Order of Man - Predator or Prey？

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

00:00:05.000 your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time. Every time.

00:00:10.460 You are not easily deterred or defeated. Rugged. Resilient. Strong. This is your life. This is who

00:00:17.240 you are. This is who you will become. At the end of the day, and after all is said and done,

00:00:22.800 you can call yourself a man. Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan Michler.

00:00:27.900 I am the host and the founder of the Order of Man podcast and movement. Welcome here and welcome

00:00:34.040 back. If you're just new, you're not familiar with what we do, this is a podcast and a movement

00:00:39.520 designed to give you as men the tools and conversations and resources that you guys need

00:00:45.100 to thrive. Whether you're a husband or a father or an employee, employer, business owner, coach,

00:00:51.120 mentor, whatever, you want to thrive as a man. And we're trying to give you the tools through

00:00:57.740 this podcast, the conversations, and then our other events that we have and the Iron Council,

00:01:03.580 which is our exclusive brotherhood and all of the resources available. Anyways, today, guys,

00:01:08.540 I wanted to talk with you about Predator or Prey. This is a conversation that was sparked by one of

00:01:16.560 our Iron Council members had a really good idea and commentary, and I wish I could remember who it

00:01:23.240 was. I wrote it down, but I'm traveling. I'm in Detroit right now. I just had a great conversation

00:01:27.340 with Jason Wilson. A lot of you guys are familiar with him. And so, I'm here on the road. And so,

00:01:32.940 I didn't write it down. I wanted to give this guy credit, but he brought up some good points about

00:01:36.900 being a Predator or a Prey. So, we're going to talk about five questions that you can ask yourself

00:01:42.640 to determine whether or not you are Predator or Prey. Now, before I get into that, I just want to make

00:01:49.240 a mention of my friends and show sponsors Origin Maine. Specifically, I want to mention that they

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00:02:37.120 All right. Anyways, with that said, let's get into the discussion. Again, we're talking about

00:02:42.680 Predator or Prey. Now, look guys, I realize this isn't the perfect analogy or metaphor.

00:02:48.900 Whatever it is. Maybe one of you guys can tell me the difference, but it's not the perfect analogy

00:02:52.740 or metaphor. Obviously, there's flaws in it, which is why it's just an analogy. But I want you guys to

00:02:58.880 consider for a second what it means to be a predator or a prey. I'm not going to define it too much. I'm

00:03:05.240 just going to go through these questions because I feel as if I go through these questions, then we'll

00:03:09.320 be getting to articulate and define where we fall on this scale and where maybe we should move and

00:03:15.700 consider. So, let's just get right into the questions. Number one, do you kill or do you

00:03:20.800 graze? Do you go out there and kill what you eat or do you simply graze upon what you eat?

00:03:28.600 And I also wrote in here, who's doing your dirty work? Are you in there getting the dirty work done

00:03:33.040 or are you relying on something just to be there and you're picking the low-hanging fruit

00:03:37.120 and whatever's available, then you're going to eat whatever's available or are you actively

00:03:42.000 going out, doing your dirty work, doing the work required, putting in the effort to kill what you

00:03:48.200 eat? And that's one of the primary differentiating factors between a predator and a prey is what do

00:03:54.340 you kill? What do you eat? What do you feed on and who does it and how does it get done? And are you

00:03:58.740 willing to do it yourself? Because I'll tell you, I've seen a lot of guys out there who, you know,

00:04:02.960 they barely get by and they kind of float and they kind of coast and they wait for different

00:04:07.280 welfare type programs and stimulus packages. Maybe they'll try to fly under the radar when it comes to

00:04:14.080 employment and do as little as possible so that maybe they get their paycheck and they don't get

00:04:19.920 fired. That's really a lot of these people's goals. And of course, that's not going to serve you

00:04:24.180 well. That's not you. You aren't interested in just barely coasting by. You're interested in killing

00:04:29.860 what you eat, going out there and performing and doing what needs to be required, what is required

00:04:35.440 in order to perform at your fullest. So again, question number one is, do you kill or do you

00:04:42.600 graze? Number two, are you reactive or are you responsive? Are you reactive or are you responsive?

