Have you ever been out on a date with someone and have them sit there and list off the accolades they have achieved as if they deserved to win the Nobel Prize?
Chances are, many of you reading this have - whether you're a male or female.
In a world that is designed to distract you, a majority of people go their whole lives living within a system that is designed to keep the human mind and spirit at unease.
Everyone wants to feel a part of something and most would rather try to impress others as if other people's opinions of them actually mattered.
What I have found through my experience is that selfishness and selflessness becomes more apparent in today's culture.
There is a fine line between selfishness and selflessness.
I do believe one has to be a little bit selfish to be successful in life. To be good at anything, it is going to require a certain level of focus and attention to detail. Where one chooses to use their focus is going to determine their level of effort and success.
But like anything, one's intentions are going to determine how much value they can truly add to other people.
If I decided that I wanted to go into the gym to become a professional bodybuilder, sure, I could make a decent living for myself, but I also purposely put my health at risk - a highly selfish process. Whereas, if I decided to go into the gym to build myself stronger mentally and physically so that I could become a better protector for my wife and family, not only am I setting a good example for my future children, but I can actually make myself useful in other situations.
If one is going to be useful to others, they must first be useful to themselves. What I mean is, as a man, you need to be able to prove to yourself first that you are capable of doing the things you need to do to become the best version of yourself. A man needs to be aware of his capabilities if he is actually going to be able to add value to anyone else - a man needs to have a competitive edge because the world is a competitive place.
We live in a world of instant gratification and many people look at achieving overnight success.
To be fair, there are some people out there who have become an overnight "success" just by being in the right place at the right time.
But what is success?
My favorite definition of success is when preparation meets opportunity. So, you are either do what you have to do to prepare, or you prepare to fail.
I have learned that failure is just a part of life and how one deals with failure is going to build their character. You either build yourself into someone worthy of respect, or you build yourself into a victim to the system.
What I have found is that genuine selflessness is what brings me the most peace.
I have been a selfish man before. I have pushed away friends and family for the betterment of myself for short-term gain. I even moved away from my friends and family for five years to create my own life path.
In hindsight, I realized that I had to be a little bit selfish to build myself into a stronger man - I learned how to think with clarity and build a skill-set that will last me a lifetime.
As I reach closer to my 30's, I realize what is more important to me in my life.
Before, I was a boy trying to find my life path - now, I am a man on a mission to become a valuable asset to humanity, my animals, and the one's closest to me.
Nothing about life is easy and I genuinely don't think it is supposed to be - as a man, everything is your responsibility.
I still have setbacks in my life because I recognize that failure is just a part of life. But what I think life is truly about is being able to take those failures as learning lessons to improve on things the universe is telling you to improve on.
Being competitive as a man is what give men their drive and their willingness to do the things that suck because they know it is just what needs to be done to get to the next stage of their lives.
I am a believer in having a pure heart and pure intentions in order to live a truly fulfilling life and a life of peace. Just going through the motions, or doing things out of spite or haste, will leave you empty and unfulfilled.
The entire reason of me starting this brand is to build a community around people that genuinely appreciate the traditional masculine and feminine roles.
The traditional masculine and feminine roles is the one model that has worked the longest since the beginning of the human race. We got to where we are today by men being and acting like men, and women being and acting like women.
While the world continues to change around us, living out our duties as strong men and women are duties that we owe to ourselves and the ones we care about the most.
Leaving your mark on the world and being a genuine positive force for others, is truly a selfless deed.
The least that we can do in our short time on planet Earth is to make sure that we live lives of fulfillment and peace - it is truly what God wants for everyone.
There will always be pain and suffering - these are things we will never be able to escape. The best thing we can do as men is to build ourselves and reinforce ourselves to be the ones that the people that rely on us look to for comfort and safety.
Becoming a man that is capable of protecting their woman and their children, is a selfless man.
Becoming a man that is capable of providing for his woman and family, is a selfless man.
Becoming a man that commits to things for the benefit of others, is a selfless man.
It is easy to be selfish because being selfish means you don't have to work as hard. Being selfless takes work!
It will take work, it will take effort, and it will be demanding, but you owe it to yourselves to be strong men and women, so that future generations can be built by good hands with pure intentions.