Order of Man - July 12, 2019


The Rise of "Hollow Balls" ｜ FRIDAY FIELD NOTES


Episode Stats

Length

34 minutes

Words per Minute

189.53552

Word Count

6,518

Sentence Count

457

Misogynist Sentences

11

Hate Speech Sentences

19


Summary


Transcript

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.
00:00:10.440 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
00:00:27.060 Ryan Michler, and I am the host and the founder of this podcast and the movement that is Order of
00:00:32.740 Man. I want to welcome you to the podcast. Whether you've been listening for the past four years or
00:00:37.600 you're new, it's good to have you here. We need more men in this fight to reclaim and restore
00:00:41.640 masculinity, and that's exactly what I'm going to talk with you about today as I was reminded or
00:00:47.220 prompted to share some interesting information from my wife actually prompted this. So we're
00:00:54.060 going to get into that in a minute. If you are new, this is a show about again, reclaiming and
00:00:58.280 restoring masculinity. It's about making ourselves more capable as fathers and husbands and business
00:01:04.860 owners and leaders within the community. And I'm giving you the tools and the conversations that you
00:01:09.100 need to elevate your capabilities as a man. Now we've got this, your Friday field notes, which is
00:01:16.580 just some of my thoughts from throughout the week. We've got our ask me anything show, which is me and
00:01:20.780 my co-host Kip Sorensen, where we field questions from our exclusive brotherhood, the iron council,
00:01:26.060 and also the Facebook group. Uh, and then we've got our interview show where I'm interviewing the
00:01:30.880 world's most successful men. These are scholars, warriors, athletes, New York times, bestselling
00:01:36.540 authors, entrepreneurs, any man who has a successful story and has some information to share. So if you're
00:01:43.360 not subscribed, make sure you subscribe. Also, if you would please leave a rating and review,
00:01:47.460 that's your part. I don't ask a whole lot in these podcasts. In fact, I don't really ask much
00:01:51.860 of anything other than just that you take the information and apply it in your lives. But I also
00:01:55.780 ask that you share it, right? Go out in the world. Like I said, more men need to hear this.
00:02:00.360 More women need men to step up. More children need men to step up. And we have a awesome opportunity to
00:02:09.060 be able to share what it is we know about masculinity through this podcast. And then just the way that
00:02:14.040 we're showing up as well. So share it, leave a rating and review, and I would appreciate it if
00:02:17.840 you did. All right, guys, let's get into the conversation today. Uh, I was working out the
00:02:22.800 other day. And one of the things that I do when I work out is I use, uh, this little piece of
00:02:27.520 equipment, similar to a kettlebell that are called center mass bells. They're made by Sorenex. And I
00:02:34.060 really like them because they're very versatile, but essentially, like I said, they're, they're,
00:02:37.860 they're a, a round hunk of metal essentially that you can stick your hand in. And there's a
00:02:44.160 handle inside of those. And they're called center mass bells. Well, I was working out with them the
00:02:49.040 other day and my wife came out and she says, I really liked those hollow balls. That's what she
00:02:52.700 calls our center mass bell. She calls them hollow balls. And as funny as it was, uh, it really prompted
00:02:58.500 me to think about hollow balls. And I know it sounds funny. I know maybe, uh, it's a, it's a leap to make
00:03:06.380 this to come to this conclusion that I'm going to share with you today. But as I started thinking
00:03:10.600 about what she called these things, hollow balls, uh, it really made me think about what we see in
00:03:15.640 society and the increase, the rise, if you will, of hollow balls. Now, when I say that I'm talking
00:03:21.080 about hollow balls, as in figuratively, it seems that more and more men lack the testicular fortitude to
00:03:29.160 be the type of men that they're capable of being and that other people are relying upon them to be.
00:03:34.320 So I mean it both figuratively and I mean it literally as well, when it comes to levels of
00:03:38.800 testosterone and, uh, how we're showing up and the things that we're doing as, as men.
00:03:43.280 So I figured I'd talk with you on both fronts, both the figurative side of things and the literal
00:03:48.020 side of things and why it's so important that we reject the rise of hollow balls and that we
00:03:54.280 actually have, again, both literally and figuratively substance to what is our anatomy and who we are
00:04:02.200 as men. So let's talk about this from a figurative standpoint. When I say hollow balls, what are we
00:04:07.340 referring to here? Well, ultimately I'm referring to the feminization of, of our culture, the
