00:00:28.960Man, I want you to think about the most powerful version of yourself.
00:00:33.380It's not the polished version, not the version you perform for other people.
00:00:39.860It's the real one, the one who makes decisions from your level of conviction instead of the fear that you might have.
00:00:49.180It's the man who isn't asking for permission from other people to do what he's wanted to do all along.
00:00:56.360it's the one who isn't waiting on somebody else to tell him what to do or what to think or how to
00:01:03.960be or how to show up or how to perform. Now, I want you to ask yourself, honestly, how close
00:01:10.340are you to that man? Because here's what I have personally observed over years, decade at this
00:01:19.600point of working with men. Most of us aren't living from that place. Most of us have handed
00:01:26.040over the controls, probably slowly, probably methodically, probably quietly, usually without
00:01:34.700even realizing it. And what we've done is we've given away our authority to other people, our
00:01:40.580autonomy, our ability to define ourselves by our own terms. We have literally relinquished our
00:01:48.860sovereignty in many cases. And that's exactly what I'm going to get with you today about.
00:01:55.440Okay. But before we get into how to reclaim some of that sovereignty, I want to define what I mean
00:02:02.800by the word sovereignty, because this is a word that over the past eight, nine years now has get,
00:02:09.320has just been bastardized. It's been thrown around. Nobody was using the word sovereignty
00:02:14.580until 2018, when I wrote a book called Sovereignty, The Battle for the Hearts and Minds of Men.
00:02:21.920Nobody was using the word. And then I wrote the book and everybody started using the word and
00:02:26.920started changing what it means and transforming what it means and distorting it and contorting it
00:02:33.440and bastardizing it into something that would fit their current worldview.
00:02:38.280you. But I want to be really precise about what sovereignty actually means. Now, look, it's not
00:02:45.880arrogance. It's not isolation. It's not pretending that you don't need anyone. That's what a lot of
00:02:53.660the doctrine of popular culture will say. Sovereignty is actually the condition of being
00:03:00.200the primary author of your own life. Now, I also remember when I wrote this book that
00:03:07.200I wondered if I was mocking God because we often hear about God's sovereignty.
00:03:11.920And I do believe that he is sovereignty over everything. But I also know for a fact
00:03:18.620that he has given us agency to make decisions of our own lives, which means that he has given us
00:03:25.920sovereignty or agency, however you choose to look at it, over the decisions that we make.
00:03:32.160Regardless of our relationship with him, we are capable of making our own decisions.
00:03:37.200Now, with that said, this is an important distinction and caveat.
00:03:41.340I believe that if we follow his word, we'll live a better life.
00:03:45.660But that doesn't undermine the fact that we are allowed to choose our own path.
00:03:51.020What sovereignty means is that it means that you are the one setting the terms for how you spend your time and attention and energy and what you stand for and how you show up and what you accept as truth and lie and deception.
00:04:05.420and what you refuse. It means that your identity is not outsourced to me or any other social media
00:04:14.860quote-unquote influencer that you listen to or read their books or go to their events or whatever
00:04:20.760else. Your decisions are not crowdsourced, so to speak. Your standards are not borrowed from
00:04:29.860whoever is the loudest and most obnoxious on the social media platforms a sovereign man is not
00:04:37.000ruled by his carnal appetite or his emotion or his past or other people's opinions of him
00:04:47.120he is self-governing he is in the truest sense of the word in command of his life
00:04:55.360now here's why this matters so much for you because sovereignty is not this this fixed state
00:05:02.500it's not this state that you achieve and then you're done it's something that you either protect
00:05:11.860with vigilance every single day or you just surrender every single day and i think most
00:05:19.320men are surrendering it, surrendering it without even a fight. Well, and that's the sad part is
00:05:25.600most men don't even know they're in a fight, but you are. You're in a fight against Satan. You're
00:05:30.560in a fight against evil. You're in a fight against the doctrine of popular culture. You're in a fight
00:05:36.040against capitalism and socialism. You're in a fight against ignorant morons who would love to1.00
00:05:42.460see you subjugated because they're useful idiots. You're in a fight against pure evil who would love1.00
00:05:48.960to see you shackled and bound by poor decision-making. When I started this movement 10
00:05:57.220years ago, I was mocked for even suggesting that men are in a battle because the mere thought of
00:06:07.460it made these men believe that it was weak to believe that we were being attacked or at a
00:06:16.820minimum being dismissed. And those same guys who were crying about we're not under attack are the
00:06:22.740same guys who were wondering how this even happened. It's because you pulled the wool over
00:06:27.400your eyes and you pretended like there wasn't a problem when me and other people saw that there
00:06:32.600was, and you acted as if everything was business as usual. It's not. Are you guys awake yet?
