A Real Man is an Educated Man
THE THING
Here’s the Thing! The more you know the freer you are, the more you know the better the man you can be. And I am not speaking here only about book educated - although book education is important - it’s less important than skills, common sense, creativity and universal or practical knowledge. A Real Man understands that education is the cornerstone of success, health and happiness. A Real Man never stops learning, never stops up-skilling himself, and never stops improving what he knows.
I once met a man who was 65 and starting his degree. He was the chairman of the board but he knew the importance of knowing more. He was well into his 70s when he achieved his doctorate.
The more you know the more power and control you have over your life and the situations you will find yourself in. A Real Man has a thirst for knowledge.
THE REWARD
Education will set you free and open opportunities.
Creativity is the currency of the future - nurture yours and use it in every area of your life.
Education gets you more opportunities, more money and more relationships, and it cannot be taken away from you.
THE HOW TO
- Never stop learning.
- Enroll in a new course or programme every year. Become the master of your chosen field by learning and studying your craft until you are the best.
- Seek out people who have been there and done that; take them to lunch. You can learn more in an hour’s lunch, with someone who has walked the path, than you can in a year of studying.
- Continuously educate yourself in your industry.
- Continuously educate yourself about world and local events.
- Up-skill yourself with practical, hands-on skills, courses and programmes.
- Read books, journals, reports and opinions, and set up Google alerts. Isn’t it amazing that on average, rich and successful people generally read 10 times more books than average working people? Set up an annual education target for yourself to improve your mind and your skills.
- Continuously educate yourself on how the world works, on how people operate and how people think. Learn how people communicate and why. Try to understand the phenomenon of self-interest in people and how most of them function with self-interest in mind. Take a course in communication skills and body language reading.
- Learn, study and embrace knowledge and education, and never stop.
- Watch other people do their jobs and learn from them. When a professional is called in to do something at your home or office, ask questions, listen, watch and learn.
TROUBLE SHOOTING
- I can’t afford to study. I haven’t got time to read. I just hate reading.
Ever since Google arrived, education is practically free. The Internet is full of interesting videos and audio books. Watch TED videos as often as you can, nothing could be easier, you basically have an international expert lecturing to you while you make notes.Many books have summaries that are done by other people who have read them, so by reading an hour a day you could get the main lessons of about 3 books.YouTube now allows you to not have to read a word, and still get educated.The real idea here is, as I have said before, those who want to will; those who don’t, won’t.
WISDOM
"Education is not the learning of facts but the training of the mind to think." - Albert Einstein
A Real Man’s Superpower is Self-Control
THE THING
Here’s the Thing! So, you want to have a superpower, you want to be a superhero? Try the most difficult of all superpowers: self-control. You do this, and you have mastered life. A Real Man has the ability to respond and react in a state of absolute personal control. Being a person who is fully in control of his base instincts, his emotions and his life is what Real Men strive for their entire lives.
Men who are able to control their outbursts, emotions, actions, reactions and what they put into their pie holes become Real Men very fast.
Self-control says exactly what is on the box: it is the ability to control yourself. The ability only to speak when it is appropriate and you have thought through what it is you are going to say.
It is the ability to control your tongue and say nothing instead of making a situation worse.
It is the ability to eat only what is good for your body, to drink only that which is pure.
It is your ability to rise and grind a result every day especially when you don’t feel like it.
It is your ability to exercise when you should and to rest and recover when it’s the best thing for you.
The extraordinary superpower is when you achieve the ability to control your thoughts. When you control what you think, you control your actions. Your thoughts come primarily from your beliefs so if you can learn to control and understand your beliefs, you end up controlling your thoughts and your actions.
A man’s true journey is the journey of self-discovery, self-knowledge and self-control. Self-control does not mean passively sitting by and watching, it means living life to the fullest, most conscious level with you being in control. Men who have self-control know how to have a good party, how to have fun and how to stand up for a cause. They just do so whilst being fully in control of what they are doing and how they do it. That my friend is a Super Power!
THE REWARD
As I have already stated, when you have self-control you own the world. When you are able to control your diet, you are healthy. When you are able to control your spending and your money, you become wealthy. When you are able to control your emotions, you build relationships.
When you are able to control and exercise your effort and hard work, you can build an Empire.
THE HOW TO
- One step at a time!
- A Real Man looks at one area that he knows he is totally out of control in, and starts to take back the control, taking back the power from that area of his life.
- If your finances and financial well-being is not in control, it’s time to take control of this very important area. It’s time to get help, to take a course, to read a book or just to get back to basics. Financial control means spending less than you earn. It’s living within your means and going without.
- If you are physically out of shape, unhealthy and overweight, it’s time for you to take control of what you put into your mouth. It’s time for you to get more active and to stick to the system forever.
-
Taking back control of your life is a grind. It’s simple - but not easy; if it were easy everyone would and could do it. Most of what you need to do is simple. Stop eating crap, spending your money on crap, drinking crap, putting crap into your brain. Educate yourself every day. Start something, do something and do it every day, it’s really simple. The hard part is unlearning your bad habits, going without, changing habits, moving on, being alone for a while, sweating, building, growing, getting others to fit in with the new you or letting them move on. In some cases, you may have to give them a push. The ideas behind a revolution are generally pretty simple, it’s the pain of changing that makes things tough.
-
It’s setting up systems and timetables, reminders and disciplines that keep you on track and change your behavior. That’s really all it is, it’s a behavioural change. It’s a consistent and persistent behavioural change towards being in control of your life.
TROUBLE SHOOTING
- No man can control everything in his life, that’s just impossible?
Not if it is a superpower. Do you really want to control everything in your life? I think that would be a little bit boring. Or not. What I am talking about here is about being in control of most of the things that you are able to control. It’s not being in control of other people’s lives and it’s learning to accept that there are things that you can control and there are things that are out of your control.The things that are out of your control however, leave you with an option of how you deal with these issues when they arise in your life. Do you take control of the situation after the event or do you crumbleMost of these events that you could not control are great opportunities for you to take control of you and your emotions again. Based on your experience and skills you could possibly take control of a situation when you get there.As a Detective at a crime scene I could, would and had to take control of the crime scene; giving organisation to the chaos.The motor vehicle accident that your daughter is involved in can be a great opportunity for you to learn to control your emotions, your actions, and if done correctly, it can be a great opportunity for you to grow.
Being in control does not mean, not allowing yourself to feel. On the contrary, when you are in control, you live life based on what you will and will not allow. You get and understand the process and you allow it to happen with your conscious involvement. You can’t control others, you really don’t need to, but you can control almost all aspects of you. That which we cannot control - we just let it be. Do you see how I’m starting to mesh together other points with this one? Man, this is getting deep.
WISDOM
"Self-control, what lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do." - Aristotle
"If you learn self-control you can master anything." - Anonymous