Order of Man - November 30, 2018


War on Weakness ｜ FRIDAY FIELD NOTES


Episode Stats

Length

29 minutes

Words per Minute

199.43079

Word Count

5,816

Sentence Count

329

Hate Speech Sentences

3


Summary

In this episode, Ryan talks about the "War on Weakness" and how men need to step up to the plate and reclaim what it means to be a man in a society that seems to be moving more and more away from it.


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 Ryan
00:00:27.600 Mickler and I am the host and the founder of this podcast and the movement of order of
00:00:32.000 man, which is to recapture and reclaim and restore what it means to be a man in a society
00:00:38.520 that seems to be moving more and more away from it, which is exactly what I'm going to
00:00:42.120 be talking with you about today when it comes to this quote unquote war on weakness that
00:00:47.680 I'm going to be tackling and addressing here in a few minutes. Guys, if you're new, if
00:00:52.700 you're just tuning in, obviously this is a show for men. This is a conversation, a platform
00:00:58.940 of movement, if you will, a project, whatever you want to call it designed to give you the
00:01:03.880 tools, the guidance, the resources, the direction, the clarity, the focus, the accountability,
00:01:08.540 everything that you might need to be a more complete father, husband, business owner, community
00:01:14.480 leader, whatever facet of life that you're showing up as. So we've got this show, our Friday
00:01:18.520 field notes, which is some thoughts that I've had from throughout the week. And I've got a
00:01:21.340 good one lined up for you today. We've got our interview show where I am interviewing
00:01:25.360 some of the most successful men on the planet. These are scholars, athletes, warriors, entrepreneurs,
00:01:32.440 scientists. I mean, if you name it, if these men have a fascinating, interesting, successful
00:01:37.580 story that will help you step up the way that we are all meant to step up as men. It's my goal
00:01:42.520 to bring these guys on the podcast. And by the way, if you have any recommendations, if there's
00:01:46.280 a man that you know of that needs to come on this show, please shoot me a message, shoot me
00:01:50.380 an email, let me know who it is. I'll do my best to see if there's a fit there for the
00:01:54.700 show. And then if there is, then we'll work to bring these guys on and continue to give
00:01:58.800 you some of the conversations that you need to step up the way that we just talked about.
00:02:03.840 So I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you're tuning in. I really want to get quickly into this
00:02:07.480 thing, which is the war on weakness is what I'm going to be terming this, dubbing this.
00:02:12.240 And before I do, I want to make a quick mention of my friends over at Origin. And this actually
00:02:17.780 ties in nicely because if you're trying to get strong, one of the ways, one of the ways that
00:02:22.280 you can do that is to supplement your workouts and to supplement your nutrition. And I say supplement
00:02:29.380 because it isn't the only thing that you should be doing. If you are going to take supplements,
00:02:33.220 you can't be not working out. You can't be eating junk food and do whatever else you want. This is
00:02:37.980 simply a supplement to it. And some of the supplements I take are from Origin Labs. It's
00:02:43.720 the Joint Warfare. It's the Super Krill, the Malk, which is a protein shake or supplement.
00:02:51.860 And then it's also Discipline, which is a pre-workout. And all of these are over at
00:02:55.820 originmain.com. It's Jocko's Nutritional Line. So it's originmain.com. And then if you end up picking
00:03:02.560 up any of these supplements to help you get stronger, then please use the code ORDER,
00:03:07.120 O-R-D-E-R at checkout. You'll get 10% off on your entire order. So if you're shopping for you
00:03:12.220 or for Christmas gifts, these are good ideas. Just make sure you use the code. So you get a
00:03:17.360 discount again, originmain.com and then use the code ORDER. All right, guys. So let's now get into
00:03:23.660 the meat of the conversation, which again is talking about this war on weakness. I mean, guys, look,
00:03:29.700 I may be preaching to the choir here, but I think it's painfully obvious that if you look around
00:03:33.700 that we are beginning to see this demise and strength among men. And I'm talking about physical
00:03:38.080 strength, I'm talking about emotional and mental resiliency. It's quite honestly, it's a little
00:03:42.940 pathetic. And I think if you just generally think about this on the surface level, it's really easy
00:03:47.620 to see why. I mean, we live these sedentary lifestyles where we're not exerting any level
00:03:53.180 of energy, any level of commitment, any level of resolve. It's so easy to walk away from our
00:03:59.940 problems. We don't really generally have to deal with the consequences of the decisions that we're
