Order of Man - Will it Make the Boat Go Faster？

00:00:00.000 I've seen so many men do one of two things.

00:00:03.460 Either pick a course of action and believe just because they picked that course of action

00:00:07.140 that they're locked into it indefinitely.

00:00:10.020 Well, you're not.

00:00:11.220 At some point, if you're doing the wrong things over and over again, that's just stupidity.

00:00:16.520 You can change, you can pivot, you can adjust, even if it's something that you committed to earlier.

00:00:21.460 Another thing that I see guys do is they just stay in the game way too long.

00:00:30.000 You're a man of action.

00:00:31.600 You live life to the fullest, embrace your fears, and boldly chart your own path.

00:00:35.980 When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time, every time.

00:00:40.420 You are not easily deterred or defeated, rugged, resilient, strong.

00:00:45.500 This is your life.

00:00:46.600 This is who you are.

00:00:48.020 This is who you will become.

00:00:49.740 At the end of the day, and after all is said and done, you can call yourself a man.

00:01:00.000 Men, today I want to share a concept with you that I came across from my good friend, Kip Sorensen.

00:01:05.360 Many of you know who Kip is.

00:01:06.960 He is my fellow co-host and podcaster on our weekly Ask Me Anything.

00:01:13.360 Several weeks ago, he had shared a concept with me, and he just simply called it,

00:01:17.640 Will it make the boat go faster?

00:01:19.880 I was intrigued by the concept I'm going to share with you today, and I did a little research.

00:01:24.080 He sent me a few articles, and I thought I would share this concept because I think if

00:01:28.700 more of us incorporated the idea of the will it make the boat go faster mantra, we'd be

00:01:35.500 able to use it as a litmus test for the activities and priorities that we set in our lives.

00:01:41.840 If you're anything like me and the millions of men that we reach on a weekly and monthly

00:01:46.060 basis, you know just as well as all of them that we are busy.

00:01:50.580 We are consumed.

00:01:51.720 We have activities and hobbies and interests and kids pulling on us for their attention

00:01:57.760 and potentially a spouse or a partner and our own career pursuits and activities.

00:02:05.580 So like we've got a thousand things to do on a minute-by-minute basis, but how do you decide

00:02:11.420 what is going to be the best for you?

00:02:13.240 So today I'm going to share with you, again, this concept of will it make the boat go faster?

00:02:17.460 And I'm also going to share with you two other things that are crucial, two other factors

00:02:22.200 that you need to incorporate into your everyday planning to ensure that not only are you living

00:02:26.860 by the will it make the boat go faster mantra, but that you're also able to incorporate this

00:02:34.140 towards productive and healthy goals that you, not me, not anybody else, have deemed important.

00:02:39.500 So let me give you a little bit of a backstory here.

00:02:41.380 Uh, the will it make the boat go faster mantra comes from a gentleman by the name of Ben Hunt

00:02:46.500 Davis, uh, Ben Hunt Davis was, and I'm just going to read this here.

00:02:51.000 He says here was part of an underachieving men's eight who in 1998 set themselves a crazy goal

00:02:59.180 of winning the Olympic gold medal in just two years time.

00:03:02.880 They developed a whole new way of working and began challenging every single thing they

00:03:08.120 did with the question, will it make the boat go faster?

00:03:12.200 If it did, they would keep doing it.

00:03:14.560 If it didn't, they'd try something different by focusing on their performance.

00:03:18.800 Their results started to improve, giving them the belief that their crazy goal may not be

00:03:24.960 so crazy after all.

00:03:26.380 On the 25th of September, 2000, Ben and his crew won gold at the Sydney Olympics.

00:03:33.320 And now their story acts as a reminder that with the right approach, people are capable

00:03:38.200 of amazing things.

00:03:40.580 I love that story.

00:03:42.460 When I heard Kip talk to me about it, I knew I had to dig deeper.

00:03:45.860 And the fact that you have this underachieving men's rowing team out of Great Britain who were

00:03:52.360 not expected to do anything miraculous or wonderful in just a period of two years went from an

00:03:58.180 underachieving team to a team that literally was at the top of the world in the 2000 Olympics.

00:04:06.620 Guys, I think we can learn a lot from this lesson.

00:04:10.240 Will it make the boat go faster?

00:04:11.720 Now, not all of us may have Olympic aspirations, but I still think the principle applies whether

00:04:16.900 you're trying to reconnect with kids or just have deep and meaningful relationships and

00:04:22.520 conversations with them.

