How to Sharpen the Ax, What to Ask a Potential Wife, and How to Deal with a Co-worker You Don't Like | ASK ME ANYTHING
Episode Stats
Summary
In this episode, we talk about the importance of being a man of action and how to stay on track with your goals when it comes to getting things done. We also discuss the benefits of working out right away and why you should do so.
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. All right, Kip. It's good to see you again. This is our second AMA
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within a couple of days. The guys don't know that because we release them, you know, every week at
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a time, but getting sick of seeing you, man. Gotta be honest with you on that. Yeah. Hopefully they
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don't think that we're just, you're going to start having two AMAs a week. That's not the expectation
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we're trying to set here. So no, we're not. Well, no, but like I said, we're not, they're not going
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to get it twice a week. They're going to get it spread out. So we just happen to be recording early
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because we're trying to accommodate. Actually, that's a pretty good lesson though, Kip, is
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things have to happen, right? Things move forward. Things progress. Schedules, agendas need to be met.
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Expectations need to be filled. Whether you're going to be around or not around or on vacation,
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or you have this excuse or that excuse, if you make a commitment to doing something,
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make sure it gets done. If that means we got to record twice in one week, or you have to run solo,
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or I have to run solo, or we have to bring somebody in like Sean, guys, get your commitments done.
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And there's two reasons. I talked about this a couple of weeks ago. Number one is you want to
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be a man of your word. That's how you garner and foster trust and credibility with other people.
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And number two, you won't run your mouth so easily if you actually follow through on the
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commitments you make, because all of us have committed to doing things that we don't want to
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do. And then we drudge through it and hopefully we get it done. But if there's a little bit of sting,
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a little bit of pain to doing something you don't want to do, that's actually good because maybe next
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time you'll think twice about committing to something that you shouldn't commit to.
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Yeah. I learned this lesson years ago and I, and it seemed like, so it was at the time,
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it was like this major light bulb. And I thought, Whoa, by me not honoring my word and my commitments,
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even when it's difficult, I hijack the opportunity to learn from saying yes to too many things.
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Exactly. But you shortcut it and then you'll keep shortcutting. You're like, Oh,
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there's no drawback to this. There's no consequence.
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Yeah, exactly. Yeah. You rob yourself of the consequence and the opportunity to learn.
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Yeah. I mean, that's why these practices and activities that I know I'm personally engaged
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in that you're personally engaged in, whether it's jujitsu or archery, any number of things you
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could be doing. One of the benefits that we don't often talk about is immediate and instantaneous
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feedback. Yeah. Well, and that's why I'm assuming that's why one of the things, I mean, you've used
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this analogy in the past of like, Hey, if you're going to have to do one thing, start working out
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right away. Right. I'm assuming that's why you give that recommendation. That's part of it. But the
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other part of working out immediately is that you're going to experience, especially if there's a wide gap
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between where you are now and where you want to be, you're going to experience instantaneous results.
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For example, if you're 60, 70, 80, a hundred pounds overweight right now, you could, you could do
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something for five days. Like you could commit to drinking a gallon of water, commit to getting 10,000
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steps in committing to go to the gym three to five days a week and committed to cut out processed sugar.
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And you would probably lose 10 pounds this week. And that instantaneous and immediate feedback might be
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the fodder that you need to keep going. And this is also the reason that we do the after action review
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all the time. Because a lot of guys aren't cognizant of what they're doing, why they're doing it, what
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results it's producing. And so we tell you deliberately and intentionally do an after action review guys,
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like go through at the end of every conversation, interaction, game, assignment, task, project,
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meeting, et cetera, do an after action review and really analyze your performance. So you can figure
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out and pinpoint where you need to improve, what you did very well and how you need to get better
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moving forward. And get that immediate feedback versus, you know, oh, I've been showing up this way
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to meetings for the last 10 years. And I finally realized that, you know, that I come across arrogant
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or a jerk versus like, oh man, I should have just had some self-assessment, you know, over the years
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to learn that on my own. It's well, we talked about it weeks ago where, you know, if you go,
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if a dog pees on your carpet and you don't do anything, and then two weeks later, you just come up
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and you kick the dog in the ribs. It's, it's not going to have any idea in the world why you're
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upset, but that's what we do actually with our kids. I know I do. If I'm being truthful, that's
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what I do with my kids. Like I get upset about something, whether it's something they did or
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didn't do, or maybe it's even not related to them at all. And I take out some work frustration on my
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kids because I was inadequate or incapable or unwilling to actually meet the, the, the challenge
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where it was so that I didn't have to bring it home and release it on my kids or my wife or any
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number of people that I really care about. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Well, and, and we're,
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we're creatures of remembering our emotional state, not facts. Yeah. And, and so you could look at it
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from like a marriage perspective, or at least I'm thinking about this as like, well, how many times
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has my spouse did something that bothered me? I didn't say something. I hold back. I hold back.
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And then eventually I'm like, okay, now I'm going to bring it up. She doesn't remember even like
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what she did in that moment, you know, like I've been fostering emotional feelings, but if I had that
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conversation with her in that moment, she could probably relate to, oh yeah. You know, I could
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see how that came across that way because I actually, that just happened and I could actually
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remember versus you bring it up stuff from like, you know, six, six months ago. Remember that one time
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they're like, I don't even remember the day. I don't even know what you're talking about. Right.
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So I also actually think it gets worse even than what you're just saying, because you make it bigger.
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Yeah. You make it bigger than it is. So you think about you're standing on the top of a snowy Hill
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and you get a little snowball started, you pack it up and you roll it down the Hill and it's pretty
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manageable when you push it down, but the longer it goes and the more it rolls and the further it gets,
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the more snow it picks up. And over time, it's this huge boulder of a snowball and most of what's
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attached to it has nothing to do with the original snowball. You just start attaching all these other
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little things that you're pissed off about, whether it's your own performance or your own inadequacies
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or childhood trauma that you haven't dealt with. And then you dump the entire boulder of a snowball
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on your wife when it was just, Hey, I just want you to communicate with me on, on, uh, some money
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issues. Like just deal with it right there. And then you don't have to deal with it later down the
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road. All right. All right. Yeah, man. What a way to kick the, uh, the podcast off. We're done.
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We're done. There's nothing more that we could say that's going to be better than that guys.
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All right. Well, I know a couple of weeks ago we had solicited some questions on Facebook and it
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seems like we got maybe through, I don't know, 30 to 50% of them. So we're fielding the additional
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questions from the Facebook group and let's get after it. Yes, sir. And that's facebook.com
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slash group slash order, man. All right. Michael Cole, what specifically do you do to sharpen the
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ax on a regular basis? I love how we made it went from sharpening the side of the ax, a little bit
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order of man referenced there. It's way better than the saw. The ax is way better than the saw.
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Yeah. I mean, look, there, there's a lot of different weight when you, it depends on which
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ax you're talking about. We got to realize there's different axes, right? Like I even think about that
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when it comes to chopping wood, you have your splitting ax, you have your mall, like there's
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different axes that serve different purposes and there's different facets of your life. So if you're
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talking about the physical fitness ax, then it might be jujitsu or just doing some strength training
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through my fitness coach, Josiah Novak. If you're talking about the mental ax, then that's going to
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be doing a masterclass or reading a book that happens to be the book of the month for our iron
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council or a book that maybe is in anticipation and research for a guest that's coming up.
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If you're talking about the spiritual ax, it's just simply reading scripture and praying and
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communicating with my family and doing devotionals and all that kind of thing.
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So I don't know which ax you're talking about, but there's three really good ways to do it.
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Your physical ax, by the way, the physical ax actually also for me covers the mental component,
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not exclusively. I'm not saying you get to absolve yourself of like reading and learning new
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information, but there's also a mental benefit to it. Yeah, totally. There's another ax that I think
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that we need to sharpen. And that's the creativity ax that a lot of us don't do because what we do is we
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get into these ruts, right? And so the rut is, well, I wake up at six, I go train, I drink water,
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I do my daily plan, I do my battle plan, I go into work, I complete, right. And there's no room for
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creativity in that at all. So I believe that it's very, very important that you sharpen the creativity
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ax. And the best way to do that is to find something that sounds interesting to you and just
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dabble, like just delve into it a little bit. You know, you guys know, I picked up the guitar a while
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back. I haven't picked up the guitar for probably four to five months. And I'm okay with that because
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that was creating or flexing my creative muscle. And it was teaching me new things. I had no grand
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illusions of performing in front of at your guys's dismay, all of you, you know, but it flexed the
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creativity muscle. Sometimes my kids are like, hey, let's draw. And so we draw. I'm not a great artist,
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but I draw, you know, and it's fun. Today, my boys said, dad, come play football with us.