00:04:04.080 making. And so it's easy to see why we are possessing or showing signs of degraded strength,
00:04:12.620 again, physical and emotional and mental strength. And I didn't want this to be just some conversation
00:04:18.240 where it's like Ryan thinking that we're getting weaker. I actually wanted to see if there was
00:04:21.560 research and data that actually backs up the idea that we as men are becoming weaker in society.
00:04:27.460 And interestingly enough, there is, there's a lot of data that suggests that we are physically
00:04:32.420 weaker, uh, that we are, uh, emotionally and mentally weaker than we once were. And I wanted
00:04:38.040 to talk with you about that today. I'm going to go through this data a little bit and share
00:04:40.800 some of this, but more so than the data that's just used to solidify my, my, my thesis, my idea
00:04:47.120 here is what do we do about it? You know, what, what's, what's the ramifications of, of being
00:04:53.360 weaker in the first place? What are the consequences that we might fall prey to? And then also how do we
00:04:59.180 fix this? How do we become stronger? If we are becoming weaker mentally, emotionally, physically,
00:05:04.680 and it is a genuine problem and it poses some serious threats to us, which it does.
00:05:09.860 Then the question is, what do we do about it? So I'm going to share that with you, uh, here in a
00:05:14.700 minute and talk about some of the solutions and even a program that, uh, will be available in January,
00:05:19.680 not just for you, but also for, uh, your children. So I'll talk about that here in a minute. Um,
00:05:24.980 but let's get into some of this, uh, some of this data, some of this research, and I'm going to
00:05:28.400 break this up into first physical strength, and then I'm going to talk about emotional and mental
00:05:33.700 strength and weakness. All right. So when it comes to physical strength, uh, I found article after
00:05:39.780 article after article that suggests in different ways, in varying forms that we are becoming weaker
00:05:44.820 and weaker as men physically. One article talked about an interesting, uh, data point that they had
00:05:51.160 addressed, which was grip strength, how our grip strength has declined significantly over the past 50,
00:05:56.520 60, 70, 80 years. And I don't think it really takes a rocket scientist to really understand why
00:06:02.060 that's the case. Obviously we're not doing as much physical and manual labor. Uh, we're not spending
00:06:07.700 the days out in the fields. Uh, we're behind a computer, we're stuck in a cubicle and we're in
00:06:12.680 these climate controlled, uh, very comfortable work spaces and environments and all the stresses
00:06:19.740 trying to be stripped away from this. And so I don't think it's very difficult to see that
00:06:23.640 this is the result of the sedentary lifestyles that we live. But another metric that I came across
00:06:30.480 was that our skeletal structures are being weakened over time. The strength of our bones and also the
00:06:36.660 density of our bones has declined consistently over the decades. And then also, and the last component I
00:06:44.120 wanted to share with you is that our testosterone levels are reducing document and data and study after
00:06:49.400 study after study suggests that men at lower and earlier ages are starting to decrease their
00:06:57.020 testosterone levels at a significantly earlier age and a faster rate. Uh, there was another article I
00:07:03.720 came across that said nearly one third, I think it was like 31% of all youths. Listen to this 30% of
00:07:09.980 all youth, uh, are too obese for military service. Uh, there was a study done called unhealthy and
00:07:16.820 unprepared. That's by strong nation.org. And they said again, that 30, I believe 1% of all youth are too
00:07:23.260 obese for military service. So I think it's painfully obvious if we didn't just know this inherently that
00:07:29.140 men are becoming weaker physically, uh, that we're not as strong as we once were. And of course, this is
00:07:34.500 going to pose some various serious problems. Now, some might argue, well, why do men need to be
00:07:39.380 stronger? If the reason we're experiencing these decreases in different types of physical strength is
00:07:45.620 because we're not exerting ourselves in the fields like we once were, then why is it necessary? Well,
00:07:51.320 it's necessary because there may come a point in time where you do have to exert some level of
00:07:55.240 strength, right? There could be a accident or a natural disaster where, you know what, frankly,
00:08:00.800 people are going to look to the man. They're not going to look to the women. And I know people would
00:08:04.440 be upset about that, but that's the reality. When shit hits the fan, people always look to the men.
00:08:09.100 And if we find ourselves unprepared to deal with these types of situations, we're putting ourselves and
