Principles of Modern Warriorship

After some deliberation and trying to rank what I believe are going to be some of the key guidelines t0 the pursuit of being a warrior I decided to start with one that stands out to me. Warriorship is Integrity

I really do believe that integrity has to be the backbone of the warrior.  Integrity should permeate every aspect of our lives.  If you are living with integrity then you will be a good husband, father, employee, and friend.  You will worship purely if you have integrity in your realtionship with God. 

Integrity can also give us the foundation that we need to seek our passion.  If you live with integrity then you build up the trust you need within yourself, with the people that depend on you, and it gives you trust with those around you so that they may follow your lead.

Integrity should be the base for every other principle that we come up with.

Principles of Modern Warriorship

• Warriorship is Integrity
• Warriorship is Unselfish

Revamp

I started thinking the other night that I might be going about this thing all wrong.  I mean really the whole essence of modern warriorship is the idea behind it.  You cannot really define modern warriorship or at least the definition must be very flexible.  I believe that I have been trying to paint a picture that fits every man... and that is not only wrong but simply impossible. Think about something as simple as shoes.  Sure we could all wear the same shoe and at some point in history there is a good chance that everyone did have the same shoe or sandal on with very little variation.  Now there are tons of different shoes, different colors, different styles, and even some that make your feet look like gorilla feet.  Shoes originated as something to protect feet especially on long journeys and now most of us have different shoes for different activities.  Shoes for work, shoes for play, and shoes for cool are all hanging out in our closets.  The funniest thing is that the shoes that I like and think look good are different than the shoes any of my friends or colleagues in the same demographic likes.

The same goes for ideology in certain areas of our lives.  I can have a completely different picture of what warriorship means to me than other men even of like mind.  As with shoes at one point in history warriorship did not differ much from man to man.  You hunted to provide for your family and you fought to protect them, that simple.  Now we have the world at our fingertips and enough ideas streaming through our mind that we become confused and disillusioned.

So to revamp this blog and more importantly this ideology, that is hopefully on the verge of catching on, let’s not put borders around the idea of modern warriorship.  We cannot define warriorship specifically for a nonspecific being such as "man".  We must let the definition fall with the holder of the idea.  Each of us must seek to define warriorship in our lives.  That is what I want this to become and that is what I want to seek in my own life.  The things that we are passionate about that take no regard for money but are something that makes us better as individuals and therefore translates into making the world around us better is what I see now as modern warriorship.  That is what I want to find in my life and what I want to help you seek.  This doesn't mean you have to change careers but it does mean that we should be actively pursuing our passions with the idea of warriorship (read excellence) in everything that we do.

I know this that at the end of the day I must provide for my family but why does that mean that I must squelch my dreams?  Let them become something that goes hand in hand, why not?

Let’s hear your passions... scream them to the heavens!

Do you like to bake cakes then do so with fervor?  Computer programming is the world that you love to rock then rock it.  You like the idea of manufacturing then manufacture like a beast.  Take your passion and love and turn it into your area of warriorship.

We spend far too much time in our careers to not enjoy them at least a little.

In the coming weeks I will, hopefully with some discussion from the community, start to lay the foundation for warriorship.  I hope to throw out some principles that will guide each of us on our quest for becoming a warrior in our own way in our own worlds. Not the definition but some guidelines so that we can all reach our own definition.  I will start with one off the top of my head and you cannot be a great father or husband if you are not this most of the time.

One for the weekend...

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EzDRpkfaO4&w=560&h=315]

Integrity

As I mentioned in my last post I wanted to start putting a so called Manvotional out there once a week.  Just so happens I have a little time right now and what better day than Monday to get the brain thinking about some of the things that are important as we strive to practice modern warriorship. This weekend I was thinking a lot about what the essential attributes of being a great man are.  There are definitely a few things that we need to have nailed down to be a standard that can bear the title of warrior.  I came to the conclusion though that without integrity then it really doesn't matter what else we have in our tool belt.

We all know people that are successful at say business or athletic endeavors but they lack character and most importantly integrity.  How do we feel about those people?  Are we quick to follow them?  To be really successful there must be integrity to accompany your talent in whatever aspect of your life or in my opinion it is all for not.  To lead men into the battle that is our lives and to be an example you must have integrity or no one will follow.

