3rd Step: Set Goals

Goals are a must.

Do you have goals?  Most of us have goals even if that is not what we call them.  Subconsciously we work towards things.  Possibly we want to be healthier and look better without a shirt on... that is a goal.  Maybe financially you want to be capable of retiring at the age of 55 or 60... that is a goal.  It might be something as simple as you want to lose 5 pounds, spend more time with your spouse, or save for a family vacation... those are all goals.

Now that we have established our core values and worked out a regimen for our time we need to look at what drives us to move forward.  What causes you to charge the hill of life day after day?  What you seek to accomplish is the carrot in front of you that keeps you pushing forward.  The need for goals is massive and will help you stick to the regimen you have established.

3 areas to set goals in.

The most important thing that your goals must do is be inline with your core values.  This probably goes without saying but sometimes we can be swayed off course especially when looking at long term goals.   Your core values are the foundation of being a Warrior and will help you make day to day decisions, but your core values must be a part of your short and long term goals.  If one of your core values is financial discipline then a goal to save money for a gambling trip to Vegas might not work for you.  

You can set as many goals as you would like but on your list you should have these 3 areas covered.  

Spiritual, Health, and Financial.

You must continually work on your spiritual life without question.  Goals to help you accomplish this should be a mainstay in your life and part of your daily regimen.  Completing books, starting a bible study with men, covering subjects that pertain to the Warrior spirit are goals that you can set for your life.  Daily devotional time should be part of your daily regimen.  One of my goals for the New Year is to spend a few minutes every day with my kids doing a devotional.  

Health is so important for you to maintain quality of life.  Goals pertaining to your health should be part of your daily regimen.  Set goals that are attainable so that you will maintain a positive attitude.  Decide how long it will take to accomplish goals for your health.  I personally want to lose 20 lbs over the next year.  That is a semi long term goal but I need to set up milestones to know that I am on track.  Breaking down long term goals into smaller short term goals is something every successful person does.  5 lbs every 3 months sounds more manageable than 20 lbs for the year and keeps me going to the end of 3 months.  

Financial goals are something that my wife and I have talked about endlessly through our marriage.  I will at some point dedicate an entire post to becoming debt free which is our long term financial goal.  It seems that when you are disciplined with your finances other areas of your life seem to fall into place.  I am not sure why it works this way, but it simply does.  An easy first goal for financial discipline is to set a budget if you do not have one already.  This is very important and should be part of your monthly regimen.  Next you might need to start saving for a new vehicle, that would be a financial goal.  Our family goal is to completely be free of consumer debt in 2 years so we have broken that down into monthly goals of what we need to save and put towards debt.  This helps to keep us accountable and throughout the year we will see small successes of eliminating debt as we move toward our goal.  You might be ready approaching retirement and have a goal of an amount you will need.  Financial goals can literally be small or large and everything in between.  Sadly money is a necessity and unfortunately most of us let money manage our lives instead of the other way around.  

How to set goals.

Now that we have established the three key areas to cover with goals; How do we go about setting goals?

Ask yourself what is important to you.  For my family right now the most important thing is for us to become debt free.  We are willing to forgo many things for this goal to be accomplished.  You will find that as you look at what is truly important to you that you will gladly forgo things to reach these goals.  As you look at goals and start to research what it takes to accomplish goals you will decide if the goal is really what you want.  I love the violin.  I believe it is the most beautiful instrument and can induce emotion more than any other instrument.  I however do not have the desire to put in the work that it would take to become even a hack at the violin.  I do not want to practice hour upon hour during the week.  I am simply content to listen to those that have mastered the instrument.  That is how you should look at your goals for your life.  Just because you love something it does not mean that you should make it part of your life's goals.  

In each of the 3 areas, Spiritual, Health, and Financial, ask yourself what is truly important and what you are willing to do to accomplish your goals.  Some will be easier for you than others and some will be quicker to reach than others.

How to reach your goals.

We have established what areas need goals as well as how to approach goal setting.  You have discovered what is truly important to you and what work you are willing to put into the reaching of said goals.  Now how do we maintain the excitement and discipline to reach these goals.