00:04:50.920 Because if you look at the difference between a predator and a prey, I would say more than anything,

00:04:56.300 a predator is a very responsive and a prey is going to be more reactive. And what I mean by that is

00:05:04.780 what's the difference is that reaction is based on the action of others. So if you get a call from

00:05:12.000 an employee, then you're just reacting. If you get a call from your wife, you're reacting. If

00:05:15.340 something's going on with your kids, you're reacting. And so it's constant reaction and you're

00:05:19.040 never getting ahead of the curve. And this is a lot of issue with a lot of men. They aren't ever

00:05:24.020 willing to get out ahead or even capable of getting out ahead of the curve. And they always

00:05:29.000 feel like they're behind the eight ball because they are. They're just reacting over and over and

00:05:33.580 over and over and over and over again. Every situation that comes up, they're just reacting to

00:05:37.960 it versus being responsive, which is planning ahead, being calculated, going out and looking for

00:05:44.920 opportunities, looking for threats, looking for what might be wrong, looking for those opportunities

00:05:50.320 that could potentially present themselves today. That's what it means to be responsive.

00:05:54.300 And so the difference between a predator and a prey is that a predator is responsive,

00:05:58.720 right? A predator gets up and is actively going out and looking for food. That's what it does.

00:06:06.020 They're going to get up, they're going to go to the watering hole or wherever they've seen

00:06:09.940 activity in the past. They're going to formulate a plan. Even if it's instinctively,

00:06:14.420 they're going to formulate that plan. They're going to come up with a plan of attack and they're

00:06:17.780 going to respond to the environment based on what's around them. Okay. But a prey on the other

00:06:23.520 hand is going to be reacting. If something goes wrong, it's simply going to react just because

00:06:28.600 they see something go South. And so many men act like prey in this category and this, this question

00:06:33.900 and, and they're always behind guys and they always struggle. So you need to really consider that

00:06:41.880 maybe you ought to take a step back every once in a while and think about what you want out of your

00:06:46.940 life that you aren't so reactionary all the time. What is your daily plan? Do you have a daily plan?

00:06:54.760 What do you do every single morning before you get started with your day? I'm a huge, huge advocate

00:06:59.280 for having some sort of battle plan in the morning. Now we have a couple of resources available and you

00:07:05.320 can use those or use your own. I don't care. But what matters is that you're actually proactive.

00:07:11.400 You're responding to the environment. You're responding to situations. You're more thoughtful,

00:07:16.980 you're more calculated, uh, and you're going to achieve, I believe better results when you are

00:07:21.580 versus you're always reacting. You know, another thing about being reactive is it tends to be hyper

00:07:27.040 emotional. And I'm never wanting to tell you that you, you, you shouldn't tune into your emotions or

00:07:33.060 you shouldn't understand what it is. Your emotions are trying to teach you or, or tell you,

00:07:37.420 but if you're relying solely on the emotion, it's very reactive. And a lot of the times it can be,

00:07:45.400 uh, it can be to your detriment. You know, you can say things or do things that are not going to

00:07:51.200 serve you or other people. Well, uh, so, uh, uh, a responsive individual on the other hand might take

00:07:58.260 into consideration, uh, their emotions, but they aren't driven solely by their emotions. They can

00:08:04.760 keep a level head and a calmness and clarity because they've planned and they're ready for

00:08:09.580 what may happen. So again, question number one, predator or prey, do you kill or do you graze?

00:08:14.920 Number two, are you responsive or are you reactive? Number three, are you focused or easily distracted?

00:08:23.420 Think about a prey for a little bit. And I've spent a lot of time, a lot of hours,

00:08:28.300 not as much as some of you up in the tree stands, watching deer as I'm trying to hunt and kill and

00:08:35.420 do what I do as a, as a hunter. But it's very interesting to watch a deer, uh, graze or come

00:08:43.800 into a food plot or just, or, or wander by on the path. They're very, very distracted.

00:08:49.800 So they'll come into a food plot, for example, uh, and they'll graze on the food and they'll kind of,

00:08:55.200 you know, wander around, mosey around a little bit. And then the slightest little movement,

00:08:59.560 they're like pop up and they look around and they go back to grazing. Slightest little movement,

00:09:03.480 pop up, look around. Slightest little movement, pop up, look around over and over and over again.

00:09:08.360 It's almost comical. And you kind of have to try not to laugh because you know, you're in a tree

00:09:12.460 stand trying to be quiet. Uh, but, but that's what, that's what prey do. And that's what a lot of men do.

00:09:17.900 They're so easily distracted. The bright, shiny object, the thing over here, the person yapping over

00:09:23.160 here. It's like constant distraction, constant, just all over the place going a million miles an

00:09:29.600 hour, but not really going anywhere because they're distracted. All right. But the prey on the other

00:09:34.820 hand is focused laser, like focus crystal clear on what that individual wants. Focus solely on that

00:09:45.640 objective is not going to be distracted by outside sources and outside factors, but is very clear and

00:09:53.960 intentional about what they want. And, and I would have you ask yourself, what are you, are you easily

00:10:00.580 distracted or can you focus for long and sustained periods of time? You know, and I've thought about

00:10:07.720 it in the context of this podcast and this movement, we've had a lot of tremendous success,

00:10:11.980 specifically over the past several months. And it would be easy to say, well, you know,

00:10:16.020 you, you got lucky or you're an overnight success. Well, I've been doing this for six years.

