Order of Man - November 08, 2023


Ending a Toxic Relationship, Helping a Daughter with Self-Image Issues, and Creating Financial Sovereignty | ASK ME ANYTHING


Episode Stats

Length

31 minutes

Words per Minute

195.27841

Word Count

6,190

Sentence Count

405

Misogynist Sentences

5

Hate Speech Sentences

5


Summary

In this episode, I answer a question from our brotherhood, the Iron Council, and answer some questions from our Facebook group, The Order of Man. This episode is dedicated to all the men out there who have ever been in a situation where a partner or significant other isn't supporting and fostering your growth, or in fact, is doing the exact opposite.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest. Embrace your fears and boldly charge
00:00:04.860 your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time. Every time.
00:00:10.100 You are not easily deterred, defeated, rugged, resilient, strong. This is your life. This is
00:00:16.540 who you are. This is who you will become. At the end of the day, and after all is said and done,
00:00:22.040 you can call yourself a man. Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan Mickler. I'm the
00:00:27.240 founder of the Order of Man podcast movement. Welcome here today and welcome back. This is
00:00:32.980 your Ask Me Anything. I'm going to be fielding questions from our exclusive brotherhood, the
00:00:37.760 Iron Council, and I'm also going to be fielding some questions from our Facebook group, which
00:00:42.420 you can find at facebook.com slash groups slash Order of Man. Now, normally I have my good friend
00:00:48.500 and co-host Kip Sorensen here with me. He's out traveling. I was on a hunt last week, so we're
00:00:55.020 hit or miss whether we do this together or not, but we've always had good people to fill in like
00:00:59.320 Sean and other people, and sometimes we just have to fly solo. So we adapt and we adjust, which is
00:01:04.860 one of the principles, I believe, of masculinity, our ability to adapt to situations and circumstances
00:01:10.200 as they arise and make the most of those circumstances. Before I get into it, guys, just
00:01:15.740 want to mention, you can see I've got some new swag on today. I've got the brand new Order of Man
00:01:19.420 hoodies on, and I also have our brand new Order of Man hat. You can check these both out if you want
00:01:24.900 to support what we're doing and look good in the meantime at store.orderofman.com. This thing is
00:01:30.340 so comfortable. I wasn't sure how comfortable it was going to be, but I've got this on starting to
00:01:35.340 cool off a little bit here in Southern Utah. Not much, but a little, and so I figured I'd throw this
00:01:39.920 on and show it off. We have green, black, and then the desert color like you see here. So check it out,
00:01:45.320 store.orderofman.com. All right, guys, let me get into some questions here today, and we'll try to
00:01:51.440 get all of these answered for you, and hopefully we give you some good insight and perspective
00:01:54.600 into the way that we see things anyways, and hopefully it helps you improve in your life.
00:01:59.340 This first one comes from Chase Kimball. He says, what would the conversation look like
00:02:03.840 to let go of someone you love and had planned a life with that is not supporting and fostering your
00:02:09.380 growth? In fact, doing the exact opposite and tearing you down with guilt, shame, and consistent
00:02:14.800 gaslighting. Well, look, I don't know the details of your circumstance, but what I would say first
00:02:21.000 and foremost is you bring this up in a polite and respectful way so that you can give, I'm assuming
00:02:28.520 it's a potential significant other, you can give her the opportunity to grow with you because you
00:02:34.240 don't want to just kick somebody to the curb, especially if you're planning on having a life with
00:02:37.680 them, planning on a future with them, planning on growing with them. You wouldn't want to just kick
00:02:42.780 that person to the curb. And so I would bring these types of conversations up in a polite and
00:02:48.120 respectful way and let her know what you need from her in order to feel good and comfortable with
00:02:53.560 you moving forward in the relationship. That's not always an easy conversation, but that's a
00:02:59.940 conversation that needs to be had. I would do that multiple times. I would do that as often as it took
00:03:05.280 if this is somebody I loved, but there might come a point in time and maybe you're here right now,
00:03:09.480 Chase. I don't know. I can't make that decision for you. Only you can do that. If you don't see
00:03:13.760 their growth or they're tearing you down with guilt and shame and constant gaslighting, that's a form of