00:08:14.980 those that we have an obligation for, whether that's a family member or coworkers or employees
00:08:19.900 in situations that may actually be life and death. It is our job to be physically strong among other
00:08:26.200 things, but it is our job. And if we want to be the protectors, the providers and the presiders
00:08:31.820 that I talk so much about becoming, then it's important. It's critical that we become physically
00:08:36.580 strong, that we don't fall into this data of weaker and weaker men. And not to mention,
00:08:42.100 if you are physically healthy, you are going to live a better life. You're going to be more
00:08:48.400 fulfilled. You're going to have more energy to pursue different things. Uh, you're going to be
00:08:52.620 happier. You're probably going to make more money. You're going to have more meaningful relationships.
00:08:56.700 I'll give you my own personal story. And I've shared this with you guys before is that,
00:09:01.160 Oh, about five, six years ago. Now, my boys, my two oldest boys, when I got home from work,
00:09:07.360 asked if I would jump on a trampoline with them. And I remember like it was yesterday because I had to look
00:09:12.080 them in the eye and say, I'm sorry, guys, I can't like, I literally could not go jump on the
00:09:18.560 trampoline for a few minutes with my kids because I was exhausted. There was a Burger King right across
00:09:24.980 from my office. And every day I would walk over. Actually, I probably wouldn't even walk. I'd
00:09:29.000 probably drive over there, pick up my double quarter pounder or what whopper, whatever it was
00:09:34.500 and pick out on that. And then I'd go back into my office and, uh, just, just live again,
00:09:40.500 this sedentary lifestyle where I wasn't exerting myself in any way. And so I was fat. I was out of
00:09:45.420 shape. I didn't have energy. My sex life was down. Like any metric that you try to measure
00:09:49.880 was negatively affected because I wasn't physically strong because I wasn't putting the right foods
00:09:55.240 into my body because I wasn't physically strong. I wasn't lean. I didn't have that energy. I didn't
00:10:00.160 have that drive. And I wasn't able to step into the role that I believe each and every one of us as men
00:10:05.240 are designed and called to step into. So physical strength. Now the next component of this, and I
00:10:12.400 know, as I talk about this, people are going to get upset, but I think it's really, really important
00:10:16.800 that we address this. And that is emotional and mental health. Now I titled this podcast,
00:10:23.980 the war on weakness. And what I want to say is I get into emotional and mental health is that
00:10:28.560 anybody who may be dealing with a mental illness or some emotional disorder isn't inherently weak.
00:10:37.480 That's not the point I'm making, but I do want to illustrate some data that I found, some studies,
00:10:43.540 some research that I came across that point to the need for us to build up more emotional and mental
00:10:52.120 fortitude, resiliency, toughness, grit, et cetera, et cetera. All right, guys. So again,
00:10:58.360 if you're experiencing some sort of mental disorder, if you're depressed, if there's emotional
00:11:04.140 situations that you're dealing with, I want you to understand that doesn't inherently make you weak.
00:11:08.860 But what I do want to give you is the tools to inoculate yourself more adequately against some of
00:11:13.720 these situations that you may find yourself in. I've been depressed in my life. I won't even begin
00:11:18.940 to tell you that I've ever been suicidal. I don't know what that's like. I don't know what that
00:11:22.980 experience feels like. I know obviously based on what people have told me in the conversations that
00:11:27.100 I've had, that it's a very dark place and you can't just quote unquote snap out of it. So I'm not saying
00:11:32.460 that anybody in this situation is weak, but I do want to give you the tools to be able to inoculate
00:11:37.700 yourself, to be able to help yourself out of these situations, or maybe even more importantly,
00:11:41.900 to keep yourself from slipping into these states. So let's talk about this really quick. Number one,
00:11:47.940 suicide rates. Guys, if you look at suicide rates, it is up nearly 24%, up 24% since 1990.
00:11:57.920 And since I believe 2006, we have seen a exponential growth in the speed in that rate increase. So not
00:12:07.700 only is it increasing steadily and consistently, it's actually an exponential growth curve on the
00:12:13.260 amount of suicides. And also as I was going through this, because that's for both men and women,
00:12:17.160 but as I was going through this, I also found out, and I've said this before that men commit suicide
00:12:23.000 at nearly four times the rate of women, four times the rate. So we have this 24% increase in suicide
00:12:29.900 since 1990. And then we have a four times a 400% amount that men commit suicide compared to women.
