“Is the ultimate goal of an older man to get so set in his life that there’s nothing consequential a woman can add to his lifestyle except herself?” – Dr. Lucas Bly

YES.

I saw a tweet the other day and it got me to thinking. When I was younger, back in my 20’s and even through my 30’s and into my very early 40’s, I always thought that I needed or even wanted a woman to be able to somehow “contribute” to my lifestyle. I wanted her to be able to “bring something to the relationship,” something that I either needed or wanted. Something that I was lacking.

Let me tell you right now, that way leads to disappointment and potentially to misery. Women are a compliment to your life, as Rollo is fond of saying, and I agree. You need to “have a life” though and your life itself can’t be about her.

I don’t mean that you can’t have women in your life and that if you do, the only thing that they will be able to offer is sex. You can and you will, if you put yourself out there, find women who have more to offer than just sex. But you need to “have a life” first. A life that regardless if she is in it or not, you are good. You are good with your life and where and how it is going. She has nothing to do with that.

Sometimes the most consequential thing a woman can bring to a man’s life is nothing more than herself. This isn’t pedestalization, this is simply man and woman dynamics at play. It doesn’t make her a princess or a special snowflake, but when she is in your life, for however long she is in your life, she adds to it. There is more being brought in than if she wasn’t there. But at the same time, you are good without her being there.

Part of my lifestyle is that I have my finances in order. That doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m completely debt free, because I’m not, but it does mean that whether there is  a woman, or more than one woman in my life, my finances will not suffer. I do not rely on her to pay any of my bills. I do not need her as a roommate to contribute to my mortgage. If I’m involved with women, my debts aren’t hers and vice versa. She gets to figure out how she is going to get herself out of the hole she has dug for herself. Her debts are not my problem.

My life is in order so whether women show up, leave, stick around, flake, ghost, or do anything else, I’m good. They can be in my company and we’ll have a great time for as long as that lasts, or she can go and do something else with somebody else. Either way I’m good.

Getting “set in life” doesn’t mean that you have become crystallized and are an immovable block of granite with no room to grow and to change or to enjoy things with a woman, or to enjoy her herself. It doesn’t mean that you don’t feel anything either. It just means that you have most if not all of your affairs in order and that no matter what happens, no matter who comes into your life, and no matter who leaves your life, you will ultimately be okay.

Living this way is not only reassuring to me, which is the most important reason for doing it, but it takes pressure off of her as well. You don’t need her for anything, so you don’t have an air of desperation about you. There are no covert contracts going on. In many ways, you can “just be yourself.”

I’ve played house twice in my life so far. The first time was my marriage, which lasted for a total of seven years, and the second time was a long term, live-in girlfriend which lasted for about four years. Both times I had the basic finances covered. The house and the mortgage are both in my name and my name alone. I make enough money to pay that and all of my utilities plus a few luxury expenditures as well as leaving enough behind to save up for a rainy day. Anything monetarily that I woman brings to me as far as our relationship goes, is gravy. I’m willing to let her spend money on me, but I don’t need her to and I’ve never become dependent on a woman for that.

I figured that one out for myself back in my mid-thirties, so it’s been over a decade that I’ve been living with that “blueprint.” It has not steered me wrong. I’ve had a bunch of casual and short term relationships as well as the two longest relationships of my life under the same roof, and when all of those relationships ended for one reason or another, I’ve come out fine in the end.

When I love women, I love them hard. I go all in. I don’t hold anything back. I guess that is the romantic in me, or the somewhat artistic side of me coming out. That doesn’t mean that I lose my mind and start doing stupid shit, but that also doesn’t mean that I need them or that I’m going to do something as foolish as take on their debt or sign up for more debt with them. Loving them hard and my fiscal decisions about my own life have nothing to do with each other. They are two completely seperate categories and as far as I’m concerned, they are mutually exclusive. I can love deeply, feel things profoundly, and I can also say that my life is in order enough and intact enough that if and/or when she leaves, I’ll be just fine.

So to answer that question that was asked, “Is the ultimate goal of an older man to get so set in his life that there’s nothing consequential a woman can add to his lifestyle except herself?”

The answer is yes.

There is ideally nothing consequential that a woman can bring to my lifestyle except herself, and honestly, that’s enough for me. That’s why I happen to like women and I keep going after them.

It’s more than enough.

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