00:03:20.020 emotional and potentially even verbal abuse. And that isn't something that you as a man or anybody
00:03:25.080 should tolerate from anyone else. So you begin to get a little bit more straightforward in what you
00:03:31.040 need and how you will be treated and how you won't be treated. And when she treats you that way,
00:03:36.240 you say, Hey, I will not allow you to talk to me like that. I will not allow you to put me down
00:03:40.920 like that. So I'm going to disengage from this conversation. If you want to have another
00:03:45.060 conversation where we're talking about things rationally and with respect towards one another,
00:03:50.600 I'd love to revisit, but I'm not going to do this. So you start creating these boundaries and
00:03:54.740 upholding these boundaries. And if it still isn't happening at that point, maybe it is time to
00:04:00.560 cut the cord. The one thing I would say, be very careful of is not engaging in behaviors and
00:04:06.620 activities that are going to bind you closer together. For example, having a child or commingling
00:04:12.620 your finances. If you're thinking about leaving and have one foot out the door, don't do things that
00:04:19.380 are going to hold you tighter together, hoping it's that a child or commingling of your money,
00:04:24.840 that's going to help solve the problem. It's not. In fact, it's only going to exacerbate it.
00:04:29.740 So that's important. Other than that, it might just be time to say, Hey, look, we've talked about
00:04:35.780 this for months or years now. And I bring these issues up when they come up. I ask you specifically
00:04:42.380 what needs to be done. I ask you not to treat me the way that you're treating me. And at this stage,
00:04:46.860 I'm not willing to invest any more time into this relationship. So we're going to be parting ways.
00:04:53.280 I wish there was an easy way to do this. There's not an easy way, but if you have the conversations
00:04:57.980 up front and you're honest about what you need and what your boundaries are, then this conversation
00:05:03.800 won't take anybody by surprise. It'll just be the inevitable outcome of the progression of your
00:05:10.300 discussions. So I hope that serves you. Good luck with that. Please, you're in the iron council,
00:05:15.420 rely on your brothers, work with them, talk with them. They'll have other good advice for you.
00:05:19.880 And that is the power of brotherhood. But I hope I gave you some things to consider, Chase.
00:05:23.700 Let us know how that turns out. Very difficult to do. In fact, it looks like here in the replies that
00:05:29.180 another brother in the iron council is going to be connecting with you. So you guys hopefully have
00:05:35.200 talked by now. This one comes from either Karen or Karan Gill. I'm sorry, I slaughtered your name
00:05:42.340 there. I just wanted to make sure I got that right. He says, how do you know when you need to stand by
00:05:46.300 your commitment in a relationship? And when you need to realize it's toxic and no longer serving
00:05:50.780 you or them? So similar question. I feel very entangled in my relationship. When things are
00:05:56.320 good, I love her and want to be with our shared vision for the future. And when things aren't so
00:06:01.640 good because of past resentments, covert contracts, emotional manipulation, explicitly unstable conditions,
00:06:08.100 et cetera, it makes me feel like I really shouldn't be in it anymore. She doesn't want to change or
00:06:14.760 address the issues with the professional and she's okay with the pace things are at. And I'm really
00:06:19.000 not anymore. I'm stuck on how to handle it moving forward aside from just continually working on
00:06:23.520 myself. Well, of course, continue to work on yourself, build your skillset, engage in a hobby,
00:06:30.360 find friends, deal with your finances, get in shape, all the things that we've talked about for
00:06:35.020 almost nine years now. Of course, continue to do those things. Outside of that, I feel like I
00:06:40.780 answered this. I can't tell you if there's so much that you can handle. And at this point,
00:06:45.980 it's time for you to leave. I don't know what that is. And I don't know what you're
00:06:49.240 willing to tolerate or deal with or put up with. I don't know what you already have invested in the
00:06:53.860 relationship. So all I can say is continue to have these conversations, just like I mentioned with
00:06:58.880 Chase and progress the conversation if it doesn't improve. So if you have a very mild, easy
00:07:06.820 discussion with your significant other and nothing improves, then you escalate it, escalate it,
00:07:12.980 escalate it, escalate it. And then at some point, yeah, it's time to pull the trigger.