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And I said, okay. And so we went outside. I'm like, let's like, this is like, we're just playing
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catch. Let's do something fun. So we created a game called chicken. And so me and my two oldest boys
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came up with this like random stupid game and created our own rules and everything else. We also
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play another game that we created called wall ball. It's with a tennis ball that we, it's just random.
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We created it. No, no rhyme or reason. We just wanted to do it. And it's fun. And I think that's
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important too, that we learn how to play and we flex that creative muscle just by being spontaneous
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and saying yes to something we normally wouldn't say yes to and try to enjoy life to its fullest.
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Yeah. I like it. I talk about, uh, the mental sharpening. This, uh, I finally trained, I trained
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last saw, not saw, sorry. And, uh, man, it felt good. Just get my face smashed. It, I was, Marcus
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was smashing my face and I was like, I don't know why, but it feels so good because you're
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a bit of a masochist. Like I am in anybody. It's a little weird. I was like, yeah, is that
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all you got anytime, man? I will do that anytime for you. You ever need any of that? It's weird.
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It's weird. It's not though. Like it's actually, it's not though. It's weird that we're so docile
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that we don't actually like the physicality of it. Yeah. I'm not saying it needs to be comfortable,
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but it's strange to me that we're so sedated that the, the, the, the, like the, the pleasure of pain
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a little bit doesn't make you feel more alive. You know, like when I come back from jujitsu and my
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elbow's hurting, I'm like, that hurts. But also like, I'm proud of that pain in my elbow. Cause
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it means like, I actually did something and exerted myself today, or I got a little battle
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wound or something maybe on my face. And I'm like, yeah, hell yeah. I got a battle wound on my face,
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you know? And that means you did something with your life. It's weird that you wouldn't want that
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stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's like leg day, man. I, I, as, as miserable it is to go up and down
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stairs. I like it when I'm kind of like, Oh, Oh man, my glutes. Well, I'm like, it's a good sign.
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What is it? Uh, Theodore Roosevelt's quote about, I'd rather where, where I can't even,
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what is it? Like, I'd rather break down and wear out or something. I don't know. I'll have to go
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back. Cause I totally slaughtered that, but he's got a great quote about wearing out versus growing
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old or something. You guys can create, you know what I'm talking about? Find it used up. Right. Yeah.
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Yeah, exactly. You, you guys find it for us and correct me. Cause apparently you have no problem
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doing that. So just go ahead and continue to continue on to continue to criticize us. You
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guys are great, but I'm asking for it this time. So it's solicited. So it's all good.
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Uh, Keenan Webb, what's the most important question for your girlfriend, uh, that she should answer before
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you propose. This is kind of funny. Cause it's like all based on the single question.
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Whether he proposes or not, but you know what I mean? Well, let's play with it and say,
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you know, what, what kind of questions should you be asking and information you should know
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about your girlfriend before proposing? Yeah. I mean, I would say, look, we're going to give you
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the benefit of the doubt on this and, and I, and answer it in the spirit of the question. But if
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you're, if you're already thinking about proposing and you're wondering what one question she should ask,
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or you should ask her, you're a little behind the eight ball on that one a little bit,
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but in the spirit of the question, let's answer. I would say, um, what are your long-term goals
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when it comes to family? Yeah. Oh, do you want to raise a family? Do you want to be a homemaker?
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Do you want to homeschool your children? How many kids do you want to have? Or do you want to pursue
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a career? Do you want me to be in the workforce and you would be in the workforce? Do you want to
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stay home? Do you want me to stay home? What's your thoughts on public school? Like everything
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revolving around family. And by the way, guys, please let me tell you this. And you don't need
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my permission, but you do need to understand this because society won't tell you this.
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Any answer that you don't like could be a deal breaker. And you have to make that decision.
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Cause I know what a lot of people will do is they're like, well, yeah, she said, she said she
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only wants a couple of kids and she wants to go in the workforce, but I'm really looking for a wife
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who wants to be a homemaker. But you know, like we can work through that. No, like that might be a
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deal breaker. Yeah. And people are going to call you shallow about it. They're going to try to
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criticize you and ridicule you and say you're outdated. And that's a, that's a prehistoric
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way of, of looking at relationships. It doesn't matter what other people think. If that's what you
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desire, then you're going to be better off finding a woman whose values align with yours, whether that's
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being at home or going into the, it doesn't matter what it is, as long as it's in alignment with
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yours. And only you get to decide what the deal breakers are. And so does she too, for you.
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Yeah. So I would definitely ask about, about three, three primary things, family finances.
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And if we were to break that down a little bit, I would say, what is your debt? Cause when I marry
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you, I got to know what else am I marrying? What is your, what are your assets? What do you think
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about money? How do you use money as a tool? How much money do you want to make? How do you want
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to invest? Like these seem like silly questions. They're really not after being married for 17 years,
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they are not silly questions and they'd be better to address up front. So you've got family,
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you've got finances, and then you have faith. Faith is very, very important. If, if you guys aren't
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in alignment on faith, there's going to be a lot of, a lot of rifts in the relationship. And you know,
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maybe you're a Protestant and she's some other denomination of Christianity. Okay. Look, I get
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it. You know, like there's some differences, but if you're a Buddhist and she's a devout Catholic,
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like you're probably going to have some problems in the way that you see things in the pro and the way
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that you raise your kids. So like, why add that extra baggage to the relationship? If, if you don't need
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to now, as some bonus questions, politics is important. People say, well, you know, you could,
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you could really, you could marry somebody who doesn't have the same politics as you. I really,
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I don't think so. Especially in the polarizing age in which we live. Like, yeah, I know there's
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going to be some of you who are going to reach out and say, well, you know, I'm conservative or I'm
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liberal and my wife's the opposite and we make it work. And I commend you, but you know what?
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There's no denying that significantly harder than somebody who is on the same political side of the aisle.
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And if you're going to marry somebody who's conservative or liberal, and it's at odds with
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what you believe, know that there's going to be challenges and headbutting and struggles, and
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it's not going to be good. And it's only adding baggage that doesn't need to be there as part of
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the relationship. Marriage is already hard. It's already hard. Like, even if you, like you got the,
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the family finances, faith and politics all aligned, it's still going to be hard, right? Like,
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do not add extra stuff to the plate if you don't need to.
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Yeah. A couple other little pro tips here that I would suggest is really get to know your future
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in-laws because the odds are, is she's wanting to marry somebody like her father and that she's
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probably going to be in large part a lot like her mother. So you really need to know how her mother
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and father operate. What's her family life like? What, what's their worldview? Because in large
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part, and I know there's exceptions, but in large part, she has developed her culture and beliefs
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and value systems from her parents. So wouldn't it be good to get to the source of things?
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Now, my in-laws are great. I've never had a problem with my in-laws. The only time I have,
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I will say this, the only time I've had a problem with my in-laws is when my wife and I went through
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our separation. And outside of that, even during the separation, they were amicable and they would
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talk to me. They would help where they could, you know, they had a, they had a weird strained part of
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that too. Cause you know, they're with their daughter, of course. So I've never had to deal
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with that. And I lucked out because I didn't like interview my in-laws necessarily, but going back,
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looking back, yes, I would definitely do that. I would definitely do that and advocate for that
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in other men. Yeah, for sure. It's interesting, right? Because I'm, I'm thinking through this and,
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and how many guys might be listening to you give this advice of conversations and may ask their
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girlfriend, these questions. And the answer is, well, I don't know. And, and, and then part of me
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thinking you probably shouldn't be getting married or you need to answer these questions. Like we need to
00:19:05.000
be able to answer these questions and they need to think through it. Right. It's, it's just like the
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analogy we use sometimes about like, you know, ask everyone in the room who wants to be a millionaire.
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Everyone raises their hand. Right. And then you list out all the requirements and everyone lowers
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their hands because they're like, Oh wait, I'm not willing to pay the price for that. Yeah. That's
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valuable. Why? Because then you don't go running around complaining and upset about your life.
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Cause you're not a millionaire. Now you can actually go, no, I don't want to be one. Right.
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Because I'm not willing to do X. And, and we might be, especially, I was this way when I was younger,
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not worried about these kinds of things. Right. You may be going, Oh, you know, I don't,
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I don't care too much about my political viewpoints or, or I'm not worried about faith too much. Well,
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guess what? Eventually you will be. And when you have kids, all of a sudden it happens to a lot of
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people. All of a sudden you bring life into this world and they go, Hmm, you know, that whole eternal
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perspective and religious thing kind of is more important to me now, what am I going to do? And,
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and these are things that we should probably be figuring out before we go into a committed union
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with another adult, just my opinion. I think it's well said. And the last thing I would reiterate
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here, Kip is be receptive and open to your heart and your emotion. I think there is a time and a place
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for that and be checking your gut a little bit. Yeah. I think your instinct is, is critical.
