Self-improvement general

Current reading list (as per /sig/ recommendation):
>How to get Rich by Felix Dennis
>Antifragile by Taleb
>The Prince by Machiavelli
>The Praise of Folly by Erasmo da Rotterdam
>1984
>How to win friends and influence people
>Richest man in babylon
>Platos republic
>The virture of selfishness

Anymore books I could add?

Thanks mate. If it still feels like a trainwreck tomorrow I'm gonna head to the doc.
Nice pic, too. Primaris are so fucking stupid.

Khamacademy is GOAT for brain gains. I do the classes I'm supposed to take on the one month break before college semester begins on the website and rack in the good grades on easy mode throughout the semester.

I've read a lot of self improvement books and they all mostly shit and waste of time.

this. Self improvement book are full of advice for dumb people. If you have a minimum of emotional intelligence you already do most of what they say without thinking about it.

I recently got a job offer and the world is now my oyster. I'm meticulously planning out a side business to start next year and my coworkers will be my first clients. I'm also working "up" to a fast to start tomorrow so I could look pretty shrunken for my bday weekend. I was off the rails last week.

same with coursera

even how to win friends?

I'm not sure but I think I've read that one too, so yeah.

what do you recommend on KA?

not that guy, but if you're not a student of economics or dont understand shit like that, do the economics classes first
Personally I think barely anyone teaches you stuff about that nowadays even though its extremely important if you want to be successful
Obviously it wont enlighten you completely or give you some hidden secret but it's a good start

Week-long break from lifting, my shoulder joint started to hurt a bit while doing bench press. I'm going to take it easy and put more attention into warm-ups. I hope it's enough.
Also did my first day of fast today. I will definitely find another day to do it, but I can't imagine not eating at work, my mind doesn't feel as sharp.

First time browsing Veeky Forums in a while, has /sig/ significantly helped anyone? I find that I'm fine for sticking to a diet and going to the gym during the week but at weekends, its too easy too cheat and I feel guilty for spending all day in bed watching shit on my laptop.

for me /sig/ works more as a motivator desu

Also planning to start going to the gym during my lunch breaks at work because now i'm just sitting at my desk eating a sandwich

Rate my 2018 reading list bros...

Common Sense and the Rights of Man - Thomas Paine
The Declaration of Independence
The Constitution of the United States of America
The Federalist Papers - James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay
The Anti-Federalist Papers - Various Founding Fathers
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin - Benjamin Franklin
Collected Letters and Speeches - Abraham Lincoln
The King James Bible (Old + New Testament)
The Divine Comedy (Inferno, Purgatorio, + Paradiso) - Dante Alighieri
Thus Spake Zarathustra - Friedrich Nietzsche
Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious - Carl Jung
Man In Search of a Soul - Carl Jung
The Undiscoved Self - Carl Jung
The Death of Ivan Ilyich - Leo Tolstoy
The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky
Notes from the Underground - Fyodor Dostoevsky
Dubliners - James Joyce
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce
Moby Dick - Herman Melville
Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse

if you actually finish the bible i'm proud of you user. it's boring af.

recommendation: read Siddhartha first, it's short and a good read. don't know a lot of the other non fiction ones.

meditations by marcus aurelius if you're into that stuff
i treat it like a bible

I've lost a lot of weight and I like how I'm progressing

but I have so much loose skin and all I can think of is how gross it is and how nobody will ever feel attracted and/or love me because of it...

Already read it this year

I went to catholic school from kindergarten to 12 grade. I've read it all in fragments over the years, but I want you actually sit down and read it all I a month. I'm actually not sure if I'll be able to realistically finish this list as I've heard it takes about 2 months to read the divine comedy in it's entirety, but all the others are relatively short and I read ~2 hours a day.

And ya, I plan on peppering in the modern fiction, I'll probably ready Siddhartha first.

Thinking about starting bathmate and documenting the progress for fun

If you are serious about actual dick gains do this...
>dont jack off for a week or 2
>take ice cold showers (start with lukewarm and move to cold gradually)
>by a flesh light
>start jacking it with flesh light

I discovered this by accident and my dick grow from ~5.5in to ~6.25in and it was noticablely thicker.