00:10:21.340 All right. It isn't luck. It isn't an overnight success. And there's nothing really all that special

00:10:26.840 about me or what we're doing. I'll tell you the only thing that's different from me or somebody who

00:10:31.260 may not be succeeding at the same level is that I'm very, very good at focusing my attention

00:10:37.040 on doing what needs to be done in order to drive the mission forward. And I can do it for long and

00:10:42.740 sustained periods of time. That's it. It's not some special, magical, mystical power or skillset

00:10:50.660 that I have. It's just that I'm hyper-focused and I can get things done because I realize how

00:10:56.220 important it is towards the long-term vision and the long-term mission. That's why I'm sitting here

00:11:01.520 in Detroit right now in a Airbnb house that I have after getting done, recording a podcast,

00:11:09.080 sitting here and recording another podcast for you guys, because I realized how important this work

00:11:14.560 is. And so I'm focused on getting that done. Are you focused or are you easily distracted?

00:11:20.060 All right. Number four, do you run towards hardship or do you run away?

00:11:25.940 Think about the relationship between predator and prey. All right. Prey is running away from

00:11:33.980 things. They're always running away from things. They don't want to get killed. They don't want to

00:11:37.780 get eaten. Understandable. And so what do they do? They run away. Predators on the other hand,

00:11:42.940 what do they do? They run towards. They're always running towards something. They're pursuing,

00:11:47.280 they're chasing, they're going after their prey, but that could be synonymous with their dream or their

00:11:54.200 goal or their ambition and objectives. Like, what are you going after? If you're prey,

00:11:59.600 you're running away from things. Basically, let me say that you're just, you're afraid of what might

00:12:08.160 happen. You don't put yourself in challenging situations. You let your ego get in the way

00:12:15.160 because you don't want to look like a fool. And so when anything even remotely challenging in your life

00:12:21.380 comes up, you run away from it. You cower and you, and you don't stay involved. A predator,

00:12:29.200 on the other hand, sees exactly what he wants and doesn't make any, any kind of weird expectations

00:12:36.280 about it not being hard. They know it's going to be hard, which is why the planning and the

00:12:39.880 responsiveness comes in. They know it's going to be hard and yet they still run towards it. So there

00:12:45.600 isn't some weird expectation. They know exactly what it is. And now they're moving towards their

00:12:52.380 goal, towards their desires, towards their objectives. Even in the face of difficulty

00:12:57.220 and challenge and adversity and struggle, they're running towards it. Which one are you? Are you

00:13:04.340 running away from challenges and hardship or are you running towards them so you can better,

00:13:09.480 make yourself better and more capable of achieving your goals and objectives? And the last one,

00:13:14.060 guys, here, the last question, and we'll recap these again. But the last question I wrote down

00:13:17.420 here is, do you play to win or not to lose? Because predators want to win at all costs. In fact,

00:13:28.340 they have to because they're hungry. They want to eat. And so they're willing to take risk. Now,

00:13:35.740 you don't need to be reckless and I'm not suggesting you should, but there's some risks that you need to

00:13:39.700 take. If you want to start that business, it's going to be risky to put some money up,

00:13:45.640 to take some time, to invest some time. If you want to grow and manage and build and develop and

00:13:51.780 strengthen your, the relationships you have with other people, then you're going to need to invest

00:13:57.020 your time and your energy and attention. And you're going to need to let them know that you care about

00:14:01.560 them and that this thing is important to you. That can be risky. You're putting, you're putting it all

00:14:06.720 out on the line. You're putting your balls on the chopping block in a lot of instances when you do

00:14:10.340 these things. But are you playing to win? Because if you are, that's what you'll do.

00:14:17.380 You'll risk. You'll put it all out there because you realize what you can accomplish is greater than

00:14:23.560 the fear and the setback and the difficulty of struggling. But prey on the other hand, they play not

00:14:30.920 to lose, right? They're not going out there and living their best life. They're not. The kind of life

00:14:35.720 they're living is one of mediocrity, complacency, scraping the bottom of the barrel, just getting

00:14:45.400 by, living paycheck to paycheck, having a mediocre relationship, being slightly dissatisfied in your

00:14:54.040 work, being overweight. This is prey mentality. Like I'm just going to sit here and I'm just going to

00:15:01.040 graze on this food and you know, it's here. I don't have to work for it, but it's here. And so

00:15:05.700 like, I guess this is life. And they resign themselves to living that way.

