I have previously posted a 7 Step guide to swallowing the pill

This is a more comprehensive post on the first item (lifting).

This is not meant to be a guide on what exercise system to choose or how to perform any set of exercises. This post provides a context and frame of mind for you to succeed in reaching a top 10% body.

Consistency If you cannot consistently follow your training program, you may as well stop here and save 10 minutes. Consistency is #1 in Lifting and any other endeavor. When I was in college, I ate junk food, pizzas and bagels every day. I drank a couple of times a week, slept very little (hey, its college) and even in the gym, I had no idea what I was doing. But I went every single day, no matter what, including weekends and holidays. All I did was go to every single machine and do one set. (I was pretty ignorant) The only thing I had for me were: consistency, my age and the novice effect. The only difference between me and the rest of the guys in my group was consistency and I gained 10lb of muscle in my first year. (There are folks who have gained upto 30lbs but they had diet and they followed a compound exercise program.)

Diet Over 80% of your body composition is diet. Not cardio, not lifting, not genetics, not anything else. Its diet, diet, diet. You want to look lean, you need to eat primal. marksdailyapple.com is a great site for primal diet and I won't rehash all the stuff here. All his claims are backed by research and he provides links to studies and research papers for each of his claims. Learn it and follow it.

Sleep Try to get at least 8 hours of sleep. Your body won't grow fast unless you sleep well.

Alcohol Small amounts of alcohol occasionally is ok, if it does not interfere with your sleep. Alcohol is a CNS depressant and interferes with your sleep cycle. This will result in your testosterone secretion to drop. My suggestion is drink alcohol at lunch to avoid this issue. You need every little bit of testosterone.

Sunlight, Salt and water Get some sunlight throughout the year if possible without sunscreen. In the summer, this means you get sunlight early and late in the day and avoid the midday. This is exactly what people in hot countries do. The vitamin D benefits are great (including improving athletic function), but sunlight actually helps your skin distinguish between normal and abnormal cells and kills it. Of course too much sun can be bad. Use judgement.

Add salt to your food. One of the idiotic things doctors say is to not add salt, there's plenty in your food. Well, your food does not have iodide and without it, you will have thyroid issues which will also interfere with your training.

Drink plenty of water. Every time you get up to pee, stop by the cooler and refill your body.

Strength, flexibility, balance Pick a strength training program. I recommend stronglift5x5 or Starting strength. The basic idea is to increase your load on every lift to stress the muscles and eat enough to rapidly grow. You start with the empty bar (45lb/20kg) and keep adding 5lb every time. Now, you may think this means you will be able to squat 300lb in a few months. Wrong. Most of you will plateau at strength standards (see exrx.net) From then on, your progress will be gradual. My advice is to lift the same weight until you can do it at 90 seconds between each set and only then move on to the next set. This will ensure you keep your form.

I would recommend adding bodyweight exercises, especially push ups with thumbs touching (diamond push ups) and pullups. Biceps are small enough that you can train them daily and they will recover.

In addition to strength, you need flexibility and balance. Give time for your joints to catch up. My suggestion is to add yoga for flexibility and balance. Yogic poses also calm you down and helps your frame. I don't mean the meditation stuff, I mean the actual yogic poses. Do them the first thing in the morning after emptying your bowels on an empty stomach.

Proportions Look around in your gym. You see people who are big, but they look repulsive. The reason is proportion. LOSE WEIGHT FIRST or you won't be able to measure your lifting progress. The best thing you can do for yourself is to lose your gut. And I also include the skinny-fat guys will the nice mini-paunch. Lose it, lose it, lose it. The next thing you do is to start with compound exercises (as in stronglifts). These exercises will even out your proportions. (Also follow my advice on posture in the previous posts). Your thighs should not get so large that they rub together when you walk. Your arms should not get so large that your chest does not stand out. A disproportionately larger chest is hard to get, so don't train your arms too much until you can bench your bodyweight. (You can do bodyweight exercises)

Watch the movie Pumping Iron starring Arnold. Notice his proportions. His legs are not too large. His chest has a prominent place in his physical frame. Use it as your guide. As your chest develops, you will see separation lines (definition/cuts) between your deltoids and pectorals. As your triceps develop, you will see the separation between deltoids and triceps. These are wonderful moments. Take pictures every month. This will motivate you and keep you on track.