00:07:16.420 I wish I could tell you that there's a certain time, but I think you really have to look at how
00:07:20.160 much time and investment you're putting into it, how much you're willing to commit, how much you've
00:07:24.640 already committed. Not that I would say that some level of huge commitment is binding you and
00:07:31.860 obligating you to stay in an unhealthy relationship forever. But if there's kids in the equation,
00:07:37.520 again, commingling of finances, there's a lot of considerations here that I couldn't just tell
00:07:41.800 you on this date, if she does it this many times, you're out. Just continue to progress the
00:07:46.820 conversation forward if it's not happening and be very, very clear about what you want,
00:07:50.880 what you need, and what you're willing to tolerate and what you won't tolerate.
00:07:55.000 All right. I hope that helps. Daryl Hahn, he says, you guys probably don't struggle with this,
00:08:01.080 but why is it so difficult to just pull the trigger and do quote unquote, the thing,
00:08:05.000 whatever it is, work, workout, et cetera. Well, I struggle with it. I think I can't speak for
00:08:11.200 Kip, but maybe I will say to a degree, I'm sure he struggles with it as well. I think this is
00:08:17.140 something that all men deal with. We have an idea or a vision or a goal or a new behavior or a new
00:08:23.900 activity, a new hobby, a new thought process. And when the rubber meets the road is when it's really
00:08:30.240 hard to do it, it's actually very easy to think about doing it. It's very easy to read about doing
00:08:37.000 it. It's easy to talk about doing it, but it's significantly harder because the risk elevates
00:08:44.800 when you actually go do the thing. There's a fear of failure. There's a fear of what other people will
00:08:50.080 think of you. There's you drawing on past failures and experiences that you've had and wondering if this
00:08:56.200 is going to be similar. And then there's just the hardship of doing the work. Again, reading about
00:09:01.660 it or thinking about it or talking about it is not hard. There's no investment in that. A little time
00:09:06.380 maybe, but nothing outside of that. In fact, all of that is exciting. But when you do a new workout
00:09:13.420 program, for example, you actually have to get up an hour early and go to the gym. That's harder than
00:09:19.340 talking about it. Or that's harder than sitting on the couch while you're watching the game,
00:09:23.520 researching what kind of workout program you should do. So the amount of effort required
00:09:30.480 is what makes it challenging in addition to the fear that an individual might have
00:09:35.020 of being a failure. So when you're committing to doing things, you need to fully commit or not commit
00:09:42.520 at all. Because I think that's a big problem a lot of guys have is they just flippantly agree to
00:09:47.620 everything and commit to whatever comes up. I had a discussion with a friend and she was
00:09:53.280 asking if I would run the marathon next year. And I thought long and hard about that before I said
00:09:59.180 yes. Because I knew if I said yes, then that's something that I'm committing to doing, which
00:10:04.060 means I need to train. I need to run. I need to actually do the marathon next year. There's a lot
00:10:10.040 of commitment that goes with that. A year or two years ago, I might've just said, sure, I'll do it
00:10:14.320 with no real thought process as to whether or not I wanted to do it or not, or evaluating the amount
00:10:20.560 of effort that it would take to do it. So before we start committing to doing things, let's really
00:10:25.860 evaluate the time, the resources, the risk, the energy required to complete the objective. And if
00:10:33.080 we're not willing to invest in that, it's okay. But we need to be honest about it. Because if we do say
00:10:38.820 yes to a marathon, or to starting a business, or to go on a trip with a friend, or to start a business
00:10:44.720 with them, or to commit to a new workout program, then that yes means yes. And that means you're in.
00:10:51.240 So before you say you're in, commit fully and acknowledge what it's going to take to complete
00:10:57.180 the objective. Also, I would say find good people. Find people around you who can help you, who can inspire
00:11:03.620 you, who can motivate you to stay on task, because you will want to deviate. This is from Jerry Sedell.
00:11:12.340 He says, I'm new here. So I don't know if you've already talked about this. Have you ever considered
00:11:16.540 drinking ayahuasca, mushrooms, or other ancient medicine to improve issues in your life? No, I
00:11:23.360 really haven't. I know a lot of people talk about that. I'm skeptical, quite honestly, I'm actually going
