A Pragmatic Guide to Gratitude ｜ FRIDAY FIELD NOTES
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Summary
On this episode of Friday Field Notes, host Ryan Michler talks about the importance of being grateful for the things we have in our lives. He also shares 5 practical steps you can implement every single day to be more grateful.
Transcript
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You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest. Embrace your fears and boldly chart
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your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time. Every time.
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You are not easily deterred or defeated. Rugged. Resilient. Strong. This is your life. This is who
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you are. This is who you will become. At the end of the day, and after all is said and done,
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you can call yourself a man. Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan Michler.
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I'm your host and the founder of the Order of Man podcast and movement. Welcome here today.
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This is your Friday field notes. So you're going to hear from me. Typically on Friday,
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I share some thoughts that have been bouncing around in my brain for the past several days
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and weeks. And I thought this being the day after Thanksgiving is the perfect opportunity
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to talk with you about gratitude. This one's a tough one for me, frankly, which is exactly
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why I wanted to talk with you about it. Because a lot of the times we hear from people who say
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it's better to be grateful. And you should start each day with all the things that you're
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grateful for or have some sort of weird gratitude journal where you write down five or 10 things
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that you're grateful for on a daily basis. I tend to be a bit pragmatic in my approach
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to life. A lot of these times or a lot of these types of things tend to be a little too woohoo
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for me or what is the point of that? I'm a grateful person. I'm a happy person. At least I think
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I am. And so what is the practice of writing down the three things I'm grateful for going
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to do? Every morning I'm supposed to write down, well, I'm grateful for the weather and
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I'm grateful for my kids and I'm grateful for my health. And I am grateful, by the way,
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for all of those things. But sometimes I often wonder what is the point of this? What is the
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purpose of this? We can get so inundated and consumed and overwhelmed with the amount of things
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that we're supposed to do in this quote unquote self-development space that a lot of the times
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it seems to defeat the purpose. You may hear some background noise. Something I'm grateful
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for is I have a young man. It's my neighbor who comes over and he mows the lawn. So he
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is mowing the lawn right now, right as I'm doing this podcast, I could complain and gripe about
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that, or I could be grateful that he's doing it and I'm not out there doing it. And I'm sitting
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here talking with you. So if you hear any background noise, it's the young man next door
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who's mowing the lawn. And I am appreciative of that. I do want to first and foremost, before
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I get into a couple of things, tell you that I am thankful for you. I'm thankful for your
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support. This has been eight and a half years of growing this movement and the mission to
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reclaim and restore masculinity. And I cannot even begin to describe how amazed, quite frankly,
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I am that it has grown to what it's grown to, and it's impacted as many lives as it has.
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And that's a testament to you. It's a testament to the work that you're doing. It's a testament
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to the guests that visit this podcast and join us in conversation. And it's a testament to the
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work that we have yet to have done, which we will continue to do as we move into 2024.
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Today, I'm going to talk with you about five things or five reasons, pragmatic reasons,
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because this is what speaks to me and my personality as to why we should be grateful.
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And then I'm going to share with you five practical steps, five practical actions that you can do on a
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daily basis, besides writing in your weird gratitude journal that you can implement every single day
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that are going to help you achieve and have more of the first five points that I'm going to give
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you. Before I get into that one last thing, I do want to mention because I'm also extremely grateful
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for my friends and show sponsors, Montana knife company.com. If you guys are looking for a good
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gift for a man in your life, I know there's a lot of women who listen, a lot of wives, a lot of mothers,
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a lot of sisters, every man needs a good knife. You may not understand it. You may not think that's
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the case, but I can promise you that if your man opens a brand new Montana knife company knife
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in his stocking or under the Christmas tree this year, he's going to be happy. He's going to be
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grateful. And you're going to be glad knowing that you got him a gift that he can actually use,
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not some weird tie or some ugly socks that he has to pretend he likes. So go to Montana knife
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company.com and use the code order of man at checkout and you'll save some money when you do.
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It's a great Christmas gift for the man in your life. Let's talk about this guys. Number one,
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this is again, a pragmatic guide to gratitude. Number one, being grateful just makes you a more
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likable person, right? We all know the pessimist. We all know the person who always has something
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wrong, who always has something to complain about, who's always bitching and moaning and griping.
