Man Up: Manhood is a Struggle.
Youth is a blunder; manhood a struggle; old age a regret. ~ Benjamin Disraeli
To man up is to accept the struggle of manhood. And yes, it is a struggle, a daily one, often without reward or acclaim, just the pride of the man enduring the struggle he’s put here to endure.
This struggle is necessary, but it’s being avoided by guys who opt for the quick fix, the easy path, the cheat to wealth. Why wouldn’t you want ease? Why would any man quest for an arduous road?
What is this struggle?
Is it merely hardship or something more?
Norman Mailer said, Masculinity is not something given to you, but something you gain. And you gain it by winning small battles with honor.
Man Up: Face Your Battles
Every day we face battles. More often than not we’re ignorant to the wars being waged because we see these not as ‘battles’, but as natural desires. As such, they’re innate and nothing can be done about them. (Read This: Fight Your Desires)
Other times we ignore these wars and blame things as being ‘just the way they are’. We willingly sweep our role in our own lives under the rug and play the role of someone having things done to them rather than being someone who fights for a better road, path, or way of life.
Yes, you have to win these battles with honor, but you also have to identify the damn battles.
Don’t think life happens to you, know that you control not the event but you definitely control your reaction to the event. You may not control the weather or the news, but you have power over how you respond to the weather or the news.
These are the battles.
Your desire to be lazy isn’t innate, it’s a choice. Your desire to spend money isn’t ‘good’ because it comes from within, it’s only good if it propels you closer to your goal.
Man Up. It’s a simple request, but to man up is to follow the hard path, one of awareness and not of ignorance.
When you’re ignorant you don’t have to fight any battle, you don’t have to accept the role you play in your own life. You can remain blind to the power you wield and instead ‘go with the flow’. You don’t have to rise to the occasion. You don’t have to wake up earlier, or go the extra mile at your work because you think your success or lack-there-of is the result of a system, not of discipline, hard work, and many many battles won with honor.
You can be a little bitch, a lacky, a victim, or you can be a damn man.
It’s your choice.
Being a coward is easy. You always choose the easy way out. You blame others for your mess, your life, your failure. When you act like a man, when you man up, the only one you can blame is the man in the mirror. It’s a tougher road, but it’s a necessary one if you’re going to live just and honorable and successful.