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You know, how many of us will overlook red flags, uh, because we don't trust our gut,
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you know, and, and maybe you can't fully explain even why on the other side of the spectrum,
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why you love a woman and you don't need to fully explain it to have that feeling.
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So be open with your heart and also be open with your mind and logic and reason and use both and
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don't think with other parts of your body. Like, yeah, those are the parts of the body you should
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be thinking of if you want long-term success with your relationship.
00:21:03.920
Totally. Yeah. And if you feel rushed, don't do it. That's, that's kind of like always,
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if you feel rushed or pressured, like, nah, just wait, just wait.
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And, and don't, I'm not, we're not saying, I don't think we're saying end it. I'm just saying,
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okay, well, hold on. The timing's off and that's okay. Sure. It's okay.
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Yeah. I was, I was, I was thinking your, uh, meet the in-laws was what you're going to say,
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uh, see how, how well her mother aged determined. I mean, look, I'm, I'm not, I'm not above
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saying that's not a factor. I crossed my mind when I met Asia's mom, I was like,
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she almost looks like your older sister. You know, it's a done deal. Let's go ahead and get married.
00:21:42.560
I mean, my mother-in-law, she's a very classy woman. She she's, she's a beautiful woman. And
00:21:47.900
you know, like, I'm not above saying that, like all these, all these people want to run around
00:21:52.520
is important. Yeah. Well, they say, they're like, well, you know what? It doesn't matter
00:21:56.900
what's on the outside. Bullshit. Come on now. Like, I mean, yes, there's other, like not only on the
00:22:04.360
outside of what matters. Cause I know a lot of attractive women. I wouldn't want to be
00:22:08.000
in any sort of relationship with. Um, but like to say, it's not a factor is ridiculous.
00:22:15.920
So for sure, it's okay. And the way you express that, or maybe you don't, maybe you keep that to
00:22:19.860
yourself, but still, I'm not going to say it's not a factor. Yeah. And by the way, this goes,
00:22:25.300
this goes both ways. It's a factor of who you think is attractive, but also who thinks you're
00:22:31.840
attractive. So get your act together too. You shouldn't be walking around going, you know,
00:22:37.200
I'm really out of shape, but my, you know, my wife should be attracted to me because, you know,
00:22:41.060
she's committed in a relationship with me. No, actually, maybe you're not attractive.
00:22:45.380
Right. And you need to step up your game and, and take care of your health. So, yeah. All right.
00:22:51.520
We good. I think so. I think we hit that one pretty well. All right. Craig Cottrell,
00:22:57.480
given current state of our nation and its military, what would be your thoughts on your children joining up?
00:23:04.000
It's an interesting question. You know, I've spent a little time thinking about this. I think
00:23:10.340
if any one of my kids, as of right now, were to join the military, it'd probably be my oldest.
00:23:17.240
And I would be concerned. I would genuinely be concerned. I would be concerned whether we're
00:23:23.980
dealing with the woke infusion of these types of ideologies that have permeated much of, of the
00:23:30.460
higher echelons of government, including the higher echelons of military service. I'd be concerned
00:23:34.200
anyways, but this is more troublesome to me. It's more worrisome to me that we have been, that I say
00:23:41.720
we, the military has been infiltrated by a boat, a bunch of woke leftist, ideologically driven
00:23:50.420
buffoons. And it's very disheartening. You know, we're more worried about making people feel
00:23:56.520
comfortable and making sure they can pass the PT test and making sure that women and trans people
00:24:02.060
feel included when really we should be worried about the efficacy of administering righteous
00:24:07.840
violence against our enemies. Yeah. And none of this helping those people level up.
00:24:12.260
No, that's, that's actually, okay. That's actually not the, no, but I do, but that's not the mission
00:24:19.360
of the military. The mission of the military to your, to your point is to make our soldiers and our
00:24:25.800
warriors battle ready. Of course, I'll give you that, but it's not to like prop up these people to
00:24:32.660
make them feel good about who they are and special about their own inadequacies. It's to make them
00:24:37.840
battle ready. It's to make them hardened warriors capable of administering violence in the, in the
00:24:43.120
right context. Uh, and so the military has always been driven by the mission first. Well, the mission
00:24:49.460
has changed. You know, the mission now is let's be inclusive and let's, let's be the most included,
00:24:56.100
inclusive fighting force in the world. I don't give a damn about our inclusivity in the military.
00:25:02.340
What I care about is, can we defend our borders? Can we defend and protect against, uh, enemies,
00:25:09.040
both foreign and domestic? And if a woman can do that, if a trans person could do that, if a,
00:25:13.640
if somebody who's, you know, not very physical in nature can do that, I'm all on board. I just
00:25:17.680
don't think it's as capable as a hardened warrior who has the mindset and the physicality to do what
00:25:23.180
needs to be done. And what that does, and this is where my concern comes from, is it puts our warriors
00:25:28.000
at risk? Like if my son or daughter sons or daughter decides to join the military, they're at
00:25:34.540
a greater risk because they are less lethal. They're less capable as a fighting force than we
00:25:41.380
were even 10, 20, 30 years ago. And that's a danger. And that makes me very, very concerned.
00:25:46.920
So if you're listening to this and you're in the military and you're on the path to progression and
00:25:51.920
you want to, uh, advance your career and get promotions, I commend you for doing that. But remember
00:25:57.420
what I'm telling you, your job is to make the soldiers and warriors under you and under your
00:26:02.220
command, more lethal, more effective, not more diverse, not more inclusive, not more woke.
00:26:12.040
Remember your purpose, remember your mission. And we have to oust these people. We that's,
00:26:18.620
that's the only way to say it. We have to oust these individuals who don't have their heads on
00:26:23.240
straight and aren't worried about the mission of the military. So yes, very concerning that said
00:26:29.160
my son sons and my daughter can choose their path. You know, when, when that point comes,
00:26:36.340
I hope that I've trained them and educated and taught them to make good decisions. I hope I've
00:26:41.660
built up a foundation where they can draw upon for experiences. They haven't yet been part of,
00:26:47.480
and they can use those lessons to make them help, to help them make good decisions. But those are
00:26:52.140
their decisions. And I'm not totally comfortable with all the decisions I know they'll make, but
00:26:56.940
you know, those are those decisions. And I have a very short window, about two decades, uh, to make
00:27:02.040
sure that I give them everything they need to make good choices and have a good, strong, capable life.
00:27:08.060
Yeah. I love that analogy of, and we talk about it in the iron council. We talk about it with
00:27:15.400
men in our lives and identifying our mission and knowing what the mission is and working towards
00:27:22.040
it. And, and that the advice that you're giving around the military side, it just transcends
00:27:26.820
everything, right? What's the mission of the school system? Be clear on the mission. What's the
00:27:32.520
mission of parenthood? Be clear on the mission. What's the mission of the military? Be clear on those
00:27:37.380
missions and don't lose oversight of the greater purpose of what you're trying to accomplish for
00:27:42.280
the sake of pandering and, or acceptance from social groups or whatever else things might come
00:27:49.180
in way of said mission. That's right. Hey, Kip, will you give me one quick second? Maybe you can ask
00:27:55.220
the question and drive on with some comments on that. I'm alone today. My wife and my oldest are out
00:28:00.680
hunting and my kids are banging on something downstairs and they're about to get an earful. So
00:28:06.640
you ask the question, go ahead and answer it. I'll be right back. Just proceed.
00:28:10.640
Okay. All right. Sounds good. This is fun. All right. George Sykes, his question. What are your
00:28:16.920
thoughts on addiction and recovery? I've been in recovery for, uh, from codependent for almost two
00:28:23.300
years. And I'm seeing that addiction is a strange disease and that it convinces us that we are not enough
00:28:30.100
as God made us. So we need to drink, do drugs or engage in reckless behaviors. Yet the moment we
00:28:36.840
begin to do the things we were meant to do and be the people we were meant to be, everything changes
00:28:42.580
for the better. So our thoughts on addiction and recovery ultimately around that. So, you know,
00:28:50.620
Ryan uses this analogy and, and well, oh man, I was going to give you some credit before you, uh,
00:28:55.660
hop back on. So, well, you know what? I joined at just the right time. I, I actually didn't go
00:29:01.500
anywhere. I just want, it was a test to see how you would do. I'm just sitting here listening. So,
00:29:06.020
yeah. But did you hear the question though? No, I didn't hear it. No. Okay. So, I mean,
00:29:11.000
my kid was playing football in the house is what he was. I'm like, what are you doing? He's like,
00:29:15.020
I'm throwing the football, the pass back. It's this football that has this like flat front of it.