00:12:39.180 Now it also did suggest that women actually attempt suicide more often, but that men are actually
00:12:45.380 more, I don't even like using the term successful, I guess you'd say when it comes to suicide. So
00:12:52.940 obviously there's some real problems mentally and emotionally. And I think as I'm looking through
00:12:58.100 this data and I'm studying this and I'm talking with the guys who were dealing with this, I think
00:13:01.480 there's a, I think there's some very clear reasons for this. Number one is isolation. You know,
00:13:06.120 we live in a society that I think tends to prop up this idea of the lone wolf. If you look at the,
00:13:11.300 the Marlboro man and you look at Jason Bourne and you look at James Bond, these are men who are
00:13:17.600 loners. They're lone wolves. They don't work with teams. They don't work with anybody else. They
00:13:22.280 don't have partners. They go out and they do their thing and they're successful. And we prop these guys
00:13:26.820 up on pedestals and we think that, Oh, maybe that's how we're supposed to act. That's the exact
00:13:31.360 opposite of how we're supposed to act. We are tribal men and women. The human species in general
00:13:37.320 has been working together and operating in tribes for hundreds of thousands of years.
00:13:43.260 And it's only relatively recently that we've began to isolate ourselves, that men feel somewhat
00:13:48.620 ostracized or they don't want to express some level of vulnerability to other men. And I get that.
00:13:55.400 I haven't found many men who want to sit on the couch and, and be preached to, or talk about
00:14:00.820 their issues. But I do believe there's something powerful in having a band of brothers. And I'm not
00:14:05.340 even talking about talking about these mental and emotional issues that you may be dealing with,
00:14:10.440 but I know these types of conversations that I can have with my band of brothers, the guys that I
00:14:14.740 care about and are in my circle has certainly helped me, even though we're not talking about
00:14:18.760 suicide or depression, or sometimes we're not even talking about issues at all. We're just talking
00:14:23.300 about the game or the weather or the sports or the activities or the hunt or the whatever we're
00:14:26.740 doing. And having men in my life who I can have these types of conversations with has been powerful.
00:14:32.780 But in addition to that, and I think I mentioned this before, we're living these sedentary lifestyles.
00:14:37.320 I mean, look at the average man's life. He gets up, he gives himself just enough time to
00:14:43.240 shower and potentially kiss his wife and kids as he's running out the door. He probably eats some sort
00:14:48.600 of junk food on the way to work. He doesn't even sit down and have it at all.
00:14:51.720 Uh, he gets into an office environment where it's comfortable. It's climate controlled. He's
00:14:58.020 probably miserable. He doesn't really enjoy his job. There's a huge sense of job dissatisfaction,
00:15:03.300 uh, probably because he doesn't feel compelled to do the work or it's not significant enough for him.
00:15:08.460 He gets this, this stack of paperwork and, and, and, and projects that he has to deal with. And
00:15:14.640 he gets that done. And then he's given permission to maybe go to, to lunch. And where does he go?
00:15:19.460 Well, he goes to Burger King and he gets the, the fast food and it's to deliver to him within two
00:15:23.740 minutes. Uh, and then he goes back and he has this stack of paperwork and he gets home and the kids
00:15:27.780 are bouncing on his legs or whatever. And he gives himself just enough time to spend a little bit of
00:15:31.160 time with them. And then he's watching TV, right? He plops his ass on the couch and watches Netflix
00:15:36.040 or watches TV or dinks around and plays a video game or whatever it is that he's doing. And then he
00:15:41.000 stays up too late in front of a screen that has proven to create problems when it comes to sleep.
00:15:45.680 And then he wakes up and he does the whole same thing all over again. Like, tell me how that is
00:15:50.560 actually going to serve a man in a positive way. It's certainly not. It's the path of least resistance.
00:15:57.080 I mean, we as human beings are constantly looking for that path of least resistance. And the problem
00:16:02.280 with that is that we find it, we find it. And then when something challenging comes up in our lives,
00:16:08.480 we're inadequately able to deal with it because we've always taken the path of least resistance.
00:16:13.900 Now, on the other hand, if you take an individual who I think has the potential to be a little bit
00:16:18.700 more mentally strong, a little bit more mental and emotional fortitude, somebody who's physically
00:16:24.880 stronger, what does this individual do? Well, he gets up early. He gets up before he has to.
00:16:30.140 And the first thing he does is he gets some water into his system and he gets into a workout or he