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That person is no fun. You don't want to spend any amount of time with that person. Sure. You might
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be around them because you want to serve them or they're the weird uncle at Thanksgiving. You have
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to spend time with, but you don't enjoy your time with that individual. On the other hand,
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the person who is grateful, who's always happy and optimistic and sees that even if the clouds are
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out and the sun's not shining, that the rain is dripping down and making everything miserable.
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They'll say, this is good for the crops. We're going to have a good harvest. That's the type
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of person we want to be around. So from a pragmatic approach, if we're more grateful for the things that
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we have in our lives, more people are going to want to be around us. And that's a good thing.
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I want to be around friends. I want to be around romantic partners. I want to be around my children.
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I want to be around other people who edify me, who uplift me, who support me, who care about me,
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who serve me, who add value to my life. And if I'm grateful and I have an air of optimism in my
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approach to life, I'm just a more likable person. And being more likable means that we're going to
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live a better life. Number two is being grateful is going to make you more trustworthy.
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And trust is the foundational element of building credibility and authority and influence in people's
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lives. If people trust you, they're going to give you opportunities. They're going to give you
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promotions. They're going to give you chances they may not otherwise give to other people. They're
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going to give you the benefit of the doubt if something goes wrong. Guys, being a trustworthy
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individual is such a powerful, powerful approach to life. And the reason being grateful makes you
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more trustworthy is because when you express gratitude to individuals for very specific things
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that they do, what you're essentially saying is, I see you, I acknowledge you, I recognize your value,
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and I'm willing to acknowledge it and not hoard the accolades, the praise, the notoriety, the income,
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the promotion, the opportunity that might otherwise be afforded to me if I took the credit.
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So a grateful person is a selfless person. They're not selfish. They're willing to give to other people.
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And if somebody sees something that I do and sends me a message and says to me,
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Brian, I'm grateful for that podcast that you did on gratitude because it helped me be more grateful,
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have a better attitude in my life, and my wife and I are doing better because of it,
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I am going to trust you more as a listener. And next time you message me, I'm probably going to
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remember that conversation that we had. Or if I see you at one of our events or another event and you
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come up and shake my hand, I'm going to know exactly who you are because you've presented to me
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a level of gratitude, which makes you, in my mind, a more trustworthy person. I'm going to be more
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deeply connected to you. Guys, again, I apologize about the noise if you can hear it. But again,
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he's doing a great job. Fine young man. Love having him and his family as neighbors. They're great people
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and he's doing a great job mowing that lawn, but it's loud. All right. Number three,
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being grateful. I alluded to this. It just makes you happier. And I want to be happy.
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I was talking with somebody the other day and you guys probably have seen it if you've been with us
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for any amount of time. I've had highs and lows in my life, specifically over the past eight,
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nine years of doing this podcast. And I became, over the last couple of years, very cynical of just
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life in general. I became very arrogant. I thought I had a lot of things figured out. I put myself on
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a pedestal that I didn't belong. And a lot of that came through in the way that I communicated with you
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on the podcast. It came through in the way I communicated on social media. Sorry, I'm actually,
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it's making me a little emotional because of the way that I showed up. And I just, I wasn't a happy
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person. There wasn't anything specific that I could point to. I did get into alcohol abuse. And
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of course that exacerbated the problem. There was nothing inherently wrong with my life. Nothing
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negative, so to speak, that I could point to as an acute problem that created a lot of the pessimism
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in my life, but I just wasn't happy. And it spilled out. It spilled out into my work.
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It spilled out into my ability to serve you guys who listen. It spilled out into my ability to lead my
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wife and my family well. And it just, it made me a miserable person, not only personally, but also
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to be around. And as I've learned how to be more humble through some very painful circumstances in my
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own life. And I've learned how to be more empathetic and generous and kind to other people who might be
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dealing with their own hardship and their own battles in life. I'm just a happier person. I'm
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just, I'm more pleasurable to be around. I'm not always so uptight. I'm not always so tense. I'm not
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always so serious. Not everything's a big deal. Two years ago, this young man out mowing my lawn
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would have pissed me off and I would have maybe lost my cool over it. Hopefully not at him, but
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I would have made a bigger deal out of it than I needed to. And through the humility and the
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humbling experiences that I've dealt with over the past couple of years, I've learned to let go.
