The main impetus of this post is to gear the newcomers to the advice given to them by the long-timers in this sub. They hear, "read the sidebar, lift, improve your wardrobe" as the generic panacea to all their problems. Here I propose an all-purpose guide, or roadmap as I'd prefer to call it, on how to prioritize the prescription of that panacea.

The Hierarchy of Game is as follows:

Physique > Inner Game > Outer Game > Presentation of the Self

Let me give an overview of this essential roadmap. Consider it a waterfall, or cascading “domino” effect. We shall consider it as such. Give each of the four a “bucket” that requires filling with experience/success. You want to fill each bucket to the brim – that is, after all, the requirement for the accomplished male. Should your physique bucket start to overflow, naturally, it will spill into the Inner Game, Outer Game, and Presentation of the Self buckets. Likewise, once the Inner Game bucket starts to overflow, it spills into the subsequent categories. Such is the waterfall of game as I’ve outlined it – the Hierarchy of Game.

In short:

An improved physique will always lead to an improved inner game, outer game, and presentation of the self.

An improved inner game will always lead to an improved outer game and presentation of the self.

An improved outer game will always lead to an improved presentation of the self.

All of these, naturally, lead to improved odds with women, and more importantly, a more satisfactory lifestyle. Despite that, there are orders to the magnitude at which you will improve those odds. Those magnitudes correspond to the placement in the hierarchy. The premise is that an ounce of improved physique far exceeds an ounce of improved wardrobe.

Physique is the apex. Focusing on that instills you with the necessary discipline to improve the subordinate three. Getting yourself into a regimen – a lifting routine – puts your internal clock on a schedule. This attitude “waterfalls” over into the remaining three aspects of game. If you’re lifting on x days at y time, you’re building a schedule for yourself. This is discipline. Once disciplined in such a basic aspect, your entire thought process becomes regimented. You must organize around the lifting routine. You can’t do x if it conflicts with your lifting routine time. You start to prioritize. You make yourself a schedule. Your thought process becomes not one of dreams and wonder but instead one of laying brick down upon your path to success. The priorities, the discipline, and the schedule transfer over into the subsequent three categories of game in not how you act but ARE as a man. The subsequent three categories of game become ones of priority and discipline.

I touched on Inner game and Outer game in a previous post of mine titled "Be A Closed Book". I urge you to read it. Such a mindset forms from the discipline of lifting. You earned that two-plate bench, therefore others must earn your story. Just like how the iron doesn’t care for whether or not you can lift it, nor do you care for whether or not others can earn your validation and approval and thus your story.

Presentation of the self manifests itself in your purely external appearance. To start, an improved physique will show through in whatever clothing you wear. Your lower bodyfat will give a more define facial structure. Your muscles will protrude through your clothing to give definition. An improved inner game will improve your posture. Confidence will exude through your pores and show in how you hold yourself. An improved outer game will give you the ability to deflect shit tests about how you look or dress. Your groomed beard will make you look better. But a groomed look will not improve any of the former three facets of your overall Game.

The map above is a rightward-trending map. Improving your inner game will never improve your physique, and an improved presentation of the self will never improve your outer game, inner game, and definitely not physique.

Let us try to go leftward in the map. You may be dubious of the statement, because you think to yourself, “But if you present yourself better, you’ll feel more confident in yourself, and that’ll make you want to lift harder in the gym.” On the surface, that seems plausible. But there is a stark contrast between discipline and motivation. I’ll let the esteemed philosopher Elliott Hulse expound on that. Dressing better motivates you do lift harder, but it does not discipline you to lift harder.

Treat your body like your temple. Worship it. The results transcend your ability to slay poon. Other men will instantly respect you more once they see your discipline-hardened physique. And they know that that discipline spills over into every other aspect of your life.

Now get off your computer and go sling some iron around. Your life depends on it.