We have discussed some of my goals for my overall health.  I have made a real effort to understand what it will take to lose 5lbs every three months, which will finish next year with me reaching my goal of losing 20lbs.  I will have to eat a certain way and spend time doing something active on almost a daily basis.  I will also need to have the ability to change the plan when it is not working or I have hit a plateau.  I am willing to put the work in at the culmination of the goal, but how do I maintain the dedication needed to reach this goal.  

First thing first... I will write the goal down.  This is a way to hold yourself accountable and it will be available for your review.  Write a couple of statements about why you want to accomplish this goal.  You can go back later when you are wavering and see why it was an important goal at the moment of conception.

Next I would share the goal with someone or a group of people.  When other people know about your ambitions then your are more likely to push through tough times to accomplish these goals.  There is a built in accountability of keeping your word and not failing in front of others.  If needed setup a regular accountability meeting or phone call.  This is especially helpful for me when it comes to training.

Once the goal has been set (for this example my goal of losing 20lbs over the next year) then fit it into your daily, weekly, and monthly regimen. Possibly scheduling events like a 5k or a goruck out in the future for motivation.  I might need to have someone to hold me accountable if it is something I struggle with.  These are all things that can help you accomplish goals.  

Be realistic with your shortcomings.  That is important for goal setting and obtaining goals.  I would be doing myself a disservice if I was not honest about my lack of ability to stick to a diet for long periods of time and pretended that I did not need the help of accountability.

Establish the habit.  This is something that I mentioned in the 2nd step to becoming a Warrior.  All of the goals you set you must try to fit the necessary changes needed in your daily life to accomplish these goals into your daily, weekly, monthly regimen.  Habits must be formed.  This will be the only way most of your goals, especially long term goals, will be accomplished.

Going back to my family's goal of becoming debt free.  We had to make changes in our spending habits and the way we value things and money.  The budget became our financial Bible.  I will go into more detail in a future post, but we allocated certain amounts of money monthly for things like entertainment and even money for my wife and I to spend freely.  If the money is not there we simply do not do or buy anything.  This was definitely a change in habit for us, but with this discipline we have become much happier and have started to see results in accomplishing our goal.  

Make it second nature by setting it into your daily regimen and committing to the goal daily.

Share some of your goals for the upcoming year.  Let me know what things you do to help you achieve your goals.

2nd Step: Establish a Warrior Regimen

A Warrior Regimen

What does your daily routine look like?  Do you roll out of bed and follow a similar day to day path?  Is there purpose and commitment involved with your day to day regimen?  Does your day to day regimen fall inline with your weekly plan, monthly plan, and your annual plan?  Now that you have established your core values to help guide you it is important to set a day to day regimen that is based on these core values.

Why is a Regimen important?

Very similar to the reason it is important to establish your core values to define your direction in life your daily routine should build on these values.  One of my values is God therefore a daily time to dwell on my God and to spend time in meditation with Him is very important for me to stay true to my core values.  Without an established regimen then it is possible for me to overlook this time when life becomes busy.

Flexibility is another reason that having a daily regimen will be beneficial.  This seems counter intuitive, but when you are not organized with your daily life then it is hard to be spontaneous.  When you are organized and have your day planned then you can handle events that might pop up or make decisions to deviate from your regimen much easier than when you are rolling from day to day willy-nilly. 

A regimen will help you accomplish goals.

Without a daily routine you will have a harder time accomplishing your goals.  We will talk about setting goals in the next post.  Goals are important for your life but without a daily regimen you will have a harder time accomplishing most of your goals or it will take you twice as long.  If you set a goal to lose weight then how will you go about accomplishing this goal?  You will have to set time aside each day to be active, and having a daily regimen will allow you to be more disciplined.

A daily regimen will build into a weekly regimen which will roll into a monthly regimen and ultimately to an extent your year will be planned.  This is important for your goal setting and accomplishing these goals.  As mentioned above when you set long term goals you will need to account for the effort needed to accomplish these goals daily, weekly, monthly, and annually.

What does a Warrior Regimen look like?

You should establish for yourself what you want your regimen to look like.  I believe it should contain these components: consistent wake up time, devotional time/meditation with God, exercise, career focus thought and planning, fellowship with loved ones (family or friends), daily time with spouse or significant other if that is part of your life, and a consistent bed time.  These things should be your base but you can expand however and wherever you want.  For example planning your meals for the day is probably a good idea to save money eating out and to be healthier.  Time  management is a very important part of being a warrior and your daily regimen will help you in this area.  

