Over the past few weeks, I feel like I've been seeing an awful lot of guys coming in, puking, wondering why they aren't seeing immediate success or jumping the gun on handling shit tests before they've even started lifting or reading the side bar. Looking back to my own confusion when first coming in here, I couldn't help but find an annoying little metaphor sticking out in my mind about the mistakes I made (and am still making) through all of this. We're all here to fix our crumbling homes. For some of us, we forgot to build our strong foundations. For others, we put up our house without the nails to hold it together. For me, I'm trying to put up all the lights, make them all work and do it all at once without necessarily knowing how all this wiring is supposed to work.

For those that are struggling, jumping the gun, or wondering why it's not all working yet, I hope this helps.

You Have to Start with a Strong Foundation

The first and most repeated tenant of MRP that you will find is that you have to lift. This is without a doubt the most common comment you'll find and it's there for a very specific reason, to build a strong foundation moving forward. Just as a home sitting on a crappy foundation is destined to crumble, so are you should you attempt to build your frame on top of a weak foundation. Lifting helps you get in physical shape, period. It also helps you to begin developing the discipline necessary to move forward in improving yourself by routinely focusing on the one thing you have the most control over, your own body. Do not attempt to circumvent building a strong foundation, one way or another the entire house will crumble without it.

You Can't Build a Frame if You Can't Use Your Tools

Your foundation must be strong, but you cannot construct a home without a solid frame, and putting together this frame requires an understanding of the most basic tools needed for the job. Thus, your beginner's sidebar material, your course prerequisites. There is no quick fix for developing yourself as a man, simply lurking around attempting to learn from the experiences and FR's of others is not enough. You cannot learn the terms, you will not understand their uses and cannot put them into practice until you've taken the time to learn how it all works, until you understand the tools you're being given and how to use them.

The prerequisite sidebar material here has been put together by people who already know how to build a solid frame and have done it themselves. They've provided you with the invaluable information you need to start putting a solid frame on top of your foundation and have given you the nails to keep it all in place. You can continue to attempt to put up your frame, skipping over things you might not feel are necessary, skipping half of a book because it's too long or doesn't seem to apply to you, but in the end you're only going to screw up your building process. Just as a frame is destined to fall apart without all of it's nails in place, you are destined to fail should you neglect to pursue the basic information you've been handed on a silver platter.

Lights Don't Work without Wiring and Power

With a solid foundation and frame in place, the rest of your job requires detailed knowledge of a lot of different things. You need lights, but you have to get power to those lights. You need walls, but those walls can't go up without a solid frame to hang them on. You need a stable floor to walk on, but you have to learn how to put it down.

The core materials available to you on MRP's sidebar (Red Pill 101) and are there to keep you from building the rest of your house without having to constantly victim puke or beg someone to hold your hand, teaching you how to handle the building process every step of the way. Rather than trying to build your house without a sliver of knowledge, the materials are there for you learn as you go, so you can put your house together piece by piece, improving as you go along.

Continue to Improve Your Home with Finishing Touches

You've laid down your foundation, you've built a solid frame and have all of the basics of a home in place. Now make that fucker shine. The side bar doesn't end with getting the framework built and hoping the home you've built is stable. It doesn't stop, you don't let your foundation and frame weaken by not maintaining it. There's continuing education to consider in the graduate level and general awesome guy shit. It may seem enticing to jump straight to the Sex God Method or The Way of The Superior man of the bat, who doesn't want to be a sex god when all you've had for 4 months is a dead bedroom? But you can't put down granite counter tops and crown molding before you even have your cabinets in and your frame up to hold it in place.

Hold steady, get a firm understanding of the basics before you move forward. Have faith that it all falls into place if you put the work in to understand the basics. We're talking about our lives, you can't cut corners and expect to find happiness waiting for you with a warm smile and wide open legs.