FFN 110: The Rise of the Peter Pans
Episode Stats
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Summary
In this episode, Ryan talks about what it means to be a man and what it takes to become a man. He also discusses a disturbing and sad trend that he sees in society today and how we can all work together to restore masculinity and manliness.
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? My name is Ryan
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Mickler, and I am the host and the founder of this podcast and, frankly, this movement,
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the movement of Order of Man, which is to restore and reclaim masculinity and manliness in a society
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that seems to buck what it means to be a man and, frankly, is trying to dismiss the whole notion of
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masculinity and manliness and men altogether. So my job is to restore that, and we do that by
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interviewing the world's most successful men, warriors, scholars, New York Times bestselling
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authors, athletes, entrepreneurs, you name it. If these guys have an interesting story and they're
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doing wonderful things in their lives, my goal is to bring them on the podcast, ask them some
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powerful questions, get them to answer those questions, and then deliver that to you and me
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so we can all improve as, again, fathers, husbands, business owners, community leaders, whatever that
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looks like for you, the way that you're going to step up as a man in society. Now, I've got a very
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good discussion. I think it's a good discussion anyways on a disturbing and sad and, frankly,
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quite pathetic trend that I see in society today. I'm going to get to that more here in a minute,
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but before I do, just a couple of very, very quick announcements and then we'll get into the
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meat of the discussion. This is a little different. This isn't an interview show. This is a show where
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you get to hear me, frankly, just talk about some things that I've been thinking about from
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throughout the week, and this is certainly something that's been on my mind for a while.
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Now, like I said, before I get to that, let me just share with you my friends and the sponsors
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of this show, Origin. Guys, if you haven't checked out Origin and what they're up to with regards to
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lifestyle and their geese and their training gear and their supplemental line with Jocko,
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I would highly, highly encourage that you do. And when you head over there, originmain.com
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slash order of man, make sure you use that order of man because that's going to let them know that
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you've visited through this podcast. So go check it out. Originmain.com slash order of man.
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I've been using their products and their training gear for the last couple of months. And I got to
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say, I'm blown away with the quality that they bring to the table and marketplace. Everything
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they do is a hundred percent made in America without compromise. So guys, check it out. And also later
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this year, I'm going to be training with them for a week at their immersion camp, which is going to be a
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lot of jujitsu training. And of course, see their outfit they've got in Maine as well. So if you are
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interested in that, you can shoot me a message and let me know. I can get you the details on that,
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but I'd love to have as many guys from order of man, uh, join me as possible. So originmain.com
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slash order of man. Oh, and also make sure you use at the checkout order. It's the code order,
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all caps, O-R-D-E-R at checkout, and you'll get a discount on your order there. So again,
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originmain.com slash order of man and use order at checkout. Now, outside of that,
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I do want to make one other quick announcement. We've got an event coming up September 20th
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through the 23rd. It's called order of man legacy. And it's the very first event of this type that
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we're doing. It's a father son event. I've got 20 spots. I think at this point we have maybe 12 or
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13 father son combos left. This is a three and a half day experience in the mountains of Southern
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Utah designed to help you and your son foster a stronger relationship, teach both of you,
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the skills that you'll need to succeed as a father and as a son and a boy turning into a man.
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And in a way it's a rite of passage. And I think so many rites of passages have gone away.
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And this is going to be an extremely, extremely successful event and experience for you and your
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boys. So if you're interested in learning more about what this is all about and what we're going
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to be doing, I would encourage you to go to order of man.com slash legacy, order of man.com
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slash legacy. And you can get a little bit of a taste as to what we are all about and what we're
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up to again, order of man.com slash legacy. All right, guys, with those announcements out of the
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way, let's get into the discussion today. And you saw probably that I had titled this the rise of the
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Peter pans. I'm sure that every single person listening to this has seen the movie or the play
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Peter pan. And what we see is we see this boy who for whatever reason has decided that he never
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wants to grow up, that he never wants to become a man, that he wants to shirk his responsibility and
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stay in Neverland and play and frolic and do practical jokes on the hook and all of this stuff.
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Now we realize this is a fictional work, but if we look around in society, it's not really all that
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far off from what we should see in men. I'll give you a prime example. There was an article that I had
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read or a video that I had watched just the other day about a 30 something year old man who had
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taken his parents to court because his parents were quote unquote, evicting him from the house.
