FFN 078： Every Man Needs a Battle to Fight
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
203.5625
Summary
In this episode of the podcast, Ryan Michler discusses the difference between former military service members who maintain their discipline after leaving the service and those who aren t. Ryan also discusses the importance of discipline when transitioning into civilian life.
Transcript
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You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest. Embrace your fears and boldly chart
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your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time. Every time.
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You are not easily deterred or defeated. Rugged. Resilient. Strong. This is your life. This is who
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you are. This is who you will become. At the end of the day, and after all is said and done,
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you can call yourself a man. Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan Michler,
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and I am the host and the founder of this podcast, The Order of Man. If you aren't already
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subscribed to this show, you need to take care of that. We've had some incredible guests over the
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past couple of weeks. Jocko Willink earlier this week, and then Gary John Bishop last week,
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and we've got some more incredible, incredible guests coming up in the coming weeks as well.
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This podcast, guys, if you don't already know, is a podcast about becoming a better man,
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a better man in your family, your business, your community, and a better man for yourself.
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Uh, we've got the interview shows that I just alluded to, which are released each and every
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Tuesday. Uh, then we've got this show, your Friday field notes, which are released each Friday.
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That makes sense. Uh, you get to hear me and some of my thoughts from throughout the week.
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Now, before I get into the discussion for today, and it is a powerful discussion,
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I do very quickly want to thank our show sponsors and encourage you to check out me on these. I know
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That's me undies.com slash man. Outside of that gentlemen, make sure again, that you subscribe
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to the show. We've got Lewis house on next week and some other incredible guests. And if you haven't
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already done so, make sure you join our closed Facebook group with over 37,000 men. Now
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at facebook.com slash groups slash order of man, we're having thousands and thousands of
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incredible conversations there. Now, a lot of you already know, I interviewed earlier in the week,
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Navy SEAL and New York times bestselling author Jocko Willink earlier this week. If you haven't
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checked out that show yet, you can do that at order of man.com slash one three five, or just look
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for the last episode, wherever you're listening to this podcast. One thing that he said to me that
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really stuck out was the difference between former military members who are able to maintain
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their discipline after the service and those who aren't. And I've personally seen both. I've seen
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veterans who make a seamless transition into civilian life. And I see those that are really
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floundering. And I've often wondered what the difference is between the two. What Jocko said is
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that the difference between them is whether or not they found a new mission, a new mission in life.
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During my time in the military, the mission was always very clear to me and the rest of the
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soldiers. We were instructed on the objective. We were given our marching orders and then we were
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left to carry them out. But when you transition out of the military, there's no one to give you any
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marching orders. There's no one to tell you what to do, when to do it, how to do it. And you're left
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on your own to figure all of this stuff out. Now, what's interesting to me is that one of my
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favorite authors, John Eldridge, he's the author of Wild at Heart and many other books,
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who, by the way, just agreed to come on the podcast. So that'll be coming out in about a
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month or so. He happens to be also the author of one of my favorite quotes. He says, deep in his
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heart, every man longs for a battle to fight, an adventure to live, and a beauty to rescue.
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I want to focus the conversation today on that first component of that quote, the battle to fight.
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Men are warriors and not all warriors have to be battle proven in war, but I do believe it's in
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our nature as men to look for problems, to be on the lookout for the enemy, or at a minimum,
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a threat to our livelihood and the people that we have a responsibility for. I look around in society
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and I know you do too. And I see men who have no real sense of direction or purpose. Maybe that even
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describes you. You know, you look into your eyes or you look in the mirror and you can see all the
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enthusiasm and the excitement that you once had. And it's all but gone. I would argue that it's
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because these men, or perhaps even yourself, as Jocka would say, have no mission, or as John
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Eldridge would say, no battle to fight. So today I'm going to encourage you to pick a fight,
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to pick a battle. I don't mean a literal fight with someone or a group of people. I mean that
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I want you to take a look around at society and engage in a cause worth fighting for.
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This could be a career calling or a fitness journey, the family that you're working to provide
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and preside and protect for. I really don't care what it is, but I do want to give you four steps
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to engaging in what I call the fight of your life. This is a battle. This is the fight of your life.
