The Iron Council is a brotherhood of men who are on a mission to help each other become better men. In this episode, we talk about what it means to be a man and what it takes to become a man.
00:02:49.880I know a lot of you who are listening are familiar with it, at least to some degree,
00:02:53.060but it's pretty incredible to see the growth in the Iron Council over the past two or three weeks.
00:02:57.320One of the things that we just brought on board and we started doing,
00:02:59.980and in fact, we did this for the very first time this morning, was having an expert guest.
00:03:05.200Some of my podcast guests are just incredible, incredible men with so many good insights.
00:03:10.200And in the Iron Council, what we've done is we've allowed our brothers there to have access to these men through expert sessions that we run once a month.
00:03:20.420So we had Commander Rourke Denver, a Navy SEAL commander on this morning, and it was an incredible, incredible conversation.
00:03:28.200And that's exclusive to our members in the Iron Council.
00:03:31.940So if you want that, you want the brotherhood, the camaraderie, all the other things that we're doing,
00:03:35.740head to orderofman.com slash Iron Council.
00:03:38.540And you can learn a little bit more about what we're up to there.
00:04:59.280Just let other men in your life, brothers, colleagues, coworkers, cousins, fathers, whoever it may be, what we're doing here within the mission of the Order of Man and share specifically this episode.
00:05:09.680I hope it's going to be a powerful one for you.
00:05:11.980What I want you to do and think about as we go through this is just take a look around in society.
00:05:17.020And I think that you'll agree with me that there seems to be more and more men who are shirking their responsibilities as men.
00:05:35.220I'm going to talk more about that a little bit later.
00:05:36.860If you do accept some form of responsibility in your life, whether it's family or your physical fitness or career aspirations, what it means is that you're actually going to have to exert yourself.
00:07:14.780But most importantly, it's a detriment to yourself and it's a detriment to society as a whole.
00:07:20.560Because what happens when the majority of people begin to demand quote unquote rights without a willingness to accept some responsibility, at least for securing those rights?
00:07:30.840Because I think we all know the answer to that question.
00:07:33.520And just in case you don't, the answer is it collapses.
00:07:38.700I did a podcast a couple of weeks ago on makers and takers.
00:07:42.040You can go back and listen to that a little bit.
00:07:43.780But in addition to these moral obligations that we have as men to serve, and I'm going to talk more on that here in a little bit.
00:07:52.220Accepting responsibility in your life, I believe, is the surest path, the surest path to long-term fulfillment and achievement.
00:08:03.100Any time in my life, whether through it was my military service, career endeavors, fitness goals, family priorities, every time where I've accepted responsibility, life has always gotten better.
00:08:17.900And here's the thing about men who shirk responsibility, they're weak, they're pathetic.
00:08:24.160And most importantly, guys, they know it.
00:08:27.380If you fall into this camp, you know that you're doing less than you're capable of.
00:08:32.840From my perspective, and I'm going to have to find the research to back this up.
00:08:36.740When a man knows that he's capable of more, yet doesn't do anything about it, he begins to experience the full brunt of his own inadequacies physically, mentally, emotionally.
00:08:52.720But on the other hand, when a man knows he's capable of more, and he raises his hand to accept that reality, he begins to forge a new destiny.
00:09:04.280He lays the foundation for progress in his life.
00:09:07.420When a man accepts responsibility, he equips himself with the mindset that he needs for growth and for achievement.
00:09:14.880When a man accepts responsibility, he tells himself, and even the world, that he is capable of stepping into the very thing that makes him a man.
00:09:24.800And the very thing that makes him and you and me and everybody who's listening to this podcast a man is service.
00:09:31.300At the core of what it means to be a man is to serve.
00:09:35.700Think about even our motto, protect, provide, preside.
00:09:39.660All three of those responsibilities have an element of service.
00:09:45.000See, most people believe that joy comes in others serving them.
00:09:50.440There's some destination where people will begin to serve you and that's when you'll be happy.
00:09:55.420But I've found that to be fun for a very, very short period of time.
00:10:00.260I have a difficult time, in fact, and I'm sure that you do as well, allowing other people to serve me.
00:10:43.260Yeah, they may earn some money by doing some chores around the house.
00:10:46.120But at the end of the day, that burden of responsibility for your family, for them and you and your wife and everybody, it falls upon you, you as the head of the household.
00:10:57.480Now, what we see in society is a bunch of boys running around in men's bodies.
00:11:01.740They're doing just enough, just enough not to get fired.
00:11:05.040They still mooch off mommy and daddy and potentially still live at home.
00:11:10.080They expect their wives to go out into the workforce and do the work of men.
00:11:13.860They collect unemployment and other benefits that they didn't earn knowing full well they're capable of putting their own food on their own table.
00:11:23.160Then, and this is what makes it worse, they wonder why they don't feel fulfilled or satisfied or why people don't take them seriously.
00:11:31.080It's because you don't even take yourself seriously.