Order of Man


Don't Ever Feel Guilty for Taking Care of Yourself. Here's How… | FRIDAY FIELD NOTES


Episode Stats

Misogynist Sentences

7

Hate Speech Sentences

1


Summary

In this episode, Ryan talks about feeling guilty for taking care of yourself, and how you can mitigate that guilt. He gives three simple tips to help you feel better about prioritizing your own care, and to enlist others in your journey to improve themselves as well.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest. Embrace your fears and boldly chart
00:00:05.000 your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time. Every time.
00:00:10.460 You are not easily deterred or defeated. Rugged. Resilient. Strong. This is your life. This is who
00:00:17.240 you are. This is who you will become. At the end of the day, and after all is said and done,
00:00:22.800 you can call yourself a man. Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan Michler.
00:00:27.680 I'm your host. I'm also the founder of the Order of Man podcast and movement, and I want to welcome
00:00:32.280 you here. My mission is to reclaim and restore masculinity. It's painfully obvious at this
00:00:40.340 point that much of society, this is the government, this is government schooling, this is even academia
00:00:47.580 and the medical community are undermining masculinity at every turn. And I am attempting to reclaim and
00:00:57.640 restore masculinity by bringing you conversations, resources, tools, guidance, direction, everything
00:01:04.620 that you might need as a man to be able to thrive in a society that doesn't want you to thrive.
00:01:10.280 So to that end, we've got this podcast interviews. We've got the ask me anything that takes place
00:01:16.300 every Wednesday. And we've got this, your Friday field notes, which is some thoughts that I've been
00:01:20.800 having from throughout the week. And what I wanted to talk with you about specifically today
00:01:25.040 is this notion of feeling guilty for taking care of yourself. If you've been in the self-help space
00:01:32.280 and you've been reading books and doing all the things that you probably have been doing over the
00:01:36.720 past several years, then you know that taking care of yourself is a crucial component of your journey to
00:01:44.580 become a more effective, stronger, more capable man. But a lot of guys feel very guilty,
00:01:51.560 including myself at times for carving out time out of their day to take care of themselves.
00:01:57.460 So I'm going to give you three very simple tips that are going to help you feel better about taking
00:02:04.300 care of yourself and then making sure that you're enlisting others, specifically your wife,
00:02:09.100 your children, the people who are going to be impacted by the decisions that you're making,
00:02:13.580 enlisting them in your journey to improve yourself as well. But before we get started,
00:02:20.040 just want to make a quick mention of my friends and of course our show sponsors, Origin USA.
00:02:26.560 These guys are making geese, rash guards. I say that every week, but that's how they started,
00:02:33.600 but they've really branched out from there. In addition to that, they've got their supplemental
00:02:38.220 lineup with Jocko. They've got their Malk, which is their protein, joint warfare, which I take every
00:02:43.720 single day, Super Krill, which I also take every single day. I got to lubricate and get these
00:02:48.460 joints, elbows, fingers, wrists, knees, et cetera, recovered. And then they also have their
00:02:55.120 denim, their boots, a hundred percent made and sourced in America. And then later this year,
00:03:00.820 they're coming up with their new hunt line, which I'm very, very excited about. So if you want some
00:03:05.980 boots, you want some jeans, you want some supplements, whatever, go to originusa.com,
00:03:11.640 originusa.com and use the code ORDER, O-R-D-E-R at checkout, because you're going to save some
00:03:17.960 money. Again, originusa.com, use the code ORDER at checkout. All right, guys. So let's talk about
00:03:23.660 guilt. It's hard because we know, everybody listening to this knows they should be taking
00:03:29.300 care of themselves. And yet it's hard because we have so many other obligations. We have so many
00:03:35.880 other responsibilities, you know, our wife and our kids and our businesses and neighbors and community
00:03:42.840 service and all the things that we should be doing, by the way. These are called noble obstacles,
00:03:48.200 obstacles in that they are an obstacle to taking care of ourselves, noble in that it is what we
00:03:53.920 should be doing, right? Isn't what defines us as a man, our ability to serve our people most
00:04:00.580 effectively. And when I say our people, I'm talking about your family, your neighbors,
00:04:04.960 your community members, the kids that you're coaching, your colleagues, your employees,
00:04:10.440 your clients, those are your people. And so you want to take care of them. But if you do it at
00:04:15.120 your own expense, you're not going to be able to take care of those people for very long.
