Mark Belden: Becoming a Mature Masculine Man

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Mark Belden is a personal growth fanatic, having devoted the last 10 years of his life to growing himself into the man he wants to be. He is the founder of the self help and dating blog thenewmanwithin.com and is currently working on turning his blog into his full time career.

Favorite Success Quote

“When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you will be successful.” ~ Eric Thomas

Key Points

1. Improve Your Environment, Improve Your Life

One of the quickest ways to improve your life is to improve your environment. Surround yourself with inspiring and ambitious people, spend more time at seminars and live events than bars and clubs, read more books and watch less TV.

When you change what you surround yourself with, you will begin to change who you are, you must realize the power of your environment to shape your destiny.

2. Approach Life and Dating From an Abundance Mentality

We often see the opportunities and circumstances presented to us as once in a lifetime. We are approached about a business idea or meet a new girl and think “Oh my God! If I miss out on this, nothing like it will ever come my way again.” But we fail to realize that life is full of abundance.

There are thousands of opportunities everyday for a budding entrepreneur and countless single, high quality women. We must remember that life is full of opportunities if we will seek them out and take them, do not become too attached to one idea, girl or business. There will always be other opportunities.

3. Learn to be Authentic with Others

One of the biggest struggles for the modern man is authenticity. From a young age we have been told to “toughen up” and “get over it,” and even though strength and toughness is necessary to be a thriving man, we often miss another piece of the puzzle. Vulnerability.

Learn to express your thoughts and feelings honestly, do not be caught up in having the perfect thing to say or the manliest pickup line. Be who you are and say what you want without fear of the outcome. “Be you, because everyone else is already taken.” Oscar Wilde.

4. Cultivate Emotional Intelligence

As men, we focus on developing many skills and traits. We focus on physical strength, intellectual prowess business savvy, but we often overlook one of the most essential traits of a complete man: Emotional intelligence. To operate on the highest levels, you must learn to be in touch with your own emotions in every moment.

Learn to accept how you feel in and learn from it, do not hide away, accept it and use it to create the life you want.

5. Listen

You were given two ears and one mouth for a reason, use them in that proportion…you might be surprised where it gets you.