What to Do When Things Don't Go Your Way | FRIDAY FIELD NOTES
Episode Stats
Summary
In this episode, I discuss how to deal with demons coming back into your life or if your life gets off track, what do you do to get back on track? I also discuss the importance of having a daily routine and what to do when you ve ve ve deviated from 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 Ryan Mickler.
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I'm the host and the founder of the Order of Man podcast and movement. This is your Friday
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field notes where I share some thoughts from throughout the week. I thought I would get
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some input from the guys in our Facebook group on what they wanted me to cover. And as I asked
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for questions, I've got about seven or eight here in the past 15 or 20 minutes, and five
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of them are along the same subject, which is how to deal with demons coming back into your
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life. Or if your life gets off track, what do you do to get back on track? A lot of these
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types of questions. So it feels like this is something that we need to address. There's
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a few other questions sprinkled in here, and I will get to those of course as well. But I
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think the theme of this will be getting back on track when you deviate or your plan changes
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or your external circumstances change, which they have a tendency of doing from time to time.
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So we'll hit on that. Before I get into that discussion though, I want to let you know that
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next week on the 15th, we're going to be opening up the Iron Council. So that is our exclusive
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brotherhood. We've got about 1500 men inside the Iron Council who are all working through some of
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the questions that we have today. A lot of these guys come into the Iron Council because they have
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challenges and struggles and problems and changes in their plans and demons coming back into their
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lives. And they're trying to figure out how to get right again. And you could go at it alone and
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you could try to make things work. But the reality is you can only change your life to the degree that
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you know how to. So if you want something different out of your life, then something different needs to
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take place or you need some different inputs. And one of the best places to get that is from a group
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of other men who are motivated and inspired and ambitious and ready to do the same thing.
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What you're also going to find in the Iron Council is men who are experts in their field. For example,
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we have Johnny Loretty. He's a health and fitness coach. He's my strength and conditioning coach and
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nutritionist. He's been in the field for a long time. Very credible. Runs a gym outside of Boston.
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This is an expert. We've got financial experts. We've got entrepreneurs. We've got guys who are
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fathers. We've got guys who are making incredible six, seven figures each and every year. Guys,
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of course, like I just said, fitness, firearms, trainers, and instructors. So you're going to be able
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to have access unlike you will anywhere else when you join a band with us in the Iron Council. So
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that's going to open up again next week on the 15th. So I need you to go to orderaman.com
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slash Iron Council right now. And that way, when we open up, I'll be able to send you an email
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and let you know. Otherwise, you just won't get an email and know that we're open. So orderaman.com
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slash Iron Council. All right, let's get to these. I'm going to get some of these out of the way.
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They're good questions, but I'm going to get a few out of the way. And then we're going to get to
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the meat of the discussion. So this one comes from Caleb Johnson. He says, what are your suggestions
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for building a workout habit with a job that has odd switching hours? For example, 0,500 to 1500,
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1100 to 2100 with kids too. And my wife works. This is a question I get a lot with varying schedules.
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How do you have any sort of normalcy or get in any sort of routine, whether it's a workout or
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self-development or time for yourself? How do you do this? Well, specifically, Caleb,
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because you're asking about a workout, what I would suggest is you look at the most efficient
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workouts possible. It may not be possible for you to spend an hour, hour and a half, two hours in the
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gym. And you may need to look at 15 minute workouts. I would also highly suggest that you
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look into body weight workouts because you might be at work or you might get called into work and
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you're not able to go to the gym or train at your house. And you may need to do something in your
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office on your break. So if you have a body and you're able to move it, it's pushups, it's pull
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ups, it's squats, it's lunges. It's all of these types of movements, burpees that you can do regardless
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of where you are. So that's going to be key for you because you never know when you're going to get
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called in or when you're going to go to work. But outside of that, even if you don't know your
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schedule immediately, I'm pretty willing to bet that you know at least ahead of time, maybe it's
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a week ahead of time. And what I would say is just have a standard practice that you work out
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two hours before you go into the office or you work out after you get back from work before you
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go home, whatever that looks or on your lunch break. I don't know your exact line of work,
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but you know to some degree when and where you're going to be going. So get your training in and just
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say, Hey, I'm going to train two hours before I get into work. So if I'm going at eight,
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I'm going to train at six o'clock. If I go in at three this afternoon, then I train at one o'clock
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and just, and build the normalcy and the routine around the time span that you need before you go
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to work. I hope that makes sense. Uh, let me see if there's some other questions here. And then,
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like I said, I'll get a few of these done and then we'll get into the meat of the discussion.
