The Exchanges

Q quit buds. It's just don't quit. Um, but, but how do you, in life, how do you train for that? How do you, it seems like so many people these days, you don't keep your word to yourself, which I think is your most important word, and you quit all the time. Actually on everything that you want. Like how does one become a person who says I don't quit?

A I think part of it is you, you practice doing hard things. You practice doing good things that are difficult that you wouldn't otherwise want to do. And then you insist on doing them. And once you, and once you build a habit of doing it, I think it becomes easier. And there's, there's studies out now that demonstrate that this impacts parts of your brain that will, you know, essentially grow and develop and become, develop more resilience in you in order to overcome difficult things once you do it. But I also think it has something to do with, there has to be some motivating factor beyond yourself. Um, you know, again, I'm for, for me on, on some level, that's like, that's the faith component, right? It's the idea that there is objective. There is objective truth and there is objective right and wrong. And I have an obligation to live up to the good, to the right. And then when you look at the people around you, whether it be your spouse or whether it be your kids or whether it be other people that depend on you, that becomes kind of that physical manifestation of that esoteric principle. And I think when you combine those two things and you get used to actually accomplishing those things, um, you develop habits and you develop reputation and you have a natural inclination and want to defend those things. And you also see the positive benefits as a result. But the, the reason w…

AI assessment note: “you practice doing hard things. You practice doing good things that are difficult”

Q masculinity a lot, You were a girl dad before you were a boy dad, you know, uh, multiple times over. And so, um, for all of the, like the young women listening out there who either have a husband and want that husband to be an incredible girl dad or want, uh, you know, a, a dad that was incredible themselves. What advice do you give to men raising daughters?

A Oh gosh, we, we did a whole series on this, on, on just that topic, men, men raising daughters. Some of it was on our YouTube channel. Some of it was at an event I was just speaking at. Um, so I, I usually started off with this funny story where, um, I had a little girl and, you know, I, I remember there was two people that I, I asked for advice, right? The first one was my wife. Um, cause I figured, Hey, you know, you're, you're a woman. You probably have some advice on what you like, you know, you would want dad to do. Um, the second one was the, the biggest man whore I served with in the military. And, uh, this dude, good operator, good operator. Right. But this guy, I mean, I don't, I remember just walking home like, okay, I don't know what you say, but one day my daughter may find herself in this situation and I want her to be able to identify you. So how do I ensure that whatever it is you do or say that apparently works so well, doesn't work on her. And it's like easy. Did he laugh? Oh yeah. No, he didn't. He didn't. He was actually, um, he, he was kind of, again, another one of those kind of like laconic guys, not, not necessarily, not, not a, not a bunch of bravado. He went for more of the mysterious, you know, thing and, um, you know, kind of the cigarette, just like, tell your daughter you love her, because if you don't, somebody, someday somebody who doesn't will an…

AI assessment note: “tell your daughter you love her, because if you don't, somebody, someday somebody who doesn't will”

Q interesting because we're going to jump all around, but I was thinking about you in particular, you know, you were a green beret, you won elected office in a difficult to win election. You've held that for many years, you know, millions of followers online. To start sort of more broadly, how did you train yourself to become the type of human that accomplishes the things that they want to?

A Um, that's interesting. Um, you know, one of the things I told my son before he went off to basic training, and especially because of the field, he wants to go in with Ranger Regiment, where now you get into like high attrition rates and whatnot. Uh, what I told him is the vast majority of people I saw fail, uh, throughout the military, and you could argue throughout business or, or whatever. Um, they beat themselves far before anybody else did. I mean, it really was a mindset and that's almost become cliche, but I can't emphasize it enough. I've watched people that were smarter than me, stronger than me, um, in, in many respects, more capable than me fail because something got to them. It was either a desire for comfort or safety or security or whatnot, but they went into a training environment or they went into some sort of competitive environment with the idea of I'll do it up to this point versus I'm not going home without it. And that's a far different, that's a far different mindset because I think in one set you were looking for a reason to quit or you're looking for a price where it's too high and you don't do it anymore. And on the other, it's more of one of the goal has to be achieved. So how do we adapt to changing circumstances in order to achieve it? Um, my wife and I were very adamant about that when we got married. Um, and it was this idea that. It's the whole, y…

AI assessment note: “I mean, it really was a mindset and that's almost become cliche”

Q know, I'm curious, because you talk a lot about masculinity and young men today and what's happening in the world around us, um, And yet you've raised a young man, uh, that seems to be really on the path of being strong and resilient in the things we think of as traditional, uh, masculinity. How do you think you raise a son today to be that? What did you do?

A I don't, I don't, And not to be flippant, I don't think it's all that difficult as long as you just ignore everything modern culture is telling you with respect to masculinity and boys. I think a lot of it is somewhat inherent. Those masculine traits are there for a reason. I think God put them there for a reason. It's like anything else. Um, whether you're talking masculine traits or feminine traits, there's a positive manifestation and there's a negative manifestation. So yeah, if you use your tendency towards strength, aggression, and competition to hurt other people to get what you want, you're an ass clown, right? Like, But who's going to stop you? Well, you're going to be stopped by probably a different man that also has that, you know, uh, inclination towards strength, power, aggression, competition, but is actually applying it toward a noble purpose. And I think young men more than anything want a noble purpose and they want not just something to fight for, they want someone to fight for. Um, I I've said this before when I was talking to a group of predominantly young women, I said, look, it is not your job to make a man a good man, but you will be shocked at how much influence you have over that process. So, yeah.

AI assessment note: “as long as you just ignore everything modern culture is telling you”