You’ve likely seen the ick list. 

If not, let me endarken you: 

Women discuss in street interviews things they consider “icks”. An ick isn’t something terrible in a guy – it’s usually something innocuous – but they call these dealbreakers anyway. 

Some TikTok account adds these icks to a list. It’s hundreds of items long by now, maybe more, of things guys aren’t allowed to do. 

And the typical reaction from guys is, well, I guess there’s no point trying then, is there? 

You’re better off flying to the Sun on feathered wings than living up to all these rules. 

But here’s the thing. 

The lesson from women talking about their icks isn’t you should give up. No, it’s worth exploring them deeper – because there are different types of icks. 

Some are accidentally legitimate. If a guy has too many female friends then, yeah, that should raise questions.  

Some are so insane that, if you sent the video of the woman saying it back in time, it would prevent women’s suffrage from ever happening. Things like the woman who gets turned off if a guy wears a seatbelt. That’s not something a sane person would ever think. It’s definitely not one they should admit to a stranger and the internet, but here we are. 

Then there are the really telling ones. 

Things like the woman who cringes when a guy wears black shoes with a brown belt. 

That one, I get, It’s not a good look. But some women seem to have forgotten their superpowers. If a woman comes across a (generally) great guy who can’t coordinate his leather, chews with his mouth open and thinks his Borat impression is funny, then she should rejoice. 

This is a win for the same reason that a rundown house in a great neighbourhood is a win. 

You can snag it for cheap and then fix it up. 

Men are willing to change for their women. If she says “you’d be so handsome if you…” then he’d be a fool not to listen to her. 

That’s assuming she reciprocates. If all the work and effort falls on his lap, he might not. 

But the point is that a good woman wants to improve her partner. I’m not saying she’s willing to do it because she has to – she wants to. It soothes a primal, feminine need when she nurtures her man from someone good into someone great. 

When women have easily fixable icks – or when they demand men who’re already perfect (fit, good dressers, rich, successful) – it tells you more than she’s shallow, entitled, stupid and oblivious to her own worth. It tells you no one taught her how a woman should live. 

That’s not surprising. The confusion in the West right now is, in part, from generations of teaching men to behave like women (caring, submissive, empathetic) and women to act like men (domineering, aggressive, ambitious).  

But you can’t defeat nature. 

You can suppress it, but it’ll break through eventually. 

So when a woman starts listing off ick after ick plus having insane standards, take heart: 

That’s her immature and masculine side talking. 

Like all such things in a woman’s psyche, it melts away at the touch of a mature, masculine man. Show up as that and all of a sudden those rules and icks don’t count for much. She didn’t mean any of that. She was just joking. Maybe even she never said those things at all. 

It’s a strange idea until you see it happen – then it becomes a strange principle.  

That just leaves the question of how you cultivate this inside yourself. 

You’ll never know. 

Not until you enter my product pipeline. See, I offer coaching on that, but you can’t sign up even if you want to. 

I only take on clients who are familiar with my thinking and methods. 

Those that have invested in themselves. 

Which is yet another benefit to what I offer here – it moves you closer to the stage where you and I could work together. 

So take that step now: 

https://christianhypnotism.com/ysiay

“Capitalism is just awful! It makes us work all day in beige cubicles lit by eye-straining lights with people we don’t like!”

So sayeth many socialists and communists.

As usual, they’re deeply confused. It’s worse than being wrong. If I asked you the volume of the Moon and you said a hundred cubic metres… well, at least you gave a volume as your answer. Ask a communist the volume of the moon and they’ll give you a recipe for sushi.

So let me clear up any confusion:

Under capitalism, if you work in a beige cubicle farm, that’s because that’s what you chose.

In my career, I’ve worked for a large government department, a small government department, a mid-sized company, a company so small I was their eighth employee, a mid-sized company owned by a government and myself.

I’ve worked in basements, at the top of towering buildings, in small offices surrounded by sprawling bushland, in flexible office spaces and remotely.

Every time was my choice. If I didn’t like my conditions, I was free to renegotiate them or find somewhere else.

“Communism would give me the freedom to work how I want!” You already have that freedom. Communism would take it away.

Which is what so many socialists want. They hate freedom.

Not completely, of course – everyone likes being able to live on their own terms, but it also means you’re responsible for your own success. They hate responsibility and if giving up freedom means getting rid of that too, then that’s a price they’re willing to make you pay.

I’m free to write this, as my writing one of the best ways that I can help you and serve you. I’m also eternally obligated to write this. If I stop for too long, then my business will implode.

Good.

That means I’ll be more successful than plenty of others just by sticking with this. And since this is my 270-somethingth day of writing and publishing in a row, I know I can stick with it.

Any smarts, talent or skills I have only make success faster. But I don’t need them. So long as I keep this up, held only accountable to myself, I’ll eventually thrive.

But under communism, I can’t write without a licence and with the approval of political officers. I couldn’t create what I want to and I couldn’t earn what I think I’m worth. It’d all be out of my hands.

Anyone who hates taking accountability for their circumstances is free to surrender their freedoms. Find an overbearing boss or wife, and submit to them.

