Tell the Truth | FRIDAY FIELD NOTES
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Summary
In this episode, I talk about the importance of telling the truth and why it is so important that we learn to be better at it. I also talk about a giveaway that's going on right now and how you can win it!
Transcript
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You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest. Embrace your fears and boldly charge
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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 Brian Michler.
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I'm your host and the founder of the Order of Man podcast and movement. Welcome here and welcome
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back. Today, I want to share with you a very quick message. This one's a bit off the cuff,
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but it's something I've been thinking about for, well, since the beginning of the year,
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because I had a theme starting in the beginning of the year of something that I wanted to personally
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improve upon, and that was telling the truth. Not that I was lying everywhere I go, but being
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more truthful about the way I feel and sharing things that might be conflicting to other people
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or might present some difficult or uncomfortable conversations. I'm going to share with you
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how this has gone over the past several months and explain to you why I think it's important that we,
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as men, learn to tell the truth more effectively, how it can serve us, what some of the pitfalls might be,
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and ultimately why it's so important that we do learn to be truth tellers.
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Before I get into that, guys, real quick, we've got a huge giveaway going on right now.
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We're really trying to boost and promote the visibility of the Order of Man podcast,
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and we're in the top 20 of the business podcasts in the world, which is a huge, huge accomplishment
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considering the tens, if not hundreds of thousands of podcasts that are out there.
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I want to thank you for that. It's not enough for me. I want to break the top 10. I want to get this
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message to the masses. I want this movement to become a household name. Part of the strategy
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behind doing that is bumping up our ratings and reviews. What we're doing on February 28, 2022,
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is doing a huge giveaway if you leave iTunes or an Apple podcast rating and review. I'm giving away a
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signed copy of our book, Sovereignty, The Battle for the Hearts and Minds of Men. We're giving away
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an Origin USA sourced and made heavy hoodie and a brand new pair of boots by Origin. We're giving away
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a Speedgoat, a Magna Cut stainless steel Speedgoat knife by Montana Knife Company. And we're also giving away
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a pair of 50-pound center mass bells from Sorenex. So, guys, these are companies that are making everything
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100% made and sourced in America. I support these guys. Obviously, they support what we're doing here.
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The way that you enter this contest is leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, iTunes, etc.
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Take a screenshot of the rating and review that you leave and email that to brandy
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at orderofman.com. So, again, iTunes rating and review. Take a screenshot of it. Email that screenshot
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to brandy, B-R-A-N-D-Y at orderofman.com. And you're entered. We're doing the giveaway or the drawing
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on February 28 at 7 o'clock PM Eastern time. All right, guys, let's talk about telling the truth.
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So, I mentioned to you that I made a goal of mine or a theme is probably the best way to put it
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of just being very truthful in all of my interactions. And I did that at the beginning
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of the year. And I usually do that per quarter. I come up with a theme, whether it's telling the
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truth or discipline or physical fitness, like whatever the theme is, I come up with a theme for
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the quarter. And so, for this quarter, it was all about telling the truth. Because frankly,
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there's been times in my life where I wouldn't say that I necessarily lied, but I withheld the
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truth. I withheld the way that I feel about things. And when I say truth, I'm actually talking about
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truth with a lowercase T. I'm not talking about objective truth. I'm talking about your perspective,
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your opinion, what's on your mind. And trust me, guys, I know there's a huge difference between
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truth and opinion, truth and perspective. You'll never hear me say my truth as a logical,
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coherent thought, because there is no my truth. When I'm saying truth in this case is what I'm saying
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is sharing your opinion, your perspective, what's on your mind. It's crucial that we do that because I
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think generally, most men are afraid to do that. We'll talk a big game and we'll pretend like we're
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badasses and everything else. But at the end of the day, how often have you been withholding
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information or withholding the way that you feel about a certain scenario? So, to give you an example,
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and I'm not going to get into specifics, but over the past couple of weeks, I've had some very,
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we'll call them uncomfortable business conversations with quite a few people. And these are conversations
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that I didn't want to have, that I don't look forward to having, but they've been on my mind
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and they've been bothering me lately. And normally what I would do is push those feelings down, subdue
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those thoughts and those ideas and not really want to have any sort of confrontation with anybody else.
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But again, I made a commitment that I was going to tell the truth, talk about how I feel with people.
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And if something's bothered me, I was going to bring it up. So again, over the past several months,
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I've had some serious conversations that have been looming over me that I really didn't want to have,
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but I decided to have them. And I can tell you that over the past several months,
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having these types of conversations has been very liberating for me. It's emboldened me.