I talked to my urologist about it and after coming clean about edging for about an hour each night before going to bed with the death grip he said that chronic soft tissue damage had begun to heal and greater blood circulation was returning...

Fairly certain this phenomenon is predicated up death grip and edging though

I have stopped jerking off for a while before, also I'm already just under 7" so I don't think I have soft tissue damage..

Starting my first version bulk as a skelly tomorrow (66kg). Aiming for like 3100cal a day, think I've got it down.
How do I make my chicken thighs tasty?

i want to lose at least 8 kilos till the end of december
started eating one meal a day 3 days ago and already lost 3
also dreaming that this girl will dump her bf and come to me haha

Like I said. It may just be for the chronic death grip edgers out there.

Codecademy/newboston etc for programming is terrible. Khanacademy has a legit good way of breaking you in but they choose javascript. If you want Web dev then use freecodecamp. Also, duolingo is pure shit for learning languages. Use Memrise or Anki (advanced in Spanish, upper int for Portuguese) and something like italki or whatever to make friends and actually speak the language.

Tbh, for some small concepts I would argue newboston is great.
If you need a concept quickly introduced in a short and sweet manner.

>death grip edgers

/mu/ in one post

>December goals
I'm at 161lbs and I want to be down to 135lb (manlet)

>how am I working towards it
Started keto with a 60 hour fast. My gf is doing it with me and she's great at cooking so she's made us some tasty meals. I need to get back to jogging again cos I was doing a solid hour every day but stopped when I flew down home for Thanksgiving. So basically I just really need self discipline and I'll be golden.

Pretty good list here but I recommend that you allow yourself to throw in a random book now and again. Just go find the Veeky Forums top 100 ebook zip and occasionally pick one at random. I tried to structure 2017 ahead of time with a set list of books and found that I actually didn't like it as much as just reading whatever caught my fancy at the time.

Also Veeky Forums has been terrible since 2015 and I want all the degenerate reddit crossposters to vacate immediately.

audible kek

What happens if I don’t meet my protein goal for the day? Does the gains fairy sneak in while I’m sleeping and drain my gains away?

Going to gym 3 times a week since three weeks. Here are my gainz.
>Huge strength gainz. Barely bench pressed the bar alone now i can bench press 20 kgs 5×5 easy
>Not big muscle gainz but my arms got more solid and toned
>Less depressed on exercise days
>Feeling more alpha and confident
>Adapting and accepting my eternal loneliness
>More healthy sleep and eating

We will make it brahs

tfw too dumb to improve

>less depressed in exercise days
>more depressed in day I don't

Might start doing cardio on 2 of my off days. Even playing my instruments isn't as appealing

So I just watched David laid struggling to bench 225 for 10, and yet he has an amazing chest. Meanwhile guys like alphadestiny (and on Veeky Forums) tell you you'll get a decent chest when you hit 315. I'm on 205x5 and my chest is nowhere near this kid's chest. What's the deal her ?

forgot link
youtu.be/NhxM-gb0lsU?t=500

Rest days for me are more like fuck everything up day especially weekends.
I had a good sleeping and eating routine in the last week then i fucked it all up on weekend.
Now it's 1:30Am and i have a long work and arm day tomorrow that starts at 6

What kind of courses are you taking? Intro to bio? I'm taking CS classes like computer systems and organization, there aren't any khan academy videos for that. Coursera makes more sense

Not an expert, but im guessing genetics

Failed a unit in uni. I'm angry because at the end of the day, I was responsible for it. I was responsible for the studying, the assignments, the communication to lectures about questions I did not know. I was responsible for it, not anyone else, but I'm angry.

CS classes can be found all over the internet

If you're going for traditional CS than its even easier to find study materials

Check out udemy.com

What is your dream daily routine, /sig/?
If you could simply DO things without needing motivation ever, how would you structure your day? When would you wake up, and how would you fill your time?

