Prepare or Die | FRIDAY FIELD NOTES
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Summary
In this episode, Ryan talks about what it means to be a capable man and what it takes to be one. He also talks about the first snowfall of the winter so far, and how to deal with it.
Transcript
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You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest, embrace your fears, and boldly chart
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your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time, every time.
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You are not easily deterred or defeated, rugged, resilient, strong. This is your life. This is who
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you are. This is who you will become. At the end of the day, and after all is said and done,
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you can call yourself a man. Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan
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Mickler, and I am the host and the founder of this podcast and the movement that is Order
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of Man. I want to welcome you, whether you've been here forever or you're just tuning in
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for the very first time, which may be quite a few of you. We continue to grow, and this
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mission of reclaiming and restoring masculinity is something that seems to be resonating deeply
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with men throughout the entire country, throughout the entire world, and I'm honored that you're
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here banded with us in reclaiming and restoring what it means to be a man. It's pretty interesting
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to say the least, and at a minimum regarding what's going on in society with their thoughts
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collectively on gender and sex and masculinity and femininity, and it's my goal to give every
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man who's tuning in and listening the tools and the resources that they need to step up
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and become more capable fathers, husbands, business owners, community leaders, et cetera,
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et cetera, men in general. I had a really good opportunity last week to go to London and sit
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down with my friend, Brian Rose on the London real podcast. So I was grateful that he allowed
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me to do that. And it's good to be back stateside and it's good to be back here again, podcasting,
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and hopefully you're getting the information that you want and need to be, become more of
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that capable man we talked about. So anyways, with that said, I want to get into the discussion
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today. Before I do, I just want to make a very quick mention of two of my show sponsors
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and our friends. The first is that origin main. Now these guys do a lot of, a lot of apparel
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when it comes to jujitsu, but they also do a lot of lifestyle apparel. And specifically
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one thing you've heard me talk a lot about are their boots. We just did a giveaway several
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weeks ago. One lucky winner won a brand new pair of origin made in America, sourced in
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America boots. And pardon the noise. You may hear a big snow plow in the background. We got
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our first snow here in Maine and it's been kind of crazy and new to me. So you'll have to pardon
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that noise until we get that figured out. Anyways, origin again, uh, their boots, go
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check them out. Also their supplemental lineup, uh, which is partnered up with Jocko. It's the
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joint warfare. It's the discipline, which is their pre-workout, the milk, which is their
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protein. Uh, and then they have their cognitive enhancer called discipline. Go it's a drink
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that I think you guys will like as well. You can check it out at origin, Maine, uh, as in
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the state, Maine.com and use the code order or DER at checkout for a discount there. Uh,
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in addition, Sorenex exercise equipment, these guys make obviously exercise equipment. Uh,
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they have some of the best kettlebells, some of the best center mass bells, which are, you've
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heard me talk about hollow balls. Uh, they're rounded out bells essentially with a handle
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in the middle, very versatile. Uh, and as it's starting to get a little colder here, and
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again, we got our first snow, I've been using a lot of their exercise equipment in the
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house, which has been very, very nice. Don't have to go outside in the cold. Although I
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have to figure that out to get under my squat rack that they also made. So check it out at
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Sorenex, S-O-R-I-N-E-X.com, Sorenex.com. Again, a hundred percent made and sourced in America
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exercise equipment. You won't be disappointed with either. So today I want to talk with you
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about being prepared. Now I mentioned earlier, uh, that we had our very first snow here in
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Maine. And although it's not a lot of snow, it's something new to me, something that I will
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need to learn how to deal with as well as my family. Uh, and it got me thinking about this
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morning as I woke up to quite a bit of snow on the ground, uh, again, relative to me, probably
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not relative to Mainers, uh, what I have done as far as being prepared and maybe what I even
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failed to do. And I think it's very, very important that we talk about being prepared,
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that we talk about our role as providers and presiders and protectors of ourselves and our
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families and those that we have a responsibility for. And I have seen so many men who have failed
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to prepare adequately in their life. And I titled this prepare or die, uh, quite literally, it could
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be death, uh, or it could just represent a very serious and grave concern or threat to your own
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wellbeing or the wellbeing of those you have a responsibility for. So it is our responsibility.