00:04:12.480 feminization of society. And please, as you're listening to this, don't, don't misunderstand
00:04:16.600 me. There's nothing wrong with the feminine. All right. There's too many movements out there
00:04:21.000 in the, what has been dubbed. And I don't like this term necessarily the quote unquote
00:04:25.240 manosphere, uh, who seem to be at odds with women who seem to want to run away from women
00:04:33.660 who are quote unquote going their own way at the expense of entering into intimate relationships
00:04:40.820 with women. And I think that this is a very unhealthy way to approach life. I think if you're
00:04:47.680 rejecting women and you believe that women are the enemy, that you are probably just a scared
00:04:54.300 little boy who has been victimized or assumed the role of victim. And rather than approaching it in
00:05:01.720 a healthy manner, you've decided to take it to the extreme. So this idea of rejecting women and running
00:05:09.980 away from altogether is basically the equivalent for men of third wave feminist movements. So I don't
00:05:20.900 believe that's what we ought to be doing. I believe that there is power in femininity. I believe there's
00:05:26.820 a softness and an empathy and compassion in femininity that completes me in a way that, uh, my wife brings
00:05:35.420 something to the table that frankly, I don't bring all that much. And, and that completion of the
00:05:41.360 masculine and feminine is very powerful. So I throw that disclaimer out there because I want you to
00:05:46.240 understand that I don't believe that there's anything inherently wrong with femininity, but I do believe,
00:05:53.480 I do believe that there is danger in the overall and general feminization of society. Uh, it's actually
00:06:01.760 pretty interesting. Every time I make a post on Instagram or Facebook or wherever I'm, I'm on social
00:06:06.920 media. Uh, I inevitably have women who step into the conversation, which I don't mind. Uh, I want to hear
00:06:14.220 that perspective, but it's always fascinating when women try to tell me how men behave or how men should
00:06:20.900 behave. And while I think for the most part, it comes from a place of help and, and, and wanting to
00:06:27.080 be helpful. Uh, the reality is that men and women are different. The other day I had made a post about,
00:06:33.520 uh, venting and I said something to the effect of women want to vent. Uh, boys tend to explode emotionally,
00:06:42.980 but men solve problems. And what this woman had said is she said, well, men vent too. I said, yes,
00:06:49.660 that's true. But women generally vent, uh, verbally, they communicate with other women and that's how they
00:06:57.020 vent. And that's how they release some of their steam or work through some of the problems men on the
00:07:00.680 other hand. And it's been proven that men vent via action, typically towards some noble or purpose
00:07:10.140 driven objective or goal. And we do that best with other men. So although both men and women vent,
00:07:17.760 we do it differently. And, and I think that there's this huge, huge push in society for men to behave
00:07:26.180 like women. The American psychological association came out and said that the characteristics and traits
00:07:33.000 that we would normally consider as masculine, for example, competitiveness, stoicism,
00:07:37.960 and aggressiveness, I believe was the other one, uh, made it sound as if in this quasi study that
00:07:45.200 those traits were inherently toxic or destructive to society. And it's quite literally the exact
00:07:53.800 opposite stoicism, which is a understanding of emotions is a very good thing. Aggressiveness
00:08:02.180 in the right environments and in the right situation is a very good thing. Competitiveness
00:08:07.900 has always driven innovation and growth and progress and expansion, not only within our lives,
00:08:14.620 but the people that we're serving our families, our businesses, our communities, society in general.
00:08:19.660 And so these things are not inherently wrong, but when you have this feminization of culture,
00:08:25.080 and I'll tell you why I believe that is here in a second. Uh, what we begin to see is that
00:08:29.220 everything that could potentially be identified or defined as masculine somehow becomes a problem.
00:08:37.960 And this is why I have a problem with the term toxic masculinity. And I know what a lot of people
00:08:42.460 are saying. They're not saying masculinity in and of itself is toxic. What a lot of people are saying
00:08:47.280 is that, uh, it's just the inappropriate response or inappropriate behavior of men that is somehow
00:08:53.680 toxic. Unfortunately, there's a huge, huge group of people that believe that toxic or excuse me,
00:09:01.960 that masculinity in and of itself is toxic. And that's why I don't use that term because when
00:09:07.400 people talk about it, I have no idea what the hell they're talking about. What camp do they fall in?
