Men are harder to come by than ever, yet males are everywhere.
Turning on the news, there are endless reports of males overcompensating on both sides. The white supremacists and hate mongers on one side and the apologetic wimps on the other.
Neither solves any practical problem. And, while their respective cultures laud them online, they are both unbearable in person.
I won’t harken back to some forgotten era when everything was golden and perfect. That doesn’t exist. But, let’s talk about what it is to be a man.
1.) A Man Speaks His Truth
A man shows the world his face and speaks his truth. He doesn’t need a pulpit or a mask. He doesn’t need to run his mouth constantly. But a real man doesn’t shy away from his truth either.
He speaks it.
The world doesn’t need yet another hate monger screaming benedictions against people a little different from him.
The world doesn’t need another whiny apologist either, begging the maligned to love him.
2.) A Man Is Direct
Rambling explanations that skirt the truth or avoid saying anything substantive are for politicians.
Here’s a fine challenge: For the next week, when a question is asked, don’t say anything other than, “yes” or “no.”
We don’t need yet another excuse. Everybody has one of those and there’s little more dull out there.
People admire men who don’t pander or show their self-doubt.
3.) A Man Avoids Social Media
As entertaining as it may be to watch the massive suck hole that is Tumblr argue with itself about precisely what it’s offended by today, it proves absolutely nothing.
Those pages are filled with the most nonsensical offended anger, most of which exists only for the sake of being offended.
The kids making fun of them on Reddit aren’t much better.
These groups turn into massive echo chambers that serve as little more than a way to fluff your vanity by hearing your own thoughts repeated back to you.
What a waste of time.
Start a blog. Share your thoughts.
4.) A Man Can Say No
The hardest kind of saying no – when you say it to yourself.
Food, drink, alcohol, drugs, loose or crazy women – a child does what feels good.
A man sets a plan for his life and sticks with it, even as the world seems to scream that it’s good to embrace your self-destructive tendencies. And the weak assault you online for daring to call those weaknesses what they are.
Be more than that.
Social scientists make a big song and dance out of willpower. Women’s magazines have articles on how to get and cultivate it.
Just say no.
And don’t let yourself break your own rules. You aren’t a child.
The world is in dire need of real men. Men who says what they mean but focus on the things that matter.
What do you believe the most important traits of being a man are?
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