00:15:11.660 They're satisfied, right? Where predator are hungry, prey are satisfied. They're content.

00:15:18.620 Are you? And if you are, then maybe you're more closer to the prey category than the predator

00:15:25.320 category. And I'll tell you, this is a sliding scale too, guys. Like if you're in the position

00:15:30.480 to write these down, I would suggest that you write this stuff down and then give yourself an honest

00:15:35.260 assessment about where you stand on each of these questions. And it's a sliding scale. You're not

00:15:38.460 going to be all predator on one side and all prey on the other. In fact, there's times where maybe

00:15:43.420 you need to shift the scale a little bit, but generally and overall, I think all of us would

00:15:51.340 say that we're working more towards becoming a predator, working towards making ourselves better

00:15:58.180 and more capable and living life to the fullest. So let's recap. Again, do, do an assessment and then

00:16:05.360 ask yourself how you can move further on the other side of the scale than maybe you currently are.

00:16:10.260 Number one, the first question, do you kill what you eat or do you simply graze upon what's there?

00:16:16.700 And who's doing your, your rough work? Who's doing your dirty work? Are you, you asking other people

00:16:22.640 to, to live your life, to, to, to manage your responsibilities, to hope that they're going to

00:16:28.060 take care of it? Or are you going all in and you're doing that work? And that's not to say you shouldn't

00:16:32.980 delegate. Don't misunderstand me. You should, but things are your responsibility. And so whether you

00:16:39.540 delegate that to somebody else or you get it done yourself, it's your responsibility. A predator knows

00:16:44.400 that it's his responsibility. A prey just kind of meanders and moseys along and hope everything's

00:16:49.640 there and turns out. And hopefully there's food in that plotter over there. And if not, well, I guess

00:16:54.980 I'm going to die. And that's kind of the prey mentality. Number two, are you responsive or are

00:17:00.740 you reactive? Are you thoughtful? Are you calculated? Are you cunning? Are you planning out your day? Are you,

00:17:09.420 you mapping out what you want to accomplish? Are you calculated in the way that you go about doing

00:17:14.280 that? Are you looking for opportunities? Are you trying to observe any potential threats?

00:17:21.160 Are you planning? What contingency plans do you have in place? Are you working with other people?

00:17:26.440 What assets do you need? What assets do you have? How do you deploy those assets most effectively?

00:17:31.720 Or are you just reactive? Like, oh shit, like this happened. I got to, I got to deal with this real

00:17:34.980 quick. Oh, my wife's having a bad day. Oh no, I got to deal with that. Oh, and then you get stressed

00:17:39.620 out and she's stressed out and everything goes worse. Or something bad happens. Oh, you know,

00:17:44.240 this is going bad. I'm just going to have a drink because like, I can't deal with this right now.

00:17:48.420 Okay. You can clearly see that's not going to serve you. And yet we all do it. I'm guilty of

00:17:54.080 these things as well. I'm guilty of moving over to the prey category more often than maybe I'd like

00:17:59.760 to admit, but I am trying to be thoughtful about it and you should as well. And that's the difference

00:18:03.900 between being responsive and being reactive is thoughtfulness versus just leading with entirely

00:18:10.340 with your emotions, which isn't really going to serve you well. Number three, are you focused

00:18:15.040 or are you easily distracted? Are you laser-like? Are you moving towards a clear, definitive goal

00:18:22.480 and solution? Are you looking for the problems that are there? Are you coming up with the solutions?

00:18:26.680 Again, are you deploying the right assets? Are you making the right moves? Or are you going towards a

00:18:32.440 path? And then you see something else. You're like, Oh, nevermind about that thing. I want this

00:18:35.500 thing over here. A lot of you guys do it in the gym. Like I see people do this in the gym all the

00:18:39.480 time. They'll, they'll get on a workout program or they'll hire somebody and, and, and they'll do it

00:18:45.080 for like two weeks. If that, they're like, Oh, I'm not seeing results. And then they shift. It's like,

00:18:50.620 okay, well, you know, might, might've taken you two or three decades to get you to where you are

00:18:55.580 right now. What makes you think that in the next two weeks, you're going to have everything figured out.

00:18:59.500 And so they shift every two weeks shift, every two weeks shift. People do it with all sorts of

00:19:05.720 cars. And there's another thing, you know, stuff, consumerism. Oh, buy a new car, buy a new car,

00:19:11.460 buy a new car. Oh, this one's kind of dirty. I'll just buy a new one. It's like, well, hold on.

