Order of Man - How a Man Builds Sovereignty ｜ FRIDAY FIELD NOTES

00:00:00.000 You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest. Embrace your fears and boldly chart

00:00:04.940 your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time. Every time.

00:00:10.340 You are not easily deterred or defeated. Rugged. Resilient. Strong. This is your life. This is who

00:00:16.980 you are. This is who you will become. At the end of the day, and after all is said and done,

00:00:22.480 you can call yourself a man. Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan Michler.

00:00:27.040 I'm your host and founder of the Order A Man podcast and movement. I am glad you're tuning

00:00:31.560 in. Today, we're going to be talking about a very important subject, and that's the concept

00:00:36.000 of sovereignty. We're going to talk about what that means. We're going to talk about how to

00:00:40.780 establish it in four key areas, which are faith, family and friends, fitness, and finances.

00:00:47.840 So that might sound like five, but friends and family are in the same category. Anyways,

00:00:53.160 we're going to talk about sovereignty, again, what it is and why it's so important that we

00:00:58.060 as men learn to establish sovereignty for ourselves, but also teach others, our family

00:01:04.340 members, our friends, colleagues, coworkers, employees, et cetera, community members, how

00:01:09.580 to become more sovereign. Before I get into that, I just want to mention my good friends

00:01:13.060 over at Montana Knife Company. These guys are doing amazing things. They're building, making

00:01:17.800 knives 100% made and sourced in America. And that in and of itself is a mission worth supporting.

00:01:27.060 American manufacturing, bringing American jobs to Montana, and ultimately supporting good

00:01:33.540 people doing good things over at Montana Knife Company. If you're getting on a hunt or if you

00:01:38.380 spend any time in the kitchen, then please take a look at their knives. I used one of their

00:01:43.660 culinary knives just last night. I use those just about daily at this point. And they cut

00:01:49.300 like butter. They look good. They maintain their edge and they are great quality knives.

00:01:54.620 So go check it out at montananifecompany.com. And if you end up picking something up, use the

00:01:59.560 code orderofman. All one word, orderofman. All right, guys, let's get into this. Well, what

00:02:06.660 is sovereignty? We can start with that. Sovereignty is essentially synonymous with liberty.

00:02:12.820 It's freedom. It's freedom. It's the ability to do what you want, when you want, why you want,

00:02:18.140 free of any influence or manipulation or coercion or even threat of punishment dangling over your head

00:02:28.400 if you don't do what it is you want to do. And so many times I see men who relinquish their

00:02:34.920 sovereignty. They relinquish willingly in a way. They relinquish it to their employers by not building

00:02:41.180 out their own network and making themselves more skilled so that at a moment's notice they could

00:02:45.260 go leave if they wanted to. They live sedentary lifestyles. They don't lock in their diet. They

00:02:51.140 don't work out. They don't train. They don't exercise. And so they make themselves subject to

00:02:55.700 the medical field, which is becoming more and more corrupt and less and less about the data and the

00:03:03.060 health and the science and more about woke agenda and ideology. So I'm not interested in subjecting

00:03:09.240 myself to the medical community and or big pharmaceutical companies who prey upon people

00:03:14.720 who are sick that they can continue to pay for medications over potentially the rest of their

00:03:22.940 life. That's relinquishing your sovereignty. In the realm of finances, how many of you strap

00:03:32.040 yourselves with unnecessary debt? You're buying cars. I saw people have vehicle loans that are

00:03:39.500 upwards of a thousand dollars a month over a seven and eight year timeframe. Guys, that's absolutely

00:03:45.720 ridiculous. Men are living paycheck to paycheck. Increasingly, they don't have any money set aside, 0.99

00:03:52.100 no retirement options. And so who are they beholden to? Well, the government and their employers.