00:04:18.640 And we know that, right? We know that. And yet we still feel a tremendous sense of guilt or maybe
00:04:25.400 even remorse for carving out time out of our day to be able to focus on the one, us, who's actually
00:04:33.340 going to provide the resources and tools and solutions that other people are looking to us
00:04:38.620 for. So I've started thinking about this over the past week. How do you, how do you mitigate the
00:04:45.580 guilt? I don't think you can ever get rid of it. At least I haven't figured out how to do that. If
00:04:49.320 you guys know how to do that, let me know, but how do we mitigate the guilt and give ourselves
00:04:53.740 permission for lack of a better term to take care of ourselves? Well, number one, I would say
00:04:59.500 do it in moderation. All right. I've seen a lot of guys become obsessed with hunting, for example,
00:05:05.660 or training, working out, training jujitsu, going to the gym. And these guys become obsessed.
00:05:13.020 You know, they're in there for three, four, five hours every single day. And yeah, if that's what's
00:05:20.160 happening and you're neglecting your other obligations, then I would suggest to you, that's
00:05:24.300 a problem. So you got to do what you're going to do in moderation. Now, when it comes to what I
00:05:30.940 personally do, I train a lot of jujitsu. I train five days a week and I train two nights a week and
00:05:37.580 three mornings per week. So the nights, it is what it is. Monday and Wednesday night, that's when I
00:05:44.020 train, but I train later so that my kids are kind of winding down. Maybe they're watching a movie or
00:05:48.520 watching a show with mom or having dinner, something like that. So that's, that's what takes place in the
00:05:54.280 evening. And in the morning I go before anybody wakes up because I don't want those three hours.
00:06:00.180 It's probably more like four and a half hours, I guess, because I go about an hour and a half or
00:06:05.980 two hours every single morning or those three mornings a week. But I don't, I don't want that
00:06:11.200 to cut into my day or my time with my children. And so I wake up early, I wake up at five, I get ready,
00:06:18.400 I go in and I train at six o'clock from six to about seven, seven 30. I come back, kids are just
00:06:24.000 getting up, kids are getting out of bed. Maybe they're grabbing some breakfast, but I'm not
00:06:27.180 missing a whole lot because I'm doing it early in the morning. So I try to go to bed on time.
00:06:31.780 I try to get the sleep I need. And then I do that training where it's not going to actually impact
00:06:36.600 other people. Guys, you got to do this in moderation. And I can't tell you what the line
00:06:41.000 is. I can't tell you when you cross the line or how much you should or shouldn't do, but really
00:06:45.340 evaluate what, what exactly you're doing, how often you're doing it and make sure that it's
00:06:51.260 in moderation. Okay. Number two is make sure that you open your mouth and you express the words and
00:06:58.540 express the thoughts that you want to express about what you're doing. Because if you're not doing that
00:07:04.600 people in your life could possibly misinterpret what you're trying to do.
00:07:09.440 So if you're out training or you're out hunting or you're doing any number of things, five days a
00:07:18.080 week, your wife or your children or your employees or your coworkers and colleagues and community
00:07:22.800 members might interpret that to mean that you don't care about them. And that isn't the case.
00:07:30.080 You do, you care about them deeply, but you got to take care of yourself first, because here's the
00:07:35.060 deal. If you don't take care of yourself. And I think I said this a minute ago, there's no way
00:07:40.240 that you're going to ever be able to sustain taking care of other people. You might be able to do it in
00:07:44.840 short bursts for a temporary period of time, but guys, you're not going to be able to do it for very
00:07:49.920 long because you're going to burn yourself out and you're going to burn up and you're going to,
00:07:53.460 you're going to fizzle. I don't want that to happen. I want you to be able to maintain and sustain
00:07:57.900 the growth and the leadership abilities that you have with the people that you care about.