>0600 Wake up, brush, meditate
>0620 small snack with quick carbs for liftan

>0630 Lift (home gym master race), during rests check Veeky Forums for the morning bantz + check news headlines
>0720 Protein shake, snack with quick carbs for runnan

>0730 Run 5k
>0800 Oatz + Scrambled eggs + glass of milk

>0830 Shower + face routine + make hair look nice + choose nice clothes to wear
>0900 Leave house with a snack. Read classical literature to improve vocabulary and articulation and go over study notes on the train commute to university.

>1030 Arrive after 1h30 commute. Study in the library until class. If no class, just study in the library the whole time. Study alone, no "group study" shit.
>1200 Lunch. Eat where you can study while you eat.
>1600 Eat snack. Continue studying
>1700 Hang out with friendos. If possible, review day's notes while chilling.

>1800 Go home. During the commute, read /sig/ books for 30 minutes. Learn / practice French for the remainder of the commute (1hr)

>1930 Cook dinner, browse Veeky Forums while meat cooks for evening bantz. Alternatively continue vocal French exercises in the kitchen
>1945 Eat dinner, continue browsing Veeky Forums. Turn off computer for the day and minimise phone use unless urgent - set alarms now so phone will not even be looked at until the next day.

>2000 Go for a comfy night drive in my sports car (favourite part of the day)

>2100 Piano practice (1 hour). If sleep deprived or tired, skip this so I can sleep by 10
>2200 Have a snack and review notes in bed
>2250 Brush, journal, night skincare routine
>2300 Sleep

I generally want 8-9 hours of studying, 3 hours of relaxation (french/piano/driving) and 1-2 hours of exercise per day. If I end up going out with my friends or socialising I just replace the daily relaxation time.

That's a lot of work man. Life would be good if we could be that productive. I know that was a fantasy post but I reckon 6 hours instead of 9 hours a day is definitely doable for a long stretch of time.
Godspeed user

almost my dream routine, just not so much commuting

my biggest /sig/ obstacle is sleep. the ideal for me would be sleeping at 22 and wake up 5 or 6, but i have never been able to stick to a schedule
>he wrote at 2.40 am, and should be up by 9 am

Running isn't an achievement.

I need relationship gains help bois. I'm pretty cute and getting more and more Veeky Forums ( was fat as fuck before) but any time I get a cute girl I can't seem to not be clingy as fuck, I keep driving chicks off. How the fuck do I stop this? I'm genuinely just hoping I find a girl that's as clingy as I am but the type of chicks I seem to attract aren't into it

Yeah the commuting is a bitch since I live in the city my university is in but relatively far away. It's not worth paying thousands every year just so I can cut my commute by an hour. Living at home is pretty much free, I don't pay for anything other than car parts / petrol / train pass.

Luckily I only have to go in 4 days a week, so the other 3 days I could fully focus on studying/piano/languages all day without too many breaks from 6AM and finish the "productive" portion of my day around 3PM. Especially since I don't run on weekends to rest my legs.

Regarding sleep, I actually have a hack for this. Set 2 alarms - one an hour before you want to wake up, and the second when you want to wake up. At 5AM I wake up and pop a high dose caffeine pill. Then at 6AM when your real alarm hits you'll wake up without fail without that "I need to go back to sleep" feeling. Though a month ago I got diagnosed with ADHD (legit, not faking it to get meds or anything) so I got prescribed Vyvanse/Elvanse 30mg and I have one of those instead of caffeine and that shit is just magical.

If you want, you can fake to your psychiatrist that you have sleep apnea and he will prescribe you it. I have ADHD so it helps me in more ways than waking up - aka being focused when studying, but it's like magic for waking up.

I might try that wake up tip with caffeine pill. Thanks.

No worries. Just make sure you sleep quickly after the pill otherwise if you stay awake for 15-20 minutes after the first alarm the caffiene will hit and you won't be able to sleep once it's in your blood stream. I usually just take the pill without opening my eyes so I'm still groggy and fall asleep straight away.