00:16:33.640 gets into a stretching routine and he moves his body and he wakes up his mind and then he comes home
00:16:37.900 and he has a healthy breakfast. He sits down with his family even potentially and eats something
00:16:42.780 healthy. That's going to give him the proper fuel and nutrients that he needs in order to
00:16:46.900 be energetic and motivated. This individual also goes into a job that he enjoys, a career,
00:16:54.300 some sort of maybe even calling that he's engaged with physically, mentally, emotionally. And that as
00:16:59.980 he's faced with the challenges that come with owning a business or promoting and enhancing his own
00:17:05.120 career, he finds value in that because he's able to overcome the challenges and overcome the obstacles.
00:17:13.020 And it isn't just some checklist that some boss gave to him. It's something that he has a deep
00:17:16.840 seated, deeply rooted belief in what he's doing. This is how I feel when I get into the office.
00:17:22.540 I've got challenges. I've got challenges every day. And yet I love the challenge because it's
00:17:26.900 something that I'm actively engaged in. And it's something that speaks to my mind and my heart and my
00:17:30.700 soul. And then he goes home and his kids are there and he carves out time to have dinner and have
00:17:36.800 meaningful conversations. Maybe he gets a workout in, maybe he gets some more physical exercise in,
00:17:42.120 maybe he goes out and jumps on the trampoline or goes for a walk with his wife, but he's engaged
00:17:46.660 mentally and physically. And when he's done with that and the kids go to bed, he's not on TV. He's not
00:17:52.700 on video games. He's sitting down, he's reading a book, he's having a conversation with his wife
00:17:56.280 and he's doing things that uplift his mind and his intelligence and his physical strength and his
00:18:02.440 emotional wellbeing, as opposed to just being a vegetable plopping his ass on the couch. And what
00:18:07.540 does he do when he goes to bed? Well, he goes to bed on time. He puts the phone away with enough time
00:18:10.900 to decompress from the, the light and the technology and the screen time. And he gives himself enough
00:18:18.120 sleep so that he's energized. He sets up his room in the right environment so that he can sleep well.
00:18:23.200 And he wakes up energized and ready to tackle the next day. That individual is going to be
00:18:29.580 significantly less likely to deal with any sort of mental illness or emotional situations or
00:18:35.500 circumstances in his life because he's inoculating himself against it. He's taking the path of most
00:18:40.560 resistance. So we have these sedentary lifestyles. We have unnecessary stress. We have health related
00:18:46.740 issues because we're fat and out of shape. We get a lack of sleep. We're comparing ourselves
00:18:50.940 constantly to what other people are doing. And so that messes with our mind and our soul and how we
00:18:55.100 show up. It's rough guys. It's rough. So the question is, and I think everybody understands
00:19:02.640 what I'm talking about here is like, what do we do about it? What do we do about the physical
00:19:09.420 condition in which we find ourselves? What do we do about the emotional and mental weakness that I think
00:19:15.620 a lot of us are dealing with in our lives? And the answer is, is very simple. It's called the
00:19:21.100 strenuous life. This was something that was identified by Teddy Roosevelt over a hundred
00:19:25.580 years ago, but we've been operating by this way for, like I said earlier, hundreds of thousands of
00:19:30.180 years. We've been living under stress, not unnecessary stress, but placing our body and our mind and our soul
00:19:36.960 in stressful, intentionally stressful situations in order to inoculate ourselves against the challenges
00:19:43.680 that do arise. So I want to read a little bit of, uh, Teddy Roosevelt's speech, the strenuous life.
00:19:50.500 And these are just a couple of excerpts from it. The first one is this, and these were his opening
00:19:54.440 remarks. I wish to preach not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life,
00:20:03.100 the life of toil and effort of labor and strife to preach that highest form of success, which comes
00:20:10.880 not to the man who desires, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does
00:20:16.720 not shrink from danger, from hardship or from bitter toil and who out of these wins the splendid
00:20:24.840 ultimate triumph. So as you listen to that, I want you to consider which one are you, which camp do you
00:20:33.680 fall into? Do you fall into the life or the doctrine of ignoble ease or the doctrine of the
00:20:42.960 strenuous life? This is the solution. This is the cure to what ails our weakness. It's the strenuous
00:20:50.240 life. And I'll read this next excerpt. And then I'll talk a little bit more specifically about how we
00:20:55.060 might incorporate the strenuous life into our own lives. And then a challenge that I'll have for you