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It is important that we prepare and anticipate what's going to come up and be ready for those
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things as they do. Uh, whether you're talking about battle as I did in the military, uh, whether
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you're talking about going out into the workforce and, uh, trying to get new clients, whether you're
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talking about your finances in a previous life, I was a financial advisor. I was pre beard and pre
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order of man. Uh, I had to talk with people about being prepared all the time, prepared for
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retirement, uh, prepared for unforeseen events that might pose a risk to their finances and wellbeing.
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Uh, it could also be being prepared for potential medical conditions and problems that come up in
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your physical health. Basically any aspect of your life where something could go wrong, which is
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everywhere. It's your responsibility to be prepared for those events and those potential threats that
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could, uh, expose some vulnerability in your plan and your approach to life. And again, those you have
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responsibility for. So what I've done is I've listed out five different ideas and five different ways,
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as I do most Friday field notes, uh, how you can be more prepared and how you can avoid some
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catastrophic event or some, uh, dangerous situation, or at least putting yourself in, in a place of
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vulnerability, which although is quite the buzzword these days, uh, we don't, we don't want to expose
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vulnerabilities. We want to recognize them. And I'm actually going to talk with you about that today
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only so we can feel them only so we can shore up those weaknesses. And that's what being prepared is
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all about. It's about acknowledging your short, your, your shortcomings, your weaknesses, uh, the
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areas of potential threat, and then resolving them so that you can live a more fulfilling, more
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sustainable, more fulfilled life for yourself and those under your care. So I'll jump right into
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the five points that I had for you today. And hopefully this will make some sense. And hopefully
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you'll take these five ideas into your life and be more prepared, uh, in, in regards to what you can
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do to protect yourself and others. So the first one is accepting your role. Now I've talked about this
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at length, that it's a man's job to be a protector, a provider, and a presider. It's very,
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very important that we acknowledge and accept that as our role, because if we don't, and we
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anticipate or hope that somebody else will do it for us, we put ourselves in an inferior position.
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It's never a good idea. And it's not even a strategy to hope and pray that things are going
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to work out the way that you would like them to. If we don't accept that responsibility, if we don't
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realize that it is our job to do these things, then we are going to find ourselves in a position
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that's less advantageous. And of course, uh, potentially dangerous and catastrophic to our
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own wellbeing. So I realized that there's a lot of guys out there who don't fully want to accept
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responsibility, uh, because there's a lot of reasons. I think a lot of guys have been led to
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believe just in modern society that somehow they have been mocked and dismissed and ridiculed. And
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they're, they're tired of that to a degree. And so they've decided to disengage altogether.
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That's not a healthy approach to life. It's definitely not a, an approach that's going to
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be fulfilling or rewarding or profitable for you. Uh, and I think it's a, it's an immature way to look
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at things just because somebody may not appreciate entirely what it is you're doing. Doesn't mean that
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you get to absolve yourself of the responsibility of doing it. Now you have to make decisions in your life
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and you have to decide what's worth fighting for and what battles you're going to engage in,
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which we've talked about at length, but ultimately you're going to be better off when you fully
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embrace that you have been biologically designed, not societally constructed, but biologically designed
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to protect yourself, your loved ones, your family, your friends, and those who are unable to protect
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themselves that you have been biologically designed and hardwired to provide not only financially,
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but provide the resources, the raw resources that you and your family and community members need to
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thrive and to preside, to lead effectively. And the skillsets that you have, the masculine
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characteristics and traits like strength and grit and, uh, emotional maturity and mental fortitude,
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your ability to be decisive, your ability to take risks inherent as being a man are,
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are a great qualifier for you presiding for you leading. And the sooner that we accept that,
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the sooner we embrace that, uh, the more fully that we attempt to step into those roles,
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the more fulfilled you're going to be. And ultimately you're going to realize that it is
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your responsibility and it is your job to be prepared for financial challenges, health challenges,
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challenges that may come up in the family, physical threats or altercations. Uh, for me,
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when it comes to being here in Maine, the, the level of snow, I know that we're going to get is
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being prepared for the winter and what threats that, that poses to me and my family safety.
