Memoirs of the Man: Part 2 (It’s Time to Self-Assess)
By: Tony Robinson
Peace Kings, I wanted to continue our conversation on what I like to call, Memoirs of the Man. I don’t know about you, but I often sit and check the inventory for my life. As I wander the isles and check for fruit, many times I wonder if I have enough on the shelves to meet the quota and hit minimal expectations and outputs. I am thoroughly convinced that self-assessment is a needful task but it also can be intimidating at times. This process calls for us to check our balances, kick the proverbial tires and monitor our own vitals. The part that I believe is difficult for men is that this process requires you to strip down and look at the butt naked truth of who we are and what’s really going on with us. It forces us to own our inefficiencies, look at our scars and medicate the ailments hidden beneath the armor we array ourselves with daily. Men have NO Problems “stripping down” for that thing that will bring temporary gratification (fellas, you know what I’m talking about), but when it comes down to becoming vulnerable in an effort to get to the nuts and bolts of who we are, we rush to cover ourselves! It’s like that doctors’ visit we dread. For some reason, we run from the situations that have the potential of exposing any form of weakness.
In my previous article I mentioned four core values that I believe every man must embody. Those values were, Maturity, Decisiveness, Consistency and Strength. Let’s take a closer look at maturity.
Ultimately, I believe that the epitome of that word maturity is the acceptance of responsibility. The self-assessment process is the first step we should take to get some sort of cadence in our lives. This allows us to look at the ugly trues and the misnomers that we have tagged ourselves with. It helps us appropriate and put the things we own in the proper perspective. We are able to look at all of the pieces on the board and start to put things into position to make the power moves we have been destined to make. Simply put, taking this time brings purpose to the party! The good news fellas is that we have been given the wherewithal and the strength (another core value ) to deal with the good, bad, and the ugly parts of being the man.
The problem that we have if we are honest with ourselves, is that often times we don’t take the time or we just flat out avoid the mirror to determine what changes we need to make. We say things like, ‘I don’t have the time’, ‘it doesn’t take all of that’, or my favorite one, “I’m good, I’m aight”, when we really are not. So we wander on like cave men without making the in-flight adjustments to properly recourse.
My challenge to all of you today is to look at “the man in the mirror” and determine what you see. Step on the scale of life and weigh the things that matter against the things that don’t and make the necessary changes you need to make the win in life. When you make the adjustments other things will begin to align and you will start to see the metamorphosis needed to take flight.
Like I said before, I know it’s tough being a king, but somebody has to do it!