00:03:57.920 So if they get laid off or have a medical condition or lose their job for any number of reasons,

00:04:04.040 they're going to find themselves in a real rough spot. And then what does that do? Well,

00:04:07.860 it puts strain on the economy. It puts strain on their own families. It puts strain on other

00:04:13.000 taxpayers. Now they have to fund another man's lifestyle. We also do it in our relationships and

00:04:19.300 we give up all control of how we show up. We look for validation from our significant others,

00:04:24.120 hoping that they can give us what we think we need. When in all reality, you should be doing

00:04:28.240 that for yourself. And I'm not saying that that isn't, or as a reason not to have it and be in a

00:04:33.160 relationship. Certainly there's other benefits of being in a relationship. But if you're hoping

00:04:37.820 that somebody is going to validate you, you're casting your bet on something you have no control

00:04:44.060 over. And what ends up happening is we stay in relationships maybe longer than we ought to.

00:04:48.620 Maybe we pursue relationships that we know are toxic or not good for us because we need that

00:04:55.600 validation. Guys, we need to make ourselves free, free in all ways, free of influence, free of

00:05:01.780 manipulation, coercion, blackmail, free of competing interests like pharmaceutical companies, for example,

00:05:11.380 governments that would love to see you make just enough to not complain, but not really create any

00:05:17.400 amount of wealth in your life. I know for myself, as I work to build sovereignty in my own life,

00:05:23.600 not only am I more free, but I'm happier. I'm more fulfilled. I can focus on things that are important

00:05:29.020 to me because I'm not strapped with unnecessary debt. And I'm not burdened with the mind, the mind

00:05:35.040 chaos that comes with being at the mercy of an employer. You know, how many times have I heard guys say

00:05:41.520 I'm dissatisfied with my employment because my work or my boss is asking me to do something that

00:05:47.800 goes against my morals or my better judgment. And yet, if you don't have any money set aside and you

00:05:53.020 haven't built a network so that you can go leave your current occupation into something else, should

00:05:58.260 that be called into question, you can't leave. And so you're subject to engage in behavior that goes

00:06:05.920 against who you are as a man. And as you do that, a little piece of your soul dies. And that's not

00:06:11.900 hyperbole. I know that the most dissatisfied times in my life is when I had this idea, this vision of

00:06:19.400 what kind of man I wanted to be and how I wanted to show up. And my actions were misaligned with the

00:06:26.620 vision I had of myself. I wasn't working out. I wasn't paying off debt. I wasn't building skills. I

00:06:34.160 wasn't building relationships. I wasn't showing a power fleet for my family. And it created a lot

00:06:38.620 of discontent and frustration and even anger and contention in my life. I'm not interested in

00:06:45.660 living that kind of life. I want a life of abundance and prosperity and freedom and worry-free life and

00:06:51.360 engaging in things that I want to engage in for the reasons I want to engage in them. This is why

00:06:56.440 sovereignty is so important. On a note, speaking of sovereignty, if you guys are interested in

00:07:01.940 knowing more about this and figuring out how to develop this in your own life, then I would

00:07:07.340 recommend, and of course I'm a bit biased, but I would certainly recommend the book that I wrote in

00:07:12.040 2016 called Sovereignty, The Battle for the Hearts and Minds of Men. I think I have a few copies in our

00:07:17.740 store at store.orderofman.com. Those are signed paperback copies that I have available. And if you'd

00:07:23.560 rather have not a signed copy of paperback or a hardcover or even the audio version or e-version,

00:07:30.300 you can go to Amazon and check out Sovereignty, The Battle for the Hearts and Minds of Men.

00:07:35.340 I think it's a great read and tens of thousands of other men believe it's a great read and hopefully

00:07:41.380 it'll improve your life. But let's break this down into the realms, the areas of our lives.

00:07:46.160 We should be sovereign, what some of the pitfalls are, and also how we can begin to assume control

00:07:53.460 of our own sovereignty in each of these areas. Number one is faith. Now I've wrestled with what this

00:07:57.520 one a lot. Those of us who believe in God or a higher power in general might have a conflicting

00:08:03.220 thought. Is it your sovereignty as an individual or is it God's sovereignty? And I think if you're

00:08:09.160 from a Christian perspective, most of us would agree that it's God's sovereignty, that He is

00:08:15.540 sovereign over everything. So how can it be that I'm encouraging you to build your own sovereignty and

00:08:20.080 yet we know that God is sovereign over the entire world, including our lives? Well, the answer is simply

00:08:26.340 that He's given us the gift of agency, that's explicitly written, documented, that we have