But if you start coming after my freedoms, we’re going to have problems.

Of course, this approach means you have to invest in yourself.

That means making the tough choices, learn the right skills and stick with your training.

And that means your next step, right now, is to follow this link:

(That is, if you’re not content to suckle at the teat of tyranny all your life.)

https://christianhypnotism.com/ysiay

I can’t help myself. I love stories and I’m a Christian, so that question comes easily to me.

He seems like He could be. If you told a story about a healer and a wise man, one who always made the right moral choice and had folks follow him with barely more than a word, I’d be sceptical.

It sure sounds like a Mary Sue – a boring, flawless character too adored by their writer.

But there are two reasons why He isn’t.

First, no Mary Sue would be crucified – not even willingly. A Mary Sue would have climbed off the cross, defeated the Romans and had the Pharisees apologise to Him.

Secondly…

I’m watching The Chosen. It’s the story of Jesus, of course, but it’s also the story of everyone else. Most of the pain, pettiness, flaws, drama, weaknesses, conflict and growth occur in the characters around Him. He’s the catalyst driving the plot forward.

I wrote a book called Your Story Isn’t About You. That’s because your story is about the people around you. That’s true of Jesus too – and even more true of Him, since His story is about you and your sins.

And your story is about Him too.

There are many ways to think about Jesus and His role in your life. If this helps you, then you’re welcome to keep it in mind. If not, discard it and find another one.

And on that topic:

You can download Your Story Isn’t About You at no cost.

(Except for you sharing your email address. If that’s too pricy for you, fair enough.)

The reason I’m giving it away is because – no exaggeration – it could fix internet arguments forever.

That’s just a minor side effect of reading, rereading and applying it, sure – but that’s the outcome that benefits me personally the most.

So if you’d like to spare me from yet more tedious internet arguing, download it here:

https://christianhypnotism.com/ysiay

“Christianity is only so popular because it spread by violence, tyranny and oppression!”

No.

Apart from all the cases of pagan communities choosing to embrace Christianity, this misses two key facts:

First, the Christian church was illegal for the first few centuries of its existence. It couldn’t spread through power because it had none.

Second…

Live by the sword, die by the sword.

If Christianity spread through force, then sufficient force should eliminate it. Yet that’s not what we saw in Eastern Europe under the Soviets. Religion was banned and praying could get you arrested. That’s maximal force. Despite that, Christianity survived in whispers and secrets.

Anyone who says Christianity violently displaced other European faiths needs to explain this one. If Christianity can survive under oppression, then so can pagan worship. They could have kept their faith alive just as Christians have done with theirs.

Instead, they converted.

There’s a lot to unpack here and I could go into detail.

But the endurance of Christianity is solid evidence for its superiority over other faiths. On the battlefield of ideas, pagans never stood a chance.

Fully explaining why is left as an exercise to you.

In the meantime…

Let’s talk about your personal development.

How’s it going? If you’re anything like me – and the types I like to hang with – it’s going, but you could always do more.

There’s always a chance to be more consistent, disciplined and productive with your time.

Plenty of hacks out there for you to do those things.

But maybe you want deeper insights.

Insights, plus practical skills to help level you up.

Read on to learn more:

https://christianhypnotism.com/ysiay

Plenty of folks view the history of Abrahamic religion like this:

Before Christ, shepherds unthinkingly followed the Old Testament.

After Christ, peasants unthinkingly followed the Old and New Testaments.

In our modern age of science, reason and rationality, religion is in decline. It’ll stay in decline until it fades away, becoming little more than a historical oddity.

(Yeah, because the 1970s – when most families went to church on the regular – were so ancient, primitive and pre-science…)

I’ll admit I used to believe this.

But it’s wrong. The first clue is that history doesn’t move in simple arcs. Every trends sets up its own counter-trends. That doesn’t keep everything perfectly in balance – that, too, is too simplistic – but it undermines steady progressions.

What, you think this is the first era of human history to have reason? To have freedom? Prosperity? Please. Civilisations have risen to great heights before. Those heights attract envious foes from without and decadent corruption from within. Those and a few other trends eat those civilisations alive.

The historical truth is that cycles are more common than arcs. It’s even right there in the Old Testament. The ancient Israelites didn’t uniformly believe in it. It feels as though half its chapters talk about the endless multi-generational loop the Israelites found themselves in:

They believe in God.

Their righteous beliefs and habits make them prosper.

Their prosperity creates arrogance.

They turn from God.

Everything starts going badly for them.

They repent and turn back to God.

Run that cycle a few times and that’s the Old Testament for you. It kept going until Jesus came down to Earth and replaced the old, fragile cycles with new, better, more resilient ones.

Anyone who thinks the West is historically exceptional enough to escape this cycle has missed the point. We’re in this right now. The West is disbelieving God and things are starting to fall apart. This isn’t new. This ancient atheism is much, much older than Christ. It was part of why he had to manifest in human form – no Kingdom of Israel could last forever, but Christ’s kingdom could.

