The 13 Rules of the Relentless: How to Be a Fucking Cleaner (Part 2)

Click here for Part 1 and Part 3.

I went to the grocery store earlier today, and do you know what I saw? Mediocrity. Mediocrity everywhere.

As I walked down the aisles, I saw the dull, complacent look in 95% of the people there. They just drift through life, from cradle to grave, without ever really thinking for themselves. They just do what they’re told, and live mediocre lives.

This is not for you. Masculine Development is a community for those of you who want more.

This is a community of fighters, it’s a community of go-getters, and it’s a community of fucking cleaners.

#5 – You’re Not Intimidated by Pressure, You Thrive on It

If you’re living a relentless life, plain and mundane does NOT satisfy you. When others are jumping at the easy opportunities, you’re jumping for the opportunities that will make you struggle, grow, and develop, but that will also change your life and sculpt you into a better person.

Most people are content with living low-stress, low-pressure lives. This type of life also comes with a low amount of influence and impact.

This is why 95% of people are complacent losers. They’re livestock. They literally just follow the herd, like damn sheep. They wake up at the same time every day, go to the same job every day, come home to the same life every day, and NEVER change anything!

They view anything that’s stressful or high-pressure as bad, but the relentless are different. In fact, it’s not even that they want the pressure…it’s that they fucking NEED it.

When you’re a cleaner, pressure makes you feel ALIVE. It brings out the killer instinct, because it’s high stakes—it’s all or nothing.

The man who is relentless is not easily entertained. Small goals and tasks do not give him fulfillment—but you set an almost impossible goal for him? He’ll come alive and channel 100% of his will into conquering that fucking goal.

Cleaners literally have a psychological NEED for pressure and high-stakes, and if they can’t find it, then they’ll seek it out.

This is not the same as “seeking thrills,” but rather it’s an intense desire to prove yourself, not to others, but to yourself. It’s an intense desire to prove that you can not only operate under pressure, but that you can THRIVE under pressure, because you feel ALIVE under pressure!

The cleaners want pressure, because without it, life isn’t even worth living. It’s just a boring existence, a stupid game to get through—but when you have enormous amounts of pressure? Suddenly that’s engaging. Suddenly there’s a REASON to fight, and a REASON to step up to the plate.

The relentless want the impact and influence that comes with pressure—they get high off of pressure, they FEED off of it. And do you know what?

It’s never enough. They always want more, because they’re relentless. They’re the cleaners.

When a cleaner feels the almost unbearable pressure of a fight, an unachievable goal, or a noble cause, he comes alive. Be a cleaner.

#6 – When Everyone is Hitting the ‘In Case of Emergency’ Button, They’re All Looking At You

Everyone thinks that they’re the shit until things turn south. Being in a state of complete uncertainty and feeling completely HELPLESS, with no clue what to do, has a very humbling effect. Thankfully, it can break through even the most stubborn of egos.

It doesn’t matter how loud you talk, it doesn’t matter how much you beat your chest, and it doesn’t matter how great you think you are. When the shit hits the fan, it separates the men from the boys.

I used to volunteer as an EMT for a while, and one story illustrates this concept beautifully. My team and I were sitting in the lounge, shooting the shit, eating leftovers from the party that we had a few days ago, when suddenly we got a call: “Attention unit 31, we’ve got a Priority 3 down on South Main…”

Fuck. It had been a pretty calm night up until this point, but that’s how life is sometimes. We jumped in the ambulance, and rolled out—the captain at the time was a veteran of 15+ years, I’ll call him Jack. He had an air of quiet confidence that can only be forged through years of intense experience and growth.

As we rolled into the driveway, we were immediately greeted by a woman, who I assume was the victim’s wife. She was sobbing hysterically, and could barely speak. She managed to point us in the right direction, and as my captain opened the door, what I saw was absolutely horrendous.

A man had fallen down the stairs, and snapped his neck completely sideways…but he was still alive, in a complete state of panic. “I CAN’T FEEL MY F-FUCKING BODY, MAN! FUCK!”

He was sprawled out at the bottom of the stairs, with a pool of blood slowly oozing out around him. “Can you move your feet?” Jack asked him. “NO-NO MAN, F-FUCK!”

My crew and I just stared helplessly, not knowing what to do. Nearly 120 hours of training hadn’t prepared us for this, but Jack had the answer. “Jon, stabilize the spine, Kerry and Mike, grab the Hydraulic stretcher, and Donny—get me the trauma kit. NOW! GO!”