The tools.

At work I always have a pen and something to write on.  This is a must for my hectic job and career but it also gives the impression that I am prepared and ready to maintain preparedness.  I would imagine for most of the Warriors out there that are married and have kids and also have financial and fitness goals mixed in with several manly pursuits that your life seems hectic.  My advice is to keep a planner or calendar of some kind for your personal life.  Use Google calendar or even just your smart phone but write things down and make appointments for yourself when things need to be remembered.  The next step would be to keep a journal which is part of my goals for the upcoming year that I will write about in another post.  The habit of recording things important will give you confidence and will help you remember important dates, events, and even names, which all help you give the impression of a put together Warrior.

How to get started.

It sounds easy but setting a regimen and sticking to it is far from easy especially if it is a new practice.  I personally struggle with managing my free time when it is outside of my required duties as a husband, a father, an employee/employer, and pursuing a few of my true passions such as hunting or cycling.  That is why these blog posts are so sporadic and the podcast has yet to be consistent, but this is my major goal for the upcoming year.  I will start planning my days, weeks, and months so that I can use my free time to become a Warrior and spend time thinking, in fellowship with other Warriors, and sharing the Warrior mindset.  

This is how I am going to start and it might be a helpful guide for those of you that have similar struggles.  First I am going to set my daily wake and sleep schedule.  I feel that this should bookend your day and should be sufficient enough for you to remain healthy.  I am going to go with an 8 hour sleep schedule.  Wake up will be 5:30am and my head will hit the pillow at 9:30pm.  

Once awake I will spend the first 30 min in meditation and scripture reading with the last 10 min in earnest prayer for specific things.  

After meditation and prayer I will begin some sort of endurance type training.  This will be light and mainly to start the day with my blood flowing and shouldn't last more than 30 min.  We will dive more into the importance of physical activity in the next post.

Next I will prepare myself for work, shower, shave, and well you know the other word that begins with sh.  I will make my morning cup of coffee and hit the door headed to work.  Here is where your day is planned for you at least most of us and I will not get into the details of how I handle my professional life but I will say that I have a standard work or regimen of how I conduct my day. This regimen never changes and it allows me to remain accountable and stay involved with my teams.

I consistently leave work and arrive home around 5:15-5:45pm at which time I will make a point to hug and kiss my wife in front of the kiddos as we prepare to sit down for supper.  At supper I walk through the first few questions of the catechism which you can find here then we walk through each of the kiddos day and talk about things of importance.  This is usually about 45 min.

At that point I have a decision to make.  Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I like to do strength training after supper.  Tuesday and Thursday I will make a point to play with the kids outside if weather permits.  I believe both are important for the kids especially my son.  I want them to understand the importance of staying healthy and hopefully the habits I have will rub off on my kiddos.  The play time during the week is also important because they know that they are important.  Some might have a problem with taking three days a week for yourself before the kids go to bed and that is fine set your schedule how you need to in order to make your family happy this is just the best for us at this time and I might have to readjust as the kids grow older. Both of these actions are usually complete by 7:30pm

At this point we are ready to start the wind down and bed time for my kids.  Once they are ready (teeth brushed etc) I read a book to them and then we say our prayers together. This puts us at 8pm.

At 8pm I spend time talking with my wife about her day and listening to her.  We usually take about 30 min of just one on one time.  This doesn't sound like a lot but it is super important.  No phone, no television distraction, and no children interruptions.  For 30 min my wife has my undivided attention and I have her's.

Now we come to the last hour of my day.  Time to prepare for the next day.  Pack my lunch and any other nutrition needs I have for the next day.  Prepare the clothes that I will wear the next day and anything else that I might need to be successful the next day.

If there is any time left over I spend it reading, watching television, spending extra time with my wife, or from this point on spending time on themodernwarriors.com.  The last act of the night is to pray with my wife and then we go to bed.