00:08:33.020 free will, that we're able to choose for ourselves how we want to lead our lives. And we can voluntarily

00:08:38.320 decide to deviate from His Word or we can voluntarily decide to embrace His Word. So do you relinquish

00:08:45.740 your own sovereignty when you decide to follow His Word? The answer is no, you don't. Because at any time

00:08:51.740 you can decide you don't want to. And if you're anything like me, there are plenty of times in your life

00:08:56.340 deviated from His Word. But again, this isn't just in the concept of Christianity. This is all

00:09:02.940 spirituality. Spirituality is living for something higher and greater than yourself. And you are in a

00:09:09.300 way subjugating yourself to that doctrine or that principle. But ultimately, the idea is that that is

00:09:17.340 going to best serve you and the people that you love and care about. So guys, I think it's very

00:09:22.220 important not to be enslaved by the faith that we hold, but that we critically analyze, is this going

00:09:28.060 to serve me well? Is this going to serve the people that I love well? And it gives us a direction. And

00:09:35.460 isn't that the most important thing? We get inundated with all sorts of ideas and concepts and theories and

00:09:43.060 ways of living and dogmas and doctrine. And it's very easy to deviate when we don't have a standard

00:09:49.920 bearing. We don't know exactly where we're going and we don't know exactly how we're going to get

00:09:54.340 there. Having a strong sense of sovereignty in the terms of faith gives you a path to walk on, gives you

00:10:02.140 a litmus test to consider everything else that you might be faced with in life. Are you making the right

00:10:07.140 choice? Well, the answer, if you do follow some level of spirituality or higher power or God, the answer

00:10:13.880 is, are you following that word? Are you holding onto steadfastly the doctrine that you've decided

00:10:20.760 to adopt? And if the answer is no, you know you're deviating and there's freedom in that. I believe it

00:10:26.680 was Aristotle who said through discipline comes freedom. And more recently, of course, Jaco says

00:10:30.860 discipline equals freedom. This is the concept I'm talking about. If there's a discipline, if there's a

00:10:36.720 practice, and I'm talking about from the concept of spirituality, you have the freedom to act. You have the

00:10:42.600 freedom to dictate your life. You have the freedom to express yourself in congruency with the doctrine

00:10:49.920 or the gospel that you've decided to embrace. Guys, that allows you to focus on more important things and

00:10:55.240 always gives you a litmus test for the decisions that you're making. Let's shift gears and talk about

00:11:00.140 family and friends. A lot of the times I talk with men who are in romantic relationships, and again, I alluded

00:11:06.400 to this earlier in the conversation, we are constantly striving for validation from our wife,

00:11:12.600 or significant other, from our children, from other relationships. Many of us are still clinging

00:11:18.140 on to hope that maybe one day our fathers will validate us and tell us we're loved and we're

00:11:23.440 special because we didn't get that when we were children. It could be any number of things. Guys,

00:11:28.340 the most important thing that you need to do when it comes to sovereignty is you need to live with an 0.74

00:11:32.500 integrity of yourself. I talked about this earlier in this week's Ask Me Anything. You have to win the

00:11:38.760 battle of integrity with yourself. If you decided that you're going to wake up this morning and you're

00:11:44.220 going to go to the gym, then you better get out of bed and you better go to the gym. If you decided

00:11:51.120 that you're going to start a business, then you need to start a business. If you decided that you're

00:11:58.100 going to lose weight or you're going to pay off debt or you're going to build a friendship or you're

00:12:02.380 going to develop a new skill, then you better be working on those things. The reason this is so

00:12:07.020 important in the context of sovereignty among other people is that you're no longer reliant

00:12:11.880 or at least less reliant on what other people think of you because you know you're doing the

00:12:16.940 right thing. This also comes back to the conversation I had previously about spirituality.

00:12:22.620 I don't need somebody else to validate whether or not I'm making correct and accurate decisions.