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It's built my confidence. It's released some pressure that I've had or some negative thoughts
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that I've had about people because I've made the decision to, instead of just well it up inside,
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to actually have these types of conversations. And I think this is what men do. You know, we address
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hardship and confrontation head on. We don't hide from it. We don't shirk it. And we don't say that
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about ourselves. Like we don't say, well, I'm hiding from confrontation, right? What we do is we
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justify it. We say, ah, you know, I'm not going to bring that up because like, what's the bother?
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What's like, nothing's going to come of it. I don't want to ruffle any feathers, but really,
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I think for the most part, we're afraid, right? We're afraid of having those conversations because
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they're uncomfortable. They're awkward. You don't know what's going to come of those conversations.
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But as I've done this as an exercise over the past roughly 60 days now, I've realized that not
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only is it valuable for me to be able to express what's on my mind, but it's also valuable for the
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other person. So they can know exactly where I'm coming from. If something's bothering me with
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the way my wife, for example, is showing up, I need to communicate that with her, right? If it's
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bothering me, I'm going to act on the way that I feel about it. And it's not right. And it's not fair
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to her if I don't communicate that with her and give her an opportunity to see where I'm coming from.
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And so it is awkward. It is uncomfortable. It is confrontational in many instances,
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but over the past several months, the dozens of conversations that I've had that I've been putting
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off have overwhelmingly been positive. In fact, there hasn't been one conversation that's been
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negative because I've been willing to express what's on my mind. And that's what I want you guys
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to do. I want you to tell the truth about how you feel, about what's bothering you, about what's
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keeping you up at night, about what's frustrating you. There's so many men who want to share things
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about the way they see politics or the way they have a relationship with their wife or
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their business dealings. And they just, well, all that stuff up inside. And then they have the
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audacity to be frustrated and upset that nobody sees it their way. Guys, open your mouth and share
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the truth. So how does this manifest itself? Well, number one, you're going to start listening to how
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you feel about what's going on in the environment around you. A lot of guys will just say, well,
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I'm angry. I'm pissed. I'm upset. I'm sad. I'm mad. I'm whatever. And then they don't give a second
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thought about why that's the case. Maybe if you are willing to tell yourself the truth,
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you'll start to unpack and discover and explore why it is you feel the way that you feel.
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All right. You're going to show up for yourself. You're also going to show up for the people that
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you're trying to lead. If you're not willing to have uncomfortable conversations with the people
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you're trying to lead, you're actually doing them a disservice
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because you're not talking to them about what they need to know and learn and hear in order to
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improve themselves. It's crucial that we as leaders open our mouths and express our feelings and our
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thoughts without judgment. I don't think we need to be judgmental. There's a couple of conversations
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I've had just in the past week or so where, you know, initially I may have judged somebody
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and I tried to subdue that and I wasn't going to have conversations, but I reached out to the person
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and said, you know, no, this is what's bothering me. And here's why it's bothering me. I don't think
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less of you, but I want to express myself and tell you what's on my mind. And those conversations
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have gone over overwhelmingly good and productive and helpful. And we both walk away with a mutual
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understanding and more respect for each other. And that's one of the greatest fears I think men have
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is that if you tell the truth about how you feel about politics or how you feel about somebody's
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performance or how you're not getting what you feel like you deserve or what you need,
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that somehow that's going to undermine our ability to lead effectively guys. It isn't
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in my experience, it's going to foster and bolster trust and confidence and credibility and influence
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that you have with the people that you're trying to lead and the people that you want to serve.
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Tell the truth to other people. Now, one of the pitfalls that I see a lot of men fall into
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is they think that because I'm telling you to tell the truth and because you have a desire to tell
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the truth that you just get to go run your mouth. That's different. I'm not suggesting that you
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need to offer unsolicited feedback to somebody. You need to be very, very careful with unsolicited
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feedback because in what universe has unsolicited feedback ever been appreciated? And there's stuff
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that you don't have any right to get into other people's business about. Okay. So, you know, if you're
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offering unsolicited feedback to people or you don't have a right to have those conversations with people,
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like I get messages quite often from individuals who say, well, Ryan, you know, you should do this and you should
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do that. And the reason you're doing this is because, you know, you're, you're a loser or you failed or
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whatever. Okay. Look, I mean, maybe you're, you're speaking what's on your mind and on your heart,
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but what makes you think that I'm even open and receptive to that? If you're going to come across
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that way. All right. And it's not just me, it's the other people that you're trying to lead.
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Like you haven't earned the right to do that. Now there's other people in my life who can reach
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out to me and say, Hey, Ryan, like, man, I think you're screwing up. I think that thing you said,
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or the thing you were talking about was a little off base. Uh, and, um, from my perspective,
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here's what I, I would suggest, or here's how it came across, but those individuals have earned the
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right. They're in the position to do it. They have the authority to do it and they've earned the right
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to have those conversations with me. So be very, very careful with unsolicited feedback.