00:19:15.680 Like maybe, sure. Maybe you need a new car or maybe you just, you don't need a new car and because

00:19:22.100 you're focused on paying off debt, right? So you and your wife talked about paying off debt,

00:19:27.320 uh, six months ago and you've been doing good. You've been doing good. And you're like, Oh,

00:19:32.400 my car's kind of dingy. Like, I'd really like to have this cool new car. And so you go out and you

00:19:35.720 buy a truck and you go $50,000 in debt again. It's like, well, what the hell, man? I thought you

00:19:41.240 were, I thought you, I thought you had an objective, a goal you wanted to accomplish. And you did too.

00:19:46.120 And then you let yourself down. And that's a whole other conversation and rabbit hole that we can get

00:19:51.520 down with regards to letting yourself down and what that does to your, your psyche. So try not

00:19:56.900 to get distracted, be focused. That's why I take notes for this podcast. For example, I've got notes

00:20:03.400 right here in front of my phone. Like I don't have everything scripted and written out, but I've got

00:20:08.200 points that I want to talk with you about because I want to stay on track because I want to be focused

00:20:12.100 in this thing. All right. Number four, do you run towards hardship or away? Are you pursuing and

00:20:19.900 chasing what you want? Or are you running from the things that you don't want? Like, I don't want

00:20:24.600 to be uncomfortable. I don't want to be in hardship. I don't want to be in pain. So I'm going to run

00:20:31.720 away from all of those things. And at the slightest sign of adversity, I'm going to run or I'm going to

00:20:37.800 crumble. Or do you look for hardship today, right now in your training? And by the way, training is not

00:20:46.500 just physical. It's mental, it's emotional, physical. Sure. It's also spiritual. Are you

00:20:53.380 looking for challenging situations right now so that when it matters and when it counts, you'll be

00:20:59.660 ready to go? You never want to be thrust into an environment that you haven't trained for. Now that

00:21:05.220 happens. Sure. But the more you can train and get yourself better now, the more capable you are of

00:21:12.480 dealing with those hardships and those challenges down the road. So what do you do? Run away or run

00:21:17.320 towards? And the last one here, guys, do you play to win? Are you playing your life to win the best of

00:21:23.520 the best? Or are you playing not to lose? Playing it safe, no risk, no putting yourself out there,

00:21:31.780 no potential opportunity or reward as well. Or are you playing to win? Throw it all on the line,

00:21:36.640 put your balls on the chopping block, go after what you want and make it happen.

00:21:41.040 Those are the differences. Maybe you guys have some more thoughts. If you do share with me

00:21:45.580 on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, email, whatever. I'm on all the places. So make sure you

00:21:55.640 share with me, take a screenshot. If other people in your life need to hear this, just take a screenshot

00:21:59.880 or copy the link, send them a text. It's a very simple way to not only spread the movement,

00:22:05.300 that's important, but also give people the resources they need. That's more important.

00:22:09.960 If you've got a guy in your life, whether it's your dad or your brother, a colleague,

00:22:13.500 a coworker, a neighbor, whoever that needs to know about this stuff, maybe you see that they're a

00:22:18.820 prey. Sometimes it's hard to point that out to somebody that you care about,

00:22:26.100 but maybe you could share this podcast as a resource for them. So do that. And then as always,

00:22:34.740 stay connected with me. Let me know what you guys are thinking. Leave the ratings and reviews.

00:22:38.880 I talked about the battle planner on this episode. You can check that out at our store. If you go to

00:22:43.620 order man.com on the top, you can click on store. You can go to 12 week battle planner.com. That's

00:22:49.480 our app. And you can also check out the iron council. All of us in the iron council are

00:22:55.420 predators, or at least we're working on becoming predators in, in many senses of the word. So if you

00:23:02.180 want to be around other guys who are working on the same things that you want to be working on,

00:23:06.480 then the iron council is a great, a great place for that. You can do that at order of man.com

00:23:10.600 slash iron council. All right, guys, we've got a killer lineup of podcast guests coming up over

00:23:16.300 the next couple of weeks. Uh, we've got Ben Shapiro next week. We've got Jason Wilson the

00:23:22.680 following week. We've got Jesse. It's literally the following week. Uh, and the hits will keep on

00:23:27.720 coming. We've got a lot of great guests lined up for a fall and winter. So again, make sure you

00:23:32.940 subscribe, leave that rating review and above all guys go out there, take action and become

00:23:38.400 the man you are meant to be. Thank you for listening to the order of man podcast. You're

00:23:43.280 ready to take charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be. We invite

00:23:47.520 you to join the order at order of man.com.

Order of Man - September 17, 2021

Predator or Prey？｜ FRIDAY FIELD NOTES

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