00:12:27.560 I already have that through my faith and I'm not beholden or subjugated to your way of life,

00:12:33.680 your thoughts, your opinions. Now don't misunderstand me. There are opinions that matter

00:12:38.580 and I take into consideration the opinions of the people that I care about and who are credible and

00:12:43.180 relevant in my life, but I don't allow it to completely dictate my life. I don't need to turn

00:12:49.820 to anybody else in my life to give me what I need. I can provide that for myself. And isn't that a great

00:12:57.400 thing? Because now the relationship is not necessarily about what I can get out of the relationship.

00:13:02.620 It's now more, what can I give? How can I serve this individual? How can I lean on this person?

00:13:08.940 How can I, excuse me, not lean on, how can they lean on me? How can I show them that I care about

00:13:14.760 them, that I'm here to serve and love and offer my support in the degree that I can? I'd much rather

00:13:20.320 have a relationship where I'm adding value than just extracting from the relationship. And by the way,

00:13:26.180 we'll talk about it in the context of a woman. If you're seeking her validation and you being in a

00:13:31.700 relationship, and this applies to plenty of men I've talked with, is what you identify as, that's

00:13:37.080 all your worth is wrapped up in the relationship. What happens when the relationship goes away?

00:13:41.960 Maybe heaven forbid, she dies prematurely. Maybe you go through a divorce. Maybe she steps out on you

00:13:47.200 and cheats on you. And your whole world is crumbled because you have identified or wrapped up your

00:13:53.640 identity in being in that particular relationship. There's a danger in that. And I don't think that we need

00:14:00.500 to give ourselves an exit route or a way out of relationships, but I'm saying that if we can't

00:14:06.880 walk from relationships, from an individual who cannot uphold and honor our boundaries,

00:14:13.340 then we're losing sovereignty to that person. I'm not interested in that. If I have a person in my life,

00:14:21.140 whether it's romantic or platonic, and I have boundaries established and set up, and I have a

00:14:25.300 person in my life who cannot honor that and continues to walk over those boundaries, even though I've

00:14:29.720 communicated them clearly, I can't have that person in my life. And it'll be unfortunate. I hate to lose

00:14:35.620 a friendship or a business partnership. I don't want that to happen, but I'm willing to let that happen

00:14:41.000 if I can't get my boundaries honored and my expectations met. And again, that's because

00:14:49.100 I'm confident in myself and in integrity with myself. Guys, let's pivot and talk about fitness.

00:14:55.840 I'd like to ask you, are you the epitome of fitness? Are you exactly where you want to be?

00:15:03.400 Or are you taking unnecessary medications? Are you unnecessarily tired or drained of energy or weak?

00:15:14.660 And how is that affecting your day? How is it affecting your day if you can't get seven hours of sleep and

00:15:21.240 you do that consistently for the last several weeks or several months? How is it affecting you

00:15:27.400 if you haven't been to the gym for the past three to five years? You're not in a better position because

00:15:33.820 you're not. Now you might say, well, you know, I get more done. Do you though? Do you really get more

00:15:38.740 done? You might redirect that time to other ventures, including selfish pursuits. But does that

00:15:46.620 mean you're being productive? I'd argue that fit people are going to be more likely to be more

00:15:52.860 effective and more productive with the same amount of time as somebody who's overweight and out of

00:15:57.560 shape and has sleep apnea and an extra 50 to 80 to a hundred pounds that they're carrying around on

00:16:04.800 their midsection. Guys, it's not okay to allow ourselves to slip when it comes to our fitness and

00:16:13.040 then tell ourselves that we want to have success. If you wanted to have success, then we all know

00:16:22.000 unequivocally that being in shape is going to help you better produce that result.

00:16:27.660 Not only does it help you, but it helps the people around you. When I started to get into shape is

00:16:34.160 because part of the reason was because I came home from work one day and my kids and my two oldest boys

00:16:38.400 at the time, they were young. They said, dad, let's go jump on the trampoline. And I had to look in

00:16:43.020 the eye and say, I'm sorry guys, I can't. I literally could not. I was exhausted. Shame on

00:16:48.140 me. Shame on me for being in the position where I can't go jump on the trampoline with my kids.