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And then also be very careful of just dumping all of your baggage onto other people and saying,
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they're at fault, they're wrong, they're stupid, they're morons, whatever. And instead just talk
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about the way that you feel. So if somebody says something negative about you, and I've had this
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situation where people have said things negative about me, people that are in my circle, you know,
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where I'm like, Oh, just let it slide. Like nobody, no, no, no, I'm going to bring that up. And so I
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reached out to individuals and I've said, Hey, you know, you said this thing about me and I'm having a hard
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time understanding again, not judgmental, but having a hard time understanding why you would say that
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when you and I have had deep conversations about what we're talking about, help me understand where
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you're coming from. And, and that confrontation is not comfortable for a lot of guys. It's not
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comfortable for me, but I've gotten better at it. I've improved. And when we walk away from those
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conversations to reiterate the point I was making earlier, we walk away with a newfound level of
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respect for each other. And I've expect, or I've, I've created boundaries in my life. I've
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communicated those boundaries and then I've upheld them with individuals who I feel like have crossed
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those boundaries. But if I make these covert contracts about, Hey, that guy shouldn't say
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this or do this or act that way, or my kids shouldn't behave this way, or my wife shouldn't
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treat me this way, but I'm unwilling to communicate those things with her or them. That's my fault that
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they continue to step over the line because they don't know where the line is. They don't know
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what's acceptable and what isn't acceptable. And you might say, well, they should just know.
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Well, they don't, they don't just know. So we need to be men and we need to communicate those things.
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And we also need to ensure that if we have beef or issue with somebody that we don't go around those
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individuals and backstab them and talk ill of those people, but that we speak the truth about the way
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that you feel about things and you address those people specifically. Now there's one other element
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of this that I really, really want to address. And that's speaking the truth to yourself,
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because we have an incredible, incredible ability to deceive who we are and how we individually
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are showing up. You know, we'll, we'll jump to all sorts of conclusions about why somebody else is
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doing what they're doing and how they're a loser and how they're an idiot and why they, why they suck.
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You know, those are the things that we'll do. And we, we won't afford them any sort of grace,
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any sort of comprehension or nuance or understanding, or even empathy towards that individual,
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but we'll do something in our own lives that we know is wrong, that we know we shouldn't be doing
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behavior. We know we shouldn't be engaged in, and we'll make up all sorts of justifications
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and rationalizations and excuses as to why that behavior is okay. So you'll excuse your own poor
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performance, but you're going to hold that judgmental card over somebody else. Guys, the
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first step to growth and progress in our lives is to be truthful about the reality of our current
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situation. If for example, in your mind and in your heart and in your soul, you know, you need to get
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in shape. The first thing you need to do is probably get on a scale and, and look at the scale, the
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objective truth about your scenario. It's not comfortable. Like you don't want to crystallize. You
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don't, you don't want to make tangible the fact that you're 50 or 80 or a hundred pounds overweight.
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Why would you want to do that? But telling the truth requires you do that. You don't want to jump
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on your, your bank account and see that you're negative 60, 70, 80, $200,000 in debt. Why would any
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human being want to do that? But if we've committed ourselves to telling the truth, then the first step
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is to have an objective look at where we are, not to beat ourselves up, not to call ourselves losers,
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not to say that we're pieces of shit, but to say, this is where I'm starting from objectively. I'm a
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hundred thousand dollars in debt. I'm 60 pounds overweight. If you don't have the balls to do
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that, nothing else in your life is going to change. Gentlemen, nothing. Stop justifying and
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rationalizing and excusing away the behavior and the thoughts and the way you're showing up and
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instead tell the truth that you're fat. Tell the truth that you're broke. Tell the truth that you're
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a drunk. Tell the truth that you are not a good father. Tell the truth that you've cheated on your
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wife. And if those things don't apply, I'm not talking to you, but if they do tell the truth about it
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and be honest with yourself about it so you can grow, so you can improve. If you pull the wool over
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your eyes and you pretend like you're perfect and nothing's wrong with the way you're showing up,
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then there's no reason for you to improve. And the problem with that is that deep down in your soul,
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you know you're wrong. Deep down in your soul, you know there's a problem. And you know that you're
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willfully being ignorant to that thing. And that is going to create confidence issues.
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That's going to create self-esteem issues. And when you have self-esteem issues, you're not going to
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show up for your family, for yourself, for your employees, for your clients, for your friends,
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the way that you have the potential to show up. Clear the air, start from scratch. One of my favorite
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quotes, I'm going to paraphrase a bit. I believe it comes from Bruce Lee. He says, no, not Bruce Lee.