00:09:11.620 That the inappropriate use of masculine energy is toxic or that masculinity of itself is toxic,
00:09:18.320 which I hope most of us, if not all of us listening to this, believe that that's not the case because
00:09:23.360 it isn't. So we've got this feminization of society and what it's doing is it's figuratively
00:09:30.520 increasing or, or elevating this, this rise of hollow balls, this emptiness of masculinity.
00:09:37.520 Now I told you, I'd tell you why this is the case. I believe that this began to happen during the
00:09:43.640 industrial revolution. Before the industrial revolution, what was happening in the home
00:09:48.900 is that little Timmy and little Tommy and little Johnny were standing quite literally shoulder to
00:09:54.920 shoulder with dad out into the field, plowing fields, working on the home, learning how to use
00:10:01.540 their hands, learning how to work hard, having discipline, having structure. Uh, and they were
00:10:07.180 standing by their father, learning about life and learning about responsibility and learning about
00:10:13.060 meaning. And they were getting that in droves because they were around other achieving men,
00:10:21.200 men who were strong, men who were committed, men who were sacrificing what they needed to sacrifice
00:10:26.420 for the greater good of themselves and their families and their communities. And so these little
00:10:30.720 boys were learning by experience what it meant to be a man. And what happened during the industrial
00:10:38.040 revolution is wonderful as it, as it was, is that we started to have these manufacturing companies.
00:10:44.260 And so, uh, the dad was plucked from the field, from the farm, from the home, from the property.
00:10:52.060 And he was then shipped to big cities. And so he wasn't at home. He was now at big cities. He was
00:11:00.460 operating, he was working and he was doing the nine to five or longer. And then he would come home.
00:11:04.700 Well, if you think about a schedule like this and how this would work is that the dad would wake up
00:11:09.800 and do what he needed to do. Then he would ship himself into the cities, uh, before little Timmy
00:11:15.660 and Tommy and Johnny were even awake. And if they were, they weren't awake very long. And he would
00:11:20.500 go into work while the boys would learn from who from mom, because mom was there. And then what would
00:11:28.240 happen is dad would work all day and he would come back. And when he came back, the kids were tired
00:11:32.900 or they were in bed already. And so little Timmy and little Tommy and little Johnny never learned
00:11:38.080 from dad because dad just wasn't around. And it continues to be a problem. More men are outside
00:11:46.700 of the house. Fortunately for me, I'm in a position where I can be in the home. Now I'm still working
00:11:51.080 during the day, but just the fact that I'm here with not only my, my sons, but my daughter as well
00:11:56.120 is there's a better opportunity I have to engage with them, especially with my, my oldest son,
00:12:01.760 uh, because he does the orders for order of man. And so we go down every day and we fill orders and
00:12:07.200 we talk about how we want to do this right. And how we can elevate the experience for the people
00:12:12.120 who are spending money with us. And when he doesn't want to do it, I can talk with him about how we have
00:12:16.580 responsibilities and obligations that we've committed to. And he learns that from me.
00:12:21.580 Now there's certain other things that of course my boys and my daughter are going to learn from,
00:12:27.640 from their mother, my wife, and that's good. But if they don't have the balance,
00:12:32.840 if all they're getting is the feminine, then that's a problem. Now, so we've got dad out into,
00:12:39.660 into the factories doing manufacturing, doing what he does every day. Mom's raising the kids. Now,
00:12:45.680 if mom's not raising the kids, what happens? Well, now we have the school system,
00:12:49.560 right? So we've got the school system. And if you look at, uh, the, if you look at school teachers,
00:12:55.840 uh, men versus women, you can see that it's extremely more prevalent that, that women are
00:13:01.320 going to be raising our kids. So if mom's not raising them because now mom's out into the
00:13:06.100 workforce, which is also not good. Mom's out in the workforce. Dad's out in the workforce. We ship
00:13:11.800 our kids to public school where they're being raised and taught primarily by liberal women.
00:13:18.260 I mean, you can see how this is going to create a real big problem for little boys trying to figure
00:13:24.960 out why they're aggressive, why they can't sit still, why they want to fight, why they want to
00:13:29.520 have a rock throwing contest, why they want to compete with other boys. And when they do,
00:13:34.740 when they exhibit any sort of masculine tendencies or behaviors, which is completely natural that they
