Being vulnerable is a natural part of the human experience.
A moment of vulnerability is a moment of feeling exposed and showing weakness.
Knowing that there are chinks in the armor is exactly what can deter a man from ever wanting to pursue his mission in life.
So the question then becomes, why do we feel vulnerable?
It is a question that I often ponder because I do not believe that anyone truly wants to feel vulnerable, it is just a matter of people finding themselves in situations of weakness.
The way that I see it is that moments of vulnerability are often some of the greatest lessons that one can learn about themselves.
Think about it, you find yourself in a position of weakness, as if you have just been exposed to the entire world about something you are not comfortable with, only to find yourself with having to make a very important choice - sink or swim.
For most people, it is natural to sink in moments of weakness and shell up from not wanting to deal with whatever it is that is making them uncomfortable.
But the reality is, those that swim are the one's that are capable of achieving desired outcomes.
Those that swim are able to identify their vulnerabilities as weaknesses and work on building them into strengths so that there are no more chinks in the armor, only steel.
The only way one will ever be truly able to turn their weaknesses into strengths is by putting themselves in situations of weakness and being able to identify a new way of dealing with it.
Remember, a change in behavior is the only way that we learn as humans.
If we put ourselves in the same situation over and over and change nothing about how we handle it, then we never learn and it truly is this simple.
Many times, people resort to outside sources such as therapy to solve an internal problem.
While I am not here to bash therapy as it can be seen as a useful practice in some cases, internal problems can only be solved by internal changes in behavior.
This is truly why self-awareness is so important because it is the only way that we can recognize that what we are doing is actually working for us or not.
When people are constantly playing victim, it is because everything makes them feel vulnerable and they have no way of being able to deal with it.
As a man, one of the worst things that we can do is express our vulnerabilities to others.
When it comes to showing signs of weakness, it is something we must internalize and figure out how we can make better because that is our duty as men.
I am sure there are people out there that disagree with this statement, but the reality is, men are only respected for how capable we are.
This means that in order for a man to be respected, he MUST have control over his emotions.
This does not mean that a he cries, gets in his feelings, and looks for sympathy.
If you lose, you take it like a man and you get back up and try again because this is what we are biologically programmed to do.
The problem most men have is that they set themselves up for failure before they even attempt at doing anything hard, which often results in them not trying anything hard at all.
Men feel extremely useful when doing hard shit and put in positions to solve problems.
Losing is part of life, and oftentimes, losing comes from a point of weakness.
Think about it, if you lose at something, it just means that there is something you're not as good as you thought you were at, or there are people that are better than you at the thing.
This is why life is so competitive as men because men are all competing to achieve their own desired outcomes.
If a man does not compete at all, then only he is to blame.
There is a reason why women are immediately turned off to a man that is deliberately vulnerable in front of her.
If all a man does is whine and complain as to why he can't have the things that he wants, a woman is going to immediately look in the opposite direction.
It is easy for women today to tell men to be weak and "in their feelings" because it is "okay" to be vulnerable when statistically speaking, women leave men when they are overly vulnerable around them.
Women are not at all attracted to men that are vulnerable, regardless of what is "socially acceptable" by today's standards.
Women are attracted to men that are able to hold their masculine frame.
Women are attracted to men that are capable of being a protector and a provider, not a passive soy boy that is in his feelings.
This is why it is so important for men to become aware of what their weaknesses are and focus on building them into strengths.
This is not to day that men aren't allowed to feel like shit because men are always going to feel like shit.
After-all, life as a man is exceptionally difficult and stressful because of the never ending journey of becoming stronger and more capable.
Men must be stoic and be able to control their emotions because a lack of emotional control will result in a lack of focus and focus is the driver of achievement.
Sometimes, you just have to lose and keep losing until you are able to sit down and think about what the actual problem is and figure out a way to solve it because that is what we do as men - solve problems.
You have to lose enough to learn why you lost.
However, if you don't even try, you have already lost before the race has even begun.