﻿UNCONVENTIONAL Rules EVERY Man Should Live By!
[0:00:00] Rule number one, understand
the locus of control. So, imagine concentric circles and the smaller circles by far right
there in the center is what you can control. This is going to include your thoughts, your actions,
and the way that you react to others. Now, the next circle, a little bit larger,
these are the things you can influence – friends, family, career,
relationships. Again, you can have some impact here, but it’s not fully under your control.
And then, we’ve got the bigger circle, things out of your control. This is going
to include the weather, other people’s actions and opinions, the performance of the Dallas Cowboys.
And now, at this point, take to heart the Serenity Prayer. God, grant me the serenity to accept the
things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can. And this last part, very
important, the wisdom to know the difference. Today’s video, gents, the rules every man needs
to know to live a good life. [Music]
Now, gents, I’ll admit, this is a pretty ambitious video. And to make it fun, let me know in the
comments what I missed, what you would have added to this list to make it better. And if it’s great,
I’m going to send you a challenge coin. You, gents, know I love seeing you get better and
this coin right here, absolutely love it. It says on the back, “Become the man you know yourself
to be.” Again, gents, I’ll be giving out quite a few of these, so if you got some wisdom to share,
let me hear it down below. Rule number two related to
that first one and I know some of you guys are not going to like this one, but
try to avoid having a bunch of strong opinions. Now, let me be clear, I’m not saying don’t care or
go out there and make a difference. No, I want to see you do that, but what I’m talking about here
is just being overly opinionated. I mean, think about it. The witch wanted to make a man’s life
miserable, she would cast a spell on them and say, “This man is going to be incredibly opinionated.”
I mean, look at all these people on the left and the right whose lives have been ruined,
depending on who got elected President. Seriously, imagine if all these energy being thrown around in
social media was actually redirected to their local community and making a difference there.
The next rule I think every guy should know and try to follow,
don’t ask for an easy life. Instead, ask for the strength to meet life’s challenges.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I know for me what’s defined my life are the challenges I faced,
whether I’ve overcome them or in some cases failed, going through that hardship,
going through that crucible is actually what defined me as a person and as a man.
I mean, everything I have here with this company with this YouTube channel,
I’m proud of it because I’ve built it, I did the work. This wasn’t handed to me. Gents,
you’ve heard it and it’s true. Anything worth having is worth working for.
Next up, buy less, but buy better quality especially if it’s something you use again
and again. I know for me, whether it’s shoes whether it’s a watch whether it’s a vehicle,
whenever I spend good money on something I take care of it and I make sure it lasts.
And speaking of quality, gents, let me introduce you to today’s sponsor,
EZRI. EZRI makes the highest quality backpacks I’ve ever gotten my hands on. Guys, you know I see
a lot of backpacks, but when I had this package delivered, I was blown away at the quality.
First up, let’s talk presentation. The box this came in, a great looking box. I opened it up,
I love how they took care of this that it wrap in this really nice just beautiful material.
Taking out the backpack, I immediately thought what a great design with an overall look, sleek,
sophisticated. And, of course, this was the executive, it made sense. This is just
a great looking professional man’s backpack. That being said, when I started getting into the
details, I love the functional design. So, first up, pockets, they’ve got pockets everywhere. So,
if you want to hide money, if you want to hide your passport, you want to put it in an area where
no one is going to find it. That’s what I love about this, just zippers and pouches everywhere.
And now, let’s talk about the design of the interior. What I love about this,
incredibly spacious. So, if you want to keep an extra set of clothing, you’re going to be
heading to the gym or maybe you want to even pack a suit, you can put it right inside.
And it works perfectly for traveling. You want to attach this to your carryon. It
fits right in here with the travel sleeve. And, of course, it’s a modern backpack, so it’s got
internal wiring for charging all your devices. And, of course, when it comes to functionality,
let’s talk about the fabric. What I love, everything here is water-resistant.
Now, guys, let’s address the elephant in the room, the price. These are not cheap backpacks. That
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be able to save just a lot of money. And, EZRI also sent me their travel
backpack. It had a really unique one-piece design with a 180 degree zipper that lets
you basically lay the backpack flat fully open, which is really nice for packing.
And they also had built-in anti-theft TSA-approved lock. All of that with
hidden pockets in a padded design, so it’s incredibly comfortable when you’re going
through the airport or if you’re out hiking. Gents, awesome company, check them out and don’t
forget to use that link and code. The best you’re going to find out the web.
