William Shakespeare once famously said “All the world’s a stage. And all the men and women merely players”. There have been many interpretations of what this means exactly. Some think it means that everyone is an actor and everything an act. Others take it to mean we all have a role to play in this life. And so on and so forth. For me personally I think that this means a little bit of both and more. But here I’m going to be talking about the latter meaning, where we all have a role to play in this world and life. What role that is, is going to vary from person to person and from man to man.
We were all given unique souls that have unique callings. But with that being said there are also roles that connect us all and that we all share common needs with. For example we are all playing the role of “man” in this world and therefore have things that universally bind us together and there are going to be things that take from that role and that give to that role. For many of us this is our ultimate role with the other roles that we play attach to. Which brings me to my next point
Chasing The Wind Vs Being A Wind Mill
So many males I see chase after things that they’ll never catch and will never achieve simply because they are going about it in the right way. Sort of like if a guy was trying to catch some fish in a stream and preceded to rush around jumping and splashing desperately diving after fish after fish. His actions would drive away all the fish and he would eventually starve if that was his only means of getting food. He could increase his activity ten or even one hundred fold and still end up starving because he was not acting in the way of a fisherman but rather in the way of a fool. Instead if he was patient and waited for the fish and developed fishing poles, nets, and the like he’d be much more successful.
There are many males like the foolish “fisherman” above, chasing after the wind with no hopes of ever catching it. Instead of focusing on developing the tools and things that they need to be successful. This applies to many facets of life. There are obvious ones like money and women but it’s about far more than just that. Instead of chasing the wind, males need to be focused on building the windmill and then they’ll harness all that they need and more. Now let me explain how this ties into the roles that we were talking about before.
Play The Role, Hear The Song
If a male focused on becoming a man in full instead of chasing after the things that come with being a man in full he’d live a much more fulfilled life. As I’ve said before become a man and everything else falls into place. So many want the spoils without the war, the reward without the work, and are constantly seeking after “hacks” and “shortcuts” that never lead anywhere. Instead if they just focused on playing the role that they were meant to play all those other things that they want would fall into place. To first function as your role as a man.
But what exactly does this mean? And will it mean different things to different men? For the second question, yes, but only slightly. While we all have a unique song to sing (so to speak) there are more things that are similar than are not. I’ve written books, tons of articles, and more on what exactly it means to be a man and what a man can do to play this role to the best of his ability and therefore achieve everything else that he wants in life so I won’t spend too much time on this here. But I will give you a broad outline to follow.
Primal Needs, Primal Wants
The best place to start is to look at the primal needs of man. What primally did a man need to do to feel fulfilled and achieve respect, resources, women, and what not? You could look at Jack Donovan’s 4 tactical virtues of Strength, Honor, Mastery, & Courage as a start (along with the added 5th virtue of creativity). But how would you go about developing these? It’s one thing to understand a concept on an intellectual level (an important first step nonetheless) and another completely to embody it in physical form. What actions (not thoughts) are you taking every day to become the man that you were meant to be and play this role to the best of your ability?
Look at the daily actions that you take and see if that lines up with one that a man would take. So if your daily actions are going to work, eating shitty food, maybe having some beers after work, coming home and plopping down on the couch to watch some TV then obviously you’re going to need some adjusting in life. At a bare bones basic minimum you should be doing at least one thing every day to improve physically, mentally, and spiritually. And that’s just as a start. You should also be culling out things in your life that don’t serve you or your role.
Play The Role, Everything Else Falls Into Place
Stop chasing the wind and instead build the windmill. Play the role that you were meant to play and all the other things fall into place. Be the sun which the planets rotate around, you are the only one that can play this role. Be a man in full and everything else takes care of itself.
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.
-Charles Sledge