I understand that it seems that I have very little free time but planning my day like this should allow me to make changes when needed because I will have invested time with my family, prepared for work, and spent time spiritually and physically training daily.  I would like to note that even though I mentioned the time that most things begin nothing is set in stone.  I do not necessarily watch the clock to make sure I am done playing with my kids right at 7:30pm I let things evolve organically and most times everything is complete within five minutes of the time stated.  I encourage you to be flexible with most times during the day other than your wake up time.  I also did not cover my weekend schedule.  I do try to wake up at the same time but I am more flexible with that as well as my bed time.  Naturally as you consistently rise at an early time during the week you will find it hard to sleep for too long past that time on the weekends.  This opens up all sorts of possible time to accomplish things on the weekend when yo are awake earlier than most.  

Remember with discipline comes freedom.

1st Step: Establish Core Values

What are Core Values?  Simply put they are the values that help govern your life.  The values that you define for yourself that will be your compass.  The values that will help you make the major and minor decisions in your life.

Core Values give purpose to your life.

Why is it important to define your Core Values?  When you do not know your Core Values or you have not clearly defined your Values, you live your life without purpose and make your decisions based on the moment and social influences.  Without defined Values you will live your life trying to fulfill people's expectations instead of your own expectations.  

Conversely when you have defined your Values you live with purpose, direction, happiness, and fulfillment.

Core Values help you make decisions.

Most of us have an idea of what we believe and how we presume to live our life, but if you have not clearly defined your Core Values you can make decisions that contradict your presumed Values.  When we make decisions that contradict our values it leads to frustrations and malcontent.  

Clearly defined Values gives you confidence to face decisions and situations.  Written, defined Values will help you have courage and not waver when faced with difficult decisions and situations throughout your life.

Clearly defined Values makes life much more simple.  I know that when I think of Warriorship one of the first things I think about is the stoic Samurai.  The Samurai based their lives on a few values and let those values guide them on and off of the battle field.  Discipline, courage, and loyalty.  Very simple.  When you have clearly defined Values then decisions become much easier.  "Does this action fall in line with my Values?"  If the action falls in line you do it.  If the action does not fall in line, then you don't do it.  It cannot be more simple than that. 

How to establish Core Values.

The first task that the pursuit of Warriorship requires is establishing your Core Values.  Values are not goals.  Values are ideas that you deem to be of great worth and give structure to your life.  

Start the process by finding a quiet spot or your go to thinking place.  That might be your favorite outdoor retreat, the garage, or simply sitting in your closet.  

Make sure that you have something to write with and write on.  This is important and needs to be something that you will not throw away.  Use a notebook or journal that you will keep.

Once you have found your spot and have your tools ask yourself : "What is unequivocally important to me as a man?"  Reflect on moments in your life when you felt fulfilled and times that you have been the happiest.  This may take some time because we do not always reflect on our lives in this manner, but do not become discouraged and keep thinking.

 Regardless of what comes to mind or how trivial you might think it is, jot it down.  Do not suppress your thoughts.  No one else is going to see your list so do not put what you think should be on the list.  If it pops into your head write it down.  Do not worry about stacking and ranking at this point just write all things that come to mind down.

More than five values takes some of the beautiful simplicity away from the idea of Core Values.  If you have more than five values start the elimination process.  Put a mark by the ones you believe are top five for sure then pair the remaining values up.  Set the pairs against each other and the winner out of each pair moves on to the winner from another until you have reached the number five.  

Now that your list has been reduced to five start the stack and rank process.  Ideally your values compliment and build on each other, but you need to rank them from most important to least important for times when they might contradict.  An example would be having Family as one of your Core Values as well as Friends.  Which is more important to you?  In some cases spending time with Family and Friends might cross paths and the choice might need to be made which is where the ranking would come into play.  Possibly you could involve Family and Friends and meet to of your Core Values in those instances.   

Here is a list of values that you might consider if you are having trouble.  The list is by no means complete, there are literally hundreds of values you could have.

• Adventure
• Balance
• Confidence
• Control
• Creativity
• Discipline
• Education
• Faith
• Family
• Financial
• Friends
• Freedom
• Fulfillment
• Forgiveness
• Fun
• God
• Growth
• Happiness
• Health
• Hope
• Honesty
• Humor
• Independence

• Integrity
• Kindness
• Knowledge
• Marriage
• Peace of mind
• Power
• Progress
• Reason
• Security
• Self-reliance
• Service
• Spirituality
• Strength
• Success
• Truth
• Wisdom

Once your Core Values are established the foundation of the Warrior is built.

