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Sprung: Reinvigorate Your Life  – Reignite your Spirit

Spring is in the air. The smell of mud and the opening of tree buds just seems to wake up not only the world outside our windows, but it seems to awaken something in us.

Men, let’s take advantage of the natural cycle of the universe to reinvigorate our lives!


Many men have a hard time with the spiritual. They struggle with the idea that spirit exists. Why? Because it’s not knowable. It’s not tangible. And talk of the spiritual gets muddied up by 18 million different religious viewpoints.

I may subscribe to one of those viewpoints, and I’m sure my writing will reflect it. But I’m not here to preach about why my viewpoint is right and others are wrong. (even if I do believe so)

What I’m here to do – is to tell you that the spiritual is real, and you’ve got to keep that fire going.  Inside each of us is a spirit that drives us. It’s fueled by creativity, art, poetry, beauty. It’s fueled by thought, conversation, reading.

If you neglect the spiritual part of you, the rest of you will feel hungry for purpose and passion.

How do you reignite it, after a long “winter”?

1. Do what makes you feel alive.
I’m not saying, “ do whatever you want” or “just make yourself happy”
I’m saying, there are moments in your life when you felt alive. For me – it’s often when I’m performing music on stage, speaking to a large group of people, hiking in the woods, or writing.  You might feel alive tossing the football in the backyard, hunting that big buck, or building a house.  Take some time to identify what makes you feel alive – and do more of it.

2. Define or revisit your code.
Spirituality has a code of ethics. That’s why religion usually has a list of do’s and don’ts…. Because morality is closely tied with the spiritual. I know. People don’t like to think about it. I’ve already lost some of you – who can’t handle the fact that anyone would dare tell you to be moral. Take the time to define your code of ethics, or to revisit that code to make sure it lines up with who you are.

3. Try something new.
2016 was a crazy year for me. I started a new desk job, gained a bunch of weight, and neglected a number of things. I decided one day that I was sick of it and needed to change things. So I started doing and discovering things I didn’t think I could do. I hiked six miles. I lost 40 pounds. I tried on a sweatshirt that I could never wear and it fit. I ice-skated at my daughter’s birthday party. I emceed a major event (in a tux).  It was just an amazing year after I decided to do new things. It made me feel like I had awakened.  2017 is shaping up even better.

Michael Jordan – #mancrushmonday

Michael Jordan – #mancrushmonday

Growing up the 1980’s and 90’s – there was no more truly heroic figure for most us than Michael Jordan. We wanted his shoes, we wanted to be the kind of athlete he was – wanted to jump and fly like he did….

But it is his drive and his motivation that makes him today’s Manlihood.com Man Crush Monday.

Here’s a quick bio from Wikipedia:

Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials, MJ,[3] is an American retired professional basketball player. He is also a businessman, and principal owner and chairman of the Charlotte Hornets. Jordan played 15 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards. His biography on the NBA website states: “By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time.”[4] Jordan was one of the most effectively marketed athletes of his generation and was considered instrumental in popularizing the NBA around the world in the 1980s and 1990s.[5]
Jordan played three seasons for coach Dean Smith at the University of North Carolina. As a freshman, he was a member of the Tar Heels’ national championship team in 1982. Jordan joined the NBA’s Chicago Bulls in 1984 as the third overall draft pick. He quickly emerged as a league star, entertaining crowds with his prolific scoring. His leaping ability, demonstrated by performing slam dunks from the free throw line in slam dunk contests, earned him the nicknames “Air Jordan” and “His Airness”. He also gained a reputation for being one of the best defensive players in basketball.[6] In 1991, he won his first NBA championship with the Bulls, and followed that achievement with titles in 1992 and 1993, securing a “three-peat”. Although Jordan abruptly retired from basketball before the beginning of the 1993–94 NBA season to pursue a career in baseball, he returned to the Bulls in March 1995 and led them to three additional championships in 1996, 1997, and 1998, as well as a then-record 72 regular-season wins in the 1995–96 NBA season. Jordan retired for a second time in January 1999, but returned for two more NBA seasons from 2001 to 2003 as a member of the Wizards.