00:11:28.980 to pull up a resource for you. I'm just going to Google order of men psychedelics, because I had a
00:11:37.620 podcast not too long ago with his name is Matt Zeman. But let me tell you when it was, it looks
00:11:44.220 like it was in July of this year. And the podcast is a beginner's guide to psychedelics. Matt has some
00:11:51.160 really good information about psychedelics, how you can use psychedelics for your improvement,
00:11:58.660 and what to expect, the pros and cons, side effects, all that sort of thing. So if you go back and you
00:12:03.540 listen to that podcast, that might give you some really good resources into visiting these things.
00:12:09.320 I'm a skeptic with ayahuasca and mushrooms. In the past, I've said, if you want to get high,
00:12:15.080 just get high. You don't need a self-development or self-improvement reason to do so. I'm not sure
00:12:19.940 that's entirely accurate or why people would do these things. And I'm not saying they're even
00:12:24.100 bad or wrong. I just don't know enough about them. And it's not something that I've explored
00:12:29.120 with any level of seriousness, other than having Matt on the podcast to talk with him about it.
00:12:34.000 So can't really give you any information on that one. This one comes from Marcus Segura. He's one of
00:12:38.840 our battle team leaders, one of our newest battle team leaders in the Iron Council. He says this,
00:12:43.580 we've talked about contentment, finding fulfillment, and constantly working on quote unquote more to pursue a
00:12:49.600 life of value and meaning. This week during our pastor sermon, he explained, expanded on this
00:12:55.100 scripture, quote, I know what it is to be in need. And I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned
00:13:01.380 the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, whether
00:13:06.820 living in plenty or in want, I can do all of this through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4,
00:13:13.400 12 through 13. What is your take on the context of contentment and gratitude? I've recently done
00:13:20.280 some podcasts on the balance. In fact, I should pull these up as well. I don't normally research
00:13:27.320 for these episodes because I want it to come across as two guys sitting together at the bar,
00:13:37.960 at the game, just having a conversation. And so now that I have other podcasts that might
00:13:43.080 address some of these things, I'm wondering if maybe I should spend a little time doing that.
00:13:48.020 But there is a podcast that I did where I talk about striking the balance between
00:13:52.180 gratitude or contentment and then ambition. And I can't remember the exact verbiage that I used.
00:13:58.640 You guys can go back and check that out. But this is a question that gets brought up all the time.
00:14:02.880 And usually when this question gets brought up, people are talking about ambition or gratitude,
00:14:08.720 like they're at odds with each other. You can either be content or you can be ambitious,
00:14:13.340 but you can't be both. But that isn't true. You can be both. You can be ambitious. You can have
00:14:19.440 desires. You can have dreams and hopes and goals that you want to accomplish. And you can also be
00:14:24.380 very content because you're grateful for what you have. It's just a matter of practicing those things.
00:14:29.220 So are you practicing gratitude? For example, if I'm looking around today, I'm grateful for
00:14:34.760 the climate, the weather that we're in. I'm grateful for the technology that I have to be
00:14:39.620 able to present this to you. I'm grateful for the supply chain where I can create these products,
00:14:45.540 whether it's my hat or my hoodie or shirts or battle planners so that I can put together products and
00:14:51.480 services and resources that are going to be valuable and improve your life. I'm grateful for
00:14:56.720 the creature comforts of modern living. And simultaneously, I want to continue to grow
00:15:02.580 the movement. I want to help more people. I want to take all the resources that I've been blessed with
00:15:07.900 through our maker, our creator and leverage. I almost said exploit, but that has a negative
00:15:13.700 connotation, but it is in a way that, but leverage the gifts and blessings that I have so that I can serve
00:15:21.720 other people more effectively. And those two thoughts, they don't contradict each other.
00:15:26.840 In fact, they're very complimentary. If I'm grateful for what I have, then I'm more likely
00:15:31.960 to utilize it and implement more of it in my life for the betterment of my environment,
00:15:36.980 for my culture, for my people and everybody around me. So I think if we can find ways to be content,
00:15:44.180 as the scripture in Philippians says, being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed