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So I have fully accepted that role. Now my family has a part to play. My wife certainly has some
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responsibility in this, but ultimately the buck stops with me. And I feel like if I recognize that,
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I acknowledge that I embrace that, then we're going to be more adequately prepared.
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Number two is just realizing and anticipating that adversity is going to come up, that there
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are going to be challenges and that you can't fully escape them. You can't fully recognize or
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identify what those things are going to be ahead of time either. But if you acknowledge that adversity
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is going to happen, you acknowledge that there is going to be trials and, and, and challenges,
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and you try to anticipate what those things actually might be, then you set yourself up in a better
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position to deal with the things that may actually come up. So I've been dealing with, uh,
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getting the heating system up and running in our house. I've been dealing with just in case the power
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goes out and it has been known to go out around here that we have a backup generator. So our power
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stays on and we can continue to get heat and water in the house. Um, you know, anticipating the
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fact that I'm going to have to shovel off the driveways, uh, not only with a hand shovel,
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but either a snowblower or a tractor or a plow, uh, which I have invested in because I realized
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those are potential threats. I know a lot of guys are hesitant to invest in making sure they're
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prepared, whether it's the tools, like I just shared with you, because you're in a situation where
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it may snow and you need to protect yourself that way or food storage or investing for retirement
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in the future. They're worried about investing those assets because they don't think that they'll
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ever need to address them or that they're invincible, that they don't have to worry about,
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uh, taking care of their health or even insurance because they're never going to get sick or injured
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or hurt. And of course we know that this is an asinine thought, but we have this weird thing.
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And I think it's, I think it's innately in men, maybe more generally in men that we were invincible
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and we overestimate our abilities to keep ourselves and others safe. Did a great podcast earlier in
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the week with James Yeager. Uh, and the quote that I used for the title of the podcast was we don't
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rise to the level of our expectations. We fall to the level of our training. Well, we also fall to
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the level of our preparation. And if you're not prepared for that rainy day, then you're going to
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find yourself in a bad situation. And hopefully somebody else will be around to help you, to save you,
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to rescue you. But do you want to rely on that? Of course you don't. So start thinking about in
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your environment, what situations may come up. And as you begin to anticipate these, you're naturally
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and inevitably going to start working plans in place to keep yourself from being in that position
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of wanting when the day of reckoning comes the third component. And I think this will help us more
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fully anticipate the adversity that's going to come up is that you have to, uh, recognize
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or acknowledge authority. All right. There are authorities on the subject of the issues
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that you're going to be dealing with, whether it's financially related, whether it's health
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related, whether it's environmentally related, like we're dealing with the snow here. Uh, there
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are authorities. There are people who have gone through this before. There are people who
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are experts in the subject. And sometimes we, as men don't want to look to those experts because
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we think that that may pose a risk to our fragile ego. Well, the greater risk is not to our ego.