00:04:24.300 Maybe you're trying to take your marriage to the next level, or maybe it's been on the

00:04:27.320 rocks over the past several years and you're trying to improve it.

00:04:30.340 Or perhaps you're thinking about how your career has flatlined.

00:04:34.760 Maybe it was on a certain trajectory and something happened and now you're finding yourself trying

00:04:39.040 to figure out, how am I going to do this?

00:04:40.940 How am I going to get better?

00:04:41.760 How am I going to make more money?

00:04:42.760 How am I going to serve more people?

00:04:44.740 Maybe your health is struggling.

00:04:46.240 Maybe you're a few pounds overweight.

00:04:48.320 Maybe you're morbidly obese.

00:04:50.440 Maybe you're dealing with a health or medical condition.

00:04:53.060 But if we take this mantra, will it make the boat go faster?

00:04:55.800 I think we can use everything that we do on a daily basis and really measure it against

00:05:00.300 our own priorities and objectives.

00:05:02.700 And this is one of the first things that I wanted to share with you earlier when I was

00:05:05.680 talking about it.

00:05:07.260 If you are going to adopt this mantra, then it's almost an assumption, but I do want to

00:05:12.380 make sure I'm very clear about this, that you actually have goals.

00:05:16.640 That you have a vision for yourself, that you have goals and objectives and things that

00:05:22.660 you want to accomplish in life.

00:05:24.740 I think there's a lot of men out there, and I know this because I talked with these guys

00:05:28.140 on a daily basis who are just going through the motions.

00:05:31.120 They're just uninterested in life.

00:05:33.200 They're not inspired.

00:05:34.120 They're not motivated.

00:05:35.780 Maybe they've been beat up, whether it's self-inflicted or external circumstances beyond

00:05:39.940 their control that don't really have any thought about what they want in their life.

00:05:43.960 And if you're going to adopt this mantra, then the first thing you need to do is really

00:05:46.820 consider what do you want your life to look like in the next month, in the next three months,

00:05:51.060 in the next year, in the next five, the next 10, the next 20 years.

00:05:54.100 If you don't know what that looks like, there's nothing really to measure against.

00:05:58.300 And you can't ask yourself, is this going to help me be more effective and efficient towards

00:06:02.080 those goals?

00:06:02.620 But if you spend some time really thinking about and writing down what it is you want

00:06:06.620 to accomplish in some different areas of your life, I have this journal right here.

00:06:11.440 And if you can't see this, obviously, you know, you can check it out on YouTube because

00:06:15.980 we are trying to grow our YouTube channel.

00:06:17.600 And, but this is a journal that I have and I write in it just about every day about my

00:06:23.440 vision for the day.

00:06:24.220 What would make a, what would make a successful day?

00:06:26.620 Uh, I went and took my second son to lunch today.

00:06:30.800 We, I go to lunch with one of my children every single week and I took my second son and

00:06:34.620 I really spent some time this morning, not a, not a lot.

00:06:38.120 It doesn't have to consume my time and tension and energy, but I did spend some time this morning

00:06:42.500 thinking about what, what would make this a good lunch?

00:06:46.920 What would make this enjoyable?

00:06:48.360 What would make the, what, what is the goal of the lunch?

00:06:50.420 Is it just to talk?

00:06:51.260 Is it to connect?

00:06:51.940 Is it to ask him questions?

00:06:52.960 Is it to lead him?

00:06:53.840 Like, what is the actual goal?

00:06:55.240 And then what would actually move me towards that goal?

00:06:58.700 And, uh, I would say at the end of our lunch today that I felt pretty good about the conversations

00:07:03.180 that we had and the time that we had together, even though it was only about 45 minutes or

00:07:07.420 so.

00:07:09.160 So I think about my kids, I think about my career, I think about my, my goals and with

00:07:13.920 regards to my health.

00:07:15.660 And I spent a lot of time thinking about it, even before I did this podcast, what do I want

00:07:20.120 to address with you today?

00:07:21.060 What do I want to talk about?

00:07:22.700 Um, what, what subjects do I want to cover?

00:07:25.240 And not only this, but I think about other topics that I want to cover.

00:07:28.640 I've got a list of about a thousand different topics that I can cover on Friday field notes

00:07:32.420 because I care about it and it's important.

00:07:35.880 Podcast production, the way that we present ourselves, the quality of the audio and the

00:07:39.680 video that I present to you are the things that I'm investing in, in the business going

00:07:44.600 to help this move the needle.

00:07:45.860 But if I don't know what it looks like to move the needle, then I have no idea.