00:13:40.940 would, then they're told that their problem child are children. They're told that they,
00:13:47.340 they have ADD or ADHD or whatever acronym is, is the one to use now that they can't sit down,
00:13:55.380 that they can't sit still, that they're aggressive, that they're, they're, they're, they're wild. Well,
00:13:59.520 no, maybe they are, but there's nothing wrong with that. We have to harness that. We have to harness
00:14:05.140 that. How do we harness that? By letting the men teach them how to harness that. And that's what I came
00:14:09.240 back to earlier. When women are trying to tell me how men behave or how men should behave. There's a
00:14:14.640 problem with that. There's a gap in that women will never be able to fully raise boys into men
00:14:19.860 because they aren't men. And they don't understand all the dynamics of what it means to be a man.
00:14:24.120 The same could be true for fathers raising daughters. I can't fully raise my daughter by
00:14:29.980 myself into a young woman because I'm not a woman. There's dynamics and there's things going on there
00:14:36.220 that I will never understand. So if we continue to allow our boys to be raised by women, it's going
00:14:46.100 to create an increasing problem. And I think we're beginning to see this. There's this feminization
00:14:51.040 of culture. There's, there's a softening in general of culture. And I think that has to do with the fact
00:14:58.000 that they're being mostly raised by women and women by their nature are feminine. They're compassionate.
00:15:05.240 They're empathetic. They're more kind. They're softer. They're more delicate. And so our being,
00:15:10.080 our boys are being raised this way. Competitiveness is squashed. It's why we have participation trophies
00:15:15.680 because women are running these organizations. Women are even running the boy scouts. And so heaven
00:15:20.340 forbid these little boys figure out what it means to not only win, but to also lose. There's nothing
00:15:25.200 wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with learning how to lose. There's nothing wrong with learning how
00:15:30.000 to win. In fact, that's probably a pretty good thing. So I've talked a little bit about this at length
00:15:34.480 with the feminization of culture, but I also think there's some other problems here. And that is that
00:15:39.520 there's this inherent ease and comfort of current times. It's, it's wonderful. You know, if you get,
00:15:46.880 if you get hot, you turn on the air conditioning, get cold, you turn on the heater. If you need food,
00:15:50.680 you run down and you get, grab a quick bite. You don't have to earn that. You just go grab a quick
00:15:55.000 bite. Uh, if you want something now you, you can bite on Amazon and have it delivered, you know,
00:16:00.500 the next day there's, there's so much ease in the life that we live. And because there's so much ease,
00:16:07.680 we've become fat and we've become lazy and we've become weak and we become soft because there's no
00:16:14.560 challenge in our life. There's no toil. There's no struggle. Masculinity, frankly, isn't needed
00:16:21.080 anymore. My friend Jack Donovan says that you aren't required to be a man anymore. It's something
00:16:26.460 that you have to voluntarily step into. And I think that's true. I look at the, I look at young
00:16:31.260 men. I look at boys. I look at a lot of older men as well. And I think, man, this guy has had
00:16:35.540 no struggle, no toil, no difficulty in his life. And he never had to test who he was as a man.
00:16:42.400 Therefore he is not fully the man that he's capable of becoming. And this is why it's so critical that we
00:16:48.020 step into voluntary hardship, that we step under a bar at the gym, that we go push ourselves physically,
00:16:55.260 mentally, emotionally, that we have difficult conversations that we compete with other men.
00:16:59.760 And I'm going to talk a little bit about this, how we can, how we can address the, the, the problem
00:17:04.460 with quote unquote hollow balls here. But we have to accept challenge. We have to embrace challenge
00:17:09.600 because it's not going to be thrust upon us. We have to voluntarily step into it. And then the last
00:17:15.720 component of this is that there's no responsibility. There's no responsibility. If something goes wrong in
00:17:22.940 your life, you will be saved. If something goes wrong with your employment, you'll get unemployment
00:17:28.960 benefits. If something goes wrong in your marriage, you can get a quick divorce and everything will be
00:17:34.600 just fine. If you get into financial trouble, you declare bankruptcy and that's, that's okay. And that's
00:17:38.780 acceptable. In fact, in a lot of cases, it's encouraged. There's no responsibility in life anymore. And maybe
00:17:44.360 the better term is accountability, but there's no accountability. There is no consequence for your piss