00:06:39.88011 years down the road are you awake yet and still i have people i had one of our guys within
00:06:49.460our organization who's been in our organization for a long time talk about why it's complaining
00:06:56.400if a man explains how the odds are stacked against us that's not complaining that's being realistic0.99
00:07:04.000if you're gonna bury your head in the sand and be a little bitch about it then go ahead and do that0.96
00:07:09.640but there's millions of us who acknowledge that there's a problem consciously and subconsciously0.99
00:07:18.240in culture actively working against what it means to be a man and i'm not going to bury my
00:07:25.280head in the sand i'm not going to pretend like addressing the issues makes me a victim it
00:07:31.620actually makes me somebody who has control over my life because i'm willing to accept reality
00:07:37.280so here are the five most common ways that i've seen over 11 years now how men relinquish their
00:07:45.100sovereignty okay so number one is approval seeking their men are outsourcing their self-worth
00:07:53.400to other people's opinions and this one's dangerous it's insidious it's it's very
00:07:58.580destructive because it doesn't look like weakness it looks like being a likable friendly guy
00:08:05.500it looks like keeping the peace it looks like not wanting to rock the boat and being agreeable
00:08:13.820and people like individuals like that obviously because there's no challenge in that but underneath
00:08:21.560that behavior is a man who has handed the keys of his identity over to an audience over to the group
00:08:30.160over to the collective over to the mob and when that happens what you do is you stop making
00:08:35.640decisions based on what's right and you start making decision decisions based on what is
00:08:41.960acceptable in your surroundings you stop building a life that's yours and you start performing like
00:08:50.860a little circus monkey a life that plays well to the crowd like let me just get the claps let me
00:08:56.460get the cheers let me get the accolades let me get the attaboys let me get the pats on the back
00:09:00.720and then underneath you're dying and you know the man i'm describing you you might be that guy
00:09:07.680the guy who won't actually share his real opinion in a room full of people the one
00:09:13.820who shapes his personality depending on who he's talking to politicians do this all the time0.90
00:09:19.720gavin newsom is a perfect example of the perpetual coward who just changes his tune1.00
00:09:25.780based on who he's talking to and how anybody can like the guy a cowardly little bitch who just1.00
00:09:31.980placates to whoever he happens to be talking to i don't understand it that guy's not a man1.00
00:09:37.880he's not a man with a spine i mean at least somebody like bernie sanders who is the dumbest1.00
00:09:45.300dunce of them all at least i think he actually believes the bullshit that comes out of his mouth1.00
00:09:50.300at least he has a spine at least he doesn't change his message based on who he's talking to0.99
00:09:57.060so bernie sanders is a a grade above gavin newsome because the guy stands by what he says0.99
00:10:05.200even though he's dumb as shit but that's the problem is that there's men who just need the0.99
00:10:12.120validation they need the likes they need the compliments the nods of approval the pats on the1.00
00:10:16.120back the attaboys to feel like he's he's sure-footed he's on solid ground that's not sovereignty
00:10:23.520that's actually servitude with slightly better optics gavin newsome is a puppet0.98
00:10:32.540ernie sanders at least he's convicted he's dumb but at least he's convicted so the fix is this0.96
00:10:42.840stop asking what will people think if blah blah blah and start asking what do i actually believe0.97
00:10:50.700what do i actually hold as truth build that internal scorecard for yourself a clear set
00:10:58.960of values and standards that you measure yourself against not what the group thinks of you the
00:11:06.120approval of men who don't share your values a man who chases validation is always running around
00:11:18.580like a chicken with its head cut off never arriving at who he actually is but that sovereign
00:11:23.700man I'm talking about says what he means. He owns what he believes. And then he lets other people
00:11:29.560have their reactions. And that's okay. I have people who love what we do. I have people who
00:11:35.300hate what we do. I have people who call me names. I have people who praise me and put me on a
00:11:39.520pedestal. I don't belong. And I don't care about any of it. To the man who criticizes me, go ahead.
00:11:47.840I've been criticized by greater men than you and to the man who praises me careful I'm a human being
00:11:57.340but I will always have my own opinion all right number two is this addiction to comfort that we
00:12:04.100have the second way that men relinquish our sovereignty is by surrendering to just comfort
00:12:12.620ease here's the truth that I think a lot of guys don't want to hear
00:12:16.060you cannot be comfortable and sovereign at the same time not completely at least
00:12:22.180because sovereignty requires capacity it's the strength it's the resilience it's the mental and
00:12:29.520physical durability and aptitude to handle adversity and can and and confront struggle and
00:12:37.300challenge and comfort, it erodes that capacity. When a man builds and organizes his life around
00:12:47.580avoiding discomfort, he is by definition ruled by his appetites, his lust, his depravity,
00:13:00.120his degeneracy. He's not choosing. He's just defaulting to who he is as a man. And we know
00:13:07.060biblically speaking that men are fallen we are all fallen and we have to actively work and reject
00:13:15.500that idea a man who defaults to comfort in the easy moments will absolutely default to weakness
00:13:25.100and cowardness and and being pathetic in the hard circumstances i i see men do this constantly
00:13:33.540every day right they skip the hard workout they avoid the difficult conversation they numb out0.84
00:13:40.140with alcohol i've fallen prey to that personally or porn um or 12 hours of screen time i mean how
00:13:47.860many hours of the day are you on your your phone doom scrolling over nothing rather than sitting
00:13:57.060with the discomfort of an unresolved problem men like this choose the easy easy path so
00:14:03.900they consistently lose the ability to choose anything else0.99
00:14:11.480that kind of guy has surrendered his self-governance to the immediate desires to his dick1.00
00:14:21.200or his, his, his lizard brain. He's no longer the captain of, of the meat sack that we operate in.1.00
00:14:30.360He's just a passenger. And the fix is to reframe your relationship with discomfort.
