I got married when I was 23 years old. I became a father ten years later. Yes, I took my sweet time. I did not want children. I wanted an adventurous life. To travel with my motorbike to the outskirts of this country. Kids will ruin that plan. Luckily my wife showed me a different way.
Now I am living a life of adventure I cannot quite explain. I am a father, and I get to explore this world with my son.
From a young age, some things about manhood bothered me. It seemed that Men, as I knew them as a kid, became rare. Strong and dangerous men became almost extinct. The wise men that gave answers to difficult questions were hard to find. Men that argued about the hardcore issues of life disappeared. And becoming a father amplified this feeling I had.
When my wife fell pregnant, I had a bunch of questions. How do I become a good father? How do I ensure that we will have a good relationship if he grew up? How do I raise a well-mannered, strong independent young man?
Everybody I asked gave me the same answer “Don’t worry, it will all work out. Just give him enough love”. And while there is a certain amount of truth in that. I was not satisfied. I am a big fan of taking responsibility for my life, and just winging it and hoping for a good result, just did not cut it for me.
So I started to do some research of my own. I read a couple of parenting books. It did not give me the answers that I was looking for, but it sparked a habit that changed my life. I started reading and practicing the ideas the writers shared. It changed me, and it still changes me every day.
In the battle of bettering myself, I started a mental challenge about two months ago called 75 HARD. (Look it up online if you are interested. I highly recommend it). From the get-go, I had this question lingering at the back of my head: “why are you doing this challenge?”.
In week three, during one of my morning workouts, Itunes dug up a really old song. It was a song from back in 1993 by Evanescence called Bring me to life. The words hit me like a brick in the face. “Wake me up inside, save me from the nothing I have become” the rapper whispered the words “I have been living a lie, there is nothing inside”. The questions rambled in my head for the rest of the day: “am I living a lie? “, “am I empty inside?”, “do I need to wake up?”.
The answer to my “why” was not what I wanted to hear. I wrote in my notes that morning maybe the reason I’m doing the 75hard challenge was to wake the fuck up from the nothing I have become. Not doing what you know you have to do makes you feel empty, and you are living a lie. The Strong was born that morning. No more living a lie. No more ignoring the path I believe I have to take.
Men today need changing. We need to change our thinking. Social media, the news, and politics have created an environment where strong men are not welcome in this world anymore. We are made out to be villains.
Don’t get me wrong. This is not a pity party. This is not a place for victimhood. This is our fault. We sat by and said nothing while the world spat us out and told us we are no longer needed. We withdrew and got lost in video games, porn, and beer.
This page, however, is a noble effort to create hope. To reignite the fire that is manhood. To get men excited about being men again.
Strong Men have the capacity to create the world. To build something meaningful and everlasting. If we better ourselves every day we will change the world we live in and make it better!!
THE STRONG
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