We all have weak spots, each and every one of us. Even the best artist, athlete, or whatever else has weak spots, sometimes glaring ones. We’re human and therefore not perfect and therefore are always going to have spots that we are weak in. Thankfully we don’t ever need to become perfect we just need to make sure that we shore up our weak spots so that they don’t become problems, all the while still making the greatest use of our strengths. But how do we find out our weak spots and even more important then address them?
The human ego being what it is we can go a lifetime without even seeing a glaring weak spot that everyone around us, even those we don’t know, could see from a mile away. So one big thing about addressing and finding weak spots is putting the ego aside. Ego humbling is an important process to go through. Granted you don’t want your ego destroyed, that’s just as bad as it growing out of proportion. But you do want it at a healthy level. Before life would just normally do this for you. However with have sheltered and spoiled the average male is anymore this doesn’t take place.
So sometimes you’ll have to do it yourself. Another reason I recommend doing hard things, you find out real quick that you’re not the greatest thing there is out there. However at the same time you realize that you do have strength and worth and that you are something, and that hard work can make you more. I’ve written enough about combat sports but I think they’re great at doing this. Strengthening the weak and humbling the proud. So none of this is going to work if ego can’t be checked. But that’s just the start.
Where Am I Weak?
The first thing you need to do is take a self-evaluation. Now granted there are many different types of “self-evaluations” out there and the great majority of them are worthless. So you’ll have to make one up yourself. But what do you judge yourself on? Granted no single evaluation is going to be perfect and you’ll have to adjust to what works best for you, but I think we can provide a solid framework for looking at yourself and your strong/weak points. We’ll call it the masculinity matrix or something for now. So let’s look at some general categories.
Depending on how broad or narrow we want to do this we could end up with a single category (being a man) or thousands to choose from. We want to strike somewhere in the middle. I’m going to offer some suggestions. Let’s look at wealth and make that a category. How are you money wise? How is your living situation? We could all use a little more money but is this something that’s at a critical state? Is this a weak point. This could be current job, living situation, passive income, sales skills, and so on and so forth. Next let’s look at what we’ll call survivability.
Could your survive a day in the woods? A day in the ghetto? A day in the mines? A day in the business world? A day in the criminal world? And so on and so forth. Are you soft? Physically, mentally, or spiritually? Granted this one is broad so a little harder to diagnose but it’s still important. I should also note that ego tends to rear its ugly head with this one. I’ll be honest while I’m fairly comfortable with hands on altercations my bushcraft is lacking at best. It’s a weak point for me and something I’m making a point to strengthen. Not because I have to be the next survivorman but just because it teaches you much and is a important skill to have.
Health is another one. Maybe you make great money, could survive a week in the woods or prison, yet your health is failing. Without good health, the other stuff isn’t going to matter. What do you know about how the human body works and functions? What do you know about diet? About having a healthy weight? Don’t have to become Mr. Health Nut that guy’s unhealthy and annoying anyways. But should get this under control because without it, you don’t have anything.
Let’s take knowledge next. Now granted this is huge. So I’ll divide it into categories that can make a man’s life good or miserable. We’ll start with women. Are you naive to how they functions and work? Do you get what you want out of your relationships with them? Whether that’s a loving mother of your children or a one night stand at the bar or whatever else? Or are you not in this area and convinced yourself that it doesn’t matter? Be honest with yourself, ego will only hurt you in the long run.
What about job related? Sales helps all jobs regardless of what they are, if only for the understanding of human nature it gives you. So if you don’t have any sales skills then brush up on them. But what about more job specific skills are you working to your full capacity or do you get by doing the bare minimum. For example I was a teacher for a short period of time and when I was got my hands on whatever resources I could to be a better teacher. Lectures, courses, books, on my own time and already was having better classroom discipline and knowledge retention then teachers who had been there a long time but did nothing except occasional paid seminars or whatever they called them and the like. Be good at your job and if you hate it, try to find another.
Then I would say life in general. Do you understand how the world works or are you naive to it? Do you think voting actually makes a difference? Do you think it matters if left or right wins? Do you know what a central bank is and why they’re important? Do you get caught up in the political game? How does humanity actually work? Do you think humans are in their hearts naturally good? Do you also believe the moon is made of cheese? Essentially are you naive to how humans and this world actually works?
Expanding On Finding Your Weaknesses
You’ll naturally expand on what I’ve laid out here, you’ll have things that are relevant to your that I missed or just didn’t have the space to write about. I just wanted to give you a jumping off point here, something to get the gears working. You take it from there. Really lay it all out and be honest with yourself. Remember ego is the enemy in this case. Write it down, not on a computer but with pen and paper. You can burn the paper later if you wish. The actual act of physically writing has power to it and will help you internalize it and get it into a deeper level of your brain.
So start with the categories above and lay them out on paper. Maybe write a paragraph for each one, with your feelings about it. For example for wealth a shortened version might be “Truth be told I make good money in my job but I don’t know how stable it is. I need to have skills that I can utilize in case anything should happen things I can leverage. I’ve been dabbling in sales but need to double down, really get that as there are always jobs for skilled salesmen. Also I make some side income doing woodworking maybe glance at guys making a good living at it and pick up some small business marketing books.” Yours will be different, just something to spark some ideas.
Alright so once you’ve got everything identified let’s talk about addressing.
Addressing Your Weak Points
This part is largely up to you. Once you’ve identified the weak spots then look at actions to address them. And then write those actions down and DO THEM. Some might be daily actions for example starting a diet, some might be one time actions like sending that manuscript off, and so on and so forth. But make sure you do a couple of things here. First off write down the actions that you need to take with pen and paper. Again there’s power to that, write it down, and make it happen.
Second make a daily “action list” or whatever you want to call it and write it down. Meaning actions that you need to do each and every day. If they’re one time actions then don’t put them off. Don’t do them next month or even next week. Do them now, today if possible, tomorrow if not. Not at some point of time in the future but right now. This is critical if you put it off then all the work you’ve done will be for nothing. You have to start implementing the actions right away, don’t put it off. Figure out what actions that you need to do and then do those actions right away. Simple to say, a hell of a lot harder to actually do.
Making Weakness Strength
Do this periodically, maybe every couple of months or so. Every year is too far apart in my opinion and every month is about the most frequent I would do. Doing this again and again and again, so long as you’re being honest with yourself, is what’s going to shore up your weaknesses and maybe even make them strengths. Man is not a specialist, as Heinlein said specialization is for insects and that’s party true. While there are one or two things I would say crank to far above average levels for most things just get them at the very least “above average” if possible and only because “average” is so damn low anymore. Do this and you’ll be on the right path.
If anything I said here interests you I’d highly recommend you check out The Ultimate Alpha Collection which is a compilation of 16 of my books for the price of 5. It covers everything from being a man to making money to getting the right mindset to getting girls to fighting and more and is a resource no man should be without. Pick up your copy today!
-Charles Sledge