I was still grappling with the fact that a perfectly healthy man had one unlucky night, and could die because of it, when I saw something worse than I thought possible.

The man’s 8 year old daughter was curled up on a nearby couch, silently crying to herself in a state of terror: “Is my Daddy going to die?”

What the fuck do you say to that? I just shook my head and uttered “no,” and finally snapped out of my shock. I did everything that Jack asked, and we all managed to get him into the ambulance. We managed to keep him alive until we dropped him off at the hospital, and then we never heard from him again.

That’s how being an EMT works. Your job is to just take the patient from the site of the incident, to the hospital. You don’t get to follow up, you don’t get to see if the patient survived, and you don’t get to see if your work was all for nothing, or if it actually made a difference.

Afterwards, as we were waiting in the ambulance for our next call, I asked Jack: “How were you able to stay so calm? We all just froze up in terror.”

Jack replied: “If I don’t stay calm, people die.”

Jack was a fucking cleaner. Be like Jack.

#7 – You Don’t Compete With Anyone, You Find Your Opponent’s Weaknesses And You Attack

You can always tell a cleaner by his thought process—this is what separates the good from the great.

A cooler tries to compete on the same level as his opponents.

A closer studies his opponents and does what they do, but more.

A cleaner finds his opponents’ weaknesses, and strikes.

When you’re a cleaner, you don’t compete with anyone—competition implies that you’re fighting on the same level, but this isn’t what the cleaner does. The cleaner isn’t just looking for a slight edge…he’s looking for a way to change the game entirely.

The cleaners of the world throw their competition into a state of shock and awe. They hit them with everything they’ve got, and the competition? They can’t compete.

Steve Jobs revolutionizing the technology industry with touch screens, Bruce Lee shattering millenia-old Kung Fu dogmas, and Elon Musk creating the entire electric car industry are all examples of cleaners. They don’t compete…they dominate.

When you compete, you come at it with the mindset of “I’ll try to beat my competitor.” When you dominate, you come at it with the mindset of: “I WILL beat my competitor.”

Do you see the difference? One is a brave endeavor, to try to beat your competitors—but the other? It’s sheer force of will. There is no “if,” about it—you’re going to beat them, because you’re a fucking cleaner. Be a cleaner.

#8 – You Make Decisions, Not Suggestions; You Know the Answer While Everyone Else is Still Asking Questions

Coolers need others to give them orders. Closers think very carefully, and give orders to others. Cleaners know what to do, and they just lead by example.

I’ve written much before about “The Law of Use,” and how most men get stuck in analysis paralysis. They think and think and think and thing all day long, but they NEVER actually make a decision and get shit done.

This isn’t what cleaners do. Cleaners are 100% aligned in their principles, because they know who they are. So, naturally, any decision they need to make is no sweat:

• They’re tired, but they have an important business deal? They do it anyway.
• They’re tired, but know they need to hit the gym? They do it anyway.
• They’re faced with two decisions? They choose the one that they know is best.

Cleaners have the energetic force of a fucking freight train—they must be reckoned with, because they blaze down their path and charge through anyone who is dumb enough to get in the way. Cleaners are decisive!

Decisiveness is how you change your life. Without the power to make a decision and ACT ON IT, you WILL NOT accomplish ANYTHING! Go back and re-read that five times.

This is why the average man isn’t even a COOLER, let alone a CLEANER! Most men are stuck in this bullshit “thinking mode,” that’s a thin veil to mask their crippling fear of failure. Coolers aren’t afraid of failure, because they’ve decided that it’s not an option.

Let me tell you a story to illustrate the power of decisiveness. In the year 1519, Cortes landed on the Yucatan Peninsula in modern day Mexico. He had journeyed for thousands of miles across the ocean, in a wooden ship, for the chance to conquer unknown lands.

Him and his 500 men set up camp on the beach, and they sent a scout to scope out the area. Just hours later, the spy returned, and pleaded with Cortes: “We have to go back. They’re savages! They cut out peoples’ hearts while they’re ALIVE, and there’s TENS OF THOUSANDS of them!”

That night, Cortes set fire to his own ships. Why did he do this? Because he understood the power of making a decision.

By burning down the ships, he knew his army of 500 men would literally HAVE TO conquer an army of 100,000 Mayans, or they’d fucking die.  There’s no other option. So, they just DECIDED to conquer the other army, and they did.

Cortes was a fucking cleaner. Be like Cortes.

Click here for Part 1 and Part 3.