00:07:49.640 So guys, if you weren't spending any time thinking about what your life looks like, what

00:07:55.240 you want it to look like, what your goals and objectives are, just go get our free tool.

00:07:59.180 It's completely free.

00:08:00.340 It's going to get you on the right path.

00:08:01.700 It's at order of man.com slash battle ready.

00:08:04.500 You're going to get 17 emails and it's going to walk you through what a vision looks like,

00:08:09.260 walk you through objectives and four key areas of your life, your relationships, your physical

00:08:14.580 health, your mental, your emotional health, uh, your connection with other people, your

00:08:20.040 finances.

00:08:20.640 It's, it's going to cover the gambit.

00:08:22.660 It's going to cover the entire thing and it's going to help you identify what exactly you

00:08:26.880 want to accomplish.

00:08:27.620 Now it might not be perfect, but over time and doing this every single quarter, like I

00:08:31.300 have been now for 12, 13, 14 years, you're going to see tremendous results in your life.

00:08:38.380 Now, once you have your objectives, now you can actually use the mantra.

00:08:44.560 Will it make the boat go faster?

00:08:46.180 So if your boss comes to you and says, Hey, I have this opportunity that I want you to

00:08:51.140 take advantage of, and you have career aspirations to grow within the organization, then you can

00:08:56.400 very simply say, well, you know, I think that will make the boat go faster.

00:08:59.800 I think I'm going to try it.

00:09:01.760 The other thing I like about this mantra is that it gives you the opportunity to pivot because

00:09:07.120 at the end of the day, we need to experiment with different things.

00:09:10.220 We might try a different tactic or a strategy at work and find out that it did not in fact

00:09:17.520 make the boat go faster.

00:09:19.600 It actually made it go slower.

00:09:21.420 And in that case, what you're doing is you're giving yourself permission to pivot, to adjust,

00:09:25.400 to change.

00:09:26.540 I've seen so many men do one of two things, either pick a course of action and believe

00:09:31.600 just because they picked that course of action that they're locked into it indefinitely.

00:09:36.360 Well, you're not.

00:09:37.120 At some point, if you're doing the wrong things over and over again, that's just stupidity.

00:09:42.880 You can change, you can pivot, you can adjust, even if it's something that you committed to

00:09:46.560 earlier.

00:09:47.820 Another thing that I see guys do is they just stay in the game way too long, way too long.

00:09:56.520 They don't want to be quitters.

00:09:57.420 They don't want to look at, be looked at as failures and they're just trapped into the

00:10:02.020 thing.

00:10:02.460 I guess that's kind of along the same lines, but what else they'll do is they won't even

00:10:05.860 take action at all because they're afraid if they do something that they can't pivot

00:10:10.580 down the road.

00:10:11.240 And that's not true.

00:10:12.740 You can be in relationships that you realize may not work out, but you want to explore that

00:10:18.060 relationship.

00:10:19.440 You can test hobbies and interests and activities and realize, you know what, that isn't something

00:10:24.540 that I was interested in pursuing.

00:10:25.900 I tried it and it wasn't that great.

00:10:28.240 You can try things at work.

00:10:29.540 If you're an entrepreneur, if you're a business owner, even if you're an employee and you have

00:10:32.900 some responsibility within reason, of course, and when appropriate, you can try different

00:10:38.000 things to see if the business grows or see if it doesn't, which leads me to my next point,

00:10:43.320 which is an after action review.

00:10:45.280 Guys, at the end of every action, engagement, encounter, task, hobby, interest, podcast,

00:10:50.000 conversation, lunch, whatever, you really need to be contemplating the results of your

00:10:55.960 performance.

00:10:56.900 Did it work?

00:10:57.660 And you need to be very objective.

00:11:00.420 I know at times we can trick ourselves and fool ourselves into thinking that we're doing

00:11:05.520 better than we actually are.

00:11:06.700 But unless you're measuring the things that you want to improve, you have no idea as to

00:11:12.640 whether or not they're improving.

00:11:14.520 So if you want to lose weight and get strong, you need to document your weight and you need

00:11:19.100 to document how much weights you're lifting.

00:11:21.760 If you want to become a faster runner, then you need to measure how fast you're currently running

00:11:26.540 and how fast you're getting.

00:11:29.660 If you want to grow your wealth, you need to look at where your cash is coming and where

00:11:32.740 it's going and how much you have invested and what your assets are and what your liabilities

00:11:37.840 are.

00:11:39.100 You need to test those things.