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The greater risk is that adversity that we're, we're potentially going to face. If we don't
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acknowledge that there are authorities on the subject. So when somebody who's an authority speaks
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to you about, uh, improving your situation, uh, keeping yourself protected and safe. And those
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that you have an obligation for, you probably ought to be quiet and listen, acknowledge that
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authority, uh, recognize it, do what that authority says. And you're going to put yourself in a better
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position. Again, we have this tendency of overestimating our own abilities or underestimating
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what might actually happen to us. And because we do that, we have a false sense of expectations
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around what could potentially happen to us. So we have to learn as men to drop the ego,
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drop the arrogance, drop the desire to be right all the time and to know everything and recognize
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that there's other people who know more about you and I about subjects than we do. And it's okay that
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we acknowledge those people. In fact, the more that we acknowledge those people, the more that
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we position ourselves for winning, for success, for thriving and overcoming the, uh, the dangers
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that we will inevitably faces as humans. So what I would challenge you to do when it comes to this
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is look around in your own life and try to, try to figure out where there are some weaknesses and who
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are the authorities regarding those weaknesses that you could reach out to who in your circle could
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help you with, uh, the physical environment, who in your circle can help you with your finances, who in
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your circle is the healthiest individual who will help you maintain or, or stay on track
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or get your health back in order. Who are these people? These are the individuals that you need
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to have in your inner circle. And I've got all of these checked off because I recognize that there's
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people who know more than I do. I want to put myself in the best position. We don't know what we
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don't know. And unless you're surrounding yourself with people who do know you're going to find
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yourself in a bad way, acknowledge authority. Number four, don't waste time. I mean, we, when,
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when the sun is shining, it's easy to think that everything's good and everything's wonderful and
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nothing's ever going to happen. And we can coast and we can rest and we can take it easy. And if you
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do that, then you have all of this time, which is a finite resource. You have all of this time that
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you have, have frittered away that you've completely wasted. And that time could have been
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used to protect yourself, to build up reserves, to save and invest money, to be exercising, to eat
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right, to invest in the equipment that you need to keep yourself and your family safe. Don't waste
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time. The best thing I've done with regards to not wasting time is that I have, and I've showed you
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guys this before in some of the videos is I have these field notes that I keep everywhere. And I've
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got over on this other desk, my battle planner every single day without fail. And every single
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afternoon, I'm going through that battle planner and I'm looking at what needs to be done. I'm looking
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at the priority of things. I'm looking at what my biggest accomplishments for the day will be.
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I'm going through at the end of the day and recapping and seeing where I fell short, seeing what I got
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done, seeing what I didn't get done so that I can be more effective the next day. Having a plan in
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place will help you to be more efficient and know exactly what needs to be done. Sometimes men who
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seem to waste more time than others, it's because they don't have a plan. They have no strategy or
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system in place. And sometimes they don't even know what they need to do because they've got all
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these ideas and things that need to get done bouncing around their brain, but they never
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crystallize it by writing it down in a plan. And then when they don't know what to do,
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they kind of think around and dink around and, and waste time when all they really had to do was
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if they would have done some planning is look in their list and say, okay, now this is next. This
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is next. This is next. This is next. And not only is it going to help you be more prepared for these
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inevitable, if I can say that inevitable life experiences, but you're just going to feel better
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about yourself. You're going to be more rewarded and more fulfilled. And ultimately you're going
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to develop more confidence. One of the biggest questions I get from the guys inside of the
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Facebook group and iron council is how, how they can build and develop confidence. We'll do things
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with your life that you'd be confident about. If you're wasting more time than you need, you're not
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going to be confident about that. And why should you be? You shouldn't, you shouldn't be satisfied
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with wasting time. So if you feel like you're down or you don't have this level of confidence,
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maybe you're just killing too much time. Maybe you don't have a plan or a purpose or direction
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or a focus or clarity on what needs to be done. So eliminate the wasting of time by having a plan,
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crystallizing what needs to be done, documenting it, working the plan, reviewing the plan, and then
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doing it over and over and over again, every single day. That's how you avoid wasting time.
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And the fifth component that I would share with you today is, is to kill procrastination.
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All right. We, we have a tendency, of course, some more than others to procrastinate, to put things
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off, to think that we have more time than we really do. You know, I thought about my life at age 38.
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And I think about my kids who are 11, nine, six, and three. And in it, you see, you think you have so
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much time, but then looking back, it's amazing how time, how quickly it goes. I mean, my 11 year old,
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11 years is really, really strange to think about. I've been married for 15 years. We've been together
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for 17. I mean, we're almost 20 years. I've been out of high school for 20 years. Time flies and goes
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so fast and we have less time than we think. And when, when, when we procrastinate and put things off
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and believe that we have time to do it tomorrow or the next day or the next day, what happens is we
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get caught with our pants down. We get surprised, we get caught off guard. And of course, you know,
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that's, that's at direct odds with our ability to protect, provide, preside, to be the men that
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we're capable of becoming. So a lot of guys ask, how do you get rid of procrastination? How do you
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kill that? How do you limit procrastination? Again, it comes back down to having a plan.