00:08:01.360 So part of this is just making sure that you open your mouth, which I know can be hard for
00:08:06.600 some men and communicate what you're doing. Talk to people about why you're doing this,
00:08:13.660 what exactly you're doing, share with them how, when you come back, you're a more well-rounded,
00:08:19.160 whole, capable, strong man to be able to serve them more effectively. Because isn't that what your
00:08:27.940 wife is after? She wants to know that you can lead. She's looking to you to lead. In fact,
00:08:35.040 and isn't that what your kids are after? They're looking to dad and thinking, man, I love dad.
00:08:39.080 I admire this guy. I don't even know why all the time, but I just want to make sure that
00:08:43.820 he's somebody that I can really admire and respect. Well, the way that you do that is by coming back
00:08:49.960 into the relationships that are important to you and being the kind of man that you have a desire to be.
00:08:55.000 If you come back and you're an a-hole and you're not engaged and you're not committed and you're
00:09:01.420 not dedicated to your people, then they're going to see you going out and doing your other things
00:09:06.680 as a negative. If on the other hand, you go out and train jujitsu and lift weights and you're going
00:09:12.000 out hunting and you're visiting with your friends, good friends, by the way, and you're uplifted and
00:09:17.600 you're edified and you're improving and you're getting better, or you're going to conferences that have
00:09:21.620 to do with your work or your business. And then you come back and you're better than when you left.
00:09:26.840 People are going to see that, but don't rely on them only seeing it. Make sure you communicate with
00:09:31.540 them. Tell them about your experience. They want to know. How did jujitsu go tonight? Talk to them
00:09:36.720 about that conference, share with them what you learned, and then also make sure that's ongoing.
00:09:42.580 Hey, you remember two weeks ago when I went to that conference and I said, I learned X, Y,
00:09:45.920 and Z. Well, hon, I just implemented X, Y, and Z, and we just landed a $20,000 contract.
00:09:52.660 Okay. When you connect those dots, she's going to see that and think, this is awesome. This serves
00:09:57.640 the family. And yet so many of you think, oh, well, they'll understand. Like they'll get it.
00:10:04.680 They'll put two and two together. No, they won't. So open your mouth like a big boy and express
00:10:12.740 yourself, which is something that men, I think generally have a hard time doing and, and tell
00:10:19.120 people what you're doing and why you're doing it and how you're getting better. And I promise you,
00:10:23.540 the more that you communicate with the people who are going to be impacted by those decisions,
00:10:27.860 the better off you're going to feel about what you're doing and the better they're going to feel
00:10:33.440 about what you're doing because it sees how they can see how it serves them.
00:10:37.300 And we're all a bit selfish and it's not always bad. So I'm not saying this in a negative or bad
00:10:44.840 connotation, but your wife is a bit selfish. She wants to ensure that the time that you're
00:10:50.220 spending doing your things is going to help her lead the family or help her with her own
00:10:56.480 personal goals. That's not bad. You're selfish too, just like I am. So we can actually communicate
00:11:02.300 the way that we go out into the world or the way that we take care of ourselves in a way that shows
00:11:08.620 them how it's going to benefit and serve them. And if you can frame it in that context, you're
00:11:13.280 going to have an easier time with it. And by the way, you're going to have people who support you
00:11:16.720 in doing it. My wife is a great example of this. If I don't want to go to jujitsu, she'll kick me out
00:11:23.040 of the house and tell me to go do jujitsu because she knows I come back better. And she knows what I'm
00:11:28.180 like when I don't go train. And also, and this is a bonus, this isn't something that I wrote down
00:11:32.320 here, but if you're feeling guilty for going out and taking care of yourself, then what I would
00:11:37.940 encourage you to do is help and support the people in your life, taking care of themselves.