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And as I talk about these four steps, I'm going to give you a lot of questions
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to consider as opposed to the answers. I can't decide what your battle is. You have to decide that
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for yourself. And the best way for me to help you do that is to give you some questions to ponder and
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consider. The first step guys in picking a battle to fight is to take a look around in society
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and identify what you see as being wrong with the world. Write down everything, everything that
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comes to mind in a way you're identifying the enemy, not the literal enemy, but the thing that
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you're going to fight against. For me, three years ago, I saw that there was a real problem with the
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state of affairs for men. Like I mentioned before, I've seen too many men who have lost the spark of
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life and don't know where to turn. You couple that with the fact that society in general doesn't like
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or approve of masculinity until they actually need men to do something. And it becomes painfully
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obvious to me that there is a problem with men and masculinity. And in many ways, I set out to solve
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my own problems as I was one of the men in which I'm referring. So the questions are, what bothers you?
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What injustices do you see in the world? What problems do you have in your own life, in your personal
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life, in your marriage, or your career, your fitness, or your bank account, whatever it may be?
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What could be better about this life? The answers to those questions will help you identify the battle
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that you may have been born to fight. Remember, you're not limiting yourself. You're just
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brainstorming here. So write down as many as possible. Now, once you've identified some problems
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with the world, the ones that are meaningful to you, not anybody else, this is meaningful to you,
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you're probably going to find some common themes between the things that you see as being wrong.
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Now, there's probably a few that overlap or stand out to you. If that's the case,
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I'd recommend that you start doing some reconnaissance. This is step number two,
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reconnaissance. The questions are, who's already addressing this problem?
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What solutions are already available? How has this problem been addressed in the past?
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This one's really important. What gaps are there in the solution to this problem? When you start
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answering questions like these, you start giving yourself the power to do something about the
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problems that you see in the world and the problems that you want to start addressing.
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Now, once you've identified the enemy, step number one, and you've done some reconnaissance,
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step number two, regarding the battle that's already being waged and the gaps that need to be filled,
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you can start planning your battle. This is battle planning now. What solutions will you offer?
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Why are you uniquely qualified to address this? What in your past has made you capable of addressing
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this problem? How are you going to offer solutions to the world? What assets, what assets do you need
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in order to address this problem? And what in your life do you need to improve in order to be the
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champion of this cause? You might even ask yourself who you need to know, who you need to be connected
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with in order to bring this fight. Once you know the answers to these questions, you should then ask
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yourself, what is the next first step? That is probably one of the most powerful questions that you can ask.
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What is the next first step? You don't need to have this all mapped out. You just need to know
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what the next step is because the next step in your battle is to engage. Maybe it's to create a
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website or a podcast like I did. Maybe you need to ask for a promotion at work or propose a project
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to your employer. Maybe you just need to start talking about some of this stuff on social media.
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I don't know what this looks like for you, but you're going to feel if it's right only when you
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start engaging in the fight. It does no good to do all of this planning without actually taking
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the fight to the enemy. I see too many men who plan and strategize and think about what they want
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and then never do anything about it. I want you to take the next first step. Once you've done that,
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I want you to take the next first step over and over and over again. When you find yourself getting
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off track, adjust, adjust along the way and keep driving. You're going to feel if it's right.
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I know guys, this isn't easy, especially if you feel like your soul has been dead for some time
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now, but I can promise you that when you follow these steps and you choose your battle, your soul
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will come alive for the first time in years. You'll feel like you have a calling, a purpose in life.
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You'll walk around with your head held high, knowing that you're doing the work of a man.
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I know that's certainly been true for me. Guys, if you want some guidance and direction in how to do
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this a little bit more specifically, I would encourage you and invite you to join the Iron
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Council. This is our exclusive brotherhood and we're going to walk you through our battle plan,
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which is the planning tool we use to help you pick your battles and engage in something
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meaningful, something that you feel is meaningful in your life. If you want to learn more,
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you can do that and join the battle at orderofman.com slash ironcouncil, orderofman.com
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slash ironcouncil. Until next week, gentlemen, find a battle to fight, take action, and become the man
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you are meant to be. Thank you for listening to the Order of Man podcast. If you're ready to take
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charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be, we invite you to join the order