00:17:51.360 poor behavior and your poor performance. It's, and if it is, it's very minimal and it's easy to
00:17:58.060 overcome guys. We've got to accept responsibility for our lives. We've got to take ownership of our
00:18:03.360 lives. We've got to step into challenge, voluntary hardship. We've got to turn around and raise our
00:18:08.500 boys and stop letting the women raise our boys. They can have a part to play in it, a hand to play in
00:18:13.580 it, but ultimately we have to contribute as well. And all of these problems are leading to this
00:18:18.800 figurative rise of, of hollow balls, the lack of testicular fortitude that our young boys have,
00:18:24.720 and that a lot of grown men have. And I should, I shouldn't even say grown men. I should say grown
00:18:29.580 males because I think it takes so much more than biology and age to be a man. They're males, but
00:18:36.600 they're not men. So that's a figurative side of things. All right, let's talk about the literal
00:18:40.420 side of things. When I say hollow balls, quite literally, I mean that we are not producing
00:18:46.820 testosterone levels to the degree that we were 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago. There's been studies
00:18:52.640 that show that we have as much as 17% lower testosterone levels than that of the late 80s,
00:18:59.900 early 90s. Testosterone levels generationally continued to decline because of the lack of
00:19:07.520 challenge and the feminization of culture and the lack of responsibility and the fact that we just
00:19:13.840 don't need to step up as men. It's pathetic and it's sad and something needs to be done about it.
00:19:19.480 We need to find out ways and figure out, and we know what they are, but we need to incorporate ways
00:19:25.580 to build our levels of testosterone. Testosterone therapy is on the rise. Why? Because men are getting
00:19:32.080 it naturally. And it actually is not a complicated process. I've got, I don't know, six or seven tips
00:19:38.660 right here that I'm going to go through here in a second to increase your testosterone levels
00:19:42.880 naturally. Because I think when we learn to increase our testosterone levels and we start
00:19:48.880 to see those, those levels rise, then the figurative side of things, the feminization of culture,
00:19:53.740 the lack of fathers and home, the lack of competitiveness and the participation generation
00:19:59.020 and the ease and the comfort and the challenges and no responsibility. I think a lot of that will
00:20:04.120 begin to correct and rectify itself when we figure out ways to increase our testosterone levels.
00:20:09.760 So let's talk about this. I've talked about this in other podcasts. You can go back and listen to
00:20:14.620 them, but this is critical that we do these things. Number one, exercise, exercise, and specifically
00:20:21.280 lift heavy weights. That's been proven to boost testosterone production in your testicles.
00:20:26.920 So exercise and also lose weight. And I don't know all the intricacies and the nuances of how this works,
00:20:34.300 but your, your, your, your, your fat basically stores estrogen. So when you have higher fat
00:20:43.480 percentage on your body, it's more likely that you're carrying them around more estrogen than,
00:20:48.440 than you should be, which can be at direct odds in a lot of cases with testosterone. So as you start
00:20:53.940 to lose weight, you start to reduce some of that. And as you start to build muscle, then we have these,
00:20:59.240 I believe they're called androgen receptors that, uh, will, will bind with testosterone and boost
00:21:06.120 testosterone production and store testosterone as well. So we've got to develop muscle and we've got
00:21:12.240 to lose body fat. How do you do that? You exercise, that's it. You exercise and you eat smarter,
00:21:19.980 you eat healthier. You don't shove your face full of crap that is not going to serve you. That's going
00:21:26.120 to put that spare tire around your midsection and cause you to increase estrogen levels and reduce
00:21:31.420 testosterone levels. So number one, exercise every day. If you're not doing it every day,
00:21:35.200 you should be doing it every day. And I know there's people who say, well, you should lift
00:21:38.960 two to four times a week and that's all you should do. Great. Fine. But I'm just telling you,
00:21:44.660 if you're not getting in some level of exercise every day, you're doing yourself a disservice.
00:21:48.580 I think your body will naturally start to conform. I don't know if that's the right word, but
00:21:55.800 understand what you expect of it. So if your baseline is that you exercise every day,
00:22:01.100 then it will become accustomed to that, although it may be difficult at first.
00:22:04.040 It's number one. Number two, eat protein, eat protein, eating protein has proven to boost
00:22:10.720 testosterone. I know there's a big push to be vegan and be vegetarian. If that's a decision you've
