Order of Man - June 10, 2016


FFN 007： Living the Strenuous Life


Episode Stats

Length

9 minutes

Words per Minute

191.62367

Word Count

1,882

Sentence Count

141

Hate Speech Sentences

1


Summary

We live in a world that is becoming more and more sedentary and less physically demanding than ever before. This is not a coincidence. It s a symptom of the times we live in, and we need to learn to adapt to it.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 You're a man. You're committed to the work required to forge your own destiny.
00:00:04.600 Your blood, your sweat, your tears.
00:00:07.720 You will not be defeated. You cannot be deterred.
00:00:11.480 Nothing stands between you and the victory you seek.
00:00:14.640 You're a rock. Steadfast, resolute, and unwavering.
00:00:18.420 And, at the end of the day, the job will be done.
00:00:22.480 Welcome to your Friday Field Notes.
00:00:24.920 Men, what's going on today? I am Ryan Michler, and I am the host and founder of Order of Man.
00:00:29.540 And, welcome to your Friday Field Notes.
00:00:31.320 Now, this is a short show. It's not our main show.
00:00:33.440 We release our long interviews each Tuesday, so make sure you go back, subscribe to this podcast,
00:00:38.120 and, if you would, leave us a review in iTunes.
00:00:40.260 It helps a ton in getting the visibility out for the show.
00:00:43.200 So, I want to jump right into this today because I only have five to eight minutes to get my point across to you on this Friday Field Notes show.
00:00:49.720 And, today, I want to talk with you about a hard life, or what Teddy Roosevelt refers to as the strenuous life.
00:00:55.800 So, I'm going to read you an excerpt from his speech.
00:00:58.140 This was given in 1899 because he, Teddy Roosevelt, says it better than any of us could.
00:01:04.080 And, here goes,
00:01:04.540 Again, that quote was from the speech titled The Strenuous Life by Teddy Roosevelt.
00:01:31.520 But, does that even sound like anything we're facing today?
00:01:34.460 Absolutely not.
00:01:35.260 It's the exact opposite of what each and every one of us, at least you, listening to this podcast deals with on a daily basis.
00:01:41.380 Think about it, how great that we actually have it.
00:01:43.720 We have these amazingly comfortable beds.
00:01:45.620 We live in these climate-controlled buildings.
00:01:47.620 We can go to the grocery store and literally pick and choose what food we want.
00:01:51.380 Crime rates are relatively low.
00:01:52.740 The amount of manual labor that we do on a daily basis is decreasing and decreasing every single day, every single year.
00:01:59.440 We use computers and technology to do what we don't want to do.
00:02:03.260 And, they can do it faster and more efficiently than we can.
00:02:06.940 And, if things get a little difficult, it has become the norm in society today to quit, to give up.
00:02:13.580 If you're having a bad day at work, you quit.
00:02:15.580 If you don't get along with your wife, you go for a quick divorce.
00:02:19.040 You don't like the coach of your kid's team, you pull them from the team or you request a new coach.
00:02:22.800 This is part of the life of ease that we become accustomed to.
00:02:26.880 It is not the strenuous life.
00:02:28.300 The people that live this way are what I refer to as mental midgets.
00:02:32.360 And, it's creating some problems.
00:02:34.780 We, as a collective whole, are more sensitive.
00:02:37.400 I'm sure that you've seen this.
00:02:39.120 More sensitive than we've ever been.
00:02:41.900 We're fatter than we've ever been.
00:02:43.900 We're lazier than we've ever been.
00:02:45.360 And, we're also unhappier than we've ever been.
00:02:48.900 This is not coincidence, people.
00:02:50.600 Now, there's exceptions to this rule, but they're becoming fewer and fewer.
00:02:54.060 And, I would also argue that the reason those people who are the exceptions is because they've adapted, at least to some degree, this notion, this idea of the strenuous life.
00:03:03.420 They do the hard things when it comes to their work and their business.
00:03:06.560 They do hard things when it comes to their relationships.
00:03:08.940 They do hard things when it comes to their health.
00:03:10.480 And, they do hard things when it comes to improving themselves and the level of discipline and commitment that they have in their lives.
00:03:17.540 And, that's what I want to challenge you to do this weekend and into the next week and into the rest of your life, frankly, is to start doing some hard things.
00:03:25.340 Now, don't get me wrong.
00:03:26.120 And, I'm not suggesting that you do hard things for the sake of doing hard things or them being hard.
00:03:30.440 I'm suggesting that you place strain on your body and your mind and your emotions so that as hardships and heartache inevitably come into your life, you're going to be better equipped to deal with them.
00:03:42.200 You and me, as men, are going to be called upon as leaders.
00:03:46.620 That's the bottom line.
00:03:48.060 We're going to be called upon as leaders during these trying times.
00:03:50.660 And, whether it's a bad economy or a death in the family or a deadline at work, a natural disaster, an active shooter type situation, which is becoming more and more common, you are going to need to be able to adapt and overcome.
00:04:02.720 And, your level of strength at that point, your mental, your emotional, your physical strength at that point will spell the difference.
00:04:09.460 Tim Kennedy, he's a UFC fighter, Army Special Forces sniper.
00:04:12.820 He has this quote.
00:04:13.440 I love it.
00:04:13.800 He says, if the day ever comes that you have to fight for your life, the only thing that will determine the outcome is if you ever trained and prepared for that fight.
00:04:24.240 Have you prepared for that fight?
00:04:26.360 Most of us would have to say no to that question.
00:04:29.880 So, what I want to do is I want to give you two great books to read.
00:04:32.360 I've read these over the past several weeks, and they're going to help you.
00:04:35.680 You're going to be able to get some new information, some new ideas on this quote-unquote strenuous life.