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And I've learned how to, and I'm still learning how to be happy and be satisfied and be a joy to be
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around. And I've realized that when I'm more joyful and happier to be around and lighthearted and fun
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and joking and flirtatious and all the things that come with being a positive person, I noticed that
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that happens in spades in return. And I want to be around happy people. I want to be around positive
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people. I want to be around people who smile and who make me laugh and who tell funny stories and have
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jokes and we can make inside jokes and, and we can, uh, mock each other lightheartedly in a playful and
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fun way. That that's what I want. That's what I'm looking for as a 42 year old man. I don't,
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I don't want to be angry. I don't want to be bitter. I don't want to be a pessimist. I don't want to be
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grumpy. Um, I want to be happy. And if I look around and I recognize that I have technology and I have,
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uh, this audience of, of you guys who listen and I have this young man who mows my lawn and I have
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this beautiful home to live in. And I see this mountain outside of my window. Um, and I have my
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children and, and I'm thinking about the things that I'm actually grateful for. I I'm just, I'm
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happier. I'm just more joyful. Yeah. There's things that are wrong in my life. There's things that could
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be better. Um, there's things that I would like to improve. And that's a different conversation because
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what I do have significantly outweighs what I don't, which leads me into the next point, being
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grateful. It makes you less desperate when you're not grateful. What you're constantly doing is
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looking for the next greatest thing. I need a different woman. I need more money. I need more
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opportunity. I need more social media followers. I need more of this. I need more of that because I'm
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not happy in life. And we begin to believe that the external things of life, the cars and the money
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and the houses and the beautiful women and the, all the externalities that that next externality
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is what's going to make you satisfied in life. And if that's what you believe, then you're going to
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desperately chase those things and being desperate to chase money or women or fame or notoriety or any
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of these external metrics is a recipe for disaster. And it's repulsive to the thing that you're trying
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to attract. If you're desperate, for example, for women, um, let's say you're in the dating market
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and you're desperate to get laid or you're desperate to find your next wife. How many women,
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high quality women do you believe are actually going to find that a redeeming quality in you?
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If you're desperate to build financial prosperity and abundance, and instead of adding real value to
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people's lives, you're constantly selling and pitching and promoting and hawking and nickeling
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and diming these individuals, how easily do you think that they're going to be willing to get out
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their wallet and give you money? Guys being desperate, especially as a man, I don't know if
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it's especially as a man, but just being desperate is repulsive. And if you're grateful for what you
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have, then you need less. I'm grateful for the technology. That doesn't mean I wouldn't like a
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better camera than I have now. Sure. I would, but I'm pretty grateful for the camera that I have.
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I have this beautiful home. I could have a bigger home. I could have a housekeeper. Uh, I could have
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different paint on the walls or better decorations or bigger deer that I've shot on the wall. I could
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have all of those things, but what I have now is pretty good. And I look around and I see, you know,
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that moose painting and I go out there and I see the Christmas tree that set up and I look over here
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and I see the technology and I look at the camera that I have right here and I see that gun safe and it's
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got my guns and it's got an ability right there to defend myself and my family and to enjoy the sport
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of hunting. Um, I've got the TV and I've got my kids rooms and they're a mess. The kids rooms are a
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mess. And yet it means that they have things and they have toys. And I can see even when they're not
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here that they're playing and they're having fun and they're enjoying life. And I need less.
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I don't need more in my life. I would like to have more. I will work to virtue, virtuously acquire
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more in my life, but I don't need it. I could die right now. A happy person, a fulfilled person,
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knowing that what I have is enough. And that's what gratitude brings to an individual. And then
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the last thing I want to share with you, and then we'll get into five things that you can implement
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on a daily basis that will help you achieve more of these things is that being grateful creates more
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opportunities for you because you're going to see things differently. All right. How many times have
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you been presented with an opportunity, uh, or a vacation or an experience, or somebody has asked
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you for something or to do something or to give you something. If you're a pessimist at heart,
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you're going to naturally turn all of that stuff down. You're not going to look at it.