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Uh, Rob Christensen says limiting frustration and anger at work, backbiting, et cetera, how acting
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out jeopardizes your integrity. That's a good question. It's a good topic. It's something that
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I personally deal with. And I'll tell you where that anger stems from. It stems from frustration
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with my own performance. That's typically what it is. It's frustration with my own performance. And
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typically the way that shows up is I'm not as effective or efficient with my jobs or my duties
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and tasks as I could be. Uh, maybe I didn't get as much done as I would have liked to have got done.
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And that is primarily due to mismanagement of my time, mismanagement of my time. The better I manage
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my time, the more I'm able to accomplish, the more effective and efficient I am and the less angry
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and stressed out that I become. So for me, I've, I'm able to get to the root of it. If I can have
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my schedule accurate, I can stay on my schedule. When I have spare time, like I do today, I filled
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that spare time with something recording this podcast. Normally I would record on Wednesday
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today. I'm recording on Tuesday because I have a little spare time. I can get it done now. And that
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way tomorrow I'm not as cramped. I'm not as rushed. And that will reduce my personal stress levels.
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But guys, the reality is, is that if you blow up at work in your professional relationships or
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interpersonal relationships, you are going to undermine all of the trust and credibility
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and authority that you have been building up with other people. And as I say this, I should say we,
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because I do this as well. You've been making deposits into the emotional bank account of other
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people. Maybe it's your wife, possibly your children, definitely your colleagues and your coworkers.
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And then one day you blow up and you get angry over nothing or, or something, but it was something
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within your control. And then you undermine everything that you've been doing for the last
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week or month or year, because you had one blow up. So I would suggest to you that if you don't manage
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your schedule correctly, the first thing you need to do when you start feeling yourself getting angry
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angry is disengage. You cannot engage with people when you're angry. So maybe that's a simple, take a,
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take a deep breath. My wife and I had a conversation last night and she said something that I was getting
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angry about. And I got triggered by what she said emotionally. And I got a little, a little defensive.
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And then I got a little offensive. And then I stopped and realized, Hey, this is not conducive
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to the type of relationship I want to have with her and the discussion I want to have with her.
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So I literally just said, hold on, just give me a second. And I reset in three seconds. And then I was
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able to re-engage in that conversation, like a mature man ought to do. Sometimes it requires more.
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Sometimes you need to leave the situation altogether, but here's what I don't want you to do.
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I don't want you to not come back to the environment. That's what a lot of guys will do
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is they'll disengage. Like, Hey, I'm hotheaded. I'm upset about this. I'm triggered, whatever.
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I'm going to leave. I'm going to go do whatever. And then they never come back to it. That's not
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healthy either. You need to be a man. We need to come back to the conversations and have the
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conversations that need to be had, but do it in a positive and constructive way.
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Dylan Thompson. And then this is the last question I'll get to before we get into that
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theme of the, of the conversation today, how to deal with family during the holidays.
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Look, anytime somebody says how to deal with, usually my response is you don't. And I would
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actually say that with family as well. And I don't mean don't talk with them or communicate with them
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at all. I would just be willing to bet that it's not all bad. There's just certain topics and
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conversations and things that got brought up that tend to elicit these types of arguments and banter
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and disagreement. And I would suggest that you just don't have those conversations because what
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is the possible result of getting mad and frustrated and upset with each other? Also boundaries.
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Boundaries are a beautiful thing. We talk about it all the time. So if you have a bunch of family over
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and there's no boundaries established or you can't get away or they can't get away and you're all
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stuck and cramped in this house for the holidays, that's going to be an issue. So find a way to get
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all of you out of the house, out of the environment. You don't have to be together a hundred percent of
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the time all day, every day. Maybe the guys go out and you go golfing, you know, one afternoon,
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maybe the ladies go and do what they want to do. Maybe, you know, you have a place for the kids,
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but then maybe there's a family night where you individually go out as families. You just create
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little situations where you're not all together all the time, just boiling and steaming and getting
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ready to blow up. You got to have a venting system for that. All right. So let's get into
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the theme of the conversation. So Vince Esposito says, how do you handle failure and learn from it?
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Adam Colin Sharp says, when things don't go the way we want or expect, how would one pivot in life?