 

Jordan’s individual accolades and accomplishments include five Most Valuable Player (MVP) Awards, ten All-NBA First Team designations, nine All-Defensive First Team honors, fourteen NBA All-Star Game appearances, three All-Star Game MVP Awards, ten scoring titles, three steals titles, six NBA Finals MVP Awards, and the 1988 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award. Among his numerous accomplishments, Jordan holds the NBA records for highest career regular season scoring average (30.12 points per game) and highest career playoff scoring average (33.45 points per game). In 1999, he was named the greatest North American athlete of the 20th century by ESPN, and was second to Babe Ruth on the Associated Press’s list of athletes of the century. Jordan is a two-time inductee into the Basketball Hall of Fame, having been enshrined in 2009 for his individual career, and again in 2010 as part of the group induction of the 1992 United States men’s Olympic basketball team (“The Dream Team”). He became a member of the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2015.



And check out 25 of Jordan’s best quotes:


1. “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan

 

  1. “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.” – Michael Jordan

 

  1. “I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.” – Michael Jordan

 

  1. “My attitude is that if you push me towards something that you think is a weakness, then I will turn that perceived weakness into a strength.” – Michael Jordan

 

  1. “You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them.” – Michael Jordan

 

  1. “To be successful you have to be selfish, or else you never achieve. And once you get to your highest level, then you have to be unselfish. Stay reachable. Stay in touch. Don’t isolate.” – Michael Jordan

 

  1. “Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.” – Michael Jordan

 

  1. “If you quit once it becomes a habit. Never quit!” – Michael Jordan

 

  1. “Always turn a negative situation into a positive situation.” – Michael Jordan

 

  1. “Everybody has talent, but ability takes hard work.” – Michael Jordan

 

  1. “To learn to succeed, you must first learn to fail.” – Michael Jordan

 

  1. “Never say never, because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.” – Michael Jordan

 

  1. “Don’t let them drag you down by rumors just go with what you believe in.” – Michael Jordan

 

  1. “Make it happen” – Michael Jordan

 

15.“If you do the work you get rewarded. There are no shortcuts in life.” – Michael Jordan

 

  1. “I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan

 

  1. “Once I made a decision, I never thought about it again.” – Michael Jordan

 

  1. “The minute you get away from fundamentals – whether it’s proper technique, work ethic or mental preparation – the bottom can fall out of your game, your schoolwork, your job, whatever you’re doing.” – Michael Jordan

 

  1. “The key to success is failure.” – Michael Jordan

 

  1. “Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.” – Michael Jordan

 

  1. “Learning’s a gift, even when pain is your teacher.” – Michael Jordan

 

  1. “Failure is acceptable. but not trying is a whole different ball park.” – Michael Jordan

 

  1. “There is no “I” in team but there is in win.” – Michael Jordan

 

  1. “I play to win, whether during practice or a real game.” – Michael Jordan

 

  1. “You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.”- Michael Jordan
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Sprung: Reinvigorate Your Life  – Reboot your Body

Spring is in the air. The smell of mud and the opening of tree buds just seems to wake up not only the world outside our windows, but it seems to awaken something in us.

Men, let’s take advantage of the natural cycle of the universe to reinvigorate our lives!

I’m in the process of losing weight – and so I’m particularly aware of my body right now.
But i do know this – our bodies do respond to the seasons! During the winter time, it’s not unusual to pack on a few extra pounds, as we fight off the cold and are often less active.

A reboot in the spring is a great way to get things moving, and add a little more energy into your life as a whole.

I’ve found that adding movement to my routine helps me to fight off depression, keeps my focus on track, and just in general, makes me feel better!

Here are some tips for your body reboot.

1. Revisit your eating plan.
If you aren’t regularly tracking your calories, tracking them at least for a few weeks gives you a good snapshot of what your diet looks like, and if you need to adjust it. Use an app like fitbit or myfitness pal to see how many calories you should be eating, and how many you are eating. Remember – if weight loss is your goal, you have to burn more than you take in. If you want to bulk up- you’ll need to make adjustments to your diet as well. Consider paying a few bucks to meet with a nutritionist.

