I cant give you practical guidelines to a "successful" life. What is "success". How many "successful" people are unhappy. How many "unsuccessful" people are...happy, but you dont hear about them, or you ignore them.
I can give you practical guidelines to a happy life tho, not to confuse with a life of pleasures. A happy life is a balance of healthy pleasures supervised by a strong , stable faith which requires being maintained, trained constantly, which is obtained by giving as much as you receive using the maximum of your best capacities in the interest of others as much as yours.
If your faith has been destroyed by others, take your distance from them without any remorse, and listen directly to God 's words he left us in the Bible so we can make proper use of our mind/soul and body, because He is our creator, He is the father of every single man, woman , kid on earth. His words are the path to Life, this is why He is called the Living God. He will teach you love, loyalty and fidelity. He will guide you to having children, and then you ll be ready to understand the others 50 % of life a single man or woman doesnt know.
But for a partially lost atheist, it would require reprogramming thought patterns, behaviors, habits, relationships. It requires modifying your mind, just the way you modify, sculpt your body. Keeping the good, and getting rid of the bad.
I have a blog written in french which is quite huge and well followed by french speaking people, and most of what i write on here once in a while is a ridiculously tiny translated selection of what i write there.
God's words have been powerful enough for long enough to allow countless generations of men and women to maintain protect and develop life, so my modest participation , which can be understood as a modern reinterpretation of the message of God, as useful as it obviously is to some who still have enough faith left in this lost world and who want to preserve and cultivate it, couldnt replace God's words.
A mix of both should be prefered. Faith is a personal experience, but we re all walking ont he same path, we re just at differents steps.
Hopefully one day my english skills will be good enough to translate everything i wrote in french to english, or maybe someone's else will do it.
A good first step would be to buy a Bible, ignore all the people who didnt read it -following their own parents "advises"- ignore all of those who made a false interpretation of it or who tainted its message with their own sins, and make your mind all by yourself. Without guidance we are nothing and we get lost. There's guidance and guidance tho. If you cannot trust humans, your own parents, then listen directly to God's words. We can make good use of our souls and bodies only by following God's words. Atheists fall into despair after believing in nihilism, and absurdity. The material , fake world lured them into despair, they are cold, they might be smart but they are cold, cynical, sarcastical. They dont reproduce and attempt to lure others into their own despair. Atheism is a belief. It is a system of beliefs made of various influences ; philosophical texts, movies one liners, feminism, individualism, consumerism, materialism, socialo communism, capitalism etc. A man either believe in a false god, or in atheism which is a religion itself, and lead him into despair and destruction. There is only one true path, one true God to be loyal to.
As Esaie said it "those who dont believe, wont survive".
The future of those who follow God's words is a mix of the best from the past and the present, without the bad, as they use God's words to filter what is good and bad from the numerous influences surrounding them. Intelligence, money, "strenght", without a heart nourrished by a constant faith, by spirituality, are useless at best, destructive most of the time.
About women; they will be happy if they fear their man and want to please him. But, their man, has to fear God and do his best to please Him, this way he will be happy. A woman in order to create life, shouldnt want to ally with a man who doesnt follow God or she will be badly treated. Kids must fear and want to please both their parents. Both their parents should never break the alliance they made before God, and they should create life, defend it, cultivate it, not destroy it.
To please their man women need to know what he wants. If he follows God's words, women will be able to reastically answer their needs. If a man follow God's words, he will also satisfy his woman. Man teaches women and kids. Without men, women and kids are lost.
Women should get a decent education then work part time and raise kids. They should not pursue a "carreer". They ll only be happy giving love to their man and children, not acting like men because their atheist parents wrongly conditionned them to do so.
Women's friends should please their husbands. If they dont, they must stay away from them. Their man, if he follows God's words, knows what, who is good and bad. He teaches women and kids what, who is good or bad. Christian men must date christian women and christian women must date christian men. You can date an atheist, if you know you re going to successfuly convert him or her, if you listen to his, her despair and decide to cure it. As a christian, you must fight those who threathen God's words by converting them or killing them. Ignoring them will only lead to their strenghtening. Atheists, muslims, homosexuals, feminists, are Christians and God's ennemies. Atheists will open the doors of Occident to muslims.
Foly is destruction. Love is life. Strenght used to defend God's words is justice and is needed to protect, maintain life. Violence used without God's consent is an animal behavior, it is sheer destruction. What separates humans and animals is Faith. Faith is loyalty toward God and others humans who follow God. Faith is destroying God's ennemies in His name. Men are between animals and God.
A man shouldnt lift weights and eat in order to get "more muscles" as it is vain. He should tho, lift weights and eat enough food to develop and maintain a healthy body which will increase his overall well being , including sexuality. He shouldnt not "increase weights progressively", eat "more proteins" 6 times a day and inject steroids. He should just perform his favorites exercises with consistancy, eat just what his body needs and that is about it. Anything above these recommendations is too extreme and unhealthy, both physically and psychologically.
A happy man is a man who takes care of his body as much as he takes care of his soul.
"mens sana in corpore sanum"