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You're not going to entertain it. You're going to overlook it. You're going to think it's stupid.
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You're going to look at all the ways it could go wrong. All the things that could potentially happen
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in a bad way. You're not going to look at it positively. And, uh, subconsciously what's going
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to happen is you're going to start to overlook opportunities that could otherwise present themselves
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case in point. I don't know if I can talk about this. I'll talk about this to the degree that I
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can. I have a really good friend. His name is Rick trimmer. We've been friends loosely for 20 plus
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years, but over the past three, four or five years, we've developed an even tighter bond and friendship
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and we've hunted a lot together. And he came to me several weeks ago now, and he's been thinking
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about this for a while. And he's been wanting to start an outdoor experience company. And he came to
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me because of the abundance I have with the market that I have and my ability to market and, um, our
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friendship. And he said, I'm going to do this. I would like to partner with you. Would you like to
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invest? Three years ago, I would have been the pessimist. That's dumb. That's stupid. That's not
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going to work. I don't have the money. That's not a good idea, but you know what? This week I said,
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you know what? Yes, I'm in. Let's do it. I'm not, I'm not blind or oblivious to the things that could
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go wrong. And I'm not willing to invest more than I'm willing to lose. But I said, let's do it.
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There's a real opportunity here to create experiences for men and women who want to get
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outdoors, who want to get outside, who want to learn how to hunt, who want to learn survival,
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who want to learn all of these things that we have access to. And if you're asking me,
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if I can be involved, hell yeah, I'm in. How much and where do I write that check? And I'm grateful
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that I have the money that I have to be able to write that check because I just gave it to him a
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couple of days ago. And I was grateful that I was able to send that check to him and say,
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I'm in, let's make this happen. I can't get into all the specifics. I promise I will share with you
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at some point, but guys being grateful creates opportunities. If you're grateful for people that
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you run into, they're going to like you more. They're going to trust you more. If you're dating,
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you're going to create more opportunities for dates. If you're not dating, you're married,
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you're going to create more opportunities for intimate moments and relationships and experiences
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with her. Your kids are going to want to be closer to you. Being grateful makes so much sense. And it
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took me a long time to figure this out because everybody just told me I'm supposed to write down
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the three things I'm grateful for every day with no real reason behind it. That's the pragmatic reason.
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If you want to know why you should be grateful, that's why you should be grateful. Now let's talk about
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how to do it. Number one, these are very simple things. And please don't overlook what I'm about
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to share with you because they're so simple. Most of you, maybe not most, but a lot of you will.
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And you'll say, well, that's dumb. It's so simple. It couldn't be that easy. Trust me, it is. Especially
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if you implement these five things on a daily basis. Number one, say thank you to people. That's it.
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Just say thank you. Be, be kind, be nice, be polite. Say, please say thank you. Um, you know,
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the other day I was at Jimmy John's. That's one of my favorite places to eat lunch. And I'm at Jimmy
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John's and they made the sandwich. And I think their tagline is sandwiches. So fast, you'll freak
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or something like that. Right. And this person made this sandwich, not only fast, but exceptionally
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fast. And I just said, thank you. Wow. That was even quicker than I thought I timed you. It was,
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you know, 22 seconds and I didn't time them really, but I was joking with them, but I, but I was grateful.
