korea took their dicks out and launched theirs. It now appears that we have enough hydrogen to destroy the planet a few times over, and not all the fingers on the red buttons appear to be very stable! Thirdly, the Cold War resulted in great strides in the field of space exploration. While the Russians were second in the hydrogen race, they were first in the space race when they threw Sputnik up into space in 1957. This sent shock waves through the White House as Eisenhauer quickly realized that the Ruskies could not only send nuclear payloads into space but also onto US soil. NASA was launched the following year as Explorer 1 was sent into space. The Russians, however, remained ahead when they launched the first man into space in 1961 with Yuri Gagarin. Armstrong was the first man on the moon 8 years later as the Americans took over the lead. #lifecoach #motivation #lifecoaching #coaching #love #mindset #coach #inspiration #selflove #life #success #selfcare #lifestyle #mentalhealth #mindfulness #personaldevelopment #entrepreneur #goals #happiness #meditation #loveyourself #healing #motivationalquotes #lifequotes #positivevibes #fitness #businesscoach #motivationalspeaker #business

High-value men are interesting, and if you ask any woman, they will tell you that interesting is sexy. What does it mean to be interesting? Interesting people tell incredible stories and lead unusual lives. The source of their magnetism is their curiosity. They are always excited to explore the world, and this curious energy radiates outward. The first step on your quest to becoming the world's most interesting man is to explore the history of the world we live in. So, buckle up, because I am going to take you on a crash course in everything you need to know about the world (in my opinion). This is going to be a mega summary. I am going to exclude plenty of stuff. I am going to try and condense trillions of pages of information into a few thousand words. I have broken this into chapters. This is chapter three. Chapter 3: The Holy (and Unholy) Wars (500 to 1500) When the Roman Empire started declining, it fractured into two parts - one in the west and one in the east. Christianity flourished in the west. In the east, we saw the rise of the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic golden age. In Saudi Arabia, we find the city of Mecca. Mecca was an important religious destination. It was home to two widely venerated polytheistic cults whose gods were believed to protect its lucrative trade. People would therefore visit Mecca and worship its many gods. The year is 570 and Muhammad was born into the most influential tribe in Mecca but was orphaned at the age of 6 when his mother died (his father passed away before he was born). He was raised by his grandfather, but he too passed away when Muhammad was 8, and the caregiving responsibilities were handed over to his uncle. As a young adult, he showed himself to be a talented and honest trader. He started working for a wealthy widow (Kadija) who was 15 years older than Muhammad. They married when he was 25 (she was 40). Muhammad was deeply religious. While most men his age would hit the nightclubs over the weekend, he would head out to the caves on the outskirts of Mecca to pray, meditate and be religious When he was 40, according to Muslim tradition, the archangel Gabriel revealed himself to Muhammad indicating there was only one true god. This was the first of many revelations to form the basis of the Qur’an. This notion that there was only one god, in line with the Judeo-Christian tradition, went directly against the widespread belief of multiple gods that existed at the time on the Arabian Peninsula. Muhammad’s views seriously pissed off the Meccan merchants who were making good money from the religious visitors. For a time, he was protected by the influence of his wife and uncle, but when they passed away, all hell broke loose. Bloody battles ensued between Muhammad’s Muslims and the local pagan worshippers. Although seriously outnumbered, the Muslims prevailed and Muhammad marched triumphantly into Mecca. He was 59 at the time. He died 3 years later but by that time, most of the peninsula had been converted to Islam. And so began the Islamic Golden Age that lasted from the 8th century through to the 14th century, as the Muslim merchants spread their domination. Being merchants, their influence spread as far and wide as their business interests. In the 13th Century, however, they came up against a terrifying foe - Genghis Khan and his fearless Mongols. The Muslims quickly realized that it was not a good idea to fuck with the Mongols. The Mongol invasions and conquests created history's largest contiguous empire: the Mongol Empire, which by 1300 covered large parts of Eurasia. Historians regard the Mongol devastation as one of the deadliest episodes in history. It is believed that Genghis Khan DNA can be found in 8% of Asian men! Genghis must have fucked more women than Wilt Chamberlain. It is rumored that Genghis died at the hands of a Chinese princess who cut off his