00:20:58.600 available in January. So here's the next excerpt above all, let us shrink from no strife, moral
00:21:05.120 or physical within or without the nation, provided we are certain that the strife is justified for it
00:21:12.520 is only through strife, through hard and dangerous endeavor that we shall ultimately win the goal of
00:21:18.620 true national greatness. Now, obviously he's talking about this in a political climate, but you could
00:21:24.600 substitute true national greatness with family greatness, with business greatness, with insert
00:21:31.280 your company's name here, greatness. Guys, we have to find a way to look out and we can't do that in a
00:21:38.480 meaningful and significant way until we learn to adopt the strenuous life in our own lives. We can't
00:21:45.080 ask our employees to do this if we're not willing to do it. We can't ask our wives or our children or our
00:21:50.200 neighborhood or our community members or the players on our team to do this if we're not
00:21:54.480 willing to do it. But once we adopt this into our own lives and we start to see the strength that
00:22:00.000 comes with incorporating strenuous activity, both physical and mental into our lives, then we have
00:22:05.540 a greater capacity to share that with others in integrity. Because if we're asking others to do it
00:22:11.400 and we don't do it ourselves, we're out of integrity. They're going to see it and they're not going to
00:22:14.720 choose to follow you. The way that you increase your level of influence is by becoming more
00:22:21.000 influential, meaning it's not a passive strategy. It's an active one. You need to incorporate the
00:22:26.840 strenuous life into your life in order for you to encourage the people you care about to incorporate
00:22:32.560 it into theirs. So what does this strenuous life actually look like? This is my challenge to you
00:22:38.280 guys now is that you join me on this war on weakness. And I'm going to be the first one to tell you that
00:22:45.440 I don't have it figured out completely. I'm not a hundred percent on this stuff. Some days I miss my
00:22:50.180 gym days. Some days I eat like garbage. Some days I do feel mentally weak or I don't exert myself and
00:22:56.520 I sit around or I stay up too late or I eat junk food or I play a video game or whatever. Sometimes
00:23:01.340 I do that. But right now my goal is to be the flag bearer, if you will, for men on this war of
00:23:09.620 weakness. And I'm challenging you and I'm asking you to join me. How do we do this? First and foremost,
00:23:16.480 we've got to be more physical than we currently are. We have to be more physical than we currently
00:23:21.560 are. That could be as simple as taking the stairs instead of the elevator, instead of taking the
00:23:27.520 escalator at the airport, walk up the stairs. Guess what? Nobody's ever on the stairs. So you'll
00:23:31.180 probably get up there faster when you do. It is as simple as going for a walk in the afternoon
00:23:36.340 with your dog or your family. It could be, I'm going to get up a half an hour earlier and I'm
00:23:40.940 going to do some stretching or I'm going to do some pushups or I'm going to do some sit-ups or
00:23:43.900 some burpees. You don't even need a gym to do any of that stuff. It could be that you go into
00:23:48.440 CrossFit. It could be that you're going to go run or you're going to run a marathon. I don't care
00:23:52.420 what it looks like. As long as you're getting some sort of physical exercise in every single day,
00:23:56.840 guys, it's critical. It's critical. And the best thing for me that I found is that I constantly
00:24:02.220 have to be working towards something. Spartan races are a great avenue. Running a marathon,
00:24:07.620 running some other obstacle course race or participating in some other event with other
00:24:12.180 people. But if you have something that you're working towards, maybe it's an Ironman, that's
00:24:16.380 going to help you stay on the path to exerting yourself on a physical basis. That's number one.
00:24:21.000 Number two, eating correctly, eating the right foods, putting the right fuel into your body and
00:24:27.740 ensuring that what you are putting into your body is the fuel that you need in order to
00:24:32.200 maximize the results in your life. Is the fuel that you're putting into you weakening who
00:24:37.160 you are as a man or is it strengthening you? I hope that it's strengthening you. If it's
00:24:42.200 not, let's correct that behavior so that we can show up more fully at home and at business
00:24:46.840 in the community and every facet of life in which we show up. Number three, getting the
00:24:52.080 proper amount of sleep. Look, there's podcasts. I don't know which one's right off hand. You
00:24:56.620 can go back and check it out. I think I've done two or three different podcasts on sleeping
00:24:59.780 right. Shawn Stevenson has a great book. I think it's called sleep smarter. You can check