The next life rule every man needs to know, don’t gossip, don’t say something about
somebody that you wouldn’t say to their face. So, a few years back, I had someone working for me
and I was basically saying things about them in a company meeting when they were not present. But,
lo and behold, they popped in. Now, I wasn’t sure at what point they popped in to the meeting,
but I went ahead and spoke to that person afterwards and I told them what I said in the
meeting and I apologized right there. [0:05:10]
Because here is the thing is that if you gossip, if you talk about people behind their backs,
eventually they’re going to find out and that’s not the way to live your life.
Be a man and if you’ve got something to say to somebody, say it to them.
The next life rule I think every guy needs to know,
know what you want to get out of life and then set an azimuth in that direction and follow it.
So, what’s an azimuth? If you’re familiar in orienteering – north, south, east, west - an
azimuth is the degree, basically, the direction that you want to go for your own personal goals.
Now, you can see off in the distance you’re heading towards that mountain,
but you’re going to run into obstacles. You’re going to go through forest, you’re going to lose
kind of sight of the direction. You’re going to get – run into a river. What do you do?
Well, as long as you know what the azimuth is, you know that, okay, I may have to walk a few
miles this direction to cross the bridge, but I can quickly get back on the direction. I can get
my bearing, so I can go in the right direction. Oftentimes in life, we get so busy. Things are
thrown at us. We get off track. You want to have an azimuth, so you can realign
yourself to go after what it is you truly want. The next life rule I’m going to throw at you,
it’s better to be curious than passionate. And you hear this people say follow your passion
and I get that, but do you want to be at the whims of your emotion?
I say be curious, ask better questions, go after things that really you’re interested in because
the more work the more questions the more you go into this, the deeper you dive, it will at
the very worst, you’re going to have your curiosity satisfied versus passion you go
after something, yeah, you just don’t – you wane and you kind of fall away.
But, when you’re curious, you delve deeper. You go deeper, you know, you ask questions that the
passionate that they lose the excitement for. And that’s when you reach success when you are just
genuinely you wanted to find the answers and you keep doggedly pursuing them until you get them.
Now, gents, if you’re enjoying today’s video, do me a favor and smash that like button. Seriously,
when you engage with these videos, it lets the YouTube algorithm know that,
hey, this video is worth watching and I think today’s video is a pretty good one.
The next rule I think every guy should understand, know how to maintain situational awareness.
So, this goes with self-defense and this goes with just simply being aware of what’s going on around
you and avoiding danger before it hits you. I stopped drinking alcohol, not because I
didn’t like the taste of it. I like the taste of beer, but I felt that if I was inebriated,
if I had too much to drink and I could easily fall down that trap, then I wouldn’t be able
to watch out for my family. I wouldn’t be able to watch out for my wife, I would do something stupid
because I would lose situational awareness. And for me, this became a pretty big deal and
I don’t put myself in danger or situations. I’m rarely out after dark. It’s something that we
stay home the vast majority of the time. But, it is something that if I’m out with my family,
I don’t drink because even one beer takes away from my alertness, takes away from my ability
to be able to see a bad situation coming and get us out of the way.
Now, gents, I don’t mean to be a party pooper here and say you can’t smoke what you want or
drink what you want. But, I am saying think about situational awareness. If you’re in and around
people you trust, yeah, go for it, have fun. But, if you are the person that people look to
for being for watching out for them and they have their trust in you, I would say
think twice about losing situational awareness. Now, this next one may sound a bit sadistic,
but stick with me. And that is to choose the suck, go after the hard path. Look
at something as more challenging and say, “You know what? I want that.”
Here’s the thing is that life is going to throw challenge, obstacles at you -- and
I’m stealing from Ryan Holiday, the obstacle is the way. When you see these challenges is not
really challenges. They’re just simply barriers. They’re to stop the majority of people,
but not to stop you. All of a sudden, you become a different type of person. People are like, yeah,
it doesn’t matter what you throw at that guy, he’s going to find a way around it.
Now, does this mean you always take the longer harder path? No, if you’re late for class,
there’s no reason to run around the school and be extra late just because you want it to
be hard. That’s not what I’m talking about. Robert Frost, when he wrote in his poem, you know,
choose the path less taken, what he meant by this is look at what’s in front of you
and don’t be afraid of going down the path that other people are not, if that is really
what you know in your heart that I want to go down this, I want to go after it.
