You always have to keep yourself in check and make sure you’re not drifting too far in the wrong direction. Can’t tell you how many people end up looking around after a couple of years and don’t even recognize themselves and who they are (and not in a good). Comfort kills and it kills completely. I’ve seen comfort completely destroy the souls and lives of men. Sometimes that’s comfort in an addiction keeping one from honestly assessing themselves, sometimes its comfort in a numbing job and coming home to nice home and watching TV, sometimes it’s comfort of another sort. But no matter what it is death to the masculine soul and your wellbeing.
But this is not an essay about comfort though comfort certainly plays a role in these things. This is an essay about things that you should never let yourself become and things that I see so many men (who were strong men) fall prey too. And it’s not something that attacks you suddenly in the night, it’s something that slowly but surely creeps up on you and your soul. A slow but deadly poison that takes strong men and ruins them without “a shot being fired”. Sort of like the frog that gets boiled alive when the temperature is turned up one degree at a time.
Never Allow Yourself To Become…Weak/Soft
Are you a liability to your brothers? Do they have to carry you? Do they have to lend you money? Set you up with girls? Fight your fights for you? And so on and so forth? Do you get more than you give to the group? Your pride (the glorious thing that it is) should keep you from ever allowing yourself to get soft, get weak, or be a burden. However it happens to the best of us. We stop lifting, stop fighting, stop shooting, and somewhere along the way let our warrior spirit be caged, tamed, and eventually extinguished. Like I said this is something that happens slowly but surely.
You should never allow yourself to be weak. The main “purpose” of man is training for warfare. If there is any moment when you wouldn’t be prepared or ready to go to war then you’re slacking and need to address that shit ASAP. If you’re fat, can’t fight, or can’t run for more than 30 seconds without gasping for breath then you need to address that shit right now (and that’s just the start). As always you need to root out any weakness/softness that you have an exterminate it ruthlessly. There is no excuse or reason not to. Never allow yourself to get weak or soft.
Never Allow Yourself To Become…Distant
Now this has multiple meanings and isn’t something you’re going to hear too much about. So what do I mean by this to never let yourself become distant? Well here’s the first things to get about this. Overall it means to never allow yourself to grow distant from three key people(s) in your life. Never allow yourself to become distant from your blood, your brothers, or yourself. Let’s address getting distant from yourself to start. Would young you look at present you with awe and marvel at what an outstanding badass you’ve become and the life you live? If the answer to that is no there’s a problem.
Yeah life beats us all down and we all have our ups and downs but that’s not what I’m talking about. I mean are you living who you are? Maybe that sounds like some hokey self-help crap but there is real meaning to it. Don’t become a stranger to your own soul as so many men do. Next is blood and brothers. Does your family know who you are? When’s the last time you hung out with your brothers? The modern world tries to divide blood and brothers (to keep us weak) and we must do everything in our power and to the best of our abilities to keep them together. Never allow yourself to become distant or a stranger to your own blood or brothers, ever. A lone wolf is dead and exploited wolf.
Never Allow Yourself To Become…Boring
Do you still have that spark of life in you, that little bit (or a lot of bit in my case) crazy in your eyes? Have you allowed yourself to become safe, neutered, and boring? I sure hope not. The purpose of life isn’t living long or being safe, it’s living much and being free. Are you fun? Being fun normally isn’t considered a part of masculinity but I think there is something there. Since when has a manly man ever been called boring? Never that’s when. My point is you need to keep that spark alive.
Always have a little bit of trickster in you (in addition to warrior). Not in the deceptive modern sense but in the ancient mischievous in good fun type. Have fun and share that fun with others. Let your soul free and run around spreading your energy far and wide. Be a little wild, a little fun, a little crazy, be a man and don’t be boring. Go off the beaten path, do something that the drones would consider “stupid” as long as it’s fun. Live a little, breath in the air around you, let your soul be free and fly. And don’t ever allow yourself to be boring. Don’t work the life out of you.
Keep Yourself In Check
Don’t let comfort sneak up and destroy you from the inside out. Don’t allow yourself to ever become soft, weak, distant, or boring. I see these things happening to all kinds of men, strong men too. You have to be wary about what is out there and the nature of the modern world. Don’t be the frog that gets boiled alive be the frog that is aware of any minuscule change in temperature so it can be addressed. Don’t be the guy who wakes up one day looks in the mirror stares into his own eyes and doesn’t even recognize what he sees or if he does is horrified by it. There are indeed fates worth than death and this one, don’t let it be you.
If you have any questions you would like to see answered in a future post send them to me at charlessledge001 (at) gmail (dot) com. If you found value in this post then I would encourage you to share this site with someone who may need it as well as check out my books here. I appreciate it. You can follow me on Twitter here.
-Charles Sledge