00:15:49.080 or hungry, whether living in plenty or want, I think that's a powerful place to be, that place of
00:15:53.740 gratitude and contentment, but that doesn't negate our desire to improve, our desire to get better,
00:16:00.980 our desire to grow. And so let's stop holding these two themes or factors at odds with each other.
00:16:08.620 Like they're sitting on opposite sides of a scale. They're not. They're complimentary if we choose to
00:16:14.400 look at it that way. Aiden Carrillo, he says, how can I be financially sovereign as a student?
00:16:22.920 I'm a full-time student and I have some money set aside for my studies, but not working during the
00:16:28.400 semester is unsustainable for all of my four years of college. I'm in a situation where I can't get a
00:16:34.200 job this semester, but it is possible next semester. What should I do now in order to work
00:16:38.820 towards being financially sovereign? Yeah, this is a bit of a dilemma because there are times and
00:16:43.680 situations, we call them seasons in life, where you can't do everything that you want to do.
00:16:48.180 You can't make money right now because you're investing in your education. And the goal,
00:16:52.780 the idea is that that investment in your education will pay dividends down the road. And it likely will
00:16:57.720 because you're thinking about it that way, but it's hindering you from hitting all that you want to
00:17:02.620 hit, which is to maybe pay off debt or not to get into any additional debt. And so how do you deal
00:17:07.900 with that? Well, number one, you recognize that it is in fact a season that is, it isn't going to be
00:17:12.980 this way forever. This is not your status quo. And the fact that you're uncomfortable with it
00:17:17.420 is a good thing because it says that when you're in a position to get a job and work and do all
00:17:22.660 these things, that that's actually what you're going to do. So I would suggest to you that you're
00:17:27.220 in the right mindset, but I would also say that there's things that you can do with regards to your
00:17:31.340 finances that are going to help you build healthy habits. And maybe you're not in the best
00:17:35.320 financial position right now because you are a full-time student, but you can budget, right?
00:17:40.220 You do have some money, whether that's a scholarship or money set aside or a grant, there is some money
00:17:46.920 somewhere. And so you can learn to budget. You can learn to be frugal. You can learn to say no.
00:17:53.660 Maybe there's even an opportunity to put just a little bit of money aside in the stock market or
00:17:58.340 something like that and start to learn and research how the stock market works. In fact,
00:18:03.980 you don't even need money to do that. You can read up on the stock market. You can learn about
00:18:07.920 how it works. You can read great books from real estate moguls and entrepreneurs that have grown
00:18:13.620 multi-seven-figure businesses. This is the time for learning so you can do the same thing with
00:18:19.020 regards to your finances, even though you're not in the position right now. And all that does is that
00:18:24.600 when you are in the position to improve your financial situation, you're going to be that much out
00:18:29.700 further ahead than everybody else because you know, you have information, you have resources.
00:18:35.180 Clearly you value education and you're paying for education right now. So get educated, read up,
00:18:41.940 get smart about it so that when you're in a different position and you will be, of course,
00:18:46.580 then you'll be able to make the good moves moving forward. Most people just wait. They won't do
00:18:51.280 anything. I can't really deal with that right now because I'm going to school. So I'll deal with it
00:18:54.920 later. No, deal with it now. Start to address it now and figure out ways to grow and deal with your
00:19:02.920 money situation now so that when you're in a better spot, you'll know what to do. All right,
00:19:06.860 guys. So those are the questions from our Brotherhood, the Iron Council. Let's jump over
00:19:10.940 to Facebook real quick. Looks like we have five or six over here. So I'll try to get to all these as
00:19:15.200 well. This first one comes from Joshua Trott. He says, with the nation and state of the world in
00:19:21.760 shambles, how can we begin to make a difference? As the moral fabric is being ripped apart,
00:19:27.480 where do we start? Well, here's what I would say is sometimes when we're talking about making a
00:19:33.040 difference, we're wondering how we can impact the most amount of people possible, how we can make
00:19:40.560 our dent in the universe. And that's great. It's noble. It's ambitious. It's righteous. But I would