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And I just thought to myself, how pathetic is this? Now, maybe there's something wrong with this
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guy. Obviously there's something wrong with this guy, but it's amazing that this is his thought
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process that he wants to fight so hard to stay at home and be at home. I can't help, but there's
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something going on here with him. But in addition to that, I also can't help, but think there's
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something going on with the parents. How was this guy raised? How was he fathered? How was he
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mothered? Like I can't fathom what is going on when I see stories like this. I know when I got done
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with high school, we went on our senior trip and the day that I got home, the very next day I moved
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out. Not because I had anything against my mother or anything like that, but because it's time. It's
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time to leave the nest. And I look around and I see so many boys and frankly, they are boys. They
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are the age of men, but they're boys who are more concerned with staying at home, more concerned with
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not having bills and responsibilities, more concerned with call of duty or fortnight or whatever
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the game is that they're playing. Uh, they're shirking their responsibilities. They don't have
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jobs. They don't have any responsibility. Their parents are enabling them to actually do this kind
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of stuff. And then we question why we're having problems with our boys turning into men. It's that
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failure to launch syndrome. And it's the rise of the Peter pans, which again is what I titled this
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episode. So let's talk about this because I think there are some solutions to this. I think if you find
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yourself in a position where you're a boy or a male who wants to grow up, but can't figure out how to do
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it. And I know there's certainly plenty of men who are listening that feel like they're in that
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category. We've got a Facebook group with over 43, 44,000 members of that group. And I see some of
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these guys who use the excuse or reason of not having a father figure in their life to not be able to
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perform as men. I can't believe that it needs to be addressed, but it certainly does. So let's talk
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about this today. And I'm going to take two different approaches on this. The first approach
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and the first angle is if you're experiencing some of this and you're nervous about launching
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and you're nervous about getting out of the house, or you feel like you're not the type of man that
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you know you should be, I'm going to share some ideas and some insights there, but I'm also going to
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share some insights as a father figure, not necessarily a father, although that could fall
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into that category, but a father figure, somebody who is a man in society who frankly is responsible
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for raising up boys in a way that they want to go out into society and produce as opposed to consume.
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And that's the difference between a boy and a man. A boy consumes and that's all he does. Sure,
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men consume as well, but they also produce and hopefully they are producing significantly more
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than they consume. You can see if that's not the case that we'd have a real problem here.
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You know, I look at my boys, I've got three boys and I've got a little girl as well.
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And I see my children who are consuming resources, time, energy, attention, money, all of those types
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of resources. That's not bad. That's the responsibility while I raise them. But my goal as a parent is to
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help them stand on their own two feet. And too many parents these days are doing everything for
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their children, thinking that somehow you're giving somebody a leg up when you do something
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for them. You're not, you're crippling them. You're hindering their ability to learn and to develop the
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strength they need to develop in order to be successful. Take an infant. For example, if you carry
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that infant everywhere, pack them in a stroller or her in a stroller, everywhere you go, that child
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will never develop the physical leg strength to be able to walk. That's the analogy that we use when
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it comes to their mental and emotional capacity. And certainly we look around and we see these
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boys and girls who may have developed physically, but mentally and surely emotionally are a complete
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wreck. So let's address this first and foremost. I think the most important thing that we understand
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here is mindset. Because when you get your mind right, everything else seems to fall into place.
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And I'm not saying it's easy. I'm just saying it's a simple process. It starts with the mind and things
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start to fall in place through the work that your mind produces. All right. So number one is I think
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we've got to understand and instill in our children that growing up is not a bad thing. Growing up is
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not a bad thing. So many people believe that, oh, if I grow up, I'll have these responsibilities and
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these issues and these struggles and these trials and these challenges. And yes, that is true. You will
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have those things, but there's also so many blessings that come from it. I look at my life and as I've grown
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up, I've brought children into this world. I started businesses. I've been on some amazing, amazing
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vacations and trips and experiences. I've connected and been married with my wife. It's incredible. And in order
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to have those things that are meaningful and significant in your life, you are going to have to experience
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some hardships. That's part of the deal. You cannot have one without the other. And anytime an individual
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tries to have something for nothing, they're robbing themselves. And frankly, they're probably robbing other
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people of their talents and their gifts and their abilities and their resources. So number one, again, realize
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that growing up and accepting responsibility and accountability of your own life is not a bad thing. It's a
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beautiful thing. It's a great thing. There's so many benefits and rewards that come from taking responsibility
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of your life. Number two, you've got to understand that you are not entitled to a thing. Nobody's here to serve you
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at your beck and call. Nobody's here to give you everything that you think you deserve. There's no family
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member, no business, no government entity, no nonprofit organization that owes you a thing. I see so many
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people who believe that they are entitled to something simply because they're a human being, simply because
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air is coursing through their lungs. I got news for you. If that's what you believe, you are significantly,
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significantly playing at a degree less than you're capable of. When you realize that nobody owes you a
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thing and you fully internalize that, you give yourself the power to earn everything. See, you deserve what
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you have. If you have wealth and abundance and prosperity in your life, you deserve that. If you
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don't, it's because you deserve that level of wealth or prosperity or abundance or lack thereof. Now, some
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people hear that and they think, well, what about people who can't? And what about those who are
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disabled? I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the fact that if there's somebody who is fully
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capable of providing their own way and they're not, that's a real problem. Again, you are not
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entitled to anything, but that's okay because once you accept responsibility, you can go out and earn
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it. Now, number three, if you're feeling guys like this might be you a little bit, if you're feeling
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like, man, I just didn't have a father figure and I don't know what this looks like. And I don't know
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how to step up as a man. I would say, stop spending time with boys. Find a way to spend time
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with men. Because if you surround yourself with people who don't take accountability and
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responsibility for their life, and they're more worried about the party or the games or the
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whatever than they are about real life, then I'd have you consider that's probably the way you're
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going to turn out as well too. You are going to be just like that. Now, on the other hand, if you find
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men to surround yourself with co-workers, colleagues, friends, parents, brothers, people
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who are doing big things in their life, that will inevitably wear off on you and you will strive to
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be more like that individual. One of two things is going to happen here. You're going to find people
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to spend time with like that, who lift you up, who motivate you, who inspire you and give you the
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kick in the pants that you need sometimes. And you're going to rise up to the challenge or you're
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going to default back. But that choice is yours. You get to decide. Don't look for the easy path.