2. Fasting
This isn’t for everybody – but many people say that a three day fast from solid food, or maybe fasting from a particular kind of food for a week helps them to reset their cravings. There are some mental and spiritual benefits too, as the act of delaying your cravings tends to build a different layer of focus in your life. Don’t try this if you have any health issues, or without talking to a doctor.

3. Change your workout.
Fitness folks call them “plateaus” – those times when you stop losing weight (or stop building muscle) despite all your hard work. Sometimes, you need to radically change your routine to shock your body back into performance mode.
I’ve found in general, if I do the same thing all the time, I get bored with it anyway.
Take a hike instead of the treadmill. Swim instead of yoga. Mix up your strength training to try something different.

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Lion or Lamb? Gentleman doesn’t mean pansy

 

We’ve long said that March comes in and goes out inversely like a Lion or a Lamb. The thought of being one or the other may be a bit frightening for men. Especially in a culture that no longer appreciates the fierce and bold virtues that once marked manhood.
Being a gentleman does not mean that a man gives up his strength – that a man is a pansy.

Interestingly enough, my grandmother always told me that a pansy was actually a tough flower. It could stand against the cold, and grow in pretty adverse conditions… it still though has a reputation for being “girly” – and the flower’s name has been embedded culturally to imply weakness or a lack of masculinity.

Men – to be a gentleman is a noble calling. It means that you treat people with respect. That you demonstrate politeness, it may mean that you are neat in your appearance, and that you have earned a degree of respect for your knowledge, your artistic abilities, your ability with words, with numbers, or some other “civilized” skill.

You might also be a lumberjack, a rig hand, or a truck drive, and be a gentleman in the way you interact with people.

But there’s definitely an element of respect shown and received, based on a degree of civility.

This civility does not erase the wild, passionate strength that lies in a man’s heart. A gentleman can hold his own in a bout of fisticuffs or fencing. He can heft a child on to his shoulders, pick up his bride to carry her over the threshhold, and defend the tender things he holds dear with ferocity and strength.

My thoughts on this are two-fold.

1. Just because you wear a tie to work, or drive a minivan, or eat kale – does not exempt you from the wilder side of manhood. Make sure that you know how to defend yourself and the things and people you love. Make sure you keep your physical body strong and ready to perform.

2.  Inversely, just because you are a strong and brave, do not neglect the tender touches needed in civilized life. Say Please and Thank you. Snuggle with your children. Read poetry.  These things do not affect your ability to be manly. In fact, I believe they enhance them.

New book on Amazon!

Josh Hatcher has published a new book on Amazon! It’s a book of “manly” poems. You should definitely check it out!

While you’re there, make sure you snag these books too!

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Lion or Lamb? Finding balance (Part 1)

We’ve long said that March comes in and goes out inversely like a Lion or a Lamb. The thought of being one or the other may be a bit frightening for men. Especially in a culture that no longer appreciates the fierce and bold virtues that once marked manhood.


Lambs are weak. Lions are strong.
As we explore this concept, I will admittedly tell you, most of the time, I think we should err on the side of the lion. I think that we should strive to be brave, and fierce. We should strive to lead the pride, rather than to frolic in the fields, and cower at the thought of wolves.

With that said, I think that even the fiercest and strongest war-like man has to know that there’s a part of him that has to fall in line. A part of him that must be subdued and soft.

A hardened soldier can indeed have tea with his daughter, and can indeed love a woman gently, and can indeed hold back the power and rage in order to communicate with his people diplomatically. Perhaps these qualities aren’t really “lamb-like” after all – but they are certainly not wild.

 

“For after years of living in a cage, a lion no longer even believes it is a lion . . . and a man no longer believes he is a man.”

― John Eldredge, Wild at Heart Revised and Updated: Discovering the Secret of a Man’s Soul

I don’t want to see men tamed. I think it’s a dangerous thing to take a lion and to train him to be a house-cat.  When I talk about finding balance, I don’t mean that men should be tamed. I think they should be TEMPERED.  Men, finding balance does not mean that you are abandoning your lionhood in order to be a lamb.