00:19:46.720 say to you that as a single man, one man, there's a lot that you can do with your kids, with your
00:19:52.540 spouse, with your friends, your colleagues, your coworkers, everybody that you come in contact with,
00:19:58.000 neighbors. If you could impact one other person, then that one other man is going to go out and do
00:20:03.080 the same. And the person he impacts is going to go out and do the same and the same and the same and
00:20:07.080 the same. So people look at a movement like this. They think, well, Ryan, you're helping hundreds of
00:20:10.620 thousands of people. Yes. But it all started with me just having conversations, me trying to
00:20:18.340 influence my children, me trying to influence my family and my neighborhood and my community and
00:20:22.040 my employees and people that I work with. If I can do that and 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 million other people
00:20:29.620 could do the same, that's how we make a difference. So don't underestimate the value you bring to the
00:20:34.400 table just because you happen to be serving one person. If you're coaching your kids' basketball
00:20:39.320 team like I'm doing with my youngest son this year, that's eight, nine, 10 kids that are going to be
00:20:45.000 around me that are going to be impacted by the work that I do with them. There are some kids now who
00:20:50.040 are upperclassmen in high school that I coached when they were six, seven, eight years old. And it's
00:20:55.980 pretty cool to see how far they've come. Now, I can't take credit for everything that they've done
00:20:59.520 over their lives. They go on spiritual missions and they're getting married and having kids and
00:21:05.660 getting into careers and finishing up college. It's wild to see these kids graduate out of high
00:21:11.460 school and become men. And I like to think that I had a small part to play in their development.
00:21:17.760 So if everybody's doing this, not just me as their coach, but next year's coach and their school
00:21:23.040 teacher and their friends and their uncles and their brothers and their dad are doing this,
00:21:28.740 then they're going to be fed with all of this incredible, virtuous, righteous masculinity.
00:21:33.140 And it's going to be pouring into them so much so that it's going to just manifest itself in the
00:21:38.380 way that they show up. So get involved, get active. A lot of people will come to me and they'll say,
00:21:44.120 Hey, Ryan, here's this issue I think is important. You should talk about it. You should talk about it.
00:21:48.720 You should talk about it. Now, granted, I probably will because of the nature of my work,
00:21:53.480 but if you see some great injustice or some problem or some issue that needs to be resolved in society,
00:21:59.960 then you should talk about it. We have amazing platforms of social media. Our reach is broader
00:22:05.420 and wider than it's ever been. And if you have an opportunity to talk about these issues with
00:22:10.080 people, then you should certainly take advantage of that. That's how we make a difference. You doing
00:22:15.420 the work with the people that are closest to you, that you have the most influence with, that's the
00:22:21.120 people in your household, and then expanding it from there and encouraging other people to do the
00:22:25.260 same. Let's go to Brandon Ballard. He says, what advice would you give for helping my daughter
00:22:31.860 who's struggling with self-image? She constantly tells me she doesn't feel like she belongs with
00:22:36.200 her friends, with our family. She also struggles to say anything kind about herself, constantly
00:22:41.140 calling herself dumb and wanting to give up when things get slightly difficult. I want to help her
00:22:46.040 build her up, but it feels like she's pulling away from me. We've brought in outside help in the form
00:22:50.640 of counseling and tutors, but I want to do more to help. Anything you can recommend for me to do.
00:22:59.400 Here's what I would suggest. I think as a father, as a man, it's our responsibility with our children
00:23:05.420 to introduce hardship in controlled environments. So if you generally look at the way that we as men
00:23:11.460 show up versus the way generally women show up, women are going to be more supportive, more empathetic,
00:23:16.820 more nurturing, just as a general rule of thumb. You can look at it in the classic example of teaching
00:23:22.480 a child to ride a bike. You get your daughter on the bike and you're holding her shoulder,
00:23:27.060 you're holding underneath the seat and you're kind of jogging her along the driveway. And one day you
00:23:30.860 decide to let go and she goes and she goes 10, 20, 30 yards by herself. And she's so proud. And she