>DL lmao3plates currently at ~300
>Bench lmao2plates currently at 205
>Get body fat below 14% currently 17%
>Read Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
>Get more than 6 hours of sleep a night
Currently 6' at 165lb

>22 'books'
>all that dostoyevsky, but no devils or crime & punishment
>all that joyce but no ulysses
>all that jung but no freud
>only philosophical text is neetzche
>jordan posting
cmon now user
i hope you at least started with the greeks

>read crime and punishment this year
>read the ego and the id this year
>Veeky Forums recommended reading those 2 joyce books first
>calling the likes of the divine comedy "books"
>pretentious posting

And yes I did start with the Greeks and Romans this year, and Beowulf and the poetic and prose Edda :^)

>going by the advice of some retards on a mongolian basket weaving forum
>the divine comedy isnt a book
then what the fuck is it you insufferable sperg?
>calling my genuine piece of advice pretentious for being the slightest bit passive-agressive

Read some fiction, user. To quote the greatest sage of the internet age:

>I am becoming convinced that the only real way to "personal growth" outside of direct action is through careful study of fiction. Of course stories may have an intended meaning, but a well written story allows you to ask not just "what does the story mean?" but "why do I think that this is what the story means?"

>It would be an interesting experiment to read a story and write down your feelings and interpretations of it, and then return to the story a decade later.

the only reason you don't feel any accomplishment is because it is a useless accomplishment. You ran an arbitrarily long distance.
Real goals
gf
job
house
body

9 hours is pretty shit tier that is like having a normal job and than going home and watching tv for rest of the day.

>being so arrogant you can't even see that you yourself said "22 'books" in your original post as to undermine them as choices
>not giving any reasons as to why I shouldn't follow their advice and why I should follow yours
>calling people retards then saying "I hope you at least started with the Greeks", thus validating the "retards" advice
>your advice is to just read one book instead of all 3 because the one you recommend is the most famous
>implying your advice can come off as both passive aggressive and genuine at the same time

Mate...

How to talk to anybody - 92 tips
48 Laws of Power

This week, brothers, I shall have my final exams. This term has been insane. For the past 10 weeks, it has really been studying and stressing 24/7 (with time for the gym, of course). It got to the point where I could no longer maintain a consistent routine nor a sleep cycle, and it's really taken a toll on me. Thankfully, once this is done, I will be back on my regular routine. And without constant studying, I will have a lot of time for improvement. I'd like to do a lot of reading and get my career off the ground a bit by putting together a good online portfolio.

quite rare to study 9h at university though, especially during non-exam "low stress" time. And with all that commuting idk how he can squeeze in more study without completely burning himself out.

Boring? Pleb...

>Found out I was glucose intolerant
>Change diet to reduce white flour, soda/energy drinks, potatoes, white rice, ect
>Going off seroquel which I now know was keeping me from losing weight
> lost 13 pounds in the last 3 weeks from these alone. Even if it's water weight...
> Doctor says my back and body are less tense and inflamed than he's ever seen them.

My goal for this month is to get back to my personal trainer after a bad back and knee sprain.

how can you go the full 10 weeks without breaking down? I've had 3 separate breakdowns resulting in being mentally absent for like a total of 3 weeks of school. I want to work hard and enjoy my life after exams but I get so hopeless and then smoke weed to try and help but that's really what causes all my problems. I'm also on antidepressants but I think I need to be on ADHD meds, I've never taken a test for it though.

Got an interview with a very prestigious firm, the seahawks beat the eagles, looking better than ever on a vegan diet, and been reading a lot more often

feels good brahs

met up with the ex on sunday. it shouldn't have been as good as it was, and i don't know what i am doing.

I worry for these feels when my ex comes back in the country for december break. God speed fellow user

it was like we were still together dude. everything was so good. the only difference was we didn't kiss when we hugged goodbye. we looked at each other like we would, but i just couldn't force a kiss on her there.

ive never been so confused in my life.

That's what worries me. I loved this girl and she told me that if I had asked her to marry me she would have said yes. But I didn't have a permanent job and she was leaving the country for vet school so I ended things with her. And now, no job, no girlfriend, no grad programs. Life has been very bleak. I don't know if I'd be strong enough to lose her again.