00:11:40.340 If you're trying to build a relationship, you need to come up with some metrics about

00:11:43.160 am I being a good father?

00:11:45.680 Am I coaching my kids' teams?

00:11:47.260 Am I spending one-on-one time with them?

00:11:49.000 Am I having deep and meaningful conversations?

00:11:51.720 Am I actually tracking those things?

00:11:53.240 Because if I'm not, it's easy to say, yeah, yeah, I'm being a good dad.

00:11:56.260 I'm putting food on the table.

00:11:57.380 It's not enough, guys.

00:11:58.580 It's not enough for me.

00:12:00.240 And I don't think it's enough for you.

00:12:03.180 So this is a three-part system.

00:12:06.920 And I work very well.

00:12:08.740 If you've been following for any amount of time, you know, these Friday field notes are

00:12:11.500 always about the frameworks that I use to have success in my own life to varying degrees.

00:12:15.760 But the framework is very simple.

00:12:18.180 Know what you want.

00:12:19.660 And only then can you ask, are the things that I'm doing leading me to what I want?

00:12:24.580 That's the will it make the boat go faster mantra.

00:12:27.520 And then the third component is, did it actually work?

00:12:31.240 Did it make the boat go faster, so to speak?

00:12:33.600 If it did, keep doing it.

00:12:35.500 If it didn't, try something new.

00:12:38.080 But give yourself permission to experiment.

00:12:40.440 Give yourself permission to try new things.

00:12:43.920 Give yourself permission to pivot and adjust when things aren't working.

00:12:47.680 And we always, as objectively as we can, base it on, will it make the boat go faster?

00:12:53.620 That's one of the things that, among others, that I really like about this mantra is that

00:12:58.040 it's objective.

00:13:00.580 If in a rowing competition, and trust me, I know nothing about rowing at all.

00:13:06.120 But if they're rowing five kilometers, I don't know if that's too little, too much.

00:13:12.200 I have no idea.

00:13:12.860 But if they're rowing five kilometers, they can see it took us this long.

00:13:18.420 And here's what we did.

00:13:19.860 We trained this way, or we all lost weight, or we rode a different stroke, or we gained

00:13:26.300 weight and put muscle on, or we started to eat these things and didn't do this.

00:13:30.260 You can look and actually see, did that make you actually faster or not?

00:13:35.020 So you have to objectify the results.

00:13:37.780 It's very easy to make them subjective because we're so emotionally vested in our decision-making

00:13:42.960 process that if we're wrong or it didn't work, then we could possibly view that as an indictment

00:13:49.500 against our character.

00:13:50.600 It's not.

00:13:51.260 It just means it didn't work.

00:13:53.320 And I would say it's an indictment against your character if you don't pivot and something

00:13:57.480 didn't work.

00:13:58.120 It would classify you, at least from where I sit, as stubborn or arrogant or hard-headed.

00:14:04.480 And none of those are very redeeming qualities.

00:14:08.380 So guys, plan your goals.

00:14:12.940 Plan your objectives.

00:14:13.860 Plan what you want.

00:14:14.980 Use our free resources, orderofman.com slash battle ready.

00:14:19.460 Then start testing one at a time, by the way.

00:14:22.300 We don't need to change everything all at once because if we do that, things will change,

00:14:26.460 right?

00:14:26.620 If you do different things, you'll achieve different results for better or worse in your

00:14:30.600 life, but you won't know what to attribute those results to.

00:14:34.640 So you don't need to change everything all at once.

00:14:36.800 That's a huge mistake a lot of guys make.

00:14:39.180 So for example, they're trying to get fit and then all of a sudden they're like, I'm

00:14:42.220 going to diet.

00:14:42.900 I'm going to cut out carbs.

00:14:44.480 I'm going to reduce my caloric intake.

00:14:48.120 I'm going to increase my water intake.

00:14:50.780 I'm going to go to the gym for 45 minutes every single morning for six days a week.

00:14:55.540 And then I'm going to do cardio three days a week.

00:14:57.420 It's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

00:14:59.500 Hold on.

00:15:00.680 Like, we'll get there.

00:15:01.760 We can get there.

00:15:02.560 I promise you.

00:15:03.240 You have time.

00:15:04.240 And the healthier you get, the more time you'll have.

00:15:06.680 But we'll get there.

00:15:08.140 Just for now, let's just change one thing and see if it works.

00:15:11.540 If it works, then we'll stay with that.

00:15:12.840 And then we'll incorporate something else.

00:15:15.640 So that's the, will it make the boat go faster mantra?

00:15:18.600 And then again, the third component is the after action review.