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Another one, this is from Brian Schultz. What to do when the demons you thought you had tamed come
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creeping back? So you can see a lot of these questions are based on what do I do when things
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don't go according to plan? Well, here's what I would say. First and foremost, know that things
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aren't going to go according to plan. You have to manage your own personal expectations that it's
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not going to be perfect, that it's not going to work out just right. If your expectation is with your
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fitness journey, for example, that you're going to go to the gym and you're going to lose all this
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weight and you're going to get strong and jacked in a matter of a couple of days or a couple of
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weeks, that's probably not going to happen. If you think that everybody is going to do everything
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that you think they should be doing every single time you bark an order, that's probably not going
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to happen. If you're tasked with an assignment or something at work and you think that it's going
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to work perfectly and all the vendors are going to get stuff to you on time and the cost is going
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to be fixed and people are going to communicate effectively, get real. It's not going to happen.
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The first thing that we need to do is realize that life is going to throw curveballs at you
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to varying degrees. It might be that you're driving to work and you notice that somebody
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on the side of the road has a flat tire or vehicle problems and you decide to pull over and help that
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person and that's a curveball and it took a little time, but you were helpful. It's pretty benign,
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I would say. Or it might be that you have a conversation with your wife and you realize
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she's not happy and maybe she's looking at separation or divorce. That's something infinitely
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harder to deal with. Or you go into work and realize that you don't have a job anymore.
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These are harder things to deal with. But if we anticipate that challenges and obstacles are going
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to come up, then we can be proactive in dealing with those things and assertive before the problems
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happen. If we recognize that our wives are not obligated to stay with us forever, regardless of
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how we behave, then maybe that's going to help us behave a little better when things are good.
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If you know that your employment isn't guaranteed and that any day could go away,
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then maybe you will be better with your money when the sun is shining and you'll put money aside and
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you'll build up a network and learn how to network with other people so that job opportunities are
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abundant. That's the biggest thing that you can do is anticipate that things are going to happen and
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start planning for what could potentially happen right now today so that when you do get kicked in
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the nuts, it's not going to hurt as bad. It's like you have a cut. Somebody kicks you in the nuts.
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It's like, okay, I can't deal with, you know, I can't control that, but I got a cup on, right?
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So you can mitigate, you can manage those expectations. The next thing I would say is get
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your mind right. You know, it's hard when things get challenging. You have a medical condition, a job
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loss, a break in a relationship. I mean, these things are extremely, extremely challenging. And usually
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our mindset is trapped in looking backwards. What could I have done? What should I have done?
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How could this have gone differently? I wish I could rewind time. Look, to a degree,
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we need to analyze our performance because we can make better decisions moving forward. But at some
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point we have to stake something in the ground and say, okay, this is my new starting point.
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I am not that man. One of my favorite quotes is no man steps in the same river twice because he is
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not the same man and it is not the same river. Things change. You change. You've made mistakes.
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You are worse in some ways. You're better in some ways. You can improve. You can evolve,
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but you can't do that if you're trapped in what's happened in the past. So take that tragic and
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sometimes horrible set of circumstances that you found yourself in and put a period at the end of
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it. You know, that happened period. And now here's the next chapter of my life that I'm going to write
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and get to writing it. Do things differently. Go to the gym, get your finances in order,
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sell a bunch of stuff around your house so you can pay off debt, start eating correctly,
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start having better interpersonal communication with your friends and your family members and the
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people that you care about. Like you can do things different because you want to. That's a beautiful
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thing about being a human being. All it takes for you to do something different is to decide
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that you're going to do something different. Another strategy that I've been using personally,
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and I haven't always used this, so I can't talk at length about this, but journaling.
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Journaling has been really big for me. Just getting thoughts out of my mind. You know, I'll write,
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sometimes I'll write what went well today. You know, what two or three things did I do that went
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really well? You know, when I got angry today at this person, why was I angry and why did that trigger me
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and what did I do about it? What lesson did I learn today that I wouldn't have learned if I
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wouldn't have been a more aware like I am now of what's going on in my life? These are all little
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prompts that you can use to get out of your own head. Another strategy is to get around people that
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live the kind of life that you're after. You know, it's, it's, I know it's cliche to say
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the thing about, you know, you're the average of the five people that you spend the most time with
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and all this kind of stuff. And it's cliche because it's true. So if you've found yourself
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in a rut or a set of circumstances that you aren't happy with, that aren't favorable, then you have to
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change all of those variables. And part of that is getting around the right people and getting around
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the right people has never been easier than it is today. How do you do that? Go to the gym, get it.