00:23:36.340 looks over her shoulder. And when she does, she turns the handles, the handlebar and crashes.
00:23:40.900 Mom sees this. She's sitting in the doorway watching the enthusiasm and excitement. And she
00:23:49.120 sees little Susie fall and scrape her knees and her elbows. What does mom do? She runs over there,
00:23:55.320 picks her up, dusts her boo-boos off, literally kisses her wounds, tells her to come inside. Let's
00:24:03.320 rinse it off. Let's put a band-aid. And you got like a Paw Patrol band-aid on there. That's what mom does.
00:24:09.140 Is she wrong? Of course not. She's a nurturer. She's empathetic. She's being compassionate.
00:24:15.240 She's fulfilling her responsibility as the matriarch of the home. It's a beautiful thing.
00:24:20.500 Contrast that with what a man does. He sees the same thing. Little Susie looks over her shoulder,
00:24:26.100 turns the handlebars a little too fast, wipes out, scrape boo-boos, elbows, knees, et cetera,
00:24:31.340 et cetera. Dad runs over there. He says, hey, you're okay. Wipe yourself off. Get back up.
00:24:39.720 Maybe offers a hand, but certainly doesn't pick her up. Offers a hand. She gets back up and he says,
00:24:44.900 let's get you back on the bike and get going. Maybe dries away the tears. Is dad wrong? No,
00:24:51.360 of course not. He's fulfilling his duty and responsibility as the patriarch of the home.
00:24:57.280 Neither are wrong. So why do I share this with you? Well, I share it with you because Brandon,
00:25:01.380 as a man, it's your job to introduce hardship, meaningful, significant hardship. We're not talking
00:25:07.680 about just making things hard for the sake of being hard, but hardship in controlled environments
00:25:12.860 that don't put your children in danger, but there is an element of risk so that when they overcome
00:25:18.720 and they will, because you're there to help them and coach them, they're going to feel better about
00:25:24.300 themselves. In society too often, we believe that we should just feel good about ourselves simply
00:25:29.980 because we exist. And I think as I get older and I learn to afford myself some grace, there is some
00:25:38.260 value in that. Sure. That you are a son or daughter of God and that there's inherent value and worth in
00:25:44.180 who you are as a human being. But ultimately it's what we create and what we produce. And if you can go
00:25:49.780 out into the world and you can create and you can produce, then you're going to feel better about
00:25:53.100 yourself. And the same goes for your daughter. She's not going to have the same self-esteem issues if
00:25:58.560 she knows that she's been through physical hardship with martial arts and sports or working on a
00:26:03.620 particular project or, or building something or going on a camp out or, or completing a successful
00:26:08.920 hunt. The more that you can engage her in meaningful and significant ways and help her overcome and work
00:26:15.140 through the challenge, adversity and hardship of difficult things, the better she's going to feel
00:26:19.240 about herself. So the therapy, excellent. Mom's tender, loving heart and hand, excellent. And you as a
00:26:26.740 father with your own kind of love, encouraging her to do difficult things and standing beside her and
00:26:32.320 walking with her in that will help her overcome some of those self-esteem issues. I hope that helps.
00:26:37.920 Let's go to Jono Smith. He says, what book recommendations would you give for a new couple
00:26:42.340 to read together with the goal of strengthening the relationship foundation? My girlfriend and I have
00:26:47.400 been reading through relationship goals by Michael Todd and are looking to start another. Would love to hear
00:26:52.560 what you have to recommend? Thank you. Well, I think what I would probably recommend is the five love
00:27:00.380 languages. That's a great book and it'll help you understand how you communicate love to a significant
00:27:05.860 other and how you feel love. So the five love languages are physical touch, words of affirmation,
00:27:13.980 quality time, acts of service, and gift giving. And one or more of those is going to speak
00:27:20.240 more loudly as it relates to love than another. And one or more of those is going to speak more loudly
00:27:25.760 as it relates to love for your girlfriend. And if you can figure out what she is, what her love
00:27:31.480 language is, then you can realize that she's maybe not into gifts, but she's into quality time.
00:27:37.100 And so you could focus your time and attention on providing quality time with her.
00:27:41.220 If you're into gift giving personally, you like to receive gifts and that manifests itself as love.
00:27:46.320 Then you can explain that to her. If she's reading it with you, she'll know that, Hey,
