8 Practices Men Should Adopt for Increased Energy, Well-Being, and Confidence

You Have a Lot of Potential Man!

There’s little things you can do to set yourself up for success and feel great as you go about the process.

All the tips I give here can obviously help anybody and everybody to have an increased quality of life, but I’m focusing especially on men for this article because there’s many of you guys out there who are falling behind in life.

Start by working on implementing these habits into your life today and you will be feeling a whole lot better about yourself!

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Don’t neglect appearance

It’s so simple but so many of you guys aren’t doing it, or at least not doing it enough!

Some things should go without saying; shower regularly, wear clean well-fitting clothes, brush your teeth daily and FLOSS! I’ll say it again, FLOSS your teeth every single day.

Other than that, make sure you are getting a haircut regularly and looking clean cut. If you sport a little facial hair like me, keep it trimmed! Also clean up the ear and nose hairs! I have made it an intention to see my barber more frequently, because every 6–8 weeks doesn’t feel like enough anymore.

Invest a little more money in getting yourself cleaned up, you’ll never regret doing so.

Oh yeah, and keep those finger nails trimmed and clean as well!

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Your living environment

Part of being a masculine and confident man is about being able to take care of yourself, your mother is not always going to be there to clean up after you! If you are too lazy to clean up your space, do your dishes, sweep the floor, and clean the bathroom, you are unconsciously sending yourself the message that you’re content to live in filth. Not healthy man!

Keep your bedroom and your apartment both NEAT and CLEAN, because there is a difference between the two. You don’t need to be a super anal person and make your place sterile like a hospital, but it should be a space you feel relaxed to live in and wouldn’t be embarrassed to have company over.

Organize your shit and clean your space regularly so you don’t end up living in layers of dust and grease. It’s not that hard man! Stop being lazy and take care of your space, it will free up a lot of mental bandwidth and you’ll enjoy and appreciate living there much more!

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Learn this basic life skill

Again man, your mother is not always going to be there to do everything for you, and if she still is doing EVERYTHING for you after a certain age then you’ve got some other problems on your hands.

The same way you should be proficient in keeping a clean space, you should also become proficient in preparing healthy and nutritious meals for yourself.

Even if it’s not your mom cooking for you, constantly ordering take out and having frozen pizza is not going to cut it either! You will pay for this big time in the long run.

Learn how to prepare 3–5 nutritious but also tasty meals for yourself. You will find that the love and the time you put into making your own food actually makes you appreciate it more, and it will give you energy instead of making you sluggish.

It might take a little trial and error, but you can experiment and see what works for you. Focus on having high quality proteins, fats, carbs along with fresh fruits and vegetables. If you’re confused on where to start, reference this document with some of the healthiest foods and seek to build your diet around them!

Photo by Jonas Kakaroto on Unsplash

Self care starts with this

Your health needs to be your number one priority man! It’s pretty redundant at this point to tell you to work out and get regular exercise, if you’re not you need to start there!

Besides exercising and eating well, your sleep needs to become a top priority for you in your life! I know it can be difficult with everything most of us have going on, and when we get home from a long day of work we often want to bum around for a while.

Getting a solid 7–9 hours of sleep a night needs to become a priority because it will boost your energy and only be a net positive for your mental health. If you are perpetually exhausted and in a bad mood, it’s next to impossible to make positive connections with others or to give your all in other areas of your life. I understand life will get in the way sometimes but get 6 hours minimum, and aim for 7–9 a night.

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Give your body what it needs

Here’s the thing man, all of life is from the earth, and you fall into the category of being a life form! You are not meant to constantly be inside underneath fluorescent lights and breathing stale air.

Get yourself outside and in nature as much as you possibly can! Even if you don’t have much more than a local park near to you, focus on getting out for 20–30 minutes in a day to get some fresh air and clear your mind.

In addition to this, when you do go a on a walk, leave your phone behind every now and then so you can just be present with the trees, the sunshine, and your own thoughts. Feel free to bring a journal or a notepad with you to jot down any thoughts or potential ideas you might have.

If you stay locked away inside your own cave all the time, you will slowly start to get the energy drained from your system and it will become harder to get yourself up and moving.

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What you have to offer

Each one of you reading this right now has “value” to offer to the world. This isn’t a popularity contest or about who makes the most money like you might be thinking. Offering value is just as simple as being a positive person to be around and exchanging positive emotions with the people around you.

There are many ways to do this! If you want to go more in depth check out the article I wrote on this very topic!

For starters, have genuine curiosity for the people around you, hone your listening skills, become present with the people you are around, make light conversation and even express your own unique sense of humor. There are many ways to offer value and actively give to others. When you do this as a man, you start to feel like you can watch after people and you are somebody who has a rock solid energy.

Let that unique light of yours shine! People are dying to see it.

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Becoming that rock

There are a lot of high strung and anal retentive people out there today. With our first world problems, so many folks get bent out of shape when traffic is backed up or when the Wi-Fi stops working.

Life will always present us with problems and unexpected curveballs, but getting bent out of shape is only going to hinder you from finding a reasonable solution.

Learn to practice non-reactiveness.

The way you learn to stay calm, centered, and non-reactive as a man is twofold. It happens by:

Doing difficult and challenging shit so you don’t clam up at the slightest problem. Rigorous exercise is great for this along with putting yourself in any other controlled situation which induces stress.
Getting in touch with the inner workings of your being. Confronting what lay deep within. This can be scary, but when you choose not to recognize and confront those deep neuroses, they will control you instead of you controlling them. Meditation is a great way to start to get in touch with these deeper parts of yourself.

Photo by christian buehner on Unsplash

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One way to find passion and meaning

Regardless of what you might want to do after working a long day, you are simply not going to be satisfied with your life if you spend all of your free time watching Netflix and playing video games.

Everybody is into something! What’s a hobby you could get into which falls outside of your work?

Basketball? Painting? Photography? Dance?

There’s so many options you have to choose from.

Hobbies bring a sense of purpose and richness into your life. You slowly and gradually expand your horizons and get better over time. On top of that, when you genuinely enjoy something and devote more time to it then you will eventually start to get into a state of flow when engaging in said activity.

I have found two hobbies which provide me with great meaning outside of my normal work in my life, both with writing and with practicing the martial art of Muay Thai.

Having at least one hobby is going to boost the quality of your life to completely new heights. It will make you a more interesting person with more things to talk about, and you will have something to look forward to outside of vegging out in front of screens.

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Wrapping it up

You are worthy of living a good life man! Your job is to step up and take action if you want to get the most out of the time you have on this spinning rock.

If you want to feel great overall in your life, start by adopting these practices as a regular part of your life.

Groom yourself and present yourself as clean. You will feel your best and give a good impression to others.
Keep your living space clean and conducive to living a productive existence.
Learn to prepare your own meals in order to be as healthy as you can while also saving money and establishing a valuable life skill.
Sleep 7–8 hours a night to ensure optimal energy levels throughout your day.
Get out in nature, because you are a being of nature who isn’t meant to spend the entirety of their existence inside under artificial lighting.
Show the world the unique value you offer. Open up and let the uniqueness of you shine through to other people in your life.
Have a level head dude! Everything will be okay, so make sure you practice keeping your cool, even when life presents stressful situations to you.
Find one or two things you love to do outside of your work in order to add flavor and a new sense of meaning into your life.