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Is it Bruce? No. I was thinking about Bruce Lee earlier. I think it comes from maybe Gandhi. I don't
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know. You guys are going to have to look it up. I'm all Bruce Lee to Gandhi. I don't know how I got there,
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but it's either one of those guys or somewhere in between. Okay. And he says, each night I go to bed
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and I'm paraphrasing and I die. And when I arise in the morning, I'm reborn.
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Guys, today you have a clean slate. You have the opportunity to be somebody different than you were
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yesterday. But if you continue to fool yourself and trick yourself and hide from confrontational
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conversations and the things that are bothering you, then you're going to be the guy that you
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were yesterday. You don't want that. Nobody listening to this podcast wants to be the same
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person that they were yesterday. Nobody. Because if that was the case, you wouldn't be listening to
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this podcast. You're listening because you want to get better because you want to improve
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because you want to do more in life. And so today, when you are reborn, as you wake up,
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commit to telling the truth. If something's bothering you, share it.
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If you see something that's wrong, bring it up. If you know your behavior or your performance is less
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than adequate, address it. Face it. Head on. Like a man. That's what we as men do. Little boys hide and
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they run and they are scared and they cower. And men are scared too. Right? We're afraid.
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We don't like to talk about it, but we are. And it's okay to be afraid. It's okay to have that emotion.
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It's not okay to do nothing about it. Speak the truth. Share what's on your mind. Talk about the
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important issues. Start from objective reality in your own performance. You know, I see a lot of guys
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hiding behind anonymous social media accounts. I'm like, what is wrong with you? Like, what is wrong
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with you? Don't hide. Well, Ryan, I have to because, you know, I might lose my job. Okay. That's a
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problem. You're telling me that you can't speak the truth because you're afraid you're going to lose
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your job. Like just sit in that for a minute. Is that how you want to live? That you're so beholden
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to somebody else or getting a paycheck from somewhere else that you can't actually speak
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what's on your mind. What a horrible, tragic way to live your life. You might be there now. And if
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that's the case, do something about it so that when we talk about this next year, you aren't in that
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exact same position, build up your financial, uh, your wealth, pay off your debt. So you're not
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beholden to credit card companies and other, uh, uh, creditors like get like make yourself
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sovereign. That's the book I talked about in 2017. I believe it's like, make like sovereignty,
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the battle for the hearts and minds of men. Everybody wants control over you. And if you're hiding
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behind anonymous Twitter accounts or social media accounts, and you can't speak what's on your mind
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and you're afraid to tell your wife how you feel, and you can't have any sort of confrontational
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conversation with an employer or, or, or client because you're afraid of the ramifications,
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then you've made yourself subject to those people. And that's the antithesis to what it means to be a
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sovereign man. It all starts with truth guys. And again, I'm not talking about truth with a capital
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T. Okay. We all have our perspectives and sometimes they align and sometimes they don't. I'm talking
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about your perspective. I'm talking about the way that you feel about things. I'm talking about the
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lens of your own experiences in which you look through life. That's what I'm talking about.
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Um, and the way you feel is reality. That's like the way, again, the way you feel is subjective,
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right? It's, it's open to interpretation. You may be right. You may be wrong. Okay. But it's,
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it's subjective, but it's still reality. You still feel that way. And it is true that you feel that way.
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So express yourself, express yourself, have the difficult conversations, be honest with who you
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are and how you're showing up and share what's on your mind. This is the path to growth.
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It's the only path to growth. There's a lot of work that comes after it, but this is the first step
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towards the path of growth. All right, guys, I think you get it. Let me know what you think about
00:23:58.220
the podcast. Let me know what you think about the show. Again, we've got that huge iTunes,
00:24:01.620
Apple podcast rating and review, uh, contest going on, not even contest, just drawing. It's not a
00:24:07.740
contest. Just leave a rating and review on Apple podcast, iTunes, uh, take a screenshot of the rating
00:24:14.820
and review, email that screenshot to brandy, B-R-A-N-D-Y at order of man.com. And you're
00:24:21.880
entered. We're doing the giveaway for the signed copy of sovereignty, the origin heavy hoodie and
00:24:28.860
origin boots, the 50 pound pair of center mass bells by Sorenex and the Montana knife company
00:24:37.760
magna cut stainless steel speed goat knife. I've got it sitting right over there on my desk.
00:24:43.180
I'm anxiously waiting to give it to one of you guys. All right, guys, that's all I've got for
00:24:47.380
you today. Again, tell the truth, go out there and become a man. You are meant to be.
00:24:51.840
Thank you for listening to the order of man podcast. You're ready to take charge of your life
00:24:56.400
and be more of the man you were meant to be. We invite you to join the order at order of man.com.