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Don't look for the path of least resistance. That's what boys do. Men know what this path looks
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like. They know it's going to be a challenge. And they rise to that challenge because they realize
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the rewards and the benefits on the other side of that trial and obstacle are well worth the effort.
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Number four, and this is probably just as important as number one when I talked about
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realizing that growing up is not something bad, is that you've got to find significant purpose in
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your life. It's not enough to have these little trivial pursuits and pursue things and think that
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it's significant when in all reality, it doesn't matter. What's really driving you? What's really
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motivating you? How big and audacious is that goal? If you don't have a goal or it's not something
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noble or something significant, then yes, you're not going to rise up and become the man that you
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are meant to be. You're going to play at a level far less than you're capable of doing because
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there's nothing pushing you. There's nothing pulling you. There's nothing driving you and
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motivating you. So sit down and figure out exactly what you want. You don't have to have this figured
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out. It's going to change over time. You're going to grow and develop and mature. It's going to change
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over time. But if I ask you, what do you want? And you can't answer that question. I think
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that's a real problem. I think that's a real challenge. But if I can ask you, what is it
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that you want out of life? And you can look me in the eye and say, here's what I want. Here's the
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job I want to have. Here's the experiences I want to pursue. Here's the changes I want to make,
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not only in my life, but in the lives of other people, whether that's my family or community or
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employees, employers. If you can answer questions like that, you're well on your way to becoming a man
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because you're going to do the work required and necessary to get you to that point.
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So let me recap those and I'll go through this next angle that I want to take with you. So number
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one, realize that growing up is not something that's bad. It's a good thing. Even though there's
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responsibility and hardship and trial that comes with it, it's good to grow up. Number two, realize
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you are not entitled to a single thing. You have exactly what you deserve. If you don't like that,
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do something different so that you deserve something different, something better in your
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life. Number three, find men to surround yourself with. Men who have taken accountability and
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responsibility for their lives. Stop hanging around the boys who are more worried about the
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party and the games and the whatever it is they consume themselves with and start hanging around
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men. And number four, find significant purpose in your life. It's not going to be perfect. The first
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time you do this, it's probably not going to be all that grand or exciting, but the more
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that you do this, the more that you think about it, the better off you'll be. All right, guys,
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now let's talk about the second component. And that is us as father figures. It's not just dads,
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but it's community leaders. It's mentors. It's business owners. It's employers. We have a
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responsibility to raise the next generation. We're going to ask that they lead, that they lead us
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sometime. So we might as well make sure that we're adequately preparing them to lead. So let's talk
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about this. Number one, we have got to stop allowing our women exclusively to raise our
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children. Now, women bring something wonderful to the environment. My wife does an amazing
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job in fulfilling her responsibilities as a mother that is compassionate, empathetic, supportive,
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the love. Now, I'm not saying guys can't exhibit that as well. They certainly can, but primarily
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that's what women do. And that's much needed in society. But if you look around at the rate
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of fatherless homes and you look at the rate of female versus male school teachers, it's
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very apparent that a large percentage of our population is being raised in the home and in
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the school system without a male father figure in their life. And why is that a problem? Well,
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there's multiple problems. There truly is. But I think the biggest problem is that these boys
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are not being challenged. They're not being pushed. They're not standing face to face with another man
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who's pushing him, who's driving him to be better, who's course correcting along the way.