00:11:45.560 So when your wife comes to you and says, Hey hon, I've got this, uh, this community course that I want
00:11:51.400 to attend on gardening, uh, or, or painting or learning how to play the guitar, or my girlfriends
00:11:59.760 are all getting together and we're going to have a spa day. Then you need to be supportive of that.
00:12:07.660 Like you can't expect somebody to be supportive of what you're doing, but you not be supportive of
00:12:12.500 what they're doing. And so you need to be supportive of that so that she can go out and she can edify
00:12:17.960 herself and she can get some, some energy and recuperation and then come back into the relationship
00:12:23.840 better than when she left. I used to be the kind of guy that would make my wife feel very, very guilty
00:12:28.700 for taking care of herself. And I would do it deceptively. I would manipulate. I'd, I'd be a
00:12:36.760 little bit shady and about it. And, and yet then I wanted her to appreciate and respect when I wanted
00:12:43.500 to go out and take care of myself. You see how that can be a problem. So support her.
00:12:49.960 If she look, if she's going to hang out with, you know, women who she shouldn't be hanging out with,
00:12:55.420 that's something different. But if she's going to hang out with, with women and she can have a good
00:12:59.740 time or she's doing something, you know, that, that that's wholesome, that's engaging, that's good
00:13:04.180 for the family, man, support that stuff. Even if that means you're going to have to take care of the
00:13:08.840 kids or do some extra chores around the house. Cause she's not there or whatever, like support
00:13:13.560 that it'll pay dividends for you. All right, guys. And, and here's what I would say is the last
00:13:17.820 thing. So this is number three of my, my three point framework here, balance your activities out
00:13:25.040 with the activities that, that you care about with others. So if it comes to your kids, for example,
00:13:31.880 my daughter just last night, she's been talking about it for a day or two. Dad, I just want to sit
00:13:37.720 down on the couch and cuddle with you. Okay. Like, I'm not a huge fan of just like sitting there
00:13:43.660 watching a show personally, but you know what, if she wants to cuddle, then we're going to cuddle
00:13:48.460 for my kids. My, my second son, he's, he's all, he's so, he's so into Legos dad. I just want to
00:13:55.220 build Legos and I like Legos, but sometimes I don't want to build Legos, but you know what? It doesn't
00:13:59.540 matter. Cause if he wants to build Legos, I'm going to go build Legos. And so I balance out my desire to
00:14:06.880 take care of myself and my desire to work on the things that are important to me with the things
00:14:12.960 that are important to other people. If it's a tea party, if it's cuddling on the couch, uh, if it's
00:14:17.620 Legos, if it's just, if it's having a conversation with my wife or doing something together, or just
00:14:22.880 sitting in the kitchen with her talking about her day and telling her about my day as she prepares
00:14:27.200 dinner for the family, then that's what I'm going to do. And as I do that, I balance my desire to
00:14:33.800 take care of myself with other people's desires. I feel less guilty about going out and training
00:14:40.060 jujitsu or going to a conference or going on a business trip because I know I have things locked
00:14:46.360 down. I know that I'm not so selfish that it comes at the expense of other people. I know that I'm giving
00:14:56.500 them the attention that they desire that they require and that they deserve.
00:15:04.840 So consider the scale, right? It's like, it's a scale, you know, here's your activities on one
00:15:11.720 side and here's what other people need from you on the other side. It should be balanced. It's not
00:15:17.300 always going to be because we have seasons in life. You know, I just got done writing this next book that
00:15:21.040 comes out in the fall. You know, I was heavily weighted towards the business and writing that
00:15:26.240 book. My wife and I talked about it. I've been very stressed about it. Okay. So the, the, the scales
00:15:33.280 were tipped. Okay. Now I got to get them back in alignment. And that means that I've got to focus
00:15:38.840 more time and attention and energy on, on my children. Okay. I'm going to give you one other bonus
00:15:45.140 here. So the first one again is moderation. Second one is communication. Third one is balance. And then
00:15:50.460 the fourth point that I wanted to make is what I call task stacking, writing that down. So I don't
00:16:00.260 forget what I'm talking about task stacking. So I'll give you an example of what this would look like.