00:16:53.720 What a horrible position to be in. That's not a sovereign man. That's somebody who's relinquished

00:16:59.140 control over his life to his habits, his poor habits. My poor habits were eating too much and not

00:17:04.060 working out, being lazy, being slothful, gluttonous even. Guys, we can do better and we should do

00:17:12.960 better. I don't want to subjugate myself to pharmaceutical companies, to doctors, to the

00:17:20.120 health community, to my own selfish temptations. I want to be strong and I want to be fit and I want

00:17:29.000 to have energy and I want to jump on the trampoline with my kids, but them get tired before I do.

00:17:34.400 That's what a sovereign man would do and that's how a sovereign man shows up and that's what he

00:17:39.360 works towards. And guys, the last component of this is finances. Man, you've got to get yourself

00:17:47.420 out of debt. You have to get yourselves out of debt. The credit card companies, the banks,

00:17:54.940 these financial institutions, they love, they thrive on the fact that you can't control your

00:18:03.620 spending habits. You cannot spend more than you make. I know Big Daddy government does it pretty well

00:18:09.780 and they'd like you to do it as well so you can continue to be enslaved to their handouts

00:18:15.000 and their breads and their circuses. But guys, get yourself out of debt. Stop buying things that you

00:18:24.440 can't afford. Stop worrying about what your neighbor's driving and why you want to have a

00:18:30.340 bigger, better truck than he does. Worry about yourself. Worry about improving yourself. Man, I remember

00:18:37.820 there were days of my life where I would literally pace around in the backyard so much so that I wore a

00:18:44.120 dirt path into our grass in our backyard. And I did that because I was stressed.

00:18:52.260 I was stressed about paying the mortgage. I was stressed about putting groceries in the refrigerator

00:18:57.160 and putting a roof over my family's head. I was stressed to the max. And look, this is a season

00:19:03.360 that all of us go through because when you're younger, you just don't have the money. And you're

00:19:07.220 trying to build skills and develop skills and be smart with your finances. And that's what I would

00:19:10.760 suggest whether you're young or old. I'm not interested in bogging my mental clarity and my

00:19:18.760 personal well-being down by worrying about how I'm going to pay that Visa credit card or how I'm going

00:19:25.220 to go pay USA Bank my $800 truck payment. I'm okay with having a little bit older in the truck. I don't

00:19:33.340 need a new truck. Mine runs just fine. Looks decent. Runs just fine. No payment on it. Haven't had a

00:19:38.360 payment in probably six years now. I've got another truck I haven't had a payment on in literally 20

00:19:44.380 plus years. And I still drive that around because I take care of my shit. And I don't buy unnecessary 1.00

00:19:51.580 things. Now, can I afford a new truck? Yes, I can. But I'd rather take that money and invest back into

00:19:56.940 this business or invest in a new business or invest in the market or invest in something where it's

00:20:04.040 actually going to work for me. And then in 20 years, if I want to go buy a hundred trucks, I'll

00:20:08.200 be able to do that because I took care of my financial situation. I despise financial institutions.

00:20:16.940 I despise credit card companies. I'm repulsed by them because they want my... In what other context

00:20:25.440 would you willingly say, yep, I'll make myself beholden to you. I will be your slave. In what

00:20:30.460 other context would a man who respects himself do that? None. But we've been conditioned our entire

00:20:38.020 lives, probably from our parents and from just cultural norms and beliefs that you're supposed

00:20:42.900 to be in debt. But it's okay if you have debt. And so we're just looking at the payments and we're

00:20:49.740 looking at the interest rates and we're looking at the terms and we're not really looking at the fact

00:20:53.780 that that 40, 50, 60, $70,000 truck is going to cost you $120,000 by the time all is said and done.

00:21:00.240 And what are you going to have to show for it? A $10,000 truck that doesn't run that you hope you

00:21:05.440 can sell on Facebook marketplace. Doesn't sound like a very good deal to me. Not to mention the

00:21:10.560 mental space that it takes up worrying about paying for that damn $1,000 a month payment. 0.96

00:21:16.040 Guys, you're letting other people... And by the way, this is true about keeping up with the Joneses, 0.97

00:21:21.140 the comparison trap. You're letting that enslave you. You're letting that have control over your

00:21:28.840 thoughts. And then your thoughts are leading to poor actions, which continue to exacerbate the

