In this episode of the Manlihood ManCast, Josh Hatcher talks about Thanksgiving, and the transforming power of gratitude.
Thankfulness changes YOU.
“Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.” –
Brian Tracy
Thankfulness changes OTHERS.
“The way to develop the best that is in a person is by appreciation and encouragement.”
-Charles Schwab
Gratitude is a cure-all.
“We would worry less if we praised more. Thanksgiving is the enemy of discontent and dissatisfaction.”
-H.A. Ironside
“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.”
-Melody Beattie
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Get REIGNITE: A MAN’S FIELD GUIDE TO TAKING BACK HIS LIFE
In this episode of the Manlihood ManCast, Josh Hatcher talks about a few different V Words that are important for men to understand. Some we need to embrace, some we need to reject.
Validation
We all want validation. We all want someone to give us that validation or respect. But ultimately, we have to give it to ourselves.
Vigilance
We have to be ever vigilant, we need to be aware of what’s going on around us. Vigilant against threats internal and external.
Vengeance
Vengeance is destructive. We need to avoid this. Justice is good. Reconciliation is good. Vengeance is destructive.
Victimhood
We’re living in a time where being a victim is almost revered.
Victory
We all want to win. We want to be victorious. It’s good for us to run the race to win it. It’s good to celebrate the wins.
Virtue
The virtuous life is a life that is guided by principle. We do the right thing. Don’t virtue signal. Just have virtue.
In this episode of the Manlihood ManCast, Josh Hatcher talks about avoiding the butthurt. How can we man-the-heck-up and face our circumstances without getting our feelings hurt?
Resilience is when a man can bounce back after something hurts, rather than to stay down.
Karma comes back to those who do wrong.
Including you. Is this trouble your own fault?
Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
Learning to differentiate whether something SHOULD offend you or not will be one of the most valuable skills you acquire in life.
In the movie Apocalypto, directed by Mel Gibson, a young Mayan man is set to be slaughtered.
The Mayans believed that a bloody human sacrifice was required of their gods to bring favor on their land. After all – while the brutality was in practice, their kingdom thrived! In their brutal and twisted minds – it made sense!
Of course we know that killing innocents as an act of sacrifice to the gods is not a good thing.
But our culture is built on sacrifice – and I contend that it’s a cornerstone of manlihood for a man to be willing to lay down his life.
When a man swears an oath to his country, as a soldier, a police officer, a firefighter, etc – he pledges to serve the greater good at a great personal cost. In order for him to serve, his life may be required of him. They all know this – and yet they agree to serve.
We may not all be heroes, signing or name in blood with an oath to serve and protect – but we should all strive to live our lives in a way that reflect some of that courage.
Sometimes a commitment to sacrifice doesn’t mean death – sometimes it means going without to provide for our children. Sometimes it means doing the right thing, when it costs us dearly to do so. Sometimes it means standing up to defend against wrongdoing around us.
Are you willing to give your life, or part of your life to the service of others?
Are you willing to put yourself second, to put your needs behind the needs of others? Are you willing to charge in to danger to help another in need?
In this episode of the Manlihood ManCast, Josh Hatcher talks about some dark, creepy, and gross things. There’s light, even in the darkness!
Testicular Fortitude
Testicles are gross. When you really think about how they work, they’re awesome, and they are gross. All you have to do is imagine Anthony Bourdain as he travels around the world, and inevitably, someone will serve him a dish of testicles from some native species, and he always says, “It tastes like balls. They always taste the same.”
We often describe someone with GUTS or GRIT as having “intestinal fortitude”-
I like to joke that someone with BALLS has “testicular fortitude.”
Let’s explore that. First of all, I’ve known women with more testicular fortitude than you can imagine – so I don’t mean to identify courage, strength, and honor solely with masculine specific parts, but I want to emphasize that there should be a correlation to having ACTUAL testicles and having BALLS.
I always thought that my brother had the most testicular fortitude of anyone that I knew. The kid was fearless. I watched him surf down a hill of crumbling shale on a big chunk of flagstone. It flipped over and took a chunk out of his hand. He bled and cried a bit, but it was worth it to have that kind of adventure. Another time he got in a bicycle accident that ended up with him getting hit in the testicles. The doctor told him not to ride his bike for awhile. That night, after icing down his sore gonads, he climbed to the top of the swingset and started walking it like a tightrope.
That was his behavior as a kid – he does show a little more responsibility as an adult, but he certainly hasn’t suffered from any “shrinkage” of testicular fortitude.
Questions to ask the modern man
Why is it that we settle for lives of comfort and safety?
Why do we NOT say or do the things that should be said or done?
Why are we content to watch adventures on television, or to play adventures on playstations instead of having the real thing?
Should we be okay with expecting other people to protect us, and not preparing to protect ourselves?
Why do we minimize risk and then complain about the little return that we receive?
We are men in need of testicular fortitude.
Are you NOT a man of courage? Do you feel you DON’T have the balls you need? It starts by making a goal for yourself, and then doing it. Courage is a muscle – and you have to exercise it.
Start by picking something that you didn’t think you could do – and then just do it.
A few weeks ago – I walked 15 miles in one day…. something I never thought I could do!
Maybe it’s an adventure sport, or just an adventure!
Maybe it’s a fitness goal – or asking a girl on a date.
Just start building that courage by taking small steps until those steps get bigger and bigger and build confidence.
In this episode of the Manlihood ManCast, Josh Hatcher talks about some dark, creepy, and gross things. There’s light, even in the darkness!