The modernwarriorship challenge for this week is to practice being completely honest in every aspect of your life.   I would imagine most of us are pretty good in this area but we all can work on it.  This week when you are standing around jawing with your peers remember to be of good character and try and lead in that manner.  When you are with your family be engaged with your kids and really listen to your wife.  While you are spending time in your spiritual walk be true to the things that you read and to the relationship with God.  Even in your time of leisure be careful to keep your mind on things that are pure and good.

This will do two things for you: 1) You will start to become a leader and gain respect from everyone and they will follow you even when the odds are against you. 2) You will be surprised how there is never a thought of guilt about how you live your life.  Never a thought of I shouldn't have said that, done that, or had that thought, because you are living with integrity.

"The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity.  Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office." Dwight D. Eisenhower

Manvotional

I think I am going to try and throw a "manvotional" out there once a week or so... I hope to include some awesome inspiring quotes and some ideas that as men we can grasp on to and incorporate in our everyday lives.

I have mentioned that I am a spiritual person and I know that there is also a need for that in our lives but I am not sure I want people coming to me for that, at least on a consistent basis, because I am not an expert. However, I am a man and i succeed, struggle, and live life like all the rest of you men out there.

All men have to fight societal influence that cause us to feel guilty or inadequate because we want to be men and warriors.  These urges to compete, protect, go fast, make love, kill and grow our own food, and laugh and cry with likeminded brethren is not wrong but yet how we were made.  We are warriors in a modern society and we must live like it.

I am a husband that loves his wife, a father that cares for his children, a friend that will always be there, and at the core of all of those things I am a man.

"Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be. But what will happen in all the other days that ever come can depend on what you do today."

- Ernest Hemingway, For Whom The Bell Tolls

Our need for Brotherhood

Proverbs 17:17 "A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity."

Being a warrior invokes to me an image of a motley band of brothers walking in a destitute land with their weapons on their backs and little else.  These warriors are traveling through the land that needs their warriorship as much as they need each other.  The group can count on each other and there is little need for worry because each one has an angle and a role that they cover with each individual skill set that compliments the group without fail.  They feel each others pain, experience joy and despair together, and ultimately are striving for the same goal. I cannot explain why this is the image I get but it is. It is never an image of a loner or vagabond without friendship but of a group that is strong in it's numbers.

I know that the idea of community is huge in our culture that is why we join groups online and why we are connected to different clubs and idealogical groups.  We want to be part of something... a tribe, a hunting party, a social club, or even a virtual reality that bands you with others.

As men we need this group.  We need to know that there are others that are striving for the same goal, have the same stresses, and are ready to handle the situations in likemindedness.  We need a group outside of our families (wives and children) that love us and accept us.  A group that is honest with each other and lets down all barriers to reveal the true person inside without the fear of being rejected.

As a believer we are living in a time where the line in the sand has been drawn and has been trampled upon to an extent that makes it hard to find.  Now more than ever as we raise our children and live our lives in this modern time we need men to step up and be unafraid to bear their souls while taking a stand against all that is wrong.  To redraw the line and make it deep and clear enough so that the generation coming behind us, our children and their children, have a place to dig in and continue the fight.

I have been guilty of moving the line my whole life and really when I look back it is more of a wavy line not a straight line.  I have tried to keep a foot on each side at times and this simply cannot work.  To be true to oneself that loves God one must love God in all that he/she does.  There is no wiggle room.  There is no place to move the line forward or back.  Even with this blog my first thought was to not be too "churchy" and therefor not cheesy.  Now things have changed and if it is going to be cheesy then so be it because what is in our hearts will come out of our mouths and pervade all of our actions.  I want my mouth to speak of the glory and hope of God and my actions to reflect the love that He has given me so that the line that I draw has meaning and a distinct purpose.

I do believe though that in order for this to be accomplished we need the group of motley warriors that are unafraid to be different.  We must find those that are willing to have the angles that we cannot cover and have the skill sets that we do not possess. Find them and hang on to them.  Disciple each other and sharpen each other.  Pray for each other and their families.  Fight at each other's side.

God gives us hope and a purpose, he gives us the common bond that we need to band together.  We must band together so that when we are unsure and have a hard time finding the line our brothers, born for adversity, can pick us up hand us our dropped weapon and say, "Brother here is the line, stand next to me and with God we will hold this line and conquer our common enemies!"

No I did not just watch Braveheart but I did have coffee with a brother in Christ and this was on my heart as it has been for a while now.  There is nothing greater than the love of God and that my friends is worth our effort, but it is hard and I would say miserable to go at it alone and that is the reasoning behind this post.