00:04:40.440 And, if this is something that you're adopting or considering adopting in your life, you need to look at these two books.
00:04:44.720 The first is called Endurance.
00:04:46.440 This is Shackleton's Incredible Voyage.
00:04:49.000 Just an incredible story of Shackleton who basically wanted to traverse the Antarctic.
00:04:54.860 Things go wrong.
00:04:55.640 I'm not going to get into it, but it is a great book about hardship and hard living and the spirit and strength.
00:05:01.920 And the second is Grit by Angela Duckworth, who is a psychologist.
00:05:07.300 She goes into the psychology of grit, what it is, what it looks like, how to develop more in your life, and why it's actually important.
00:05:14.200 So, those are two great books.
00:05:15.720 You can go to orderofman.com slash FFN, as in Friday Field Notes.
00:05:21.780 So, FFN007.
00:05:25.000 And I'll have links right there, so you can just check them out right there.
00:05:27.500 You can pick them up right there.
00:05:28.360 But they're both incredible reads.
00:05:30.140 I believe every single man should have them in his library.
00:05:32.940 So, what does this strenuous life actually look like?
00:05:35.640 Well, first, I really think that it's a matter of adopting what I call the never-quit attitude.
00:05:42.160 Really look back on your life and think about when times got difficult, when times got hard.
00:05:47.200 What did you do in those moments?
00:05:49.040 Did you quit?
00:05:50.100 Or did you drive on?
00:05:52.180 Most of us quit too soon.
00:05:53.280 We never get a chance to even measure or improve our resolve.
00:05:57.100 I recently had a tactical expert, Tony, sent me out on the show, and he suggested to me that most people give up at about 40% of what they're actually capable of.
00:06:06.760 So, if you're interested in that show, which was a great show, you can check it out at orderofman.com slash 064.
00:06:13.600 It's the one we released this last Tuesday.
00:06:16.180 Guys, quitters never get ahead.
00:06:18.460 That's no surprise.
00:06:19.180 You know that, but typically, when we're talking about quitting, it's about judging others, right?
00:06:23.900 We judge others who have quit, but very rarely do we turn that mirror on ourselves and call ourselves quitters.
00:06:29.080 It's probably because we come up with all types of reasonings as to why we actually bowed out, out of that job or out of that race or even out of that relationship.
00:06:38.520 But this never-quit attitude speaks to the mental component of this strenuous life.
00:06:43.300 There's other sides as well, physical and emotional.
00:06:45.200 But once you get this mental side right, you're going to be so much better equipped to handle others.
00:06:50.040 That's why I talk about it first.
00:06:51.720 Now, from a physical perspective, it's just simply a matter of exerting yourself physically, working out, going running, whatever.
00:06:59.260 In fact, if there's something that you particularly hate about working out, you should probably do that.
00:07:05.180 For me, that's running.
00:07:05.920 I hate it.
00:07:06.720 It's one of the worst things that you could ask me to do.
00:07:08.880 But guess what?
00:07:09.440 I run three days a week.
00:07:11.340 It's important physically, but I also believe it builds my mental muscle because each step that I take is something.
00:07:18.380 I'm telling you guys, every step I take is something I have to fight for.
00:07:22.660 Another suggestion for the physical side is to sign up for events and races or competitions before you're actually ready.
00:07:28.760 I'm going to be participating in the Spartan Goggi next week.
00:07:31.160 This is a 60-hour endurance event.
00:07:33.720 I wasn't ready three or four months ago when I signed up.
00:07:36.100 I'm not as ready as I'd like to be now, but I'm doing it, and I'm doing it because it's hard, and I want to know if I have what it takes.
00:07:44.220 I'm going to find out that I do, or I'm going to find out that I have some improvement.
00:07:48.020 But either way, it's going to be a difficult thing, and that's part of the reason, the main reason that I'm actually doing it.
00:07:52.720 Now, I'm not going to get into the emotional side of the strenuous life today for the sake of time.
00:07:56.360 I can cover that in a future episode.
00:07:57.960 But remember, this week, I want you to think about doing the hard things.
00:08:01.940 Maybe it's going for a run, like I said.
00:08:03.580 Maybe it's keeping your mouth shut when you want to say something but probably shouldn't.
00:08:08.180 Maybe it's picking up an old hobby that you gave up on.
00:08:10.580 Maybe there's a project around the house that you've needed to complete.
00:08:13.720 Your wife's nagging you about it, but you gave up on it a long time ago.
00:08:16.340 Just do something hard and something that pushes you further than you're actually comfortable with.
00:08:22.880 It's about getting outside of your comfort zone and living the strenuous life.
00:08:27.320 So if you want to learn more about how to adopt this mindset into your life, you probably need to consider joining our elite mastermind, the Iron Council.
00:08:34.460 Me and the rest of the men there, we are not there to coddle you.
00:08:37.100 There is nothing easy about it.
00:08:38.820 Those that get the most out of the Iron Council are the ones that are willing to step outside of that comfort zone, make themselves vulnerable, ask great questions, so they can get onto their journey to improve their lives.
00:08:49.300 So if that sounds like something you're interested in, join us at orderofman.com slash ironcouncil.
00:08:54.020 I will look forward to seeing you on the inside.
00:08:57.020 Men, you've got your marching orders for this weekend.
00:08:59.280 The hard life, the strenuous life.
00:09:01.500 I'll look forward to talking with you next week, but until then, live that strenuous life.
00:09:06.360 Those are your Friday Field Notes.
00:09:08.160 Now it's time to crush your excuses, own your choices, accept responsibility, and live manfully.
00:09:14.940 Learn how at orderofman.com forward slash field notes.
00:09:19.300 We'll see you next week.