What Flows in your veins
Blood has been thought of as sacred since the first moment someone nicked their finger and saw the dark red fluid flow out of it.
It carries life – and has inspired mythology, religion, folklore, and storytellers to view it as a mystical and powerful force.
Your heart pumps blood through your veins – and it moves all through your body.
Let’s use this metaphor to ask a couple of personal development questions,men.
We often call our emotional center our “heart.” And if the physical heart pumps blood through your veins – what is the emotional force that the figurative heart pumps through your veins?
PASSION.
So for the sake of analogy – think of PASSION as BLOOD.
In every man, there is a passion that drive him. Even the tired and weak man has that passion pumping through him – though he may have a weak pulse, or low blood pressure.
But the best men are those that have harnessed and trained their body to work with their flowing passion to get things accomplished.
What are you passionate about? What drives you? What passion flows in your veins?
Take some time to identify the things you are passionate about. Then find a way to embrace and strengthen and train yourself – like an athlete – a finely tuned machine to use them to the best of your ability.
Welcome to our Manlihood ManCast, a podcast for men! In this episode of the Manlihood ManCast, Josh Hatcher reminisces about working for Bill Sauers. Bill owned an antiquated sawmill from the 1800’s – and working for bill taught Josh many lessons.
Listen to this podcast for men now!
Here are some of the life lessons I learned from working with Old Man Bill on the sawmill!
Don’t shovel the same pile poop twice
Work Smarter Not Harder
Don’t let go! (Old Bill and the scaffolding)
Work is it’s own reward (An ode to hard work)
Josh Hatcher wrote a book of poetry that featured some of his stories from working on the sawmill with Bill.
I have no idea what was original, and what has been replaced and hobbled. The antique yellow engine, half the age of the rest sputtered and coughed up diesel, spinning her belt.
The old sawn boards, greyed and cragged by the sun – cracks filled with white pine sawdust.
The old steel, tracks and carriage were black, with orange crust creeping at the edges. We kept it and the massive blade covered with rubber tarps, but moisture always found a way in….
Just enough to leave a little crust, not enough to eat it away.
My job was to clean the bark with an old crowbar. The bath in the deep millpond usually did it’s trick. The bark would shed like t-shirt… mostly in one piece.
We spun the log on the carriage, Old Man Bill and I.
I’d dodge his occasional curses as she played with him.
She’d taunt and tease. After all, she was much older than Old Man Bill.
And I’d stand on the backside of the blade, guiding the timbers over the rollers to the forklift.
On a hot day, she would reward me, coating me with wet sawdust and millpond spray. Oh, the smell of white pine and pond water and diesel was the best summer.
And at the end of the day, the spring that fed the millpond would give me a drink. I’d stick my whole face into the hole in the ground and suck the water in. Drowning just long enough to cool my hot tongue.
In this episode of the Manlihood ManCast – a podcast for men – Josh Hatcher shares some quotes from Theodore Roosevelt, perhaps the manliest U.S. President of all time.
Manly Quotes from Theodore Roosevelt
https://youtu.be/_frwOyRgBkM
“A man’s usefulness depends upon his living up to his ideals insofar as he can.”
“All daring and courage, all iron endurance of misfortune-make for a finer, nobler type of manhood.”
“Only those are fit to live who do not fear to die and none are fit to die who have shrunk from the joy of life and the duty of life.”
“A soft, easy life is not worth living, if it impairs the fibre of brain and heart and muscle. We must dare to be great; and we must realize that greatness is the fruit of toil and sacrifice and high courage… For us is the life of action, of strenuous performance of duty; let us live in the harness, striving mightily; let us rather run the risk of wearing out than rusting out.”
“Aggressive fighting for the right is the noblest sport the world affords.”
“There are no words that can tell the hidden spirit of the wilderness, that can reveal its mystery, its melancholy and its charm.”
“I want to see you game, boys, I want to see you brave and manly, and I also want to see you gentle and tender.”
“Be practical as well as generous in your ideals. Keep your eyes on the stars and keep your feet on the ground.”
“Courage, hard work, self-mastery, and intelligent effort are all essential to successful life.”
“Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike.”
“It is no use to preach to children if you do not act decently yourself.”
“A good many of you are probably acquainted with the old proverb, ‘Speak softly and carry a big stick — you will go far.’ If a man continually blusters, if he lacks civility, a big stick will not save him from trouble, and neither will speaking softly avail, if back of the softness there does not lie strength, power.”
“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.”
“A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.”
“If we lose the virile, manly qualities, and sink into a nation of mere hucksters, putting gain over national honor, and subordinating everything to mere ease of life, then we shall indeed reach a condition worse than that of the ancient civilizations in the years of their decay.”
“The worst lesson that can be taught a man is to rely upon others and to whine over his sufferings.”
“We can best get justice by doing justice.”
. “In the last analysis a healthy state can exist only when the men and women who make it up lead clean, vigorous, healthy lives.”
“We must dare to be great; and we must realize that greatness is the fruit of toil and sacrifice and high courage.”
“We need intellect, and there is no reason why we should not have it together with character; but if we must choose between the two we choose character without a moment’s hesitation.”
“Death is always and under all circumstances a tragedy, for if it is not, then it means that life itself has become one.”
“The joy of life is won in its deepest and truest sense only by those who have not shirked life’s burdens.”
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
———– Get REIGNITE: A MAN’S FIELD GUIDE TO TAKING BACK HIS LIFE