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That's easy. Get a gym membership. Like if you're lonely and you don't have friends or the friends
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you do have or losers, where did it, where do you start? Just go down to your local gym and pick up
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a $40 a month membership and show up, get there early, get there in the afternoon. When people
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are done, go there on a lunch break, go there. When people are there, you can go to business luncheons.
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You can look online and find activities in your area that you're excited about because other people
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will be excited about those same things and you can connect with them. You can go to conferences,
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you can go to events, just get out where the people are, where the good people are that you want to be
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connected to and meet with. And at the end of the day, just know it's going to take time. That's probably
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the worst thing about it is that you and your mind have made a decision to change your life, to change
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who you are, to change how you show up. And for me, if you're anything like me, not waiting, but
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allowing the process to work sucks, right? If I want to get in shape, I don't want it to take months.
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I want it to happen now, but it can't happen now. If I want to rebuild a relationship with somebody
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that I maybe had damaged over the years, I don't want to wait two or three or five or 10 years or
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never. I want that to take place now. So that's a mindset thing. And that patience, my friend,
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Andy Frisilla calls it being aggressively patient. What he means by that is you're doing the work.
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You're not just sitting back, hoping things will miraculously work out, or you'll have a different
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set of circumstances than you did before by doing the same thing. No, it's doing the work required.
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And we all know what it is. Y'all know what the work is. I know what the work is. It's doing that
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work and letting the process unfold. You know, when I go to the gym and I'm working out and I look in
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the mirror, I'm like, man, I look the same I did yesterday. Yeah. It's going to take a few weeks to
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maybe notice some differences or maybe a few months. Or if the relationship I have with my
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kids or my wife or, or friends or colleagues, isn't what I want it to be. You know, I can make
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the decision to change and improve, but they may never come around. Or if they do, it may be slower
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than you would like, but you've got to be aggressively patient. Just keep doing what you need to be doing,
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knowing that it's the right thing to do. And that's a big deal, by the way, is the ability to
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do the right thing simply because it's the right thing to do. Because if you base your actions
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on the results that you hope to experience, then your actions are contingent upon receiving those
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results. And to a degree that makes sense, right? If you're working out and you've been doing it for
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two years and you're not experiencing results, okay, something's got to change. So we do need to
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look at that. But there are things that we should be doing in life that are intrinsically valuable.
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And we actually don't need to have some sort of external result or validation in order for us to
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do that thing. So keep doing the right things because it's the right thing to do and have faith that
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if you stack enough of those actions together over long and sustained periods of time,
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you will be in a better position than you were before. Guys, I know it's challenging and I know
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it's rough. And I know, especially this time of year, people are thinking about their previous 12
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months and what's worked and what hasn't and how it's gone well and what's gone to shit in their
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lives. Like I get it. I understand I'm doing that too. And so sometimes it's easy to dwell on
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the horrible stuff and it's not bad that we look at it. It's just a reminder that we're imperfect and
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that we struggle and we mess up and we hurt people and we fall short of our expectations. But what a
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beautiful time to start thinking about how to improve, how to adapt, how to evolve. And one
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other prompt I've used is when I'm in a situation where I'm emotionally compromised, I'm frustrated,
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I'm angry, I'm short, tempered with people, or even where I'm tempted to do something I know isn't
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right, is asking myself, what would the man that I want to be do in this situation? And then do that
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regardless of the consequences, because we have a good ability to talk ourselves out of it. So what
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would the man that I want to be do in this circumstance? And then do that. That's what I'm
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working on. Can't say I'm good at it. Can't say I get a hundred percent or 80 or even maybe 60%,
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but that is something that I try. And when I apply it, it works. Okay. All right, guys,
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appreciate the feedback, appreciate the questions and the topics. But again, we can overcome these
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things. We can overcome these challenges. We've got to do it right. And I hope I gave you some
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tips and strategies to be able to do that. So guys, make it a great weekend. We'll be back
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next week. Until then, go out there, take action and become the man you are meant to be.
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Thank you for listening to the Order of Man podcast. You're ready to take charge of your life
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and be more of the man you were meant to be. We invite you to join the Order at quarterofman.com.