When I was a child, my dad and I loved to wrestle. His strength was and still is baffling. I’ve watched him lift things no man should lift. I’ve felt the strength in his grip. As we would wrestle, he’d show me that strength, but it was always measured and held back. I always knew that this man had the power to crush my little skull with his bare hands, and the fact that he didn’t showed me more about his strength than anything. He was wild like a lion, but he was tempered.

As we explore what it means to be a lion, and what we can learn from the lamb – let’s strive to be balanced. Let’s strive to be men who embrace the fullness and wildness that is in us, but we must keep it tempered and in check, because that is what a good man is. Each use of our strength and wildness is carefully measured and used in ways that make those around us better, and keeps them safe.

Martin-Luther

Martin Luther –  #mancrushmonday

Martin Luther lived at a time when having an opinion different than that of the catholic church could cost you your head.

After observing corruption and hypocrisy, He formed opinions about God and the Bible that  flew in the face of the religious elite of his day.

So he wrote them down, and then literally NAILED THEM TO THE DOOR of the catholic church.

That brave act of defiance completely  and in many ways changed the world. And even though the catholic church rejected Luther’s new teachings, many of his challenges led the church to clean up and reform many of its practices.

According to Wikipedia
Martin Luther (/ˈluːθər/;[1] German: [ˈmaɐ̯tiːn ˈlʊtɐ] ( listen); 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German professor of theology, composer, priest, monk[2] and a seminal figure in the Protestant Reformation.

Luther came to reject several teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God’s punishment for sin could be purchased with money, proposing an academic discussion of the practice and efficacy of indulgences in his Ninety-five Theses of 1517. His refusal to renounce all of his writings at the demand of Pope Leo X in 1520 and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms in 1521 resulted in his excommunication by the Pope and condemnation as an outlaw by the Emperor.

Luther taught that salvation and, subsequently, eternal life are not earned by good deeds but are received only as the free gift of God’s grace through the believer’s faith in Jesus Christ as redeemer from sin. His theology challenged the authority and office of the Pope by teaching that the Bible is the only source of divinely revealed knowledge from God[3] and opposed sacerdotalism by considering all baptized Christians to be a holy priesthood.[4]Those who identify with these, and all of Luther’s wider teachings, are called Lutherans, though Luther insisted on Christian or Evangelical as the only acceptable names for individuals who professed Christ.

His translation of the Bible into the vernacular (instead of Latin) made it more accessible to the laity, an event that had a tremendous impact on both the church and German culture. It fostered the development of a standard version of the German language, added several principles to the art of translation,[5] and influenced the writing of an English translation, the Tyndale Bible.[6] His hymns influenced the development of singing in Protestant churches.[7] His marriage to Katharina von Bora, a former nun, set a model for the practice of clerical marriage, allowing Protestant clergy to marry.[8]



Check out these quotes from Martin Luther:

“To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.”

“I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.”

“You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say.”

“Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.”

“I know not the way God leads me, but well do I know my Guide.”

“I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God’s hands, that I still possess.”

“I am more afraid of my own heart than of the pope and all his cardinals. I have within me the great pope, Self.”

“Be a sinner and sin strongly, but more strongly have faith and rejoice in Christ.”

“Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God.”

“The Bible is alive, it speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it lays hold of me.”

“If you want to interpret well and confidently, set Christ before you, for He is the man to whom it all applies, every bit of it.”

“The Gospel cannot be truly preached without offense and tumult.” 

“To find Christ in such poverty, and what his swaddling clothes and manger signify, are explained … that his poverty teaches how we should find him in our neighbors, the lowliest and the most needy; and his swaddling clothes are the holy Scriptures; that in actual life we should incline to the needy; and in our studies and contemplative life only to the Scriptures; in order that Christ alone may become the man of both lives and that he may everywhere stand before us.”

“A Christian man is the most free lord of all, and subject to none; a Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to everyone.” 