dick and he bled to death. While the Arabs were trading and Genghis was planting his seed in nubile young women throughout the east, the west was dealing with the vacuum left after the collapse of the Roman Empire. The barbarians invaded, splintering cities as people ran for their lives. Monasteries were built as protection from short-tempered barbarians, and we entered the early Middle Ages. From the years 500 to 1000, the populations declined as the barbarians looted and terrorized their way through Europe. Enter the marauding Vikings – a nation of good-looking seafaring warriors that have excited the ovaries of horny women all over the world with access to Netflix. Firstly, it is necessary to get rid of the elephant in the room – the Vikings NEVER wore horned helmets. Horned helmets were invented by beer companies to sell more beer during the Super Bowl! Vikings raped and ransacked their way through northern Europe for 250 years from 800 to 1050. A favorite pastime of the Vikings was the raiding of English monasteries, throwing monks into the sea without a life vest, taking them as slaves, and plundering their churches. Vikings showed no respect for religion or organized learning. They invaded England because of its wealth and more hospitable climate – the first time anyone has migrated to England for better weather! The Netflix series did a good job in representing the spirit and leaders of the time – Ragnar Lothbrok, Bjorn Ironside, and Ivar the Boneless all existed. The Viking reign came to an abrupt end in 1066 but not at the Battle of Hastings. The Norwegian king Harald III sailed up the River Humber and marched to Stamford Bridge with his men. The English king, also named Harold II (but with an “o”), marched north with his army and defeated Harald III in a long and bloody battle at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in present-day London in September. In October that very same year, 63 miles south (approx. 2 hours in a car along the A21 if you are lucky enough to avoid the hectic London traffic), Harold II was again in action in the sleepy seaside town named Hastings. Fresh off his September victory, and perhaps a little overconfident, Harold had his ass handed to him by William the Conqueror. There was some consolation for the Vikings – although William was French, he had some very diluted Viking blood coursing through his veins. His great-great-great grandfather was Rollo (in the Netflix series, Rollo was Ragnar Lothbrok’s brother who settled in France – historians however say there was no blood connection between these two Vikings). William, was, however, endowed with a rather chunky physique and was not afraid to punish a few packets of Oreos after dinner. So large a man he became that, when he passed away, he was too big for his coffin and literally exploded at his funeral. As priests tried to stuff William into his stone coffin, they pushed on his abdomen, causing it to burst. Mourners reportedly ran for the exits to flee the rancid stench. From the year 1100 onwards, as the invasions of Vikings and other barbarians subsided, peasants organized themselves into villages and the feudal system and kingdoms became more centralized. With more time on their hands, the kings became bored and looked around the world to see with whom they could pick a fight. One common thread in human history is that men are not suited for idleness – we always need to be doing something, even if that may involve invading people with different religious persuasion. Unhappy with the growth of Islam in the middle east, Catholics decided it was time to pummel the Muslims and regain the Holy Land. Eight crusading campaigns took place between 1096 and 1291. The Pope was the one who incited the violence calling on Christians to take up arms. He then quickly returned to his air-conditioned corner office and left the dirty work to the real men. Who won The Crusades? Depends on who you ask. Technically, the Muslims won, although the Catholic Church came out stronger and richer as it extended its influence into Muslim strongholds. The crusades pissed the Muslims off. They felt the unnecessary loss of non-Christian lives was immoral, savage, and bloody, and some still refer to Western involvement in the Middle East as a crusade. After the Crusades, we enter the later Middle Ages. This was not a fun time to be around. Between 1347 and 1350, between 75 and 100 million people succumbed to the Black Death. It was one of the deadliest pandemics in human history. It started in Asia and then spread like wildfire west into Europe. Mongol expeditions may have spread the bubonic plague across much of Eurasia. This plague may have reduced the world's population from an estimated 450 million in 1340 to between 350 and 375 million in 1400; it took 200 years for population figures to recover. #lifecoach #motivation #lifecoaching #coaching #love #mindset #coach #inspiration #selflove #life #success #selfcare #lifestyle #mentalhealth #mindfulness #personaldevelopment #entrepreneur #goals #happiness #meditation #loveyourself #healing #motivationalquotes #lifequotes #positivevibes #fitness #businesscoach #motivationalspeaker #business