00:22:15.140 made great, but I'm just telling you that there's something natural about eating protein. In fact,
00:22:21.060 it's one of the most natural things that we've, we could do. We've been hunters for tens, if not
00:22:26.060 hundreds of thousands of years. That's not going to change anytime soon. And some people will say,
00:22:31.160 well, we've outgrown hunting. We've, we've evolved past hunting. No, we haven't. No, we haven't.
00:22:38.000 We are human beings. We were quiet. We require protein and we get that protein through
00:22:44.740 animal muscle, which means that at some point an animal has to die and we have to consume it.
00:22:53.580 I know that is a controversial subject, but I can't understand why considering that roughly 98%
00:23:01.080 of the world's population eats meat. We're listening to the 2% like they actually have a matter or a say
00:23:07.560 in the matter. Now, if you want to be a vegan or a vegetarian, or you don't believe in hunting or
00:23:13.420 whatever, fine, but it's been proven that consuming protein is going to boost testosterone production.
00:23:22.880 Number three, reduce your stress. Now, I think there's a, there's a couple of different types
00:23:28.220 of stress and maybe it's on a spectrum, but there's healthy stress, which is, okay, I have to do this
00:23:34.100 challenging thing and I'm stressed out about it, but it pushes you to actually excel. And then there's
00:23:38.640 unnecessary stress. There's stress that, that isn't serving you well. And when you increase levels
00:23:45.820 of stress, especially over sustained periods of time, you boost cortisol production and cortisol
00:23:53.060 is a hormone that is at direct odds with testosterone production. So the higher levels of cortisol,
00:23:59.600 the lower levels of testosterone. If you can find a way to reduce your stress, I think a lot of this
00:24:04.760 can come through some of the, uh, steps and tips I'm going to give you today. Exercise being one of
00:24:09.300 them because your body gets used to the physical stress you're placing it under. And some of these
00:24:14.260 other tips I'll share with you here in a minute that, that naturally you're going to start to reduce
00:24:18.120 some of this stress. So it's easy to say, reduce stress. How do you do it? Well, I'm going to share
00:24:22.340 this with you. And I know, I know a lot of people have stress about money, for example. Well, how do you
00:24:27.920 reduce that stress? Stop having money problems easier said than done. But how do you do that?
00:24:31.840 Get good with a budget. Understand how money works. Make yourself more valuable. So you're making more
00:24:38.320 money. Stop making dumb decisions when it comes to the purchases that you're making. These are all
00:24:43.820 ways to reduce financial stress. I think a lot of us inherently know what this is, but there's a gap.
00:24:49.660 There's this huge gap between what we know and then what we're actually doing. It's called the
00:24:54.860 integrity gap. You need to make sure that you're coordinated, that you're, you're well-rounded,
00:25:00.460 that there's congruency between what you believe about life and yourself and what you're actually
00:25:06.320 doing about it. So number three, reducing stress and cortisol levels. Uh, and number four, this will
00:25:11.380 actually help you reduce stress is sleep. All right. I know there's a lot of guys out there that say,
00:25:15.580 Oh, I'm going to sleep when I'm dead. And I'm going to get two hours of sleep. And I got too much work
00:25:19.580 to do. And I, I can't sleep. I can't afford, you can't afford not to can't afford not to.
00:25:25.240 So you're increasing your cortisol levels. You're, you're significantly less productive
00:25:31.160 when you're tired. And so if I'm not tired, I'm energetic and I'm fully recovered and I'm rested,
00:25:37.820 I'm going to get done in two, three, four hours. What could take you eight, 10, 12 hours
00:25:43.720 because I have that much more energy. So look, I know it's really cool. And there's sound bites to
00:25:48.560 say like, I'll sleep when I'm dead. Great. You'll, you'll be dead sooner because you're,
00:25:54.540 you're not getting the sleep that's been proven that you need. So get your rest seven to eight
00:26:01.460 hours every night. Oh, Ryan, but I got to get up early to do this. Cool. Go to bed earlier.
00:26:05.300 Oh, but I want to stay up with my kids. Cool. Put them to bed earlier too. Our kids go to bed at
00:26:10.060 between seven 30 and eight o'clock. And a lot of people say, Oh, that's so early.
00:26:13.580 It's not really that early, but there's, there's some reasons we do that. The first reason is that
00:26:20.360 I want time alone with my wife. And if my kids are up until nine, 10, 11 o'clock, well, that's a
00:26:24.900 problem. I don't get any alone time with my wife. So it's a boundary that we've established. Number