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I expressed gratitude. I said, thank you for going above and beyond. Um, I was at dinner the other
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night and the server did a great job and I pulled them aside and I said, Hey, you know what? I just,
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I wanted to tell you that I'm really grateful for the way that you serve tonight. Like I enjoyed my
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dinner. I enjoyed the experience and you were a big part of that. The other night, um, my second
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son had his end of football season banquet. And before everything got kicked off, I pulled the
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head coach coach over a side and I said, Hey, you know what? I, I want to tell you, I watched you this
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year and I watched your demeanor because that's what I do. I'm an, I'm an observer. And, and I observed
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this head coach and I've seen great head coaches and I've seen head horrible head coaches. He's a great
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head coach. And I told him, I said, you know what? I just wanted to tell you that I'm really grateful
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for the way that you coached those boys and my son, you know, he's back in town. He hasn't been
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part of the program for four years. He's been playing football, but not here with you. Um,
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I watched your demeanor. Uh, I watched when things didn't go wrong. I watched when your players were
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upset. I watched you and without fail, you showed up as a man that I would like to be when I coach
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my kids. And so I wanted to thank you for that guys. It doesn't take a lot to say thank you to
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somebody. And in this particular case, this gentleman messaged me back that night after the
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banquet was over. And he said, Hey, thank you so much for sharing that with me. He's like, I really
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meant a lot to me. Um, I'd like to, uh, talk with you more and catch up with you. He haven't happens
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to be a neighbor. Um, and that comes back to the opportunities. We may just become friends or maybe
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there's something else, but opportunities because I was just willing to say thank you. And it sets you
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apart. It's, it's kind of sad really that these individuals don't get thanked as often as they
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should, but it also presents an opportunity for you to set yourself apart by expressing genuine
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gratitude for something that somebody has done, whether it's make a sandwich really fast for you
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or a coach who does a beautiful job for your son or daughter. Thank those individuals. Number two,
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compliment those people. Okay. When people are doing something or you notice something about them,
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just say it. Uh, I was at the, uh, the, um, uh, collision place, the, the auto body shop earlier
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this morning. Cause I'm getting my truck fixed. Unfortunately, I got in an accident the other day
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and it wasn't my fault. I would, I do want to put that out there, but I did make sure the woman who
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ran into me was okay. And she was, I talked a little bit about it earlier in the week and one
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of the podcasts. And, uh, this woman walked in and she was an older woman, but she was really well put
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together. And you could tell like the way that she carried herself and the outfit that she had on,
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it was festive. And you could tell, like, she really took pride in what she was wearing and how she
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presented herself. And she walked in and I said, you look really nice today. And she looked at me
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and she like took a step back and she's like, well, that was really nice of you to say. And I said,
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yeah, I just, I can see like you look festive and you've got your Thanksgiving garb on and you look
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nice today. She's like, thank you very much. That was it. Like it doesn't take a lot to compliment
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people. If you're actually looking for ways and reasons to compliment people, it's so easy to see what
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people are doing and acknowledge that they're doing a good job. When I see this young man who
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mowed my lawn a minute ago and I see him, cause I know I'll probably see him in the next couple of
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hours. I'm going to go out there and I'm going to say, Hey, you know, the lines on the lawn look
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awesome today. Good job. Like I'm going to tell him that because he needs to hear that. When the head
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coach of my son's football team does a good job, he needs the compliment. When my daughter does
00:23:24.220
exceptionally well at her dance recital, she had a dance recital last week. Um, I brought flowers
00:23:29.280
and I told her you did a good job. You did so good. Like memorizing your moves and, and, and the way
00:23:35.320
that you move and you stayed in sync with your teammates. And I saw how much fun you were having
00:23:39.580
and you did a beautiful job. Just little compliments. You know, people will send me
00:23:43.960
messages occasionally and let's say, Hey Ryan, I listened to that podcast and man, you were so on
00:23:48.680
point. You did such a good job or this one point that you did made so much sense. And I just really
00:23:53.420
appreciate it. You might not think that's a big deal. It may not feel like a big deal,
00:23:58.240
but every time you pay a genuine compliment, regardless of how big or small it might be,
00:24:03.220
that goes such a long way in helping other people live more fulfilling lives. I hope that
00:24:09.800
that woman who I saw at the auto shop today, I hope her days a little better because I saw her and I
00:24:16.940
said, you look really nice today. That doesn't, that takes no longer than me, you know, making up some
00:24:23.540
sort of pessimistic story in my head about why she's dressed the way that she's dressed,
00:24:27.500
which some people do. It takes no more effort to be nice than it does to be rude or to be a
00:24:34.140
pessimist about life. Next, take advantage of your blessings. Okay. Do this on a daily basis.
00:24:40.800
If it's beautiful outside, go outside, please go outside, go for a walk, enjoy nature. If the leaves
00:24:48.420
are falling like they are here in Southern Utah right now, the other night we had this big windstorm
00:24:53.460
come through and it took about 80% of the leaves off the tree. And I was like, Oh, this sucks.