00:14:37.660Voluntarily engaging in difficult things is not punishment. It's actually practice, if anything.
00:14:44.720Because every time you do the hard thing, when you don't have to, you are reinforcing your
00:14:49.100sovereignty. You're choosing to do something difficult. Cold shower. You don't need to do
00:14:53.980that, but you do. A difficult conversation, everybody would excuse why you didn't have it,
00:14:59.160but you do. That hard training session, nobody's there to hold you accountable to it, but you do
00:15:04.340it anyways. Saying no to what's easy in favor of what's right, nobody's going to call you out on
00:15:12.360that. In fact, they're probably going to reward you and acknowledge you and throw you praises
00:15:16.800for doing the easy thing stack those decisions and you will build the kind of man who can handle
00:15:25.580what life throws at him without flinching without wincing without crying without buckling without
00:15:31.180coward this is what the world requires comfort is a reward at best but it's not a way of life
00:15:42.620don't let comfort become your master all right let's talk about number three what i would call0.92
00:15:49.880digital dependency i'm not going to tell you that social media is evil i use it every single day i'm
00:15:56.120not going to tell you something that that that is just easy to hear i'm going to tell you something
00:16:02.760that's i think more important that the platforms and the algorithms and the feeds they are not
00:16:09.140built for you to flourish. That goes for what I share too. What I share and what other people
00:16:16.240share, it's built to capture your attention and then monetize it. I don't have any problem with
00:16:21.920building a value or a product or an offering or a service or an event that you feel is valuable,
00:16:27.140that you're willing to spend your time, money, and attention on. I don't have any problem with
00:16:30.180that, but I'm honest about it. I'm honest about it. Most people aren't. A man whose attention
00:16:38.580can be captured by anyone at any moment for any reason. That's not a sovereign man. Think about
00:16:45.240how you start your morning. First thing you wake up, where does your mind go? If the answer is
00:16:51.860your phone, then you've handed over the first moments of your life. And I call the first
00:17:00.160moments of your day, the first moments of your life, but you've handed over the first moments
00:17:04.300of your life to my agenda or David Goggins or Jocko or Chris Williamson or whoever it is that
00:17:12.060you listen to, what would Andy Frisilla have to say about this? And I love Andy. He's a friend
00:17:20.780of mine. I believe in what he's doing, but I'm not going to relinquish my thoughts over to Andy
00:17:26.140or Jocko or Goggins or Chris Williamson or Phil and the Blake. I have my own thoughts. Sometimes
00:17:34.420they align. Sometimes they don't. Sometimes I agree with Andy. Sometimes I don't.
00:17:41.160But too many men are being led around like little puppets with the puppet master dangling the
00:17:46.860strings, telling them that they need to do X, Y, and Z. They need to wake up at this time. They
00:17:53.400need to do these five things when they wake up they need to uh talk with people this way they0.99
00:17:58.580need to do this exercise in this training regiment fuck that now clues are left everywhere and we0.95
00:18:06.180ought to take it into consideration but if you're not filtering it through your own lens of your0.96
00:18:09.860life then you're just giving it over to andy or somebody else i'm not interested in doing that
00:18:15.080i don't even think he'd want you to do that i think he'd tell you the same
00:18:18.260take what's good leave what's bad and make your own life okay so leave the news cycle
00:18:24.260turn off the notifications stop commenting on every single comment that ever comes into your
00:18:30.880social media feed your emotional tone if it's shaped by other people
00:18:37.500man that's a recipe for disaster and over time this does something deeper than just waste your
00:18:45.760time, it fragments your ability to think clearly. You're filtering it through Goggins as if he's
00:18:52.700the God of all things that happen. Or Andrew Huberman. He says, if you do this, your chances
00:19:03.020of whatever increase by 14% without actually realizing that 14% of 0.23 is something like
00:19:10.4400.27. Don't check my math. But man, if I can get you to believe that if you do this one thing
00:19:18.980wrong, that your chances of cancer are going to go up by 14%, then I've got you. I've got you
00:19:27.320exactly where I want you. And then we stop thinking critically about it.
00:19:33.960When you live your life vicariously through other people, it replaces genuine conviction
00:19:38.880with what I would call curated outrage.