00:26:29.400 two is I want to go to bed. So I want my kids to wind down seven 30, get them into bed. They're
00:26:34.640 sleeping, take some 10, 15, 20 minutes. If that, sometimes they go to bed as soon as their head
00:26:39.600 hits the pillow. Cause we run them. We run them all day. We let them play outside.
00:26:43.580 We they're involved in swimming and sports and other activities right now, because that's,
00:26:47.540 that's important for kids. So they do that. Then I get my time to be with my wife and I
00:26:53.120 get to go to bed on time. Usually go to bed about 10 o'clock, roughly wake up between five
00:26:59.980 30 and six o'clock, get my workouts done and get my thing done. And I mean, that's, that's
00:27:04.280 the sleep I need. So sleep is an integral part of me being productive and me boosting my
00:27:09.400 testosterone levels. So sleep that's number four. Number five,
00:27:13.580 is to compete, to compete and also to win. It's been proven that as men compete with each
00:27:20.600 other, with other men and win that instantly boost testosterone levels. We are competitive
00:27:27.200 by nature. We want to win. A lot of us are driven by our desire to win. And I know we hear
00:27:32.880 society say, it's not always a competition and, and you shouldn't always be worried about
00:27:37.120 that. That's the feminization of culture speaking, right? That's not men speaking. That's women
00:27:42.380 and feminized men speaking. Oh, it's not always a, it's not always a competition. Well, no,
00:27:46.880 that's exactly what it is. It's a competition against myself. It's a competition against
00:27:51.180 other people. When I'm looking at this podcast and seeing how well we're doing, you bet your
00:27:55.440 ass. I'm looking at other podcasts thinking, okay, how can I get to that level? Why wouldn't
00:27:59.460 I do that? If I'm outside mowing the lawn, I want to see if I can do it faster than I did
00:28:03.780 last time. If I'm in the gym working out, I want to see if I can lift more than I did last
00:28:07.160 time. If I'm at jujitsu, the goal is to submit somebody else to win. That's the point. That's
00:28:13.860 the point of life. And anybody who says any different has been overly feminized and they're
00:28:19.320 not stepping into who they truly are as men and who they could be if they embraced healthy
00:28:24.960 competitiveness. Can it get unhealthy? Of course you can take it to the extreme. It could be damaging
00:28:30.880 and destructive if it's not done in a healthy manner, but there is healthy competition. Guys,
00:28:36.600 if you don't have other men in your life who are pushing on you physically, mentally, emotionally,
00:28:42.020 you're selling yourself short. You're doing yourself a real disservice and you're potentially
00:28:46.880 leaving testosterone growth that could be there. Had you found good, honorable, strong, capable
00:28:54.080 men to push you, to compete with you, to beat you in a lot of ways. I was sharing this on
00:29:01.000 Instagram. By the way, guys, if you're not following me on Instagram, make sure you do. I'm sharing
00:29:04.700 a lot over there lately. I'm very, very active. It's at Ryan Mickler. My last name is M I C H
00:29:10.120 L E R. Anyways, I was sharing on, on Instagram, how I think this was just last night, how I
00:29:16.320 didn't want to go to jujitsu. And I was coming up with every little excuse in the book. Like
00:29:20.320 I'm tired. I already did my workout this morning. We got a lot of stuff to unpack in the house.
00:29:25.940 My wife and my kids need me. So some of the excuses I had were complete BS. And quite frankly,
00:29:31.100 some of them had some validity to them. Uh, but I went anyways, I went anyways, I forced
00:29:36.460 myself to do it because I made a commitment to do it. And I went and I got my butt handed
00:29:40.580 to me for a couple of hours and I left. And you know what? I felt better. I felt better
00:29:45.800 because physicality and competitiveness is good for men and winning is good for men.
00:29:51.480 So get out there, compete with other guys and win. Uh, and then the last one, and this one's
00:29:56.500 tough. Um, again, I'm not the, the, the scientist on this. You guys can look a little bit more into
00:30:00.800 this, but, uh, there's testosterone blockers. There's estrogen like compounds and components,
00:30:06.900 uh, in a lot of the products that we use, whether it's shampoo or soap or even plastic,
00:30:13.260 a lot of estrogen or excuse me, testosterone blockers inside of, of plastic. So switching over
00:30:19.240 to, uh, different cups that aren't, that aren't plastic will really go a long ways. And so again,
00:30:24.760 I'm not the scientist on this, but there's things in, in your soaps and your shampoos and the things
00:30:29.620 that you put on your skin. I mean, we now know that the skin is basically a big absorbing organ.
00:30:35.840 It's like a, like a mouth that anything that you put on your skin, you're going to consume