Have a great rest of the week and remember to practice warriorship in every aspect of your lives.

Curiosity kills the cat and...

Mediocrity kills the man. Maybe not a death of the flesh but at least of the spirit.  When we live in mediocrity there is something in us that is dying and if it lasts too long, or if we resign ourselves to mediocrity as normalcy then our spirit can be in need of life support.

We need a fire in our bellies that drives us to greatness in the things that we love.  Isn't that what we all want?  Something that we want to be passionate about?  I know that I desire that and struggle with the idea of "my passion" constantly.  It is a tough proposition and can change a man's life to come to a realization that he has no passion and he is living a mediocre life.

I also know without a doubt that mediocrity is more times than not the easiest path.  Less heartache and less resistance, but also less exhilaration and less triumph.  I know we all have things we love like our families or things like that.  What I am really touching on in this post is the things that we spend the majority of our time on and is it something that we enjoy or get satisfaction from.  Are we using our talents and gifts in our careers or are we just working to pay bills and go on a couple of mediocre vacations every year?

You can apply it to every single aspect of your life... your spiritual life, your physical life, your home life, your social life, and your professional life.  Once mediocrity sets in these things will go downhill, maybe gradually or maybe quickly, but they will go down hill.  I am definitely speaking from experience.  I know now that, at least for me, the stakes are too high to not live passionately.  We are short for this world and I want to look back at the end of the journey and not think about how I let mediocrity creep in.

This was just on my mind... I know it is short and it has been a while since I have posted but this is something I think is in line with the meaning of this blog.

Let's get rid of mediocrity and find our passions.

Have a good one

Follow up...

Just a quick follow up from my last post about resolve.  I want anyone that reads this to know that most of what I throw on this blog comes from my own experiences which coincidentally are usually failures.  The whole reason I am passionate about modern warriorship is because I have not been that great at being honorable, faithful, and courageous with every aspect of my life at any given time over the last 18 years.  The reason I write about these things is directly related to the fact that they are things that I am going through or have recently been through.  Rest assured that I have a very hard time with some of these concepts and I find that writing about them, delving into discussions about them with  people I trust, and simply thinking about these subjects in a way is therapeutic and  gives me a since of accountability, as silly as that might sound to you. I just want you, the reader, to know that I come from a spot of humility.  I am no expert just a normal dude and I hope that I relate to you in a way that conveys that.  I welcome comments and feedback both positive and negative and hope that we can start some discussions up in the near future that have a multitude of different perspectives.  I do however want you to know that I believe that some of these ideals could really fix what is wrong in our culture.  I believe in them... so just like when you go to a bike shop you want to, at the very least, talk to a person that has actually ridden a bike I to actually try and practice some of the ideals that we kick around on this blog.  I have been knocked down plenty of times and I expect to be knocked down plenty more, but I hope that I can continue to have the resolve to get back up and keep going.

Once aging with a humble heart and attitude I solicit  you to help me on the journey of kicking some "normal" arse and turning this world on it's head.

Enjoy your weekend.

What is missing?

Commitment: [kuh-mit-muhnt] 1) the act of committing. 2) the state of being committed. 3) the act of committing, pledging, or engaging oneself. We have made a commitment to pay our bills on time. How many commitments do we make throughout the weeks, months, and years?  There is a whole market that revolves around new commitments coming into and right out of the New Year.  We buy gym memberships, start books, countless new diets, and commit to a better “me” so often it becomes a joke.  I personally have at least 10 books that cover 10 different diets.  Do the books help me lose weight?  Even when I read them and decide to put the information into practice what happens?*

It has become easy to make commitments in our modern society and usually without a second thought we move on from these commitments without fulfilling them because they are easy to forget or look past.  It seems until it is something that has to change or is necessary for our survival we look at these commitments quite flippantly.**

I am as guilty as anyone especially when it comes to things that are hard… i.e. working out, working on my spirituality, or eating healthy.  Like in my previous post our lives have become more complicated but yet easier and I guess what I really mean is that it is simply easier to be lazy.  We don’t have to stay in shape to chase food or work the fields; we do not spend time reading and in meditation because we have television and the internet, and we do not dwell on deep serious thought because it is easier and more “relaxing” to crack open that beer.

Our lives are inundated with enough worthless distractions to keep us from really bettering ourselves and achieving what we desire.