00:29:20.440
And he's throwing it against the wall and bouncing it back to him. Like, bro,
00:29:23.540
I just told you I'm on the phone. Like, he's like, oh, sorry. I'm like, you're going to get it.
00:29:29.260
All right. I didn't hear the question. So the question is really around your thoughts around
00:29:33.440
addiction and recovery. And, and, and George was just an analogy using an example of, you know,
00:29:39.000
even the addiction of being codependent or drugs and engaging in reckless behaviors and just kind
00:29:46.540
of our thoughts around it. Did you finish your thoughts though? I mean, it sounded like you were still
00:29:51.360
what I was going to say is, is you use this analogy that I've completely latched onto of
00:29:57.340
sedating yourself. And, and I think a lot of, and whether it's, let's be honest, like an addiction
00:30:05.700
is an addiction, right? And now there's like chemicals being placed and other things. And
00:30:09.940
there's probably a whole lot of dopamine management that we can talk about, but even getting started on
00:30:15.000
a path of addiction, right. Or getting started with these things that quote unquote, typically make us
00:30:20.780
addicted. It's a form of sedation. It's a form of not facing that in which we should probably face
00:30:27.400
if we want to grow in a particular way. And, and so I think when I think about addictions and
00:30:33.860
recoveries, the first thing is don't get there. And one of the best ways we get there is don't try to
00:30:38.680
sedate yourself by avoiding something, right? Like actually like work it through, be self-aware,
00:30:44.880
you know, and, and don't hide away from the thing that might potentially cause addiction. Now
00:30:51.360
that's only one analogy. I'm sure addiction start in other ways, whether it's pure pressure or other
00:30:56.640
means, and it's not just a form of sedation, but that's where I was getting started anyway.
00:31:00.820
I think you're right. I think that could be a, a method. I do get, I do not agree with individuals
00:31:09.460
when they use that as a broad sweeping generality about why people are addicted to drugs or pornography
00:31:15.380
or alcohol. Oh, what are you hiding from? Or what are you, what are you running from?
00:31:19.740
That could be a reason. Yeah. It might just be a habit and you're not running from everything,
00:31:26.240
but you're just so deep in this that you've, you've, you've hardwired your brain for dopamine
00:31:31.900
response on that particular substance or that activity. Uh, it could be hereditary, right?
00:31:39.060
We know that addiction is hereditary. Uh, my dad was an alcoholic. I, I, I learned a long time ago
00:31:45.240
that I'm an alcoholic at heart. And so I, I, I, I can't have a drink because if I have a drink,
00:31:54.200
I will have all the drinks and that's not a path. I want to go down.
00:32:00.200
How much do you drink? All of them, all of it, put it in front of me and I will drink all of it.
00:32:06.100
And so I can't have a drink because I know, I know, and I'm not running. What am I sedating
00:32:11.480
myself from? Nothing. I love my life. You know, I like, it wouldn't be a sedation method.
00:32:17.660
It would just be, there's some things that are built in and hardwired into who I am into my DNA.
00:32:23.620
And that's something that I'm going to have to be aware of and, and, and, and contend with,
00:32:28.780
you know? So that's something I need to be very cautious of and aware of. Uh, so to answer the
00:32:34.620
question though, what are your thoughts or those are my thoughts around it, but how do you deal
00:32:39.200
with it? Well, you have to know yourself. Yeah. Like, are you also an alcoholic at heart?
00:32:46.000
Are you addicted to pornography? Are you, uh, are you running from something like the pain of divorce?
00:32:51.960
That, that would be a reason to drink or to do drugs or, or to get, get into pornography. There's
00:32:57.800
like a lot of things you could do because something triggered it. And what a lot of us do is we lie
00:33:03.300
about it and that's the problem. Yeah. The problem is you're lying in reality. Yeah. Yes. And so either
00:33:10.880
you're delusional or you're ignorant or you're blatantly lying to yourself. Yeah. So the first
00:33:17.220
step, and I think alcohol and anonymous would say is like, you, you have to recognize that there's a
00:33:24.800
problem and you have to be real about what the problem is because nothing will be resolved
00:33:29.980
without you acknowledging that something's wrong. Yeah. And then what we do from there,
00:33:35.080
and I'm not going to get into the specifics because there's a lot of resources. And I would say if you
00:33:39.180
want, uh, I think the new drug.org or fight, the new drug.org is a pornography abstinence site.
00:33:47.680
Alcoholics anonymous. Uh, there's all sorts of resources there that are significantly more equipped
00:33:54.500
to give you what I'm going to tell you to do next. But part one is to recognize. And then part two is
00:33:59.400
to come up with a strategy to overcome. And that might be the seven step or 12 step. I don't even
00:34:06.820
know what it is. Seven or 12 step program, whatever it is, 12 step program. Um, having accountability
00:34:13.040
partners, having activities, you can replace it with having the systems in place to like, not have
00:34:19.040
alcohol around you rewiring habits through some of James clears stuff, atomic habits, and Charles
00:34:27.260
Duhigg, the power of habit rewiring to hang around who you're around. Sure. Yeah. So acknowledgement
00:34:34.020
process. So, so, and I, and I talk about this even in the iron council, the two things that the iron
00:34:40.800
council has that every man needs in their life. I can say this with a hundred percent certainty
00:34:45.500
is the network, other men in your corner, all in the same path, varying degrees and the framework,
00:34:53.300
the system, you gotta, you gotta have a system. And if you don't, you can't replicate results.
00:34:58.580
And I think the same holds true for trying to overcome certain addictions that, that, that
00:35:03.220
might be enticing to you or debilitating to you network frameworks. Yeah. Fight the new drug.org
00:35:11.160
for a porn addiction. Yep. One thing that I, I was speaking with a friend that, um, is a professional
00:35:19.100
in this industry around addictions and drug use. And what I thought was really interesting is he said
00:35:24.740
that you, most people, if they assess themselves, you know, what your drug of choice is, even if you're
00:35:32.680
not, like, I know my drug of choice. Cause I, I've self, I've assessed myself enough to know what drugs
00:35:41.940
I would instantly get addicted to. Right. I'm, I'm, I'm all like speed. Like I have no, like, seriously, I
00:35:50.800
think about like, if I was like a pothead, right. And I was in a weed, I don't, I don't feel good being
00:35:57.140
lazy. That doesn't do it for me. Like I would not want to like be more chill, but you know,
00:36:03.980
I watched the movie like limitless and I could think, well, hold on a second. I can get more
00:36:08.460
done. I can be, you know what I mean? Faster thinking like that has my name written all over
00:36:13.380
it. Right. And it's like, and, and, and that's part of understanding yourself and what tendencies
00:36:18.700
and what things might kind of draw you in and, you know, and being mindful and being real with
00:36:24.140
yourself about them. So I think it's a good point. I'm, I'm the opposite of you in that I would need
00:36:28.740
something to take that edge off. Cause like, I feel like I'm always turned on. My wheels are always
00:36:36.040
turning. I don't fall asleep very well at night, not because I'm not tired, but because like, I'm
00:36:41.040
like, what about this idea? And what about that idea? And then you could do this and then you could
00:36:44.200
do that. And I'm like, stop. Like I wish if I, sometimes I wish there was a little switch in my brain
00:36:49.060
where I could just like, you know, just turn off sleep mode, sleep mode, but I don't have it.
00:36:56.140
And so I wake up four or five times a night and I'm thinking about new ideas and new ways to like
00:37:02.320
grow the business. Or, um, before I go to bed, I start thinking about jujitsu and I'm running all
00:37:07.560
these like jujitsu scenarios in my head, or I'm thinking about all the emails I want to write and
00:37:11.940
people I want to have on the podcast and new shirts and hats I want to create and how I want to
00:37:16.280
take over the world. And I'm like, please shut up. I just need you to shut up for a minute.
00:37:22.540
Yeah. That's funny. See, I'm like more, more noise, more noise. I want that noise all the time.
00:37:29.260
I have plenty as it is. All right. Brian Boyd. Um, I, I have butted heads, uh, with the gentleman
00:37:36.780
in the workplace for almost 18 years. I do my best to like him, but many times I literally get ill in my
00:37:43.500
stomach just being in his presence. In my opinion and observation, he is a bad man. I think the other
00:37:50.180
people see him the same way, but the elephant in the room will not go away. I know I'm responsible
00:37:55.660
for my attitude and thoughts and actions and motives towards him. Uh, do you have any skillsets that I
00:38:02.340
may have overlooked that I can implement to push through my dislike towards him? You know, one of the
00:38:08.780
red flags that came up is, as I was hearing you say, this is you said there's times where you get
00:38:13.800
like physically ill when, yeah, when you're around him. So there was a disgusted. Yeah. And there was
00:38:20.080
a thought that came to my mind because the first thing that you said, or one of the first things was,
00:38:24.520
and I wrote it here is that you've tried to like him. Like, why do you, you don't have to like him.