00:24:59.300
Because the only thing I was thinking about is like breaking all these leaves out of the yard and
00:25:03.820
blowing them off the rocks and how big of a pain in the ass it was going to be.
00:25:08.220
And instead in the moment, I decided that I'm just going to walk down the street in this windstorm and
00:25:14.400
I'm going to let these leaves blow past me. And it was enjoyable to see all the colors and the
00:25:19.840
leaves falling around me. And instead of focusing on all the bullshit that I knew I was going to need
00:25:24.660
to do and I still have to do. Instead, I decided that I'm going to be grateful for this blessing of
00:25:30.660
leaves and life and change of seasons and the wind, even though the wind is miserable, it brings in
00:25:37.480
fresh, clean air and it moves the environment. And I'm sure some person can tell me why it's
00:25:43.540
absolutely necessary from a biological standpoint that we have wind, but I enjoyed it instead.
00:25:51.080
I just got my truck fixed. I've got a 99 Toyota Tacoma and I had it lifted. I put new wheels and
00:25:58.240
tires on it and it's down at the shop and the guy said it was ready. And this morning I decided,
00:26:03.040
you know what? It's cold outside. It's 36 degrees this morning. I'm going to walk down to the shop.
00:26:08.440
So I walked down to the shop and I made a couple of phone calls. I sent a couple of videos while I
00:26:13.780
was doing it and I just enjoyed. There was people walking and a few people running. I saw a young man
00:26:19.320
who I hadn't seen for probably four or five years. I used to coach him in a young men's program
00:26:25.980
before I moved to Maine and he ran by me and I said, Hey, and I said his name. I'm not going to say
00:26:31.040
his name publicly, but I called him by his name and he looked at me confused. I said, Do you remember me?
00:26:35.280
And I told him I'm Ryan Mickler. He's like, Oh yeah. He's like, you used to be my young men's
00:26:39.360
leader like four or five years ago. And I said, yeah, that's right. It's good to see you.
00:26:43.300
And we had a quick conversation. Enjoy the beautiful things around you. There's so much around you.
00:26:49.540
And the more you take advantage of technology, of nature, of opportunities to have conversations
00:26:56.700
with unique and interesting people, the more rich and fulfilled your life will be.
00:27:01.220
Next. And I think I alluded to this. When things go wrong, look for the good because things are
00:27:07.120
going to go wrong. We know that. I complained earlier this week on the Ask Me Anything episode
00:27:13.180
about hitting a deer and then a woman crashed into my truck and I had a panic attack. And you have all
00:27:21.540
these little things that come up and I'm not here to compare woes to you. And I'm not here to tell you
00:27:27.020
that the things that you're dealing with are insurmountable. Sometimes they're hard and I
00:27:33.760
don't know what you're dealing with. Maybe it's the death of a loved one or a medical diagnosis,
00:27:37.580
like really divorce, really difficult things. I'm not here to make light of that. But what I do want
00:27:43.380
to tell you is that even in those times where life is hard and life is challenging, there's still
00:27:49.520
things to be grateful for. I went through a divorce earlier this year and I sent a message to my ex
00:27:55.520
and I told her that she's a great mother and I'm grateful that she is the mother that she is.
00:28:01.580
And I told her that the children love her and I hope she knows that. I didn't do that so she would
00:28:08.320
think anything better or worse of me. I didn't do that with any expectation of anything in return.
00:28:14.700
She just, she needed to know. I felt like, I felt like she needed to know and I felt like I was the
00:28:20.180
one who should probably share that with her. And the point that I'm making is that even when things
00:28:25.360
go wrong, like a divorce, they're still good. You and your wife or your ex-wife have a difference
00:28:31.480
of opinion or maybe you don't get along for whatever reason and ultimately it destroys your
00:28:36.940
marriage. But there's still things there that are redeemable about her. There's still things there,
00:28:42.760
hopefully, that are redeemable about you. If you get into a car wreck and you're put out and you've
00:28:48.920
got to take your truck in and you got to pay the deductible on your insurance, at least you're
00:28:54.180
alive. At least you have the vehicle or you have the means to replace it or you have the means for
00:29:02.020
somebody to come in and repair it for you. There's always something that's going to go wrong and
00:29:06.880
nobody wants to be around the guy who's like, yep, throw up my hands. Something went wrong. Just
00:29:11.580
another thing. If I didn't have bad luck, I wouldn't have any luck at all. I don't want to be that guy.
