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.

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...

Are we really willing?

I was listening to a podcast over the last few days and somewhere in the middle of it the participants drew a visual picture for the listening audience of what they believe raising our collective consciousness looks like. Basically they said to take a table that is covered in bubbles.  When one bubble starts to move it immediately affects those around it and then the ripples of change start.  So when someone like Martin Luther King rises up out of the bubble pile there is an amazing impact even if his time was cut short.

I really like that picture and it makes incredible sense.  The question I have though is whether or not us bubbles really want to be disturbed?  Do we want the pressure that comes with it?  Do we even really want change?  Do we just want to ride it out and hopefully not be affected by any other crazy bubbles until it is our time to pop?

Even with this blog there is a certain type of pressure to make sure I live in line with what I am putting into words.  Heck that comes with the religious and spiritual side of things that I outspokenly align myself with. Really that pressure comes with simply being a man.  Then you add-on marriage and fatherhood and we are talking as much pressure as a mountain dew can rolling around in a teenagers trunk.

It is time that we all start answering the bell, myself included.  The few principles that we have already spoken about should be at play in every aspect of our lives regardless of who is watching.  That is the only way to develop those principles into second nature habits.

I believe that I am ready to be the bubble that moves... I want to affect other bubbles... I want to be the start of a ripple.

I know without a doubt that we can start something huge, something real and visceral.  It is needed in our society.  Do not be afraid of the pressure because that is already there be afraid of not doing anything before you pop.

We should never choose the easy path because the easy path is not the path of the warrior.  You know Jesus, right?  The single greatest bubble in history.  Look to Him, read His words and you will see the blueprint of how a bubble should float and how to interact with the bubbles around you.

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.