00:27:49.480 Jonah likes gifts and she can, and I'm talking about big extravagant gifts. I'm talking about
00:27:54.760 little small, thoughtful gestures. It might be a note. It might be a new t-shirt that she thinks
00:28:02.100 you'd really like and appreciate. And you feel love that way. That's a powerful thing. When you
00:28:06.440 begin to speak the same language, imagine trying to have a discussion with somebody who doesn't speak
00:28:10.880 English and that's all you speak. Odds are, it's not going to be very successful. Sure. You might be
00:28:15.660 able to navigate some basic conversation and dialogue, but it's going to be pretty tough.
00:28:19.640 Same thing with relationships. If you don't understand each other's love language. So what
00:28:23.000 I would suggest is the five love languages, Gary Chapman, I believe don't quote me on that.
00:28:28.800 Let's see. This last one comes from Joey Makowski. He says studies show, show growing up in an abusive
00:28:34.100 and controlling and narcissistic mentally ill household has increased odds that you'll be like
00:28:39.100 that too. Yeah. I don't even think we need studies to, uh, to know that. I mean, anecdotally,
00:28:44.440 right. If you grew up around abusive and controlling narcissistic and mentally ill households,
00:28:48.220 odds are you're going to be like that too. I mean that, yeah, that makes sense. How can I make sure
00:28:53.320 I don't end up like that? What steps are books to take? Well, the biggest thing is that, look,
00:28:59.400 if we know that by being in proximity to mentally ill, abusive, controlling narcissistic relationships
00:29:06.460 would move us towards being like that, then the opposite can also be true. That being in loving
00:29:12.580 and supportive and empathetic and fostering, uh, sustaining type relationships are going to help
00:29:20.380 you be more like that. So the answer to the question is the question it's proximity.
00:29:27.360 If you're around negative, toxic, destructive people, you're probably going to be like that.
00:29:31.980 If you're around positive, uplifting, edifying people, you're probably going to be like that.
00:29:36.580 That's why groups like the iron council or other membership or mastermind programs that you might
00:29:41.360 belong to are important. That's why going to events with other people who are like you joining
00:29:46.240 chamber and rotary and toast masters and business network international. If you're an entrepreneur
00:29:52.300 locally would be valuable. Um, finding good friends who are doing good things, working out, training,
00:29:59.280 lifting, engaged in wholesome activities. The more that you can be around those people and the more
00:30:05.280 that you engage them, ask them thoughtful, poignant questions, share with them your feedback and
00:30:10.780 experience of life. The more likely it is that you're going to start acting like that. It's,
00:30:16.380 it's not miraculous and it's not through osmosis. Like we often say, it just is the power of
00:30:22.280 proximity. Ken Coleman wrote a great book. He's with the Ramsey team, uh, called the power of
00:30:27.640 proximity. And he talks about how important it is to be in the right place at the right time.
00:30:31.900 And that's on you. You can do that. If you invest a little time and energy, knowing that if you want
00:30:36.380 to be this kind of person, you need to be around those kinds of people. All right, guys, I think
00:30:42.100 we got through all of them on my own. Uh, Kip will be back next week. So we'll be doing this together.
00:30:47.260 It's a little bit more dynamic when Kip is here. Um, he brings an element that I don't. And I think
00:30:51.820 I bring an element that he don't, he doesn't. So, uh, together we're, we're, uh, we're pretty
00:30:56.020 dynamic. We're a dynamic duo. Uh, anyways, if you have additional questions, thoughts, considerations,
00:31:01.040 please join our Facebook group, facebook.com slash groups slash order of men. Or if you're
00:31:05.620 interested in taking this a step further and having this brotherhood of accountability,
00:31:09.360 then check out the iron council. We're going to open it up in December. So next month you can do
00:31:14.820 that at order of man.com slash iron council. And also check out the store. New hoodies are available.
00:31:21.640 New hat is available store.orderofman.com. All right, guys, we will be back on Friday for our
00:31:27.500 Friday field notes, but until then go out there, take action and become a man. You are meant to be.
00:31:32.220 Thank you for listening to the order of man podcast. You're ready to take charge of your life
00:31:36.480 and be more of the man you were meant to be. We invite you to join the order at orderofman.com.