00:38:32.140
You have to work with him. Yeah. Like the, the goal of going to work is not to make friends and
00:38:38.900
like people. No, you have to be amicable with people. You have to, you have to be cooperative
00:38:43.940
with people. Sure. But you don't like people because if, if your mission is I want this guy
00:38:49.380
to like me and I want to like him, then that's going to be a tall order. If on the other hand,
00:38:54.740
you change your expectation to, Hey, look, I'm not, I'm not concerned with liking him. Like we don't
00:38:59.820
have to be buddies, but I am concerned with moving the mission forward. I am concerned with the job.
00:39:04.400
I am concerned with the task or the assignment that might change the way that you approach him from
00:39:08.700
this, trying to be this friendly guy that's making you ill because you're like going against your own
00:39:14.360
instinct to, Hey, you know what? Maybe, and I don't know the scenario, so I can't give you specifics,
00:39:19.920
but maybe if you'd, instead of try to like him, you said, okay, well, like, I'm not going to like
00:39:25.020
him. You've been working with him for two decades. Like, come on now. Like, you know,
00:39:28.720
you're not going to like him. He probably doesn't like you. So, okay. So put on your big boy pants
00:39:34.200
and realize that you don't have to like everybody. We just have to worry about moving the mission
00:39:38.280
forward. Man, maybe even say that, you know, the guy you've been working with him for two decades,
00:39:41.580
say, look, Kip, look at this point, we're going to agree to like, we don't like each other.
00:39:49.080
Like, you don't, I don't like your attitude. You probably don't like mine. And there's probably
00:39:54.760
been some reasons for that over the last two decades of working together, but like, I just
00:39:58.920
want to, I want to get here. I want to do my work. Well, I want to work with you. I feel like we can
00:40:03.580
drive some, some, some initiatives forward. And what do we need to do to make that happen?
00:40:09.780
Yeah. And maybe it's just like a heart to heart with a guy.
00:40:13.980
Yeah. It allows you to deal in reality. There's something to be said for when I accept
00:40:20.280
Ryan for who Ryan is, then I can work with him versus if I'm constantly like, no, it shouldn't
00:40:29.160
be this way. He shouldn't be this way. He should be this way and not that way. And then we just,
00:40:33.940
we almost dredge it with us constantly. And whenever there's a struggle of dealing with you,
00:40:38.640
I have to bring up, well, I shouldn't have to do this. Well, guess what? You're going to.
00:40:46.780
Yeah. You know, this is so powerful, Ryan, because I, I've had this conversation with,
00:40:51.980
with a, that's actually a fam, a family member of mine a few years ago. And we're, we're talking
00:40:57.320
about another family member, which we have some riff, maybe someday if I'm drunk, I'll share the
00:41:02.260
story on the podcast, but, but not anyhow, he asked me, he says, how, how do you, how can you have a
00:41:10.920
relationship with them? And my response to him was because I choose to, because I've accepted them
00:41:18.540
exactly the way they are. And there's something powerful. I don't have to agree. I don't have to
00:41:25.280
be like, Oh, their actions are perfect. And what? No, but there's something really powerful to saying,
00:41:31.120
you know what I choose. And in a family relationship scenario, I choose to love you the way you are.
00:41:36.680
Not because you are this way, not because of that way, strictly on the idea that I choose to,
00:41:43.220
because I want to. And, and even think about our relationship with our spouses,
00:41:47.800
how real powerful that is and how much we drag on our spouses of the way they should,
00:41:53.040
or should that be constantly versus just meeting them where they are and going, you know what?
00:41:58.360
I, I choose to be fully committed to you because I choose to not predicated on, you know, well,
00:42:05.260
if she did this and the, you know, and all these other things. And it's really empowering when we,
00:42:09.420
when we approach relationships that way. I agree. I think it's a very stoic approach of just,
00:42:14.700
you know, control the controllables and let the others go. But I, I think there may be some
00:42:20.000
controllable here in that you can just have a real conversation. I mean, in 18 years,
00:42:24.480
have you actually said any of this to this guy? And I, and I'm not saying you do it to create drama
00:42:30.900
and you do have to be very careful because you don't want to create workplace drama, but I, man,
00:42:36.560
if it were me, I think I would at this point say something. And again, let me just reiterate the way,
00:42:42.660
the verbiage I might use Kip, you know, as well as I do that over the past 18 years of working
00:42:48.240
together, that we have butted heads. What do we mean? Yeah. He feels the same way.
00:42:53.660
I love you. You're like a brother to me. By the way, this guy, this guy probably asked the same
00:42:58.980
question on last week's ask me anything about you. Yeah, totally. In fact, I think he used your name.
00:43:05.660
Yeah, that's right. He said, Hey, Brian Boyd's an ass.
00:43:08.480
But I would say, you know, like, obviously Kip, we've butted heads. We don't get along.
00:43:17.240
And I would be very clear. I would, I would do it more. I think this is diffusing. I would say,
00:43:22.040
I imagine Kip, you really don't like my personality and I don't really know why that is. And you know,
00:43:28.440
if I knew maybe that would help me understand and I could attempt to communicate differently or
00:43:34.460
whatever it was, but you know, at this point, I think we can agree that we don't like each other,
00:43:39.480
but we still have to work together. So what, what can I do to help make this a better work
00:43:46.320
environment for you and for me, for both of us? Is it leave you alone and stay out of your way?
00:43:52.200
Is it be more clear in my communication? Like what, like, what can I do to help drive the mission
00:43:59.400
forward and be as amicable as possible at, at work? Yeah. I would have that conversation.
00:44:07.100
Totally. And there's so much power when you don't see eye to eye with someone and then backing it up
00:44:12.700
until you do. And what you and I could agree on what maybe this individual could agree on is the
00:44:18.860
mission, right? Right. Of, of what they're doing as a team within the organization. And if that's the
00:44:24.420
common ground, find what that common ground is, and then make that the, make that the focus of the
00:44:28.940
relationship. Just, just be very careful about pointing fingers. Yeah. Cause you, you might be
00:44:34.480
falling into a trap, creating some drama, falling into a trap and throwing yourself under the bus.
00:44:38.960
So I wouldn't go in there and be like, well, I don't like you because you don't do this. You don't
00:44:43.380
do that. And this is what's wrong. And no, just go into it. Assuming there's something wrong with you.
00:44:48.560
Like, Hey, like let, help me know what's going on so that I can maybe adjust the way that we
00:44:54.680
communicate or work together. Yeah. Yeah. I like it. All right. Let me say one other thing that I
00:45:01.900
heard one time and I think it was Benjamin Franklin and he's got us 13 virtues and everything. And
00:45:08.480
obviously a very wise, a wise man, one of the wisest, wisest men. And of course, like such a
00:45:13.040
contributor to our country, but he had this theory that if there was people that didn't like him or he
00:45:20.640
didn't like, he would go ask to borrow something from them. So they could serve him. So he would
00:45:27.640
go, he would go ask for a book. He would say, Hey Kip, you know, I know you have this, this book or
00:45:32.740
whatever, and I would like to borrow this book because I'm trying to study on this thing. And so
00:45:37.080
he would borrow a book and then he would return it within an acceptable timeframe. And he found that
00:45:43.420
this actually drew people closer together. And I don't know all the, the research behind that little
00:45:49.380
anecdote, but that's a very interesting thing is, Hey, can you lend me a book? And it changed the
00:45:55.720
dynamic he found between relationships that were strained for one reason or the other. Just an
00:45:59.960
interesting thought. Yeah. All right. Sean Spire, can you be unreligious yet follow lessons and values
00:46:09.540
from Christianity? Can we teach lessons and values from the Bible to simply be good humans, but not
00:46:16.200
because of a higher power is wanting or watching us to be? Yeah. I, of course.
00:46:26.140
That's not an ad. No, I mean, I don't know that there's even more to it. Yeah. Look, there's,
00:46:32.040
there's truth everywhere. You know, I I've read individual authors or thinkers, um, or even people
00:46:39.920
on Instagram or people who criticize what I've done. And like, I may not wholeheartedly agree
00:46:46.940
with everything about who they are and how they show up and what they say. But like in that particular
00:46:51.880
instance, I'm like, Oh, that's actually true. Well, that's an interesting point. I hadn't considered
00:46:56.000
that before. Maybe I ought to take that into consideration. And so the point I'm making is
00:47:00.380
if you can learn to compartmentalize and take what you feel will apply to your life and what you think
00:47:07.520
will enhance your life and make you a better person. And it comes from the Bible. I don't,
00:47:12.540
I don't think there's any conflict with that. Like there's, I'm not a Buddhist. I used that earlier.
