Turning thirty lends one quite a bit of perspective. It's not quite the nuclear event that having a son is, but it certainly makes one look back. Here's a few things I've managed to figure out (usually the hard way) by surviving my 20s.

Never try to compromise with a woman

Never sacrifice for her benefit. She will not appreciate it. She will not return the favor. She will not meet you halfway. Most women expect the world to bend for them and, when you sacrifice to satisfy her momentary whim, she will reply with a, "that's it? Where's the rest?" And you'll be miserable and resentful with nothing to show for it.

Her happiness is never your job. And if she keeps trying to make it your job, you cannot next her fast enough.

Never rely on a woman

When I started wanting to lift regularly, the first of many false starts was when my workout relied upon my being the "guest" on someone else's gym membership. The female with whom I worked out, as you may expect, flaked out on me within two weeks, and I was S.O.L.

This superficial example illustrates a much larger point: if you find yourself relying wholly on a female for something important, she will flake on you with shocking reliability. In my experience, the most reliable thing about women is that they are unreliable.

Don't keep female friends

When you are brainwashed to think of human beings as gender-neutral persons, and that sex has no affect on behavior, you soon realize that many, many women are not good people. As a man, you (should) seek to surround yourself with people who are honorable, can commit, have a sense of duty, and can respect those around them. If you start paying attention, you soon find out that many of the women in your life will not live up to the set of standards to which you are held, or to which you hold yourself. It's not about who they are, it's about what they are, and they are just women.

They are always just women, and will only ever be.

The "encouragement" we get from modern society to think of people without consideration for gender is horrible advice. If you do it, you'll wonder why you're surrounded by such unintelligent, low-attention, dishonorable, selfish, childish people. Then you realize, you hadn't taken into account that most women will have stopped growing mentally by about age 12.

Most females tend toward narcissism, and will take advantage of you if given the chance.

Absolutely everything is a shit test

She is probing you for weakness one hundred percent of the time. It's not conscious, so don't blame them for it.

Women probe men for weakness the same way men check out women's bodies. The only difference is, you know whether or not you'd fuck her within a matter of seconds. She has to start a conversation to know whether or not she wants your dick.

You can't turn off the "hey, nice ass" part of your brain. She can't turn off the "hold my purse" part of hers.

Stop drinking alcohol

Alcohol sucks. It's never worth it. It makes you feel miserable because your body knows it's poison and hates having to deal with it. If you're like me, it will only make you depressed and anxious, then make you shit your guts out.

Lift

I won't mince words: lifting changed my life.

I don't know if I was low T before I lifted, but I wouldn't be surprised. I felt amazingly better, just physically, as soon as I started lifting. The mental difference was pronounced as well. Suddenly, I had more confidence. I was less socially anxious. I was less depressed. I was more productive at work. I wrote more. I read more. I wasn't dragging myself around in physical and mental exhaustion every day.

Lifting honed my mind and made me feel a bit less like I wanted to off myself. Plus, you would be amazed at the sparkly-eyed admiration from females that even a halfway decent set of pectoral muscles, or bicep muscles, will get you.

This all may seem obvious, but I somehow managed to miss it all even though I was a fairly avid TRP reader the whole time. It's amazing how right the basics of TRP turn out to be.