And I understand the confusion. I don't know how your relationship ended but experiencing that has to be a shock to your system. At least we have the gym

"how do i get fit?" lift weights
"how do i get rich?" get a job and put money constantly into a mutual fund for a long time
"how do i get a gf?" actually ask girls out to dinner or a movie or whatever you like to do
"how do i get smart?" consider the fact you're always wrong and dumb, try to fix it each time you encounter something you don't understand
"how do i stop being depressed?" be optimistic and take on challenges, get up when you fall down
"how do i get friends?" talk to and be real with people wherever you are, they're just people
"how do i stop masturbating?" lmao
"how do i find motivation?" success requires discipline, motivation is a byproduct of success
"how do i get into [insert trade or hobby here]?" do it and fail lots of times
"how do i succeed in life?" do the above and fail as much as possible and as hard as possible without giving up
"how do i get happy?" you obviously don't really want to be happy

you will want to see her so badly, and honestly i won't recommend avoiding her. it's confusing, but i fucking loved it. i assume yours ended like mine did. we were on such a good level with one another. we still are.

we were laughing all the time. she was telling me all this stuff i know she wouldn't have told anyone else. i was making flirty jokes about how "tragic" it would be if her skirt which she held together with a clothes pin would blow open. i'm obviously angling to get this girl back, but i never got to the stage where i fell in love with her. we met at the wrong time, and only had 4 months on the clock when she suddenly got this enormous amount of responsibility.

that being said, i can't imagine how hard it'd be if i were in love with her and that's what scares me the most. you're seeing the girl you're still in love with, and i'm falling in love with a girl i shouldn't be.

Recently got diagnosed as bipolar, a month ago? Well, was put on mood stabilizers and they changed my life. Slowly developing confidence and self esteem. Usually go to gym every weekday, so I’m very proud of that. Yes, life has been generally improving and I feel happier :)

I don't know if she will even want to see me and that might make it easier. You're right though; I would love to see her again. I have endless thoughts of seeing her car parked next to mine again at the gym or trying to imagine what I would say or do if I saw her. It was stupid to let myself and her get so attached. It was supposed to just be casual because we knew well in advance that she would be leaving the country and when. I'll never forget the first time she said she loved me.

It sounds like you have a real shot at getting your girl back though with the chemistry you had when you met up again. If the circumstances that resulted in the two of you splitting up have changed that is.

Dis is actually good shit , sometimes we forget the simplicity of things

>sometimes we forget the simplicity of things
no user. people REFUSE the simplicity of things. the answers to all of those questions were incredibly obvious... but you give pause, because you trained yourself to pause, because you overcomplicate things, because you WANT to overcomplicate things, because overcomplication means effort that doesn't solve the problem, because solving the problem isn't something you necessarily want to do, because conserving energy by not doing those things is the most energy-efficient option and you're scared of failure. if you're asking yourself those questions... then you're less than 5 years old, or trying to avoid doing what's incredibly obvious.

bruh, don't beat yourself up for opening up when you knew that she might leave. finding a girl like that, knowing full well your brain is telling you that logically it isnt a good idea for that reason but wanting/needing to see her is amazing. you can always ask. if she says no, she says no. if you broke up amicably, which i gather you did then there's no harm in meeting up with them. how long were you together? and when did you end?

i'm hoping we can work it out. she goes away soon with her family, and everything she mentioned always centred around that. it was her work and the intensity of it but when we ended, she was talking about going away and coming back. she wants to see me again though. it was small things in her word choices that she probably wasn't aware of. when she said she will see me in 4 weeks (getting back from the holiday) and I said maybe, she got genuinely worried i'd say no. that, plus the fact she said "4 weeks" which is giving herself an immediate timeframe to see me rather than the blow off which is "ill see you after i get back". she wanted to organise times to facetime one another and talked about all the snapchats ill get.

i'm just giving her space while maintaining enough contact to keep her thinking of me. she won't lose her job and get more free time which was the issue, but it's something that can easily be sorted out. frankly, i was a bit of a selfish dick in organising things and would ask her 20 minutes after she got home from work if she wanted to come over while she had daily and weekly housework to do on top of work early the next day.

