Hands off the merchandise!

By Samson

I've been following a thread on the SOHH.com forums that's beein going strong for a year called the "Don't touch your shit challenge."

Basically, it is what is sounds like. A poster issued a challenge/support group encouraging his fellow brethren not to fly solo. Reason being, the thread started pointed out, and many chimed in with research and opinions, in doing so, you tend to get in the habit of it, which lowers your testosterone levels, kills your libido and overall drive, causing you to be more lethargic and less assertive. I happened to be reading an e-book last night that was totally unrelated, and in one portion, a person advised his colleagues to refrain also, because it will kill their drive to go after their financial and business goals.

I think there may be something to this.

We live in a generation where you can log onto a computer and see a woman, or women do whatever your imagination can come up with. The line between fantasy and reality can get blurred if you over indulge and cause a disconnect between what your brain connects with and your reality. It's happened quickly.

In MY day (makes me sound old, doesn't it?) it wasn't so easy to come across that type of material. If anything, you had to stay up all night watching a boring movie on HBO that just so happened to have an 'N' marked under it's rating for nudity. And that scene lasted 5-10 seconds if you were lucky. But now you can type in a random nasty sounding URL and feed your brain whatever you want, which spoils you in a sense.

So getting into this habit, you walk out of the door already fed instead of hungry. That woman in the mini skirt doesn't excite you ass much because you're already full. And if you did want to approach her, you're not giving off strong pheromones and you lack the "killer instinct" you would have had. Not only that, but you go to work with paltry testosterone levels so you're not as assertive or driven.

For whatever reason, having sex doesn't have this same effect. Yes, you're getting your "release," but your brain knows the difference. Studies show that people with healthy sex lives are happier and do better in the workplace, so there's obviously more to this than an ejaculation.

The thread was informative but also hilarious. It was funny reading about guys who came into the challenge gung ho and then fell off the wagon five hours later because they were browsing and saw an article they liked, which had an attractive woman in the background, which led to Googling other attractive women, which led to looking for less clothed attractive women, which led to... well you see where this is going.

The poster encourages you to have sex with women, so the goal isn't celibacy. It's intended to create discipline that allows you to be at your absolute best.