“Resilient people are aware of situations, their own emotional reactions, and the behavior of those around them. In order to manage feelings, it is essential to understand what is causing them and why. By remaining aware, resilient people can maintain control of a situation and think of new ways to tackle problems.”
https://www.verywellmind.com/characteristics-of-resilience-2795062
What comes to mind when you hear the word resilient?
What is it? How does it pertain to our manliness? Is it just a masculine trait?
The online dictionary defines it: “able to withstand OR recover quickly from difficult situations; having the ability to spring back into shape after bending, stretching, or being compressed.”
Considering your age, when was the last time you “got bent out of shape?”
Can you remember what is was that put the pressure on you?
Can you remember what you were feeling just prior to being put under the pressure?
Can you remember what you were feeling just after you came out from that pressure?
Did you learn anything? Or did you just suffer through it?
If we are looking for attributes; characteristics; or the qualities that maketh a man… it’s hard to beat the quality of being RESILIENT.
Being resilient embodies the old sayings like… “if you get knocked down, come up swingin’!” OR “learning to ride a bike is like falling off a horse,” OR “if that same horse bucks you off, you gotta get back in the saddle!”
Bouncing back somehow.
And coming back at it… tomorrow.
Do you have that? Do you bounce back after having a rough go of it?
My personal interactions with some young men of today… seems to point to… that you… do not.
For example: you may be good at your job… but you refuse to take on any new responsibility.
Instead you try to just live a comfortable daily routine, avoiding… like the plague… any need to show the least bit of an aggressive attitude.
Displaying a positive, aggressive attitude; needed for learning new skills and job tasks; an aggressive attitude toward self improvement; a positive aggressive attitude that other men like to see.
I have to say, “If I saw this lack of aggressiveness, this lack of being resilient, in one guy, I could chalk it up to some kind of random anomaly. But… it isn’t just one guy.”
In my younger days, when I hit the world at the ripe old age of 18… we were all aggressive. The random anomaly would have been a genteel gentleman, who hung back, and displayed no aggressive attitude at all, for any reason.
Being resilient… with a lack of aggressiveness, seems to be a missing link in today’s young men.
Learning to be resilient, to be able to bounce back from life’s knock downs, happens… well… the more you get knocked down.
Or… by a man searching out a self challenge… in order to test, to bend himself, to some sort of pressure… on purpose… in order to learn and grow… in order to be able to bounce back better, later in life.
With age, hopefully comes wisdom.
I can attest to the life training it takes to become resilient, and the fact that you can learn that you are resilient… and knowing that… how being resilient will alter how you approach life in general.
The wisdom I have learned to live by… “What’s the worse thing that can happen?”
Then diving on in.
Just like with anything being resilient doesn’t happen overnight.
It takes a few reps.
And before you react negatively, thinking I’m an emotionless monster, just bashing through life, let me tell you, “An Emerging Man learns to handle his EMOTIONS and WELL-BEING, and understands when to use his emotions to his benefit.”
If your mom passes away… take a day to ball your eye’s out… then get back at it.
If “the best damn dog ever” gets run over… get the shovel, take him into the backyard, and give him a proper burial.
And if that horse falls off his bike… Encourage, Equip, & Engage with him… show him how to climb right back up into the saddle… again.
Moving forward as an EMERGING MAN will require you to understand how to be resilient. Understanding, life will knock you around, and the best way to come back is… to come back, again and again.
theemergingman.com 