Please give some feedback on what you think about this approach and the philosophy of having Core Values.

The Path to Warriorship

There has been a lot of talk about what Warriorship looks like and some of the meaning behind the idea of Warriorship, but we have not explored what it takes to become a Warrior.  What steps could someone take to embark on the path of the Warrior.

More than a program, being a Warrior is a mindset and attitude.  

Over the next four weeks leading into the New Year we will look at some of the important aspects  to establish a foundation for Spirit, Mind, and Body to begin the path to becoming a Warrior. 

I want 2016 to by my year of journey to truly putting the Warrior mindset into practice.  

An Epic Quest

"The glory of God is man fully alive." - St. Irenaeus

In the past this blog has been hardly more than some philosophical musings that were connected by the idea of planting a foothold as a man in this modern world.  The idea of returning to our roots from the past that are so deeply buried in the soil of distraction that they are having a hard time finding the aquifer of hard work, ingenuity, integrity, and manliness that we so desperately need to flourish as rock solid pillars of warriorship in our modern society.

Instead of continuing on in this manner of quasi motivational, that are somewhat mired in my own life's distractions, blog post after blog post I propose a quest.  Not just any quest but an Epic Quest that will take a significant personal journey. I, and a couple other men that I am lucky enough to call brothers, are going to start this journey.  We will look to change our daily mindset and to start a revolution in this world that we toil, commune, and live in.  The idea is that the quest will really never be completed but rather a life long commitment.  Really it will be a process of distinguishing how to approach each day with the mindset of a warrior with the hope that slowly those daily habits will start to form and will become as normal as breathing.

"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us." J.R.R. Tolkien

Here is the deal... often times in life we make decisions that we cannot understand the butterfly effect until far into the future.  I know when I reflect on my past that most of those times for me were decisions to not take action that cause me the most pain.  Some opportunities come our way and we know that we cannot let them go... we have heard about the girl who got away, right?  Well I didn't let mine get away, and I don't want to sleep on the idea of creating a warrior class for this generation that can live, lead, and standout in our modern society.  I do not think I can afford to for my spirit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr_OpFxCx-A

A year-long journey within a lifelong quest is our idea of how to start distinguishing some of the discernible qualities of warriorship and to map out a path to start living life like a warrior.  Like the warriors in the clip I do not want to look back 15 plus years from now with a son on the verge of making his own marks on the world and regret my effort to lead him and others in the right direction.

I will be honest... I had a great deal of trepidation leading up to this post.  I realized the magnitude and the accountability of putting ideas of this nature into words for others to read.  I had told the other two men that are joining me on this journey that I would post almost two weeks ago and I could not seem to get myself in the right state of mind to produce in words what my heart and spirit are feeling.  I realized though that was part of this whole quest.  To realize what a Warrior Ethos for a Modern World looks like, and that in the beginning I would doubtably be able to materialize exactly the intention of this quest.  Why not now?  Better than tomorrow.  Better than five more excuses and two more weeks from now.  It starts now.

"The question is... What HE intended us to be when HE made us." - C.S. Lewis

The three of us embarking on this quest come from somewhat similar but different backgrounds.  We are all at different points in our lives, different ages, different family situations, different interests, and different immediate goals.  The greatest thing, of which I have written on this blog before, is that we have the same end of the game goal in mind.  Regardless of where you are spiritually, physically, or mentally and regardless of what you do currently in this life you can still approach it with a warrior mindset based on the right principles.  We are Men and we crave the same basic things in life.  This is not relegated to one age, race, station in life, or personal interest this is for all Men.

We are going to start documenting our weekly progression of our pursuit to change our habits spiritually, mentally, and physically.  Each one of us will post a blog weekly about the prior week and our effort to become warriors.  We will discuss together what is working for each of us and what is not working.  You will see some of us transform physically and all of us spiritually.

Mixed in will hopefully be some podcasts and some videos of us doing man stuff to compliment the warrior lifestyle.

I believe that the hope is when the dust settles in a year that we will have the confidence and courage to be leaders of men.