00:30:40.040 into your body. It's going to be absorbed into your body. And if you're putting testosterone
00:30:43.800 blockers on your skin, that's going to be absorbed into your body and it's naturally going to decrease
00:30:48.920 testosterone production. So be very, very careful of that. Be aware of that. Again,
00:30:53.300 if you want more specifics, Christopher Walker's got some great stuff, uh, on, on testosterone and
00:30:59.540 how to boost testosterone naturally. So I would definitely recommend that you check that out.
00:31:03.560 Nicholas barely has been on the podcast and he's got some great information on testosterone
00:31:06.800 production as well. So go back and check those things out. Cause they talk about these things
00:31:10.480 at length. So there it is guys. Um, literally again, exercise and lose weight. Number two,
00:31:16.240 eat protein. Number three, reduce stress, cortisol production. Number four, sleep. Number five,
00:31:21.160 uh, compete and win. And number six, avoid testosterone blockers. Uh, that's on the literal
00:31:27.340 side. Figuratively. Again, we talked about the feminization of culture and society. Uh, we talked
00:31:31.680 about the lack of fathers in the home. Uh, there's also, I believe a war on men. I mean, just look at
00:31:37.100 the family core system. It's brutal. It's brutal. And it's, it's completely stacked against men.
00:31:42.100 And so we have, I can't tell you how many men I have who I've talked with who, uh, they can't see
00:31:47.160 their kids. They're, they're, they're banned from seeing their children or being involved in their
00:31:50.700 lives. And how, how sad, not only for the men, but how sad for the kids, especially the boys.
00:31:56.020 I shouldn't say, especially the boys, the boys and the girls. I only say the boys, because if the boys
00:32:00.720 don't have a positive male influence in their lives, uh, they're really being set up for failure,
00:32:04.380 which is unfortunate. Uh, we, we talked about the lack of competitiveness in society. Uh, we also
00:32:10.000 talked about the ease and comfort of modern times as well. There's no challenges. There's no
00:32:14.200 responsibility. And all of this is leading to, uh, the concept of the rise of hollow balls.
00:32:19.980 And so I want to just tell my wife, thanks for sharing that. Not only was it funny, but it got
00:32:24.940 me thinking about how, how dire the situation is now. I don't think it's, I don't think it's
00:32:32.700 catastrophic yet because I think there's guys like me and there's you and the millions of people who
00:32:38.420 listen to this podcast, you understand exactly what I'm talking about and have the desire to do
00:32:43.100 something about it. So if that's you, uh, I'd encourage you to band with us in the Facebook
00:32:47.840 group, facebook.com slash groups slash order of man. Um, I'd encourage you to take it a step further
00:32:52.780 and join us in our exclusive brotherhood, the iron council order of man.com slash iron council.
00:32:58.160 Uh, we've got a meetup coming up August 10th and 11th, 2019 in here, in Maine here at my home,
00:33:03.860 my property. Uh, you can go to order of man.com slash Maine is in the state. So main event and get
00:33:10.320 registered. Do that quickly. Cause I think we're pretty close to sold out on that. I haven't looked,
00:33:14.400 but I think we're very, very close on that. Uh, those are some resources outside of that. Share
00:33:18.720 this. All right. Share this. If you've got information, that's going to help another man
00:33:21.840 in your life, your father, your brother, your colleague, your coworker, your cousin, your son,
00:33:25.620 then you've got an obligation to share it. And if you find value from this episode or value from this
00:33:30.860 podcast in general, then please share this. It's a very non threatening, non challenging way to get good
00:33:37.120 information out into the world about being a more capable man. And that's what we're about here.
00:33:41.840 So guys, I want to thank you as I part today. Hope you guys enjoy the weekend. Uh, again,
00:33:46.360 I'm honored that you're here. I'm honored, uh, that you are part of this movement and that you're
00:33:51.560 sharing it and you're doing your part. I'm inspired by you each and every day. And, uh, we've got to do
00:33:56.980 something. We've got to do something about the rise of quote unquote hollow balls. And we've got to get
00:34:01.660 some things figured out. I hope I've given you some frameworks to think about as you go into your life.
00:34:05.820 And as you share this with other men in your life as well. All right, guys, get out there,
00:34:10.480 take action, become the man you are meant to be. Thank you for listening to the order of man podcast.
00:34:16.180 You're ready to take charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be.
00:34:19.860 We invite you to join the order at order of man.com.