00:16:07.800 This last weekend, I went to Soren X's winter strong event. They put on two big events per year.
00:16:14.580 Summer, summer strong is more focused around their, their lifting side of things, lifting
00:16:20.380 division, strength, conditioning. They bring a lot of coaches in collegiate level athletes, Olympians,
00:16:24.960 professional athletes, the sort of thing. And they talk primarily about how to build strength and
00:16:30.260 conditioning and all that stuff. And then they have their winter strong event. Their winter strong
00:16:33.940 event is all built around the outdoor side of their business. So it's shooting bows. It's learning how
00:16:41.280 to survival strategies and techniques. We have a competition that we do each and every year. So this is
00:16:47.160 something that I really enjoy. I want to go to, well, you know, my son, my oldest son is now that
00:16:52.460 he's getting older, you know, it's quite possible for him to participate in these things. And this is
00:16:58.120 where the task stacking comes in. So I want to go and I want to take care of myself. And so I committed
00:17:04.440 to going this year. Well, my son's old enough where he could go and guess what? Now he can go
00:17:08.800 and I go out and I take care of myself and he can go and we can have a connection. So now I'm doing
00:17:16.740 the things that are good for me, but I'm also building a relationship with him. There's other
00:17:21.520 things like training, lifting weights, uh, jujitsu, where I can do with other members of my family,
00:17:28.480 where I can take care of myself, but I can also make sure that my family's engaged in the process.
00:17:33.980 So it's kind of like killing two birds with one stone. That's what I would call task stacking or
00:17:39.520 activity stacking. If you want to call it that it's a very valuable exercise. One word of caution
00:17:44.020 though, don't always do that. Like sometimes you just need to go to jujitsu with you and the other
00:17:49.140 guys. Like you don't always need to take care of your take, take your family with you, but that is
00:17:53.880 one little key strategy that might help you kill two birds with one stone. And that's why I say it's a
00:17:58.140 bonus. Okay. So there it is guys. That's how you overcome the guilt for, for taking care of
00:18:04.600 yourself. It's the goal is not to, to not take care of yourself. The goal is to take care of yourself,
00:18:10.440 but do it in a way that's going to add value to your life, which inevitably will add value to other
00:18:15.980 people's lives. So again, it's number one, do it in moderation. Number two, make this is, I think this
00:18:21.720 might be the most important one. Make sure that you're communicating effectively with the people who are
00:18:27.140 going to be impacted by the decisions you're making. Number three is balancing it out with
00:18:32.320 activities with those you love. And then the bonus was past stacking or activity stacking. Don't do it
00:18:39.480 all the time, but it's a great way to kill two birds with one stone. So that's what I've got for you
00:18:43.840 guys. Make sure you're following me on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, all at Ryan Mickler. Also we've got,
00:18:51.800 yes, we've got a giveaway that I'm going to be announcing this evening at seven o'clock Eastern
00:18:57.820 time, Friday, the 11th at seven o'clock Eastern time. We're doing a giveaway with Montana knife
00:19:03.120 company. They're giving away a couple of shirts and one of their brand new Magna cut stainless steel
00:19:08.140 speed goat knives. So you're also going to get some order a man swag if you win that. So you're going to
00:19:14.300 go check that out on Instagram at Ryan Mickler. Outside of that guys screenshot, leave the ratings and
00:19:21.380 reviews. We've got 7,200 ratings and reviews right now. I'm looking for 10,000 five-star ratings and
00:19:29.200 reviews. So 3,000 of you, which is not a lot relative to the size of our audience. Go in,
00:19:34.200 leave a rating review, let people know that you're listening to this, let people know how it's serving
00:19:38.840 you and your life. That goes a long way in promoting what we're doing. All right, guys, we'll be back
00:19:44.260 next week. Justin Renz on the podcast until then go out there, take action and become the man you are meant to be.
00:19:51.380 Thank you for listening to the Order of Man podcast. You're ready to take charge of your life and be
00:19:56.320 more of the man you were meant to be. We invite you to join the order at orderofman.com.