This. However, sometimes they add a new perspective to something you already had an idea of, but weren´t as articulated in your mind as the book have made it out to be.

Sounds lonely, brother.

Keep going user, the skin will retract in time. We're going to make it brah, just keep your head up and go forward

You're self aware enough to make improvements and if she can see that and recognize it then hopefully she'd be open to rekindling things with you. It seems smart to play it safe and give her space while still maintaining your presence. I've been guilty of waiting too long to go see girlfriends and wasting time I coulda spent with them so I can sympathize with that kind of selfishness. Its hard to change that.

And the breakup started clean.. She had been growing distant; not texting as much. I could talk for hours abour the leadup but after I ended things she tried talking to me a month later and after about a week I pushed her away when she might have needed me most. She had told me she had been with another guy the night before and it tore my heart open again. I'd been with other people too but I'm not built to handle the girl I love sleeping with other people. I apologized a month later on her birthday for how cold I had been and she forgave me but kept the conversation from continuing. So I could understand her not messaging me to let me know when she was back and just let things lay where they are. And I appreciate you listening to my thoughts.

>went from 1800 to 2000Elo this year

Goals for 2018:
>try to reach FM at 2300
>start coaching on the side
>stop fucking around and find the time to focus on my Chinese
>get my lifts decent enough so I can start juicing

Gonna fail the quest for FM, but I'd be super stoked to get to 2200 so I can dominate the local scene. I think I have a realistic chance, especially now that I can afford quality coaching instead of being self taught.

it's hard bro. I want to message her everyday, and I'm fighting the urge to right now. but we spoke friday, saturday then hung out for 6 hours sunday. she needs a break. I've got to go about it like we just started dating again

don't take your ex not wanting the conversation to go further bad. that tells me it's hurting her so much that she's just trying to avoid the pain of it. my friends ex did the same thing when he ended it with her. she wouldn't see him simply because she knew it would hurt so much. I think it's a bit cathartic after a while to see someone like that, as long as you know you'll be okay afterward.

Nofap day 5 and I’m starting to feel the superpowers

Why did I never do this before? I feel powerful as fuck

I think I'm going to wait and see if she reaches out to me when she's back. If december passes without hearing from her then I'll know I made the right decision. At least the last thing I said to her this time was "I love you; just wanted to say it one last time"

I'm happy things are working out for you though. You know the girl and she still seens to be into you by you spending 6 hours with her. Do you know when you'll have the relationship conversation yet?

don't be afraid to reach out. it's weird being the one who got dumped. you want to reach out, but you have such a feeling that the other person does not want to talk that you just don't. i'd imagine some pretty great conversations never happen because both people are too scared to talk to the other.

things are working out but i just don't know where they're going. i'm scared she just wants to be friends, but like i can't see how we'd be friends like that. i shouldn't have stayed at hers as long as I did. it was fun until the end but I just felt i overstayed but it's probably in my head because the goodbye was nice. I gave her a couple of hugs because it might be the last time i see her until she gets back and she made the comment that i really didn't want to leave and laughed. i just let her talk for ages, and she spoke for ages.

as for the relationship talk, i dont know. i'm hoping i can see her again before she goes and just spend time with her. then talk to her while she's away, facetime her now and then, and then see her when she gets back. no point gaining all this momentum with her, then losing a month while she's overseas - gives her time to reconsider.

>"how do i stop masturbating?" lmao

You didnt leave time for shitting

The best way is to just fuck lots of different girls and realise there is always women there, and that most of them are annoying after a while. So you view them differently and lose the fairy dust that cloud your vision that they are all angels.

This way also carries the benefit that when a quality woman comes along, you will have the necessary techniques and skills to attract her and maintain that attraction.

in what way are you being clingy?

imo you just have to take a deep breath and know that it's like anything - work smart, not hard. there were times id message a girl and try to organise dinner or lunch date, and get no response until the next day. it wasn't that late for me, but it was late for her and she was getting ready for bed so didn't see it.

just send a message, and don't blow up the phone. stop yourself doing it by any means.