00:47:17.700
I'm not a Buddhist, but I'm sure there's principles and Buddhist teachings that I would say, yeah,
00:47:21.920
that actually is a really good way to live. Stoicism is another one. A lot of Christians for,
00:47:27.300
in my experience have, have some issues with stoicism because they think it conflicts with the
00:47:31.180
sovereignty of God and their own individual responsibility. I don't, I don't personally see that,
00:47:36.020
but okay. If you think that, but you're telling me you can't extract lessons from stoicism that
00:47:41.260
maybe wouldn't, or maybe would align with Christian principles or would align with just your own
00:47:47.540
personal worldview. I think we ought to be exploring and looking for truth and lessons that are going
00:47:53.040
to serve us everywhere, whether it's from the Bible or the Quran or any number of religious context or,
00:47:59.200
or, or, or teachings like, yeah, a hundred percent. You should do that.
00:48:03.600
You know, his last, his last portion of his question says, can we teach lessons and values
00:48:08.660
from the Bible to simply be good humans? Not because a higher power is watching us,
00:48:13.580
right. Or wanting us to be. And I was thinking about that. I'm like,
00:48:17.160
we shouldn't be doing it for that reason. I don't want to be like, that's not why I do it.
00:48:21.920
Yeah, exactly. Like we shouldn't be doing it because, well, you know, yeah, exactly. Or,
00:48:25.940
well, I'll do this because I feel like it's required of me. It's like, think about your
00:48:30.080
kids. Do you want your kids to clean the room because you lay down the hammer and you're yelling
00:48:34.780
at them out of fear or whatever? Or do you want your kids to go, Hey, I see value in being orderly
00:48:41.040
and taking care of my things. And they do it because they want to. Right. Of course you'd want
00:48:45.380
the ladder. Why? Because that's sustained sustaining, right? That's going to be way more effective
00:48:50.060
because they see the value in quote unquote teachings that you've given them. So you want
00:48:55.380
buy-in and, and I would argue, I mean, I know this isn't Sean's question, but those that are
00:49:01.320
religious, you shouldn't be doing it because of like, you should be doing it because you are trying
00:49:07.080
to become a better human and you are bought into whatever it is that you're doing. You need to be
00:49:12.500
committed to it, not just a passive because it's being forced upon you in your own mind.
00:49:18.160
Well, and even still, if, if, if you're doing it for like a higher power for this outside purpose,
00:49:24.200
you can really easily finagle your way to do things that serve in your best interest if that's
00:49:29.500
your motive. So I'll give you a very small example. So it's not going to be true following
00:49:33.540
is what you're saying. Because you're going to finagle it. You're going to,
00:49:36.320
you're going to rationalize and excuse and justify your behavior. So I'll give you an example.
00:49:39.900
Um, so when we did our main event, I reached out to origin and I said, Hey, I would love you guys
00:49:48.960
to give, or, or to, to make some rash guards, some, some order man rash guards. I have the design.
00:49:54.480
I've paid for the design. I'll give it to you. You guys print them up and then, and then get them to
00:49:59.840
me. And I was fully anticipating buying these, these, uh, rash guards from origin. That was my intent.
00:50:07.800
I'm going to buy these from them. Uh, and, and Amanda, uh, Pete's Pete's wife. And she runs a
00:50:13.680
large part of the systems and the structures and organization that are origin. She messaged me.
00:50:18.280
She's like, Hey, your rash guards are ready. I'm like, great. We'll come pick them up. And so I
00:50:21.520
sent a couple of guys to go pick them up, grab them, brought them back. And I, and I was planning
00:50:26.280
on selling them at the event. That was my, my full intent. I'm going to pay them. Then I'm going to sell
00:50:32.540
them. So I text Amanda and I said, Hey, thanks for getting me these rash guards on such short notice.
00:50:36.760
They did a great job there. Um, and I said, what do I owe you? And she says, you don't owe me
00:50:42.420
anything. This rounds on us, which was very gracious of them because it's thousands of dollars
00:50:48.560
of rash guards, you know, these, these beautiful rash guards and there's a hundred of them.
00:50:54.440
And so immediately I was like, well, okay, I'm still going to sell them, but I'll sell it at a
00:50:59.280
discounted rate because they gave them to me for free. Yeah. And in my mind, I was like, well,
00:51:03.960
that's good because like, I'm still selling them. I'm still making money, but I'm getting up. I'm
00:51:07.860
giving these guys a discount. So like, but then I was like, no, that's not right. Like that's not
00:51:14.080
the origin gave them to you and you're going to profit off of that. Like, that's not the right
00:51:19.880
thing to do. Yeah. I see. And I would have got away with that. I would have, and probably nobody
00:51:25.980
would have batted an eye. Like the guys wouldn't have thought anything. They would have thought they
00:51:30.180
were getting a discount. Origin would have been probably maybe. Okay. I don't know, but like,
00:51:34.080
that's not the right thing to do. It's just not. And there's no other motive for me in that moment.
00:51:41.600
Then no, I want to do the right thing. Not for origin, not for my gut. No, but because doing
00:51:47.320
the right thing is the right thing to do. And so I gave every one of those guys, those rash guards.
00:51:53.640
Now, since I've gone back and I've bought rash guards from them that I sell, and that's the
00:51:58.140
agreement. And that's, that's a fair agreement because we're both on board and privy to that,
00:52:01.920
all of that knowledge and information, but doing the right thing is enough.
00:52:07.300
There's no other reason. Like, well, if only Bob, I'm only doing it because God sees me
00:52:12.140
or because somebody else will find out. No, you do the right thing because it's the right thing to do
00:52:18.780
period, full stop the end. And also you'll reap some karma from that, of course, but that's not the
00:52:26.720
reason to do it either. It's just to do the right thing. Yeah. And, and, and I would suggest and argue
00:52:34.880
that we know what that is a hundred percent. We know. And then what we do, just like I was trying
00:52:41.900
to do with those rash guards initially is like, well, I'm giving them a discount. No, no, just fine.
00:52:45.940
No, my, my situation's unique. And you know, it's not, it's not unique. You know, don't lie to yourself
00:52:51.800
and do the right thing. Yeah. Yeah. I like it. Not that I need, not that you needed to know that
00:52:58.300
I liked it. All right. Chase. I did need to know that actually that just made my week. So thank you
00:53:04.000
very much. Uh, what are some good strategies and tactics to deal with a bad leadership? Uh,
00:53:11.880
particularly pastors who blindly accept lies and gossip and use that as a ground to tell people to
00:53:17.940
leave their church group other than simply running away. I haven't fought tooth and nail for the last
00:53:23.760
seven years, fixing my past mistakes and sins for nothing. My family does depend on me. So a little,
00:53:29.660
little personal scenario. So if I'm interpreting this correctly, it sounds like chase, chase's pastor.
00:53:38.700
Cause I don't have this question in front of me. Chase's pastor is using lies and rumor about him
00:53:44.340
to push them out of the congregation. That's what I'm guessing. He doesn't say. Yeah. That's what I
00:53:48.820
would assume too. Like he didn't say it was him. They just, he, he blindly accepts lies and gossip,
00:53:55.500
right. To justify people leaving the group. Um, you need to call it out. Yeah. Now if I might,
00:54:03.700
it might be different in an employer situation, but in this pastor religious setting, you need to be like
00:54:10.800
very forthright. So let's do a little role play. Kip, you're my pastor. I come up to you and I I'm
00:54:18.000
going to, I'm going to assume. Yeah. Okay. Well see you later. I, I, I I'm going to assume it's
00:54:27.180
about chase. Cause that's what it kind of sounds like. So I'm going to come up to you and I'm going
00:54:30.200
to say, I'm going to Kip. I would like to talk with you about something this week. Uh, do you have
00:54:35.760
some time, you know, Tuesday evening at seven o'clock or whatever? Yeah, sure. Okay, cool. So I come in at
00:54:40.380
seven. Hey, pastor Sorenson. I wanted to talk with you about something. Um, I've had some real,
00:54:46.340
uh, problems in my life. I've, I've made some mistakes and I've had some past indiscretions.
00:54:51.900
Um, and I've done some things that I'm not really proud of. Uh, I'm just throwing things out here.
00:54:56.820
So I'm not saying this about you, chase, by the way, but I've had some, um, fidelity issues. Uh, I,
00:55:02.800
I have had some alcohol and drug abuse issues. And again, I'm not, I'm not proud of those things.