High-value men are interesting, and if you ask any woman, they will tell you that interesting is sexy. What does it mean to be interesting? Interesting people tell incredible stories and lead unusual lives. The source of their magnetism is their curiosity. They are always excited to explore the world, and this curious energy radiates outward. The first step to becoming interesting is exploring the history of the world we live in. So, buckle up, because I am going to take you on a crash course in everything you need to know about the world (in my opinion). This is going to be a mega summary. I am going to exclude plenty of stuff. I am going to try and condense trillions of pages of information into a few thousand words. I have broken this into chapters. This is the second chapter. Chapter 2: Empire Building Begins In the 1,000 years between 500 BC and 500 AD, we saw the emergence of massive empires as powerful men with small penises needed to expand their influence and power. The most famous was the Macedon Empire led by Alexander the Great. What kind of a douche names himself “the Great”? In 15 years, he never lost a single battle. He was the Muhammad Ali of rulers. He was taught by Aristotle (one of the world’s greatest philosophers) who in turn was a scholar of Plato (who wrote The Republic and was more democratic than Aristotle). This was all going down at around 350 BC. There was never a Greek Empire – like the Roman Empire. Alexander was the closest they got, but Greek civilization contributed bucketloads to modern society. Firstly democracy – although you had to be a man over the age of 18 to vote. Adult slaves and women were expressly excluded. The Greeks also gave us the Olympics, the alphabet, the first library, standardized medicine (the Hippocratic oath taken by doctors not to hurt their patients), and the lighthouse. Had it not been for the Greeks, doctors would be serial killers, ships would be plowing into the rocks at night, and we wouldn’t have known how to write! During this time, we also had the Roman Empire, which at its height stretched from England in the west all the way through to Mesopotamia (more or less where Iran and Syria are today). The Roman Empire reached its zenith in 116 AD under the emperor Trajan. When he died, the empire split into West and East (a bit like what happened after the Second World War), but on this occasion, Germany was on the winning side. In 476 AD the Western segment fell to German influence. The Eastern segment flourished, known as the Byzantine Empire, with its capital in Constantinople. The Byzantine Empire would last another 1000 years until they got fucked over in 1453 by the Ottoman Empire in a siege of Constantinople that lasted almost two months. This split in the Roman Empire is mega important from a religious point of view. Christianity flourished in the west while Islam flourished in the east. If you want to get a better understanding of some of the conflicts in the world over the past 2,000 years, a good place to start is with these two religions. If we move further over the East, in the 3rd century BC we find Ancient India’s golden age which laid the foundation for the Hindu culture. If we travel further east, we bump into China and the Han Dynasty of 200 BC. The power and influence of the Hans were similar to that of the Romans. These guys were shit hot and contributed immensely in the areas of government, mathematics, technology, education, and, astronomy. They made Confucianism the official state ideology. There were also regional empires in other parts of the world. The Kingdom of Aksum, centered in present-day Ethiopia, established itself by the 1st century AD as a major trading empire and the home of world-class middle- and long-distance runners. The Zapotec Empire in present-day Mexico lasted for over 2,000 years and fell in 1521 AD. There is one simple rule of empires – they rise and they fall, and they never regain their former glory. China, however, is the only exception to this rule. The Han Dynasty succumbed to marauding nomads. They entered the north of China and raped and pillaged their way through the region setting up small kingdoms. Just over 100 years later, the Sui Dynasty successfully reunited China and laid the foundation for another Chinese golden age under the Tang Dynasty (618 – 907). This is important to remember, especially now as China is challenging the US as the world’s dominant power in the 21st century. The fact that China was a world power in the past does not preclude it from becoming a power of the future – because China breaks all the rules of empire building! #lifecoach #motivation #lifecoaching #coaching #love #mindset #coach #inspiration #selflove #life #success #selfcare #lifestyle #mentalhealth #mindfulness #personaldevelopment #entrepreneur #goals #happiness #meditation #loveyourself #healing #motivationalquotes #lifequotes #positivevibes #fitness #businesscoach #motivationalspeaker #business