00:21:34.400 problem that you found yourself in. And always be sovereign, guys. And always think of how you can

00:21:42.080 do something or how you can put yourself in the position to do something where you're not going

00:21:46.640 to be influenced, strong-armed, manipulated, coerced, blackmailed, made to feel guilty about doing

00:21:53.240 things that you don't want to do. I wake up every day and I get to decide what I want to do,

00:22:01.080 when I want to do it, why I want to do it, how I want to do it. And I'll tell you what,

00:22:05.980 it's a lot better living life like that than having to go into work and do what my boss tells me to do,

00:22:11.940 whether it aligns with my values or not. Worry about what mortgage payment or what credit card I'm going

00:22:16.980 to pay, not having the energy to play with my kids or to engage in hunting and sports and activities

00:22:24.380 that I'm excited about, to not have the energy to serve the people that I love and to decide who it is

00:22:30.400 I want to actually serve. To not be just bogged down by looking for validation from external sources like

00:22:38.100 my neighbors who don't make my mortgage payment or other people that I have in my life like,

00:22:45.060 oh, tell me how wonderful I am. I don't need that from people. And I think it's a much better

00:22:50.720 place to be. And I'm encouraging you to do the same thing. Now, granted, we're talking about this

00:22:54.820 from a 30,000 foot view, but if you want additional information, go pick up a copy of Sovereignty,

00:23:01.660 The Battle for the Hearts and Minds of Men. If you're in financial pressure and stress,

00:23:06.440 go down to the library and do it. You know, I heard about this guy, he charges an unreasonable amount

00:23:11.060 of money for people to be in some of his network groups. And he has the audacity to talk about

00:23:18.860 people's finances. And then he charged these people absorbent amounts of money. It's like,

00:23:23.840 what are you doing? Like you're telling these people you want them to be financially free and

00:23:28.760 you're charging them so excessively, hoping that they're going to pay for your lifestyle. You want

00:23:35.060 to be sovereign, but you're not worried about them being sovereign. Now, I'm not saying that,

00:23:38.940 you know, these people don't have a choice. Sure, they have a choice in how they spend their money.

00:23:42.980 And I'm not saying that everything should be free either. I mean, we charge for our products and

00:23:46.620 services, but I hope we do it in a reasonable way. But guys, always align yourself with who you want

00:23:53.800 to be. And your actions should be aligned with that. And if you find yourself saying, I can't do

00:23:58.640 that because then you know you've relinquished control of your life in some degree. Consider it.

00:24:05.300 Think about it. Pick up a copy of the book, Sovereignty, The Battle for the Hearts and

00:24:09.260 Minds of Men. And in it, I talk about where that battle is coming from. I talk about how to address

00:24:14.020 it in each one of these quadrants and how to make yourself a free man, which is ultimately what we

00:24:18.180 want. We want to be free. And it might feel hard at times, especially if you're working on the

00:24:23.080 handouts of other people or the government or institutions, and you're counting on them to

00:24:27.060 provide for you. It's hard at first to break the shackles of slavery, frankly. And that's what the

00:24:35.700 financial institutions are doing. That's what the medical community is doing. What Big Pharma is

00:24:40.280 doing. That's what the government's doing. And we need to be aware of what's happening and actively

00:24:45.640 fight against it. So guys, there's my message to you. I hope it serves you. If you guys have

00:24:51.380 additional thoughts and ideas about how to build your own sovereignty, please let me know. Share

00:24:56.360 the book, share this podcast with other people who need to hear it because we need a nation of free men

00:25:00.520 who aren't beholden to financial institutions, medical communities, the government and their

00:25:06.580 institutions, and also other people. That's the kind of man I'm working to become. And I hope that's

00:25:11.260 the kind of man you're working to become. All right, guys, we'll be back next week. Until then,

00:25:15.860 go out there, take action, build your sovereignty, and become the man you are meant to be.

00:25:20.520 Thank you for listening to the Order of Man podcast. You're ready to take charge of your life

00:25:25.220 and be more of the man you were meant to be. We invite you to join the order at orderofman.com.

Order of Man - March 01, 2024

How a Man Builds Sovereignty ｜ FRIDAY FIELD NOTES

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