00:25:05.060 that out, but getting the right amount of sleep, getting the right type of sleep so that you
00:25:09.340 can wake up re-energized and excited about what you're doing. It's finding a purpose and
00:25:15.320 a passion and taking time out of every day to evaluate where you are and what's driving
00:25:19.720 and propelling and motivate you and then working towards that thing. So these are the challenges
00:25:25.620 that I have for you. The other thing that I would say is that put yourself in uncomfortable
00:25:29.200 situations every day, every day, find the most uncomfortable thing that you can do and
00:25:35.020 do it. Make that the first thing that you do in the morning is pushing and exerting yourself
00:25:39.880 in some way. If there's a conversation that needs to be had that you've been putting off
00:25:42.980 for the last month or six months or year, or maybe even a decade, then go have that conversation.
00:25:50.220 If you're afraid of speaking in public, then go speak in public. If you're afraid of bringing
00:25:54.860 up some topic or conversation that you feel needs to be had or needs to be said, then
00:25:58.760 bring it up and be willing to face the ramifications of that. I think you'll find that it's A, not
00:26:05.460 nearly as difficult as you're making it out in your mind, but B, it will give you the strength
00:26:09.540 to continue to do those things. So guys, exert yourself physically, mentally, emotionally,
00:26:15.580 put yourself in challenging situations, ask other people to hold you accountable, hold them
00:26:20.740 accountable, build a band of brothers. These are all ways that we can become stronger.
00:26:25.220 And on a parting note, or as I wrap this thing down today in January, I'm going to be partnering
00:26:30.560 with origin. Uh, they're, they're good friends of mine. They're partners with me as well.
00:26:35.380 And we are going to be doing, hopefully we're going to get Jocko on board as well. Jocko,
00:26:39.000 if you're listening, we want you on board with this is we're going to be asking you men to sign
00:26:44.400 up in some sort of a program. I don't have all the details flushed out. I'm working with origin
00:26:49.900 right now to get some of that worked out, but a program it's, you're not going to have
00:26:53.340 to pay to be part of this program or anything. It's just signing up for it. And it's you and
00:26:57.920 your children, both your sons and your daughters in these sort of challenges. How are you going
00:27:03.780 to be working out? What types of engagements and activities are you going to be participating
00:27:08.420 in that you haven't done before? All of these things that we're going to have in here
00:27:11.840 are designed to push you and your children harder, further, stronger, better than you've ever
00:27:17.240 gone before. So I'm going to get you the details here over the next several weeks, but that's going
00:27:21.520 to be coming out in January. So stay tuned on that. And also in some of my brief conversations
00:27:26.620 with origin and some of the other partners we're going to be working with, we're giving
00:27:29.520 away some stuff. We're giving away some swag and some gift prizes and some other things to
00:27:34.820 those who have completed and are winning the challenges that we're offering. So guys, it's going
00:27:41.340 to be great. I don't want to talk merely about this stuff. I want to do something about
00:27:45.380 it. And the way that I think we can do something about it is to push ourselves, to enlist in
00:27:49.780 this challenge, to enlist our children in this challenge and to push ourselves further
00:27:54.460 than we've gone in the past. So that's what I wanted to share with you guys. I am waging
00:28:01.120 a war on weakness. I'm not going to be as weak as I am now. I'm going to continue to get
00:28:07.960 stronger. I'm going to continue to push and exert myself physically, mentally, emotionally.
00:28:13.240 I'm going to challenge you to do the same thing because Lord knows we need more strong,
00:28:19.380 motivated, capable, ambitious men in the fight to reclaim masculinity, to step up to how we
00:28:27.100 should be acting as fathers and husbands and business owners and community leaders and coaches
00:28:31.440 and friends and every other capacity in which we show up. And we do that by getting strong,
00:28:37.160 by pushing ourselves, exerting ourselves, and by ultimately leading well. So guys,
00:28:43.100 I'll leave you there. Get to it. I'm going to get to it. Stay tuned for the details coming out in
00:28:47.780 January. Let's do this together. And until next week for my conversation on Tuesday and the Ask Me
00:28:55.040 Anything, guys, go out there, take action, become the man you are meant to be. Thank you for listening
00:29:00.520 to the Order of Man podcast. If you're ready to take charge of your life and be more of the man you
00:29:05.560 were meant to be, we invite you to join the order at orderofman.com.