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Martin Luther King, Jr – #mancrushmonday

Every Monday At Manlihood.com – we celebrate men of courage, valor, creativity, innovation, and honor. We celebrate men who have accomplished great things, that have set good examples, and then have made the world a better place. This is #mancrushmonday

 

Today’s ManCrushMonday is truly an American hero.
I’m not entirely sure why this great country became so corrupted by racism. I’m not sure why men and women were not treated with the respect and dignity that we all deserve.

I’m not sure why it still happens today, and I’m not sure how to make it all go away.

But what I can tell you is that Martin Luther King, Jr. built a legacy that is unrivaled, and all of us today would learn well from the lessons he taught about fighting for equality in a dignified and yet fiery way.

According to Wikipedia:

Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr., January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist who was a leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience based on his Christian beliefs.

King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957, serving as its first president. With the SCLC, King led an unsuccessful 1962 struggle against segregation in Albany, Georgia (the Albany Movement), and helped organize the 1963 nonviolent protests in Birmingham, Alabama. King also helped to organize the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. There, he established his reputation as one of the greatest orators in American history.

On October 14, 1964, King received the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolent resistance. In 1965, he helped to organize the Selma to Montgomery marches, and the following year he and SCLC took the movement north to Chicago to work on segregated housing. In the final years of his life, King expanded his focus to include opposition towards poverty and the Vietnam War, alienating many of his liberal allies with a 1967 speech titled “Beyond Vietnam“.

In 1968, King was planning a national occupation of Washington, D.C., to be called the Poor People’s Campaign, when he was assassinated on April 4 in Memphis, Tennessee. His death was followed by riots in many U.S. cities.

King was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. Martin Luther King Jr. Day was established as a holiday in numerous cities and states beginning in 1971, and as a U.S. federal holiday in 1986. Hundreds of streets in the U.S. have been renamed in his honor, and a county in Washington State was also renamed for him. The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was dedicated in 2011.

 

Check out these inspiring quotes from Dr. King.

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

― Martin Luther King Jr., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches

 

“I have decided to stick to love…Hate is too great a burden to bear.”

― Martin Luther King Jr., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches

 

“Faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase.”

― Martin Luther King Jr.

 

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

― Martin Luther King Jr., I Have a Dream: Writings and Speeches That Changed the World

 

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

― Martin Luther King Jr.

 

“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”

― Martin Luther King Jr.

 

“Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.”

― Martin Luther King Jr., A Knock at Midnight: Inspiration from the Great Sermons of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.”

― Martin Luther King Jr., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches

 

“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

― Martin Luther King Jr.

 

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

― Martin Luther King Jr.

 

“Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education.”

― Martin Luther King Jr.

“We must come to see that the end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience.”

― Martin Luther King Jr.

 

“Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”

― Martin Luther King Jr.

 

“A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live.”

― Martin Luther King Jr., The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

“No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they’d die for.”

― Martin Luther King Jr.

 

“Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude.”

― Martin Luther King Jr.

 

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

― Martin Luther King Jr.

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Justin Willoughby – #mancrushmonday

Every Monday At Manlihood.com – we celebrate men of courage, valor, creativity, innovation, and honor. We celebrate men who have accomplished great things, that have set good examples, and then have made the world a better place. This is #mancrushmonday

Justin Willoughby is one of my best friends. I hate to overdo my “mancrush” on Justin – but he really is an inspiration to me.

I first met Justin at Wal-mart. He was about 600 pounds at that point. He had already lost almost 200 pounds, but I didn’t know that. I just remember seeing this massive kid struggling to push a shopping cart around the store with an oxygen tank. And I saw him eating a Snickers Bar. My first initial thought was a bit judgmental, “Who is this fat kid, and why is he eating a candy bar?”
(I found out later that he had just spent hours walking around Wal-mart as exercise – and that candy bar was his first in months. It was his reward for his consistent hard work!)

I later met Justin again at church – and by this point, he had lost another 200 pounds. He was still big, but by this point, this young man had literally hacked his way out of a prison of fat.
He continued to work hard to lose the weight, and now he is 600 pounds lighter. He has dedicated his life to helping other people achieve their goals, in weight loss and life.



Check out his website here.


Check out his interview on the TODAY SHOW

 

 

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