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And so what we have is we have a very soft, effeminate trend in our boys who are not rising up to the
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challenge of being a man. And I know that that statement is going to fire a lot of people up.
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I'm not discounting at all what women bring into a loving household, into society in general.
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But what I am saying is that both the masculine and the feminine energy are needed. If all these boys
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are receiving is feminine energy, I don't think it should be any surprise that they don't learn how
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to be men. My mother raised me, and I've talked about this on this podcast before, primarily on
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her own. But if you were to ask her, was she equipped to give me everything that I needed as a
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boy learning how to be a man, she would be the first to tell you that she did not. And she was not
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equipped with everything, which is why she got me involved in competitive sports. I needed a physical,
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mental, emotional challenge. I needed other men to stand with. I needed to be disciplined by other
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men. I need to be course corrected by other men who weren't afraid to have those challenging
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conversations and get in my face and tell me when I was doing wrong and when I was doing right.
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And that's the third thing I want to address is that guys, we've got to have consequences for our
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children. Please, please, please understand me. There has to be consequences for your decisions,
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positive and negative. When our children make good decisions, we should reward them. And I'm not
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saying gift them things. I'm just saying maybe you encourage them. Maybe you give them a comment or a,
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or a compliment. Every time a child does something good, works hard, has some discipline,
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has some commitment, overcomes a trial or an obstacle or a hurdle, does something above and
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beyond what they are called to do. We ought to encourage that. Now, when a child does something
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wrong and gets into trouble and doesn't do what he or she is supposed to do, then we as parents are
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called and I think required to be the deliverer of the consequences sometimes. That's not fun.
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Nobody wants to do that. Nobody wants to see their child suffer. I don't want to see my boys and my
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little girl go through challenges, but I would rather have them go through these types of challenges
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in a controlled environment under my watchful eye than run loose and do who knows what without any
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consequences or thought about the future and how it might impact them. That is my job as a father
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to introduce struggle and challenge and adversity and trials and then equip my children with the
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tools to be able to handle those things. These factors, when not present in the home or young
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men's lives, create the kind of situation where a 30 plus year old man can go to court and sue his
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parents because they're kicking him out of the house. Absolutely ridiculous, but just a very small
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symptom of the underlying problem that is the rise of the Peter Pans in society. Guys, we've got to
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reverse this trend. How do we do it? We stop doing it ourselves first and foremost. We take responsibility.
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When there's an opportunity at work, we step up to the opportunity. We take on the trial. We take on the
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task. We don't shirk our responsibilities. We don't take the path of least resistance. We do the hard thing
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because we realize although it's hard, there are benefits on the other side of that difficult challenge
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and adversity. That's number one. Number two, we instill the same thing in our boys. We don't coddle
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them. We don't protect them. We don't shelter them unnecessarily. We allow them to be introduced to
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challenge and trial and adversity and struggle. We teach them what it means to have purpose,
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significant purpose in their lives. We issue the consequences or help them deal with the consequences
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of their decisions. So when we can look back and say, did I do a good job as a father or a father
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type figure, you can see your boys and girls standing on their own two feet, doing what they should be
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doing as functioning and contributing members of society. I wish the answers were easy. They're
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certainly not. It's pretty hard to articulate everything that should and can be done on a 20 or so
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a minute podcast. But I firmly believe that this is the beginning of the solution to the rise of
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the Peter Pans. Guys, don't allow yourself to be fooled into thinking that the path of least resistance
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is the path that we are destined to take. It's not. We should be looking for the harder path,
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the more challenging path, because the view on the other side of that is significantly more rewarding.
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Anyways, guys, that's all I've got for you today. I would love to hear your feedback.
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Maybe you agree with me. Maybe you disagree with me. I'd love to have a
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conversation. You can join us in our Facebook group, facebook.com slash group slash order of
00:23:20.320
man. I'll make a post about this and we can continue the discussion over there. I'd also
00:23:24.720
encourage you to check out our legacy event. This is our father son event, because we're going to be
00:23:28.700
talking about these types of issues. And of course, so many more and learning some skills that are
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going to help you as a father. And of course, help your, your son as a boy transition into becoming
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a man, not a Peter Pan, but a man. I'll sign out with that. Appreciate you. Glad you're on this
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journey with me. I love the support and the messages I receive from you guys who are reclaiming
00:23:48.600
what it means to be a man. You're salvaging your marriages. You're losing weight. You're
00:23:52.140
building your bank accounts. You're starting businesses. You're raising your daughters and
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your sons. And it's truly inspiring to be a part of this movement. So I appreciate you guys until
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next week, take action and become the man you are meant to be.
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Thank you for listening to the order of man podcast. You're ready to take charge of your
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life and be more of the man you were meant to be. We invite you to join the order at orderofman.com.