Yes, they say you can’t make money being an archeologist, but I want to go try it. I’m
going to find a way to make a living doing this because it’s what I love,
it’s what I’ve been drawn to, and it’s what I was meant to do and be. And, FYI, I did want to be
an archeologist as a kid. It still might happen. Now, earlier I talked about not having an opinion,
but I get it, you’ve got to have some opinions, right? Well, if you’re going to have an opinion,
make sure that you understand your antagonist, the guy that got the opposite opinion. You understand
his opinion better than he does. [0:09:54]
And what do I mean by this? I love taking and looking at the opposite of what I believe and
really trying to understand where is this person coming from, why are they thinking this way,
what’s up with the history here? I went through this book called Conflict
of Visions by Thomas Sowell. I absolutely loved it because he got down to the basic
of understanding human nature. And why people on the left why people on the right why people
that, you know, environmentalist versus people that are not believing this way, why a vegetarian
versus a meat eater, why they have different viewpoints really comes down to their worldview.
And it was just so interesting to go back and look at the ancient philosophers. Yes,
I know I really geek out on this. Point being, if you are going to have an opinion,
have also an understanding of why other people will disagree with you and you’re
going to find that you’re going to have much better conversations when you can just simply
talk to them about what they believe and help them just to have a deeper understanding of that. That
being said, there are some crazies out there, so always know where the emergency exit is at.
So, this next life rule I learned playing in high school football in Midland, Texas and that is
failing to prepare is preparing to fail. Now, I must have read that quote hundreds if not
thousands of times because it was on a plaque above the door as you enter the athletic center.
And those weren’t just empty words, I was fortunate to have coaches in all of
my sports that held me to those standards – football, cross country track. I play,
those were my sports. And I found that football, I never really excelled. I wasn’t that great,
I wasn’t very big. I was always third, maybe eventually one – one night, I was second string.
Point is, I didn’t play much, yet I did put in the work and I was part of the team. And
I was there for the celebrations, I was there for the loss, there for the wins.
Cross country track, more individual sports and I did discover that distance
running was my thing because I found that I could put in that work and I could put in that effort.
You know, I made it to regionals in track, I didn’t ever win state or anything,
but I did see a return from that investment. It’s funny, looking back at all those practices,
all that time spent in the gym, all that time spent on the track, all that time spent
on the gridiron and really what it prepared me for, I mean, I don’t use that stuff nowadays. But,
what I did learn is you put in the time and you put in the effort.
And the success I’ve had whether it’d be in the Marine Corps or whether it’d be in business,
here on YouTube, it’s about the stuff that you guys don’t see and that’s what you learn.
It’s about putting in that effort. No one saw that I would run the school
in the morning, sometimes 6:00, 6:30, 7:00 in the morning and I realize no one sees the hundreds and
hundreds and hundreds of videos that never make it life. The thousands of hours of footage that’s
cut. I mean, this video alone, they’re going to probably be an hour and a half of footage that you
will not see that was me just doing the retakes and you realized that’s part of the process,
that’s part of the effort, that’s part of, you know, just being able to taste the success.
The next life rule is to start with the end in mind. What I’m talking about here is think about
your death. Yes, I know morbid, but what do you want people to say about you when you’re gone?
What do you want your legacy to be? Because there’s a thing with time,
you don’t know how much time you have left. Time is your most valuable resource, yet we abuse it,
we forget about it. We actually throw it away like it’s nothing, yet we don’t know
how many moments we have left. And the people you spent the time with,
who are you spending time with? Is it the right people? These people that are influencing you
in a positive way and are they the people you want to be around, the people you are around,
are you present when you’re with them? I know I had this the other day. I’m there
working at home. I had my laptop I snuck into my house and my kids are around wanting to play
and I’m pushing them off, pushing them off and I realized, wait a minute, this is my house.
So, what I did is closed that computer and I brought it here to the office. I
have the luxury of having an office, you know, less than a mile from my house. So,
I just brought all the work here and I’m trying to keep it here and may eventually sneak back.
Point being is I want my daughters to remember me as someone that was present, as someone that
loved them, as someone that made time to be able to have a tea party with them to play monster,
chase them around the house and it’s tough. And we all ran into this. We’ve got people that
want something from us. These people love us. That girl you’ve been dating, that woman that you’ve
been in a deep relationship, your partner that you’ve been with for five years, why is it they
always get the short end of the stick? Really think about the end in mind.
Are you spending time with the people that you want to? Are you setting your life up,
so that when you look back and I get it, you’re working hard, you’re saving for their future.
But, make sure that you spend some of that present time with them. And even if it’s not a whole lot,
you give them – you’re present, you’re fully there and you give them your best self.
So, what video to watch next? Gents, I got a good one for you right here. I’m not going to
tell you what it is, mystery video now. It is going to be safe for work. I’m not going
to rick-roll you. It is going to be an older RMRS video that is really solid, so find out
what it is by clicking the video right here. Magic will happen when you click this video and
you will go to another one. Boom! Magic. [0:14:44] End of audio