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