00:29:15.860
You don't want to be that guy. So let's start looking for, even in the most difficult circumstances,
00:29:22.300
let's look for the blessings that are there. A great book, classic, timeless book is Man's
00:29:28.600
Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. He spent time in, I believe he's in an Auschwitz in a
00:29:34.580
concentration camp. Some of the most horrific circumstances in an environment a person can ever
00:29:40.440
be in. And yet he found a way through his practice of therapy, through his philosophy of life to be
00:29:48.080
grateful and to serve other people. And that's the last point that I wanted to make with you today
00:29:53.380
about gratitude. You have your health, you have your intelligence, you have the ability to
00:29:59.360
communicate. Maybe you have financial abundance. Maybe there's a certain skillset that you have.
00:30:05.180
If you can use your resources to serve other people and to make a meaningful difference in the
00:30:12.100
lives of others, you will live a better life. We don't do it so we'll live a better life. We do it
00:30:17.940
hopefully because it's the right thing to do. Using your talents and your abilities, your gifts,
00:30:25.160
your skillset, and your resources is a wonderful thing. That's the reason you're here. You would not have
00:30:31.940
the skills that you have. I would not have the ability that I have to communicate effectively
00:30:37.120
if I wasn't supposed to learn how to communicate effectively with you. I wouldn't have access to
00:30:43.480
this technology if I wasn't supposed to utilize it to share a message that is going to impact
00:30:49.500
millions of men's lives. I'm supposed to be doing something with my life. I'm supposed to be serving.
00:30:57.340
And those of us who are grateful enough or fortunate enough to know exactly what that is,
00:31:05.040
congratulations. If you don't know what that is yet, keep searching, keep looking, keep uncovering,
00:31:12.160
keep discovering, keep trying new things because there's a reason that you're here.
00:31:16.740
And when you figure out what it is, your life is going to become incredible. It truly is.
00:31:22.940
And you're not going to have to work, as they say, a day in your life. It's trite, I know. But it's so
00:31:28.820
true. If you love what you do, you'll never have to work another day in your life. I know a lot of
00:31:33.620
you aren't there yet. I know a lot of you will be and a lot of you can be. And I believe that it
00:31:38.680
starts with being grateful, that we do have abundance, that we do have prosperity, and there's
00:31:43.940
a lot to be grateful for. So as I wind this down on the day after Thanksgiving, again, I want to end by
00:31:51.420
saying thank you for supporting me. Thank you for believing me. Thank you for standing by me when
00:31:57.440
you didn't have a lot of reason to, especially in some of my darkest moments of life, which happened
00:32:02.800
over the past year and a half. A lot of people left and a lot of people gave up. And I understand.
00:32:08.460
I actually, I can see why they would. But a lot of you, most of you didn't. And most of you doubled
00:32:16.560
down. And a lot of you said, hey, you know what, Ryan, you screwed up, but let's see what you do now.
00:32:22.480
And you're watching a redemption story. And that's what I'm trying to do. And I want to thank you for
00:32:27.600
being part of it. And thank you for still believing in me. But more importantly, thank you for believing
00:32:32.500
in the mission. And thank you for living out the motto, which is to protect, provide, preside.
00:32:38.600
That is what we're supposed to do here as men. And you're doing it well. And if you don't feel
00:32:43.300
like you're doing it well, we all have room for improvement. So let's get after it.
00:32:47.400
I hope you have a great Thanksgiving weekend. Guys, we'll be back next week for an interview
00:32:51.640
with a NASA, former NASA astronaut, author of Moonshot. Great book, great conversation
00:32:58.200
with Mr. Mike Massimino. And I hope you enjoy that one. Until then, go out there,
00:33:03.520
take action and become the man you are meant to be.
00:33:06.460
Thank you for listening to the Order of Man podcast. If you're ready to take charge of
00:33:11.160
your life and be more of the man you were meant to be, we invite you to join the order