00:55:08.000
My wife and I and family are working through those together. Everybody knows about what's going on,
00:55:13.300
but I wanted to come talk with you because from my perspective, I think there's some rumors going on
00:55:20.080
within the congregation about me and how I show up. And I'm not denying that I haven't had any of
00:55:27.280
these things happen in the past, but here's what I'm doing to rectify it. And here's what I'm doing
00:55:31.980
to work on it. And I wanted to bring this to your attention because I want to hear it. I want you to
00:55:37.160
hear it directly from me rather than having to guess and assume and hear all these things through
00:55:43.120
the room and rumor mill, uh, you know, pastor, what you decide to do from here and how you decide
00:55:50.220
to move forward is in your court at this point. But I wanted to clear the air. I wanted to be
00:55:56.400
respectful of you and your congregation. And I would expect the same of me and my own personal life
00:56:02.240
and the way that I lead my family. So shake his hand, walk away. And then you guys can both make
00:56:08.260
your decisions as grown adults. Yeah. I love that. And, and I think the only, the, the thing that came
00:56:15.840
to mind that I thought you were going to say is like, how grateful you are that you are part of a,
00:56:21.360
or a group by which you could take advantage of the repentance process and the atonement and,
00:56:29.100
and how great that this exists. So I can move past my, my sins of the past and have a renewed
00:56:37.640
commitment of becoming a better man. Right. And, and, and expressing, and you did this expressing the
00:56:44.900
commitment that you have to leveling up. You know what I mean? Like, and, and kind of reminding me,
00:56:50.500
right. Of like, Hey, that's why we're here. That's a check. That's a check to you too, by the
00:56:55.660
way. Yeah, totally. Totally. And I would have a respectful way to check you. Yeah, totally.
00:57:01.380
And it's a call for him to step up as a man too. And you know what, like, regardless of what happens,
00:57:08.100
Chase, when you walk away from a meeting like that is you're going to feel like more of a man because you
00:57:14.400
are. Yeah. You're not engaging in rumors. You're not acting emotionally. You're not throwing
00:57:20.440
a temper tantrum. You're not trying to enact vengeance against anybody. You are addressing
00:57:25.540
a grievance with a specific person face to face, like a man does it. And if he's not willing to
00:57:34.540
step up as a man, why in the world would you want to be part of his congregation anyways?
00:57:40.140
There might be some really telling things here. And I'm not saying it's going to go this way,
00:57:43.720
but he might really reveal some things that if I'm going to follow spiritually another man,
00:57:50.820
I need to know who this guy is and how he conducts himself. And this is a very good way for you to act
00:57:56.900
like a man and for you to find out if he's a man. Yeah. And influence me, right? Like I could,
00:58:04.320
because he could be pandering to gossip because he doesn't want to have to deal with it. Right.
00:58:07.600
He doesn't want to deal with, you know, these other people being upset about your past or whatever.
00:58:13.860
Exactly. And you bringing that up to me, levels me up too. Like, you know what? You're right,
00:58:18.300
Ryan. You know, that's why we are here, you know? And I appreciate you coming to the table and being
00:58:23.020
clear with this. Like it's, it's a positive thing for me as well. Or, or not. Yeah. And then,
00:58:30.000
but you need to know that. Yeah. Like you, you could, you could take that the wrong way and you
00:58:35.940
could really throw yourself your own little temper tantrum and, and show me how cowardly you really
00:58:41.880
are. And I'm, I'm going to be as, as little as judgmental as possible about that, but I'm also
00:58:48.000
going to make decisions for me and my family. And I'm not going to follow a coward and somebody who
00:58:52.940
listens to gossip and rumors after the source of the information has come and spoken to him,
00:58:58.520
like a man can't deal with that. Like that, that shows me that individual is a coward and that's not
00:59:04.280
Christian. Yeah. I like it. One more question. One more. I'm excited about pronouncing this guy's
00:59:15.000
name. I've been working on all week. All right, here we go. Kizzy, uh, Kizzy, Kizzy, Karawanga.
00:59:25.540
Well, you're celebrating, but we don't know if that's right. Actually, it doesn't matter.
00:59:30.640
It's right. Okay. There you go. Kizzy, Kizzy or whatever. Kip got it right. And if it's wrong,
00:59:39.620
you're wrong. Kip just pronounced himself right. So change your name. I pronounced it correctly for
00:59:44.400
you. Yeah. All right. My 12 year old daughter is going through a shift and is being very,
00:59:50.580
is being very bitchy, sassy, and disrespectful around me and my wife. She also is hurtful to her
00:59:57.520
younger sisters. We're really low on patience. And it takes all my strength not to lash out at
01:00:02.600
her physically, especially when she acts in a hurtful way towards her siblings. I know she's
01:00:07.960
just growing up and battling with her own identity, but how do I love and guide her through this
01:00:14.300
challenging period for all of us? I think if there's a fee and look for, I'm going to put this
01:00:21.700
out here and take it with a grain of salt because my daughter is nine years old. She's not a teenager
01:00:27.280
yet. Yeah. So, and still she's nine still. She's like, Oh my gosh. Um, I think there's a theme though
01:00:36.820
in, in the conversations that we've had today. And that's just truthful upfront addressing of
01:00:43.340
situations, right? Whether it's the guy at church, um, or, you know, addiction, like, like addressing
01:00:50.940
it and talking with a spouse passive about them. Yes. And so, and being real, like being truthful
01:00:58.000
about other people and yourself. And so in her situation, I think these are the types of
01:01:03.320
conversations I would have is not like, Hey, you can't be treating people like this, which is true
01:01:09.820
by the way. But the, I think the better conversation is, and I would definitely involve your wife
01:01:14.960
because your wife's been a 13 year old girl, right? Or 12 year old girl at some point. So she definitely
01:01:19.840
needs to be involved. You have not, she has. So you definitely need to have her involved in this
01:01:24.640
process. And maybe even her head, the conversation is look, hon, you're 12 years old. There's a lot of
01:01:32.320
changes happening with your body. Those are the things that you can see. There's a lot of things
01:01:37.760
happening inside of your body. Those are the things that you can't see. These are your hormones
01:01:42.280
and the chemicals that make you act the way you do and view things the way you are and the changes
01:01:48.040
of your physical body. Like this is what happens to us as we get older. And I know it's hard to
01:01:53.660
understand, but these things that you cannot see are affecting the way that you behave. And so we
01:02:01.560
acknowledge that we actually honor that. It's a good thing. It's healthy. It's part of growing up.
01:02:06.960
It's part of growing up. You're going through this process. I've gone through this process
01:02:10.060
as a boy turning into man. Your mom has gone through this process as a young lady growing
01:02:13.660
into a woman. We've all gone through it and we've all gotten through it, but there's also
01:02:18.800
some expectations and there's also some consequences. And this is what's going to allow
01:02:24.980
you in this transitionary period, get through it smoothly and healthily. And in a way that uplifts
01:02:32.260
the entire family and here's what they are. And then you lay those out very clearly and
01:02:37.760
you help, you have her buy into that by what are the consequences? What expectations should
01:02:43.180
I have of you? By the way, what expectations do you have of me?
01:02:47.240
Yeah. You know, and what's the rewards as well?
01:02:50.460
My daughter came to me again, she's nine years old and she said, Hey dad, cause we have a,
01:02:54.960
we have a rule. We don't close the bedroom doors unless you know, they're changing or whatever
01:02:58.840
like that, obviously, but that's a rule. And so she came to me and just an hour ago and she's like,
01:03:04.800
Hey dad, can I close my bedroom door and just relax? And I said, well, why do you need to close
01:03:10.900
your bedroom door to do that? She's like, it's just nice because I listen to music and I don't
01:03:15.440
have to hear the boys yelling or fighting or wrestling or whatever. And, and then I can just
01:03:20.480
listen to my music and just play with my dolls or lay on my bed. Like that to me. Yeah, for sure.
01:03:26.620
But it also illustrates that she knows the rules. Yeah. Cause we've clearly communicated the rules
01:03:34.000
and she's asking for an exception. And I don't think that I have to be so hard on the rules that
01:03:39.360
I can't make reasonable exceptions to the rule. Like I'm not letting her dictate what she can do.