As we progress through the weeks and months we will begin to shape the meaning of modern warriorship.

Let's roll, on the Journey of a Lifetime...

Our desire to be Inspired and to Inspire

Who doesn't love to be inspired?  I am serious.  If you can show me someone that doesn't like to be inspired by something/anything/anyone then I will show you someone that is checked out of this game already.  Why do we have such a love affair with movies?  Why does music speak to us?  Why are you reading blogs and thumbing through magazines? I absolutely crave for moments that inspire me.  Inspirational stories of camaraderie and brotherhood of men at war, involved in sports, or just survival situations causes drums to beat in my heart.  Songs that take you instantaneously to a moment in the past make my hair stand on end.  I have a journal that I write inspirational moments that occur in my life down on its pages.  I am a fan of inspiration, seems only natural that I would also want to be an inspiration.

It might seem natural that I would want to be an inspiration but I do not believe it is that easy.  We all know growing up that we wanted to be these things that were, in our young minds “great”, Doctors. Firemen, Policemen, Cowboys, Superheroes, Army men, Authors, Musicians, Sea captains, adventurers and whatever else you can think of along those lines.  Never once do I remember thinking as a young version of myself that I would grow up to be a Quality Assurance Supervisor.  Yes it is as uninspiring as it sounds… but it pays the bills.

So if it isn't as easy as it seems what can we do to inspire?  Live with principle.  Take the ideas that we are talking about in this blog and run with them.  Be a warrior in your current situation and you will inspire.  You may not have a movie written about you but you will inspire someone.  Take the principles that we have lined out so far and seriously start making them your second nature.  We have too few men in this world that live without these principles. Maybe they were never taught these principles and need some inspiration.

While you are living like a warrior start to notice the things that make you happy and give you fulfillment and start to cultivate those passions into something you can spend more and more time on.

The reason for this post is because I have a son that I desperately want to inspire.  I want him to dream big and then go after those dreams but with a foundation that is based on the right principles.

I also want to inspire my son through my actions.  I want to dream and go after dreams.  I want to fail and get back up and start over again.  I want to have this community of warriors rolling behind me.

I would love to hear some more feedback from the few readers I have.  Tell me some of the things that inspire you?  What movies make you want to explode with inspiration?  What are your dreams?  What moments have given you inspiration in your life?  (Yes sports moments count)

Superheroes and coming of age

My son is five and he is absolutely obsessed with superheroes.  I love fielding the questions he comes up with as he daydreams about his favorite heroes.  "Hey dad..."

"Yes son?"

"Do you think that you are as strong as Spiderman, Iron Man, Superman, and Batman?"

"What do you think buddy?"

"Yeah, probably..."  "What about the Hulk?"

At this point I am emboldened by his confidence in my strength so with confidence I answer, "Sure, I could throw the Hulk around."

My son giggles... "No, I don't think you can handle the Hulk he is really strong!"

I absolutely love that stuff.  His solution to all kinds of problems is how said superhero would be able to help us.  Frisbee on the roof then he proclaims too bad we can't climb like Spidey.  Tired of riding in the car then he muses about how awesome it would be if we could just fly to our destination like Superman and of course his super dog.  He plays with his imaginext in an elaborate imagination fueled world of superheroes and villains where Marvel and Dc combine forces and share super vehicles with no prejudice.

Now that I have painted that picture let's look at what has happened at his preschool twice in the last month.  First they were having a day where firemen were coming to demonstrate what they do for the children.  Mainly to show the kids what they look like if they are ever in a fire so that kiddos will not get scared, but also because it is an awesome treat for the kids because firemen are cool.  His teacher was talking it up the day before and mentioned how firemen save people and my son perked up and told her, "Yeah they help people just like superheroes."  To which his teacher told him that superheroes were not real...  He was devastated.  He crawled in the car after school and it was the absolute first thing he asked me in a forlorn demeanor.  "Hey dad are superheroes real?"

Of course I told him that there are superheroes, and for now my reassurance trumped his teachers disdain for imagination.  It did happen a second time and that is when I addressed the issue with his teacher explaining that I did not feel it was her place to tell my son what exists or doesn't.  If we, his parents, want to tell him there is no Santa or superheroes then we will but otherwise leave the kids to their dreams.  So far things seem to be going okay in that dept.