The question is what can we do to make these commitments stick?  How do we go about looking at things like our health and the wellbeing of our souls as necessary for our survival?  I believe that we lack something that should coincide with our commitments.  I believe that something is resolve.

Resolve: [ri-zolv] to come to a definite or earnest decision about; determine (to do something): I have resolved that I shall live to the full.

Read the two definitions again one right after the other and you tell me which one sounds a tad more serious.  Another definition of resolve is to break things down into elementary parts.  When used in this manner the word resolve is usually followed by the word into.  I think this is very interesting.  I like the idea of starting to strip away some of the things about myself and resolve into what I need to be at my core.

The ideas of resolve absolutely fits into the theme of warriorship.***

So my belated challenge for this week is to try to find our resolve.  Strip away some of the things that are unnecessary**** in our lives, maybe even negative and get to the meat of what is at our core and what gets us fired up.  I want to show some resolve… I want to go further than just making the commitment, I want to follow through.  I want to be a leader in my circle in this world.  I want to have the resolve to work on my discipline.  I want to be the definition of resolve.

* I tell you what happens I get fired up for about two weeks then hit some sort of monster that whispers in my ear that a pizza and a 6er would be about perfect right now.  Then the ball starts rolling backwards and flat-out squashes me until I start seeing zero results and then move on to the next diet with usually the same outcome.

** At this point I am not including our commitments to wives if we have them or our children.  I also believe that there should be a real commitment to work on our spiritual side that I did not address in this post but hope to in the future.  I honestly believe that if you are neglecting your family and your time with God then almost no matter what you do to work on yourself will not be as successful as it could be and you will not enjoy or reap the benefits fully.

*** Remember that most of the codes that warriors lived by were centered around three principles which are honor, faithfulness, and courage.  I have to believe that when you live your life with these things on the forefront of your mind in all endeavors you will have more resolve and therefore more discipline.  These things are important and in the world of the warrior, which was the ultimate survival of the fittest, you have to imagine that their resolve was like steel.

**** Unnecessary doesn’t always mean negative.  I think that is a misconception that many of us males believe.  I think it comes down to priority.  Obviously watching something on the tube or playing a round of golf is not out-and-out bad for us but if it causes us to take away from other things that might be more important than I believe we must evaluate that.  Obviously that is a personal thing and is different for everyone.  I am bad about wanting to do all kinds of things as in hobbies… I have a mtb, a kayak, take bjj, golf, we have a boat, and I like backpacking and camping.  I am also trying to change careers and that requires me to go back to school and I am pretty much taking a full load not to mention that I am a father of three and a husband.  Obviously some things have to take residence way down on the priority list as much as that pains me, maybe not forever but for right now without a doubt.

Warriorship

Warriorship – the practice of being a warrior.   This blogs focus is going to be about my life and the pursuit of living like a warrior.  You might ask… so you are going to walk around with a sword and fight evil?  That would be sweet but no it is more the idea of living like a warrior and adopting the ideals of a warrior.  In many societies the warriors were part of their own specialized class which was easily recognized by normal civilians.  This is important because I would love to live in a way that people could look at me and say; man that dude is different for all the right reasons.  Most warrior societies had a code or ethos that they lived by.  The warrior society valued honor, faithfulness, and courage and were not corrupt so that they were not dangerous to normal society.  Samurai had the code of Bushido (the way of the warrior) for medieval knights it was the laws of chivalry and the list goes on with the same basic principles in place.

It is the warrior’s approach to life that I want to mimic.  I want to approach everything with honor.  I want to have courage to try new things that will add depth to my life and to cutout the things that are negative and take away.  I want to be faithful to the things that I believe to be important and worthy.  From my spiritual life to the times that I unwind and everything in between I want to approach it all with the idea of warriorship fresh on my mind.

In the upcoming months I will write about the journey I am currently on chasing after a new career, about my training that I am doing to get my body in the right shape, the things that I put into my mind and the conversations that these ideas lead to, and most importantly I will talk about being a husband and a father with a new approach.  I can guarantee there will be things that you can laugh at and learn from.  I am going to work diligently at pursuing things out of my comfort and I hope through some of the feedback from you the reader I will be able to look at things from different perspectives.

I will take a deeper look at what being a warrior today could/should look like compared to some of the examples from history.  It should be a fun ride and I hope that you will stick around and check back often.