01:03:43.900
She's the child. I'm the parent. But if she comes to me with a reasonable request and says,
01:03:48.220
I would just like a little peace and quiet for the next 20 minutes. Like I can bend the rule to make
01:03:52.700
that happen. But the point I'm, the point I'm, that I'm making. And the reason I bring that up
01:03:57.000
is because all of the rules are laid out. Everybody in the household knows the expectation. And if you
01:04:02.880
want to deviate from the expectation, you have to get express permission to do that from me, the dad
01:04:09.180
or mom, the mom. And, and so I think there's some boundary issues here that maybe have been
01:04:14.880
failed to be communicated that might shore some of this up a little bit. And then the other reason I
01:04:21.680
brought that up with my daughter is because I realized that as she gets older, privacy, she's
01:04:27.480
got three brothers. Privacy is going to be more important to her. Like she needs some privacy. And I
01:04:32.560
get, I have to honor that to a degree, right? Like I can't let her go in there by herself all the time
01:04:37.880
with a computer and a TV or have boys in a room. Of course, like that's taking it to the extreme.
01:04:41.920
That's unhealthy. But I do have to honor that as she changes, my approach to fathering needs to change
01:04:48.020
in, in, in conjunction with her needs for privacy or her bodily changes that I'm not totally
01:04:55.640
comfortable thinking about yet. You know, that kind of stuff. Yeah. But that, that's how we dress
01:05:00.360
that as fathers, I think, and get the mother hyper-involved in that. Yeah. And what I like about
01:05:05.100
establishing those boundaries and those rules, Ryan, is it allows you to not, not, um, it helps
01:05:11.980
you not react emotionally when those rules are broken, right? Because now it's, it's not about
01:05:19.140
attacking or getting frustrated. It's like, Hey, we have the rules, right? We, we talked about the
01:05:25.140
expectations, here's the expectations, right? And, and here's the results. There you go. Right. And you,
01:05:31.760
you, it's easier versus if those aren't defined, we have a tendency to go around and just get pissed,
01:05:37.060
right. And emotional. And, and cause we think our emotional response is the consequence. It's like,
01:05:42.400
no, no, no. The consequence has been defined, just implement it, right? Have the conversation at
01:05:47.240
least that has allowed me to be, uh, way less emotional and be logical in responding to boundaries,
01:05:54.600
not being, um, you know, kept or whatever. I had a couple, uh, resources for you. So I actually think
01:06:01.780
that the Harbinger Harbinger Institute's book, the outward mindset is really, really valuable in this
01:06:08.120
area. And it's really based upon the idea that you need to make sure that you have an established
01:06:12.680
relationship with your daughter. And, and by having a solid relationship with her, then puts you into
01:06:18.960
position to provide guidance and support. Sometimes we approach it opposite. Oh, well, if they weren't
01:06:25.240
acting up, then we could have a better relationship. You got to have that relationship in check. Those guys
01:06:30.880
covered that really well. Um, so maybe, maybe something to take a look at. I like that. I'm
01:06:35.620
going to, I'm looking at, I haven't heard of that. So I'm going to look into that for myself. Yeah.
01:06:39.080
Great book. There's, there's one other thing that I wrote down here, Kip, is you were saying that I
01:06:43.060
think all kids, especially as they get older, they move from 10, 11, 12 years old in the teenage years
01:06:48.500
is they're really looking for some autonomy in their life. Yeah. Right. And they're trying to find,
01:06:53.580
like you said, normal, right. Like they're totally dependent. They're trying to find the balance.
01:06:58.180
You know, my son, my oldest son at the football game, I think I said, this is like, we went to
01:07:02.180
the football game and he's like, Hey dad, can I have a couple bucks for some hot chocolate? I'm
01:07:05.740
like, yeah, sure. And I thought he was going to go get hot chocolate and then come back and sit with
01:07:09.380
me. Like he went and got hot chocolate and I looked over and he's playing with all his friends and I
01:07:14.740
didn't see him the whole game, you know? And like, at first I was like, that sucks. Like, what's up,
01:07:20.800
bro? Like you just take my money and then you don't come back. And that was my emotional
01:07:25.120
thing speaking. And then I was like, no, this is actually good. He's, he wants to be on his own.
01:07:30.780
He wants to be with his friends. He doesn't need to be with me. Like, this is a good, healthy thing,
01:07:36.080
although it's a hit to my ego. So they're looking for autonomy. So one of the things that my wife and
01:07:41.140
I implemented very early on, um, with our disciplining of our kids. And we do this with
01:07:46.080
my five-year-old is if there's something that they do where they need a timeout, like I wholeheartedly
01:07:51.780
believe in timeouts because they need a break from the stimulus of what's going on right now to just
01:07:56.500
like mellow down, think about it, like whatever they need to do at their age. So one of the things
01:08:01.600
that we do with our timeouts is we say, you go take a timeout, go sit on the stairs and come back in
01:08:08.940
or come back to the dinner table or come back to play the game when you're ready to be a contributing
01:08:14.860
member of the family. So we've, my oldest is 13. So for 13 years, I've never given my children a
01:08:22.980
timeout where I'm like, you're in timeout for 10 minutes. Never. I always put it on them, get their
01:08:28.480
emotions in check. Yep. And so I tell them, Hey, bud, you go to timeout. You're being disrespectful at
01:08:35.000
the dinner table. So get down, go to the stairs, sit in timeout. And when you're ready to come back,
01:08:41.780
whether that's in two minutes or 30 minutes, we'll be here and you can be a contributing
01:08:46.580
member of the family. And they go and usually three, four, maybe five minutes passes and they
01:08:52.040
come in and they ask, dad, can I join the table? And my question is, are you ready to be a contributing
01:08:57.400
member of the family? Yes. Good. That's the expectation. Please join us. So I always make them
01:09:03.500
feel welcome to come back, but I do give them a little autonomy, even at age five, to make a decision
01:09:09.600
of when they're ready to uphold the standard, not to choose what the standard is, but when they're
01:09:14.140
ready to live by the standard. Yeah. I did the same thing with my, my nine-year-old or eight-year-old
01:09:20.380
literally yesterday. I'm like, Kalani, you got it. You got to go hang out in the room. Let me know when
01:09:26.960
you're ready to talk because you're being way too emotional right now. And when you need to work
01:09:30.720
through this, you know, it took about 10 minutes. Hey dad, I'm ready to talk. All right. Awesome.
01:09:37.500
What's going on? Why are you upset? Oh, it's because of this. Okay. Are you willing to, you know,
01:09:41.460
are you going to clean your room instead of being a complaint? Do you see the value? Yes, I understand.
01:09:45.780
All right. Good. And we're good to go. You know, so. It's, it's giving, like, I really think that we
01:09:53.100
need to pay our kids the right amount of respect. You know, some people take it overboard and they let
01:09:57.720
the kids dictate the tone of the family dynamic and the culture. No, but there is enough respect
01:10:03.980
that I respect you as a person. I respect that you have your own thoughts and your own desires
01:10:09.500
and your own way of working through things. I respect that. I'm going to honor that within
01:10:15.020
parameters because you're still my child. And there's something very powerful in it. I don't
01:10:19.800
have all the parenting stuff figured out, but I think there is something powerful in acknowledging
01:10:23.860
that they're little humans, not perpetual babies. Yeah. Little adults. Figure that out on their
01:10:30.000
own. Yeah. Yeah. Young adults. Maybe that's a good way to say it. Cool. All right, man. All right.
01:10:37.800
Well, as always, join us. You know, you mentioned earlier around the Iron Council,
01:10:43.000
the framework in which we have and those relationships to learn more about our brotherhood,
01:10:48.760
the Iron Council, go to orderofman.com slash Iron Council. And of course, to field future
01:10:55.220
questions, the AMA award, even just to join the conversation with how many other men?
01:11:02.500
If Reese was here, he would tell us 960 or whatever it is.
01:11:16.500
Well, after everyone joins right now, after I tell them the URL, we'll be up to a hundred K.
01:11:22.900
So to join us on Facebook, that's facebook.com slash group slash order of man. And of course,
01:11:28.840
you can get some order of man merch at the store. That's store.orderofman.com.
01:11:37.720
Oh yeah. I saw those yesterday on your Instagram account. I'll get one sent to you. I probably
01:11:41.620
shouldn't promote this because they're probably already sold out, but these went quick.
01:11:45.500
Anyways, we've got stuff in the store. We'll be getting restocked here quick. That's a great way
01:11:49.860
Oh yeah. You got holiday season coming up. You guys better stock up well.
01:11:53.820
And supply chains are down and busted and broken and delayed and everything else. So we're trying
01:11:57.760
to stay on top of it guys, but we appreciate you and your patience. All right, you guys,
01:12:01.540
we'll be back. This will be asking me Friday. We'll be back Friday. Until then, go out there,
01:12:07.700
take action, become the man you are meant to be.
01:12:10.160
Thank you for listening to the order of man podcast. You're ready to take charge of your
01:12:14.500
life and be more of the man you were meant to be. We invite you to join the order at orderofman.com.