This did however get me to start thinking about heroes in our world today.  I know that men and women that are involved selflessly in law enforcement and in the military are obviously heroes.  Firemen, as so eloquently put by my son, are most assuredly heroes.  EMT, teachers, nurses, and pretty much anyone that chose a career that is centered around helping people when often times that requires being utterly selfless should also be thrown in the hero column. 

Without a doubt almost all of us had a bout of hero-worship of some kind when we were young and often times we still hold our sports heroes  in high regard.  I seriously do consider my dad as one of my heroes as well as my Papaw.  They are great, loving, Godly men that are the definition of modern warriorship in almost every way.

That is where this ideology of Modern Warriorship fits in.  We must strive to show our sons and daughters what men should be.  Our sons cannot find out from society what a man is just like I do not want him to find out about the fiction world of superheroes from his preschool teacher.  Our daughters must not find out what kind of man they need to marry from society but they must see that in us.

Somewhere between the ages of 3 and 13 our daydreams of Iron Man and Spiderman (I am more of a Marvel guy) are replaced with the blonde girl in the front of the class and the idea of hitting a home run in the little league game that night.  Between these ages we become no longer satisfied with riding our bikes around but want the freedom of a vehicle with a promise of taking girls out on dates and going with buddies to wherever we can.  These things are natural and part of life and honestly somewhat sad.  We need to make sure that we take those natural tendencies of heroism that our little guys are drawn to and as they do grow older help them to understand that they can be heroes, so to speak, in their lives and for those that are around them.  They can be the father that gets the frisbee off the roof without having the ability to shoot webbing out of his hands.  They can be the husband that understands communication and romance are part of the deal without being emasculated.  They can be the employee that works hard and with discipline. 

Bottom line they can be a warrior and we must start to cultivate the idea of warriorship when they are still all about tight one-piece colorful suits, capes, and masks.

Advantages of the belly and other musings of a chubby guy.

I mentioned a couple of posts back that I am going to throw out some of my short-term goals in regards to my aspirations of becoming an all around warrior in hopes that this new community can help keep me accountable. Before I throw my goals out there I wanted to give you some of the observations that I have dealing with the size of my belly and of being out of shape.

Here are some advantages of the belly so to speak.  One advantage is that when I trim my beard I can wear my nice jeans or slacks because all of the hair either falls in the sink or on the nice protective awning that my belly creates.  This creates an easy and fast clean up with no itchy drawers.  Another advantage is the ledge that is created when lounging around that gladly holds a cell phone and I assume a flat stomach cannot.  I feel that thus far keeping my belly nice and squishy has been a selfless act which has allowed my kids to have a built-in pillow while watching a movie on the floor or while lounging around at a campsite... my one year old really seems to appreciate it.  I have also noticed that most competitors in athletic endeavors seem to take the belly for lack of skill.  Now I am sure I could be much better but my belly has not prohibited me from handling a basketball or sinking jump shots much to my competitors surprise.  This goes for many other things that seemingly have not been affected by my girth and I think that is kind of an edge so to speak.

Some other advantages of being somewhat chubby is that people just assume that you want treats or food that is left over.  This comes in very handy at work when you forget your lunch or just have a sweet tooth.  Also you seem to be mistaken for a person that can handle beer and in large quantities so you are always the recipient of a fresh one when gatherings of such are happening.

Another huge plus is that no one ever asks you to do a "fun run" knowing good well that you will laugh at the suggested oxymoron.  No one ever looks at you weird, at least not to your face, when you go back for seconds because it is somewhat expected.  Also dessert is usually just brought to you without the hindrance of having to be asked if you would like dessert or not.

Of course all of those observations are in jest and I desperately want to get in shape so that I can handle whatever comes my way in this world.  I have three kids ages five, three, and one with a surprise on the way this summer.  That means that I need every ounce of energy I can muster and the better shape I am in the better I can keep my wits about me when I have a teenage boy and three preteen girls in my house in the future.

Bottom line I want to be the best I can possibly be and I want to be a leader.  How can I honestly talk about being a warrior if I am not striving to do the same in every aspect of my life?  I know that I am much more drawn to guys that seem to have the discipline to keep themselves in shape, that are active, and balance that with being a great family man.