It’s nothing that hasn’t happened before, only this time we have smartphones.

And it’s sad. All those folks who say religion isn’t relevant anymore are about to learn how wrong they are. Christianity will rise again. Whether we embrace it by choice or turn to it during disasters of our own design is yet to be seen.

That’s all rather gloomy.

The good news is that smartphones aren’t irrelevant. We’re better educated, better informed and better able to organise than earlier iterations of the cycle.

So is the Enemy, of course.

But we can take action to shift this cycle onto a happier path. We’ve seen just how fragile society is without Christian ideas bolstering it. A few generations without it and everything is eroding.

That makes the solution clear.

Be the best Christian you can be.

Read your Bible, avoid sin, pray, study and go to church.

And read, reread and apply this:

https://christianhypnotism.com/ysiay

Education is not the filling of a vessel but the stoking of a fire.

Folks look at the sort of people coming out of universities and wonder what on earth is going on in there.

Graduates aren’t typically skilled in their craft. Instead, they carry these weird ideas about how the world works – and should work. They’re brainwashed into believing nonsense.

“This is normal,” say the apologists. “And a good thing! What you call brainwashing is just them being exposed to new cultures and new philosophies.”

That clearly isn’t true.

Consider:

University students might learn ideas from philosophers. Philosophers worth studying tend to be old – their ideas have stood the test of time and you can see the impact they’ve had on the history of thought.

Besides, there’s more of the past than there is of the present. It’s a rich field to mine.

And older philosophers are conservative by our standards. Practically by definition. Even the progressive ones might have been tolerant on, say, race, but not on gender dynamics.

Students might learn from international students. I remember soaking up snippets of Middle Eastern and South East Asian culture in my university days.

Most countries – by Western standards – are conservative.

So if universities teach students through timeless ideas and exposure to new cultures, you’d expect to see a) a lot of variety, and b) a lot of conservative thinking.

Instead, students spout the same woke ideology held only by Hollywood, HR executives and – funnily enough – academics.

Therefore it’s brainwashing, not education.

I guess they cut remedial logic from uni programs. Otherwise, that would be obvious to them.

But complaining about it won’t help.

All you can do is sharpen your own thinking, save yourself and then lead others out of the darkness.

Here’s your next step:

https://christianhypnotism.com/ysiay

Easter Monday and April Fools’ Day, together for the first time in a while.

That could be an invitation to prank the forces of evil.

Tie their shoelaces together.

Put whoopie cushions on the throne of the Enemy.

Fill buckets with water and place them over the doors they try to attack you through.

Fighting evil is like exercising and doing your chores – sometimes you have to make it fun for yourself.

Most of them time, though, you just have to roll up your sleeves and do it.

There’s no pranking here, but you might find this a fun way to build your arsenal:

https://christianhypnotism.com/ysiay

Happy Easter.

Christ has risen.

During a church service today, we had an unexpected guest – a bat flew into the church and then got stuck. It hung from one of the speakers for a while, then kept flying back and forth.

It was a perfect bat trap. By flying in through a low door into a building with a high roof, it meant it had difficulties getting out. It didn’t help that stain-glass windows aren’t exits but look like ones.

There are quite a few metaphors in there. Finding them all is an exercise left to the reader.

But I don’t blame the bat. It clearly heard the Word and the Holy Spirit moved within it.

Also, it didn’t bite or poop on anyone, which is nice.

Anyway, enjoy this holy time and try not to get stuck – not even in a sacred place of worship.

If you’d like to level up your life at all, I recommend reading this:

https://christianhypnotism.com/ysiay

You might look around and see nothing but doom.

Folks are rushing into AI that could ruin everything, even if it doesn’t go on a Terminator-style rampage.

(Seriously, the existential threat that technology poses is absurd.)

Fascism and communism are on the rise in the West.

We’re forgetting all the hard-won lessons of history.

Our air, food and water teem with poison, plastics and puberty blockers.

Worst of all, we’re re-enacting the frustrating parts of the Old Testament where the chosen people turn away from the Lord yet again. And fall into calamity yet again.

War blooms and our economies falter. People aren’t marrying like they used to, our populations stalling as everyone gives up on the future.

It’s a dark time for the world.

It’s like a full decade or two of Holy Saturday.

Christ has died and the world is lost.

But Sunday is coming.

Christ will rise again.

As Christians, we’ve seen this cycle play out before. We know how it ends. Christianity, morality, hard work and good citizenship will return – just as they have before.

It’s hard to see the long view of history from inside it.

It’s also not fair that you’re in this rough part of a cycle.

Good. Being here means you have the most power to fix things.

I’m sure you’ve secretly wished you could be at the pivotal moments of history. Showing up to Alexander the Great with some medicine, the Fall of Constantinople with artillery, or Alexandria with a fire extinguisher and a digital scanner.

Well, you are.

Historians will study this period of history.

Will they study your actions?

I wouldn’t worry about that either way.

Focus on taking care of you and yours, not on your place in history. Unless you’re already radically successful, get the basics right first.

Basics like:

https://christianhypnotism.com/ysiay