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If you have a plan in place and you know what you need to do, you're going to be less likely to
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procrastinate. And also if you're excited about what you're doing, if you found meaning and purpose in
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what you're doing, if you weren't excited about it, you weren't hopped up on it. Yeah. I mean,
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of course, you're not going to, you're not going to be engaged and anxious to do it. And of course,
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there's days where I feel like, you know, maybe I don't want to podcast or I don't want to send out
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emails or do a social media post or any number of things that I need to do on a daily basis.
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But I see my tasks, even the things that may be menial or seemingly insignificant. I see it in
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the grand scheme of things, which is ultimately for me being the most capable husband, father,
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community leader, leader of my business, friend, mentor, just man in general that I can be. And
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because I can see all of the activities I do on a daily basis in the framework of the greater man that
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I want to become, I am motivated. I am excited. And I have the discipline to go through and commit
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and follow through on the things that I said I would do. So that's it guys. We can't not be prepared
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and we can't hope and pray. That's not a plan. And we can't rely on other people to do it. Although
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there may be somebody there who is willing to do it, who may rescue you. If you find yourself in a bad
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situation, it's not a great strategy. In fact, it's an inferior strategy and it's one that will
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expose you and the people you love to all kinds of financial, physical, mental, emotional, and
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spiritual threat. And your job is to be the sentinel, to be the protector, the guardian against
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those threats to keep your family safe. There's a quote and I, I'm going to butcher it, but he says,
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the real man gains renown by standing between, uh, between the blows of fate and destruction
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with equanimity. I butchered that. I know you can look it up because it's a great quote. And that's
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your job. Your job is to stand between the blows of fate and ultimate destruction for the, for your
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family and the people you care about with equanimity, which is confidence, clarity, focus,
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boldness, courage, and all of those things can be fostered through these five steps. When it comes
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to preparing yourself, your family, your loved ones, and those are who are incapable of fending for
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themselves. Again, as a recap, number one, accept your role as the protector, the provider, the presider.
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Number two is to anticipate the adversities that are going to come up, recognize what they are,
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think about what they may be ahead of time. So you can prepare yourself. Number three is to
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acknowledge that there is authority on these subjects, recognize the authority, do what the
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authority says so that you can position yourself in a better, in a better spot. Number four, do not
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waste time, have a plan, make a battle plan or a daily plan, whatever tool you want to use and don't
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waste that time. And number five is kill that level of procrastination that all of us have a tendency
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of falling into recognize that now's the time. There's no better time than doing it right now.
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And even if it's something you don't want to do, I get it. Do it anyways, because it's important
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because that's what's required of you as a man. Anyways, guys, I hope that helps. Please connect
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with me. Let me know what you're doing in your own life to keep yourself prepared. Let me know how
00:23:06.680
you're preparing yourself. Let me know how you're implementing these five steps in order to be more
00:23:10.560
prepared. Share this stuff on, on Facebook and YouTube and Instagram and Twitter. Right now,
00:23:16.640
I'm very, very active on YouTube. Obviously the video's there. So you can head to youtube.com
00:23:21.700
slash order of man. And I'm also hyperactive on both Twitter and Instagram, which can both be found
00:23:28.380
at Ryan Mickler. My last name is spelled M I C H L E R. So I'll go ahead and leave you there
00:23:34.580
for the weekend. Have a great weekend. Remember it is your responsibility to protect, provide,
00:23:40.420
preside, and ultimately to prepare for the things that may come up. We'll be back on Tuesday for
00:23:45.580
another great interview. So make sure you subscribe to the show, subscribe to YouTube, connect with me
00:23:49.940
on Twitter and Instagram. And I just want to thank you for being in this battle to reclaim and restore
00:23:54.720
masculinity. We need it now more than ever. And please enlist yourself and other men into this
00:24:01.180
battle. All right, guys, get out there, take action, become the man you are meant to be.
00:24:06.020
Thank you for listening to the order of man podcast. You're ready to take charge of your life
00:24:10.580
and be more of the man you were meant to be. We invite you to join the order at order of man.com.