So here are a few of my goals that I want help from you guys attaining over the next three months.

Goal 1 - I want to start eating Paleo on a more consistent basis (more to come about this lifestyle in the near future).  This meaning that I want to eat Paleo roughly 90% of the time or six days very strict and one day of anything goes.

Goal 2 - I want to start a consistent workout program.  I actually really like crossfit style workouts so that will probably be the gist of the program but I also want to ride mtb and my cyclocross bike more.  I want to, at the very least, workout three days a week with at least one day on a bicycle of any type.

Goal 3 - The previous two goals should culminate into this goal coming to fruition.  I want to lose a moderate 20lbs over the next three months.  I know that for some this probably seems too easy and for others this may seem daunting but I believe 2olbs would be attainable for me and probably fairly difficult.  That is right around 7lbs a month for three months... that sounds attainable.

I will more than likely create a page on this blog that will consist of the workouts that I am doing, things that I am eating, and the progress I am seeing.

I am going to go ahead and start eating healthy right now and will start working out on Sunday May 12th which will put the end of the three months on Monday August 12th.  At that time I will post before and after pics so that alone should hold me somewhat accountable... be sad if the after looks exactly the same as the before or worse.

Without question I will have to use all the Principles of Modern Warriorship especially discipline.  Hopefully at the end of these three-months I will be on my way to becoming more and more of a modern warrior not only physically but spiritually and emotionally as well.

I want to roast a pig...

I cannot stop thinking about this idea that I have for a Warrior blow out party...  and I want it to center around hanging out with good friends with some cold drinks, by a body of water, with a big fire and this guy...

And when the piggy is done I want to gather around a table and chow on animal flesh and other awesome roasted side dishes as we talk and laugh.  I cannot get it out of my head... so I am proposing that we put this together as the First Annual Modern Warriorship Pig Roast and BBQ Party.

Hopefully more to come like an actual date and place.

Small acts do great work

Earlier this week we had a pizza lunch at work for some of the employees.  I bring this up because there was something significant that took place at this gathering, or at least I thought it was significant.  The manager that purchased the pizza without being prompted took into account everyone that was going to attend and made a special purchase of an all veggie pizza for a Muslim gentleman that works in that group.  The Muslim gentleman is a soft spoken guy and is very mild mannered, in my opinion someone that you could easily overlook if you were not in tune with serving the world. I bring this up because that simple gesture made this guy light up.  I am not part of the group I was just enjoying the free pizza, but it made me think about how I handle the people that work for me as well as all of the people that I come in contact with.  This guy was so happy that someone thought of him and his religious beliefs.

Muslims have certain restrictions of what they eat called Halal, which means permissible in Arabic, and these restrictions specifically do not allow pork and only meat that has been slaughtered a certain way called Dhabiha (which means slaughtered while still alive).  We all know how much pork based meat is on pizza and there is little doubt that the local pizzeria in North Texas follow any kind of religious preparations with their meat products.

The kicker to me is the polar opposite that the manager of this group is in his own beliefs from the Muslim gentleman.  I think that was the biggest reason that this act of kindness was so well received and clearly moved the Muslim man to smile and talk openly and freely while we ate, something that I have never seen him do in the five years working at this company.

Needless to say I was impressed and even though I feel that I am a thoughtful guy I know that I overlook people that are hurting or need to be reached out to all the time.

As warriors we need to make sure that we are serving in nature.  We need to be the people that are leaders and the best way to lead is by being a servant first.  That goes for our working environment, our marriages, our fatherhood, and amongst our friends.  This is also how we need to approach the world and how we can draw people in.

People want something to follow, me included, and often times we latch on to things that are superficial and plain bad.  Example would be the extremist that bombed the Boston marathon... young men that were horribly misled and just wanted to be a part of something.

Sometimes I think that being a servant is considered synonymous with being a pushover or a pansy.  All great leaders that have been successful were also selfless, servants that thought about those following them first before their own needs.

As you hang out this weekend remember that we are trying to start something with this philosophy of warriorship that creates a community that lives with the right principles in our lives.  One of those principles is most definitely servanthood.

"It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life, that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself." Ralph Waldo Emerson