In our modern era, people are more sedentary than ever. We are very inactive, which leads to health issues. As humans, we are designed to be active. And when I say active, I don't just mean physically. We also benefit from being active mentally.

In this era, we see too many people who promote this sedentary lifestyle. These people are doing little to nothing for their well-being, yet people still follow their advice.

We hear excuses like not having enough time, it's too difficult, or it doesn't work. The people who give these excuses also tend to be a lot worse off in multiple areas of life.

As a modern masculine man, take it upon yourself to stay active mentally and physically. Since staying physically active is intuitive, here are three ways to stay mentally active.

1. Learning

Even if you've graduated from school, there's no reason for you to stop learning. Taking the time to learn new skills or new knowledge will always be useful. A true master is an eternal student, so take it upon yourself to become a true master of a certain skill.

When you take the time to learn, you are exercising your brain. Learning is an exercise for the brain in every way.

Learning can be progressively overloaded, allowing one to learn faster as they go further. Learning is best done in shorter intervals rather than hours at a time; your brain needs to recover when learning.

Learning lets you know where you're weak in a certain skill set, allowing you to know where you need improvement. 

Learning is most effective when diversified and active rather than passive and monotonous. 

Most of all, learning takes discipline to stick to. In all these ways, learning is exercise for the brain.

2. Meditation

Of all the methods out there, meditation is the most popular, and for good reason. Meditation helps people become more focused and less stressed. All it takes is at least three minutes a week. 

If learning is exercise, then meditation is recovery. When you meditate, you are giving your mind a chance to relax and clean the house.

The reason why so many people suffer from bad mental health is an overstuffed mind. Because there's so much junk, they can't filter through to what's important.

This will sound farfetched, but the consequences of not taking care of yourself mentally can lead to you never achieving your goals in their entirety.

When you aren't mentally relaxed, you can't savor the moment. You look forward to the destination so much that you forget the journey.

Meditation is meant to help you appreciate the journey by helping you to learn the lessons along the way as you make progress.

3. Challenge yourself

Let's face it: in this era, not only are there very few challenges for us to do, there are too few people encouraging us to take on challenges. This coupled with the participation award mentality of the modern day leads to people who are very entitled and unskilled. These people tend to be less happy and more unpleasant. Don't be like them, and make sure you take on challenges.

When we take on challenges, we are actively pushing our comfort zone. By doing this, we are encouraging ourselves to become more of who we want to be.

The problem with our society is that they make it uncomfortable to face challenges while making it too easy and rewarding to stay comfortable.

As a modern masculine man, it is your task to take on enough challenges that you are keeping yourself active and engaged in your life.

If you don't push for change in your life, you fossilize and stagnate. You die without having any actual death. 

At the same time, don't push for too much too fast, This leads to chaos and dysregulation, which can be even worse.

Strike the balance with your challenges. Hard enough to keep you engaged, but not so hard that you dread doing your tasks.

Of course, when starting a new challenge there will be a period where you don't want to do it. This is only because it's something new to your already set routine.

Push through this resistance and you'll be rewarded with a life that keeps you engaged and fulfilled while simultaneously keeping you active in many ways.

Rise to the occasion again and again

Staying active, whether physically or mentally, requires one to rise to the challenge. Change is good, but it is also scary. Venturing into the unknown is instinctually scary. 

However, it is also often very rewarding. Even when it doesn't go to plan, there are valuable lessons you can learn to keep on improving.

By repeatedly tackling challenges and staying active, we adopt a lifestyle where we are pushing our boundaries and expanding our mental means. In this way, we stay active and alive.

- Karl