00:15:21.000 We also have a free resource for that too, which is at orderofman.com slash A-A-R as an

00:15:27.540 after action review.

00:15:29.360 You can check that out as well.

00:15:31.120 Guys, I hope that helps.

00:15:32.120 I'm going to dive into this more.

00:15:33.220 And I'm going to ask myself when I do my own plan and I've got my battle planner right

00:15:36.640 here.

00:15:36.880 It's on my desk every day because I go through it every single day when I do things or when

00:15:42.640 I'm tempted to do things.

00:15:44.240 That's another thing.

00:15:45.080 A lot of guys have vices and temptations and things that are keeping them from accomplishing

00:15:49.060 what they want to accomplish, whether it's pornography addiction or alcohol abuse or gambling

00:15:55.020 or just being lazy and being distracted or letting their emotions get the better of them.

00:16:02.780 You can ask yourself, is what I'm doing in this moment, this very moment, making the boat

00:16:07.680 go faster?

00:16:08.800 If it's a yes, you're good.

00:16:10.540 Keep doing it.

00:16:11.000 If it's a no, stop the behavior.

00:16:14.340 Do something else more effective.

00:16:16.600 And guys, last thing on the note of will it make the boat go faster?

00:16:19.720 I've spent a lot of time thinking about the events that we've done over the past nearly

00:16:23.220 decade now.

00:16:24.660 And I remember thinking how hard it was at first to get people to events because I didn't

00:16:29.860 know how to do it.

00:16:30.980 And then I remember years into the process thinking how easy it was to get people to events

00:16:35.920 because we sold out all of our events.

00:16:37.620 And what I'm realizing now is that everybody has an event.

00:16:42.040 There's a program.

00:16:43.120 There's a course.

00:16:43.820 There's an event.

00:16:44.500 There's a mastermind.

00:16:45.360 There's a this.

00:16:45.900 There's a that.

00:16:46.800 Every single person on the planet has something they want you to attend.

00:16:50.680 We're busy.

00:16:51.840 We have a lot of time to, excuse me, we don't have a lot of time to do unnecessary things.

00:16:57.260 So I had this thought years ago, but it just came to fruition over the past several months

00:17:01.680 that if we all have events, what if we banded together?

00:17:06.000 So instead of going to my event and that guy's event and that guy's event and that guy's

00:17:09.340 event and that guy's event, and you could go to seven or eight or 10 different events

00:17:12.100 throughout the year, which you can't handle.

00:17:14.060 It's not possible.

00:17:14.840 We brought all the events together to one place where you got to hear from some of the

00:17:21.820 things that I share and some of the things that Larry Hagner with the Dad Ed shares or

00:17:26.300 Connor Beaton with Man Talks or Matt Vincent with Not Dead Yet or Matt Boudreau with Apogee

00:17:31.620 Strong.

00:17:32.940 We also just had Sathya Sam come in and secure his spot as a speaker at this event and Dr.

00:17:39.280 Robert Glover with No More Mr. Nice Guy.

00:17:41.820 Guys, I don't want you to go to all the events.

00:17:43.740 You can't do that.

00:17:44.720 You want to be there.

00:17:45.680 I jump on Instagram sometimes.

00:17:47.100 I'm like, I want to be at that event.

00:17:48.200 I can't do them all.

00:17:50.240 But you can come to one that incorporates all of them with it.

00:17:54.200 So if you're interested, check it out.

00:17:55.620 It's at The Men's Forge, themensforge.com, and you're going to get access to me and the

00:18:01.980 guys from my community, Larry, Matt, Matt, Connor, Robert, Sathya, and a couple other

00:18:07.460 guests that we're working with right now.

00:18:08.720 That's May 1st through the 4th, 2025, just outside of St.

00:18:11.960 Louis.

00:18:12.420 It's at themensforge.com.

00:18:15.520 All right, guys.

00:18:16.420 That's all I've got for you today.

00:18:17.760 We will be back on Tuesday for our interview.

00:18:20.580 Until then, go out there, take action, ask yourself, will it make the boat go faster and

00:18:25.860 become the man you are meant to be?

00:18:27.580 Thank you for listening to the Order of Man podcast.

00:18:35.780 If you're ready to take charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be,

00:18:39.820 we invite you to join the order at orderofman.com.

00:18:42.960 We'll be back on Tuesday for our interview.

00:18:48.780 Thank you.

Order of Man - January 31, 2025

Will it Make the Boat Go Faster？｜ FRIDAY FIELD NOTES

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