DISTRACTIONS & DOUBT: A Case for Silence

LLet me tell you about my day. I know that is a sentence that, coming from anyone but a girl you are actively trying to sleep with, instantly kills any desire to keep listening, but I promise that it’s relevant to your happiness, self confidence, and future development as a man.

 

I woke up on a cold Saturday morning at 6:30 AM confused as to why I was already awake. Considering I had been up until 1:30 AM the night before playing video games with my roommates, I had assumed I would be sleeping in. Normally, I wake up just in time to shower, brush my teeth, and comb my hair so I can be late enough to work that my day feels shorter but not so late that I get in trouble with my boss. Luckily, I work hard enough at a flexible company that I can get away with it, but that’s besides the point. Seeing as I had “time to kill” on a day where I really had nothing planned, I grabbed my phone off the pillow and opened YouTube to continue the video I was watching as I fell asleep. My earbuds were still in my ears from the night before.

 

A mix of YouTube, TikTok, and Podcasts I listened to while playing games kept me entertained until I finally got out of bed at 9:30. I took a quick shower, my phone resting in the shower caddy so I could keep watching YouTube, brushed my teeth, and drove to grab breakfast. On my drive, I relistened to the 5th book of a LitRPG series I have listened to 4 times already. There are 3 different series that I listen to in a rotation, each with between 8-11 books that are anywhere from 15-25 hours long. Over the past 2 years, I’ve probably listened to the same 30 stories 3 or 4 times and can nearly recite entire chapters. After I got my breakfast (Krispy Kreme doughnuts), I drove home to relax and play some video games. I definitely needed to relax after my arduous morning of watching videos and driving 30 minutes. Since none of the 100+ games I own on my computer looked particularly interesting (of which I have completed maybe 20), I bought a new game and watched more YouTube while I waited for it to download. Once it did, I played until 1:30 while continuing to watch youtube on my second monitor. I had been hungry since noon, but didn’t want to go make something for myself. Once I was “too hungry to cook,” I told myself I could eat out for lunch as long as I finally got a haircut while I was out.

 

The hairstylist was surprised at how long it had been since I last got it cut. It had grown to the point it was impossible to make it look good, so I told her I had just been wearing a hat to work every day to delay getting it cut. That 20 minutes was the first part of the day that I didn’t have some form of entertainment in my ears, and as soon as the harrowing experience of making small talk with a stylist was over I immediately put earbuds back in, grabbed a sandwich, and drove home to play more video games.

 

The one positive I can say is that I went to the gym and got a good back and biceps day in (while watching another YouTube documentary). Now I am finally getting around to writing the blog post I have been thinking about for the past 2 weeks, and it’s taking a lot of self control to not put on one of the Focus playlists on Spotify. Considering I got a haircut, worked out, and am doing some writing, I would say today was a pretty productive Saturday!

 

Now if you’re a man in your 30’s or 40’s with a wife, kids, and a good career you may be thinking, “Why the hell do I care that some 23 year old is wasting his day off?” If you’re in your teenage years or early 20’s like myself you’re probably thinking “That’s a pretty damn good day.”

The point of this all is that at no point in my day did I voluntarily choose to take the headphones out, look away from the screen, and sit with my own thoughts. Why? Because I don’t like what I have to think about. Confronting my own mind means thinking about some uncomfortable things.

 

I have an amazing job that I actually love doing, and I have the added bonus of being good at it. I can honestly say that I work for the best company in Las Vegas and am genuinely grateful for the opportunity to work there, but creeping in the back of my mind is a healthy dose of doubt and discomfort I don’t want to process.

 

I ask myself questions like…

  • Am I just in the honeymoon phase of the first year at a new company?
  • Do my coworkers actually like me, or are they just being nice because we have to work together every day?
  • Do I really have what it takes to turn this into a career?

 

Even when I meet every KPI goal that I’m given, create new tools and processes that have been proven useful to my entire department, and have made profit for the company that covers my salary dozens of times over, I still get anxious. Instead of worrying that I am not good enough, I worry about setting too high a bar that I might not be able to beat next year.

 

I also just broke up with a girl I had been dating for 9 months. The breakup was amicable and a long time coming, but you always have that doubt on whether making the decision to end things was the right call.

 

  • Was she the best I was ever going to get?
  • Should I have given more time to try and make the relationship work?
  • Am I a horrible person for hurting her feelings?

 

When you take the time to address these doubts, things start to clear up and you realise your problems are a lot smaller than you think. When I take the time to sit in the discomfort of my doubt I can answer every question nagging me, and once I do I begin to feel secure, self assured, and ready to tackle the real obstacles ahead of me. I can take the constant buzzing in my head and filter it out, blessing myself with a clear, focused mind. It usually takes less than a half hour of quiet discomfort, but instead of working through my doubts I dam them up behind endless hours of noise and distraction. The river of ideas moving through my brain is stopped by YouTube videos, podcasts, video games, work, and audiobooks until the dam breaks and what would’ve been minor stress turns into a nervous breakdown.

 

The sad part is, most of these distractions are sold to me as things I am doing to become a better man. I’ve listened to the library of “manosphere”, alpha, self-help books enough times that I could teach a course. I listen to podcasts that teach me about business, finance, psychology, biology, politics, and economics. My case for the time spent gaming is less convincing, but none of this time is actually ever helpful because I don’t take the time to listen to understand, learn, and apply the words I am hearing.I am listening to distract instead of listening to understand which makes all that time nearly useless in the long run.

 

This is a phenomenon I see in a lot of the men around me, and I think we are doing a disservice to ourselves. Almost everyone I see either has headphones in, is scrolling through social media, or playing games every waking minute not spent working. Even when we spend time with our family, the majority of us are doing something on our phones. If we can learn to love our own minds and be comfortable with only our thoughts to entertain us, we can learn to attack the negative and strengthen the positive in the stories being told between our ears. When we disconnect from our distractions and partake in the voluntary discomfort taught by the Stoic philosophers of old, we free our minds to attack life instead of defending our ego from our doubts. We obtain clarity, and are able to take all of the valuable words taught in books, podcasts, and music and actually use them to improve our life. We free our hearts to make meaningful relationships with the friends and family who bring lasting joy into our hearts.

 

I know that my constant need for noise is just a band-aid that I am going to have to rip-off if I want to Alpha Up. I am committing today to put an end to the endless distractions, and I hope you take this same opportunity to rejoin the world that exists outside the space between our earbuds so you can Alpha Up with me.

097: PRIMAL POLARITY – Masculine Devotion and Feminine Radiance

097: PRIMAL POLARITY – Masculine Devotion and Feminine Radiance

097: PRIMAL POLARITY – Masculine Devotion and Feminine Radiance

In one of the most interesting and widely relevant topics to date, Founder Brad Singletary discusses the problem with most failing relationships: he isn’t being a loving and devoted leader, and she isn’t being open about how she is actually feeling.  These problems kill relationships and Brad shares some of the work by Zak Roedde and Mark Binet who outline what men and women can do to be more effective in their relationships.  

While he doesn’t endorse every aspect of this philosophy, Brad observes that this exact pattern is what has plagued every couple he can remember in a career of over two decades working with people’s relationships.  He shares some of the basics about how to get a romantic relationship fully polarized by using the nature of both feminine and masculine energies to complement each other’s inherent gifts. 

FULL TRANSCRIPT

00:00:00:16 – 00:01:01:19
Brad Singletary
I’m about to tell you what’s wrong in your relationship. It’s upside down in the polarity of masculine and feminine natures. We need this polarity for chemistry and passion. When it’s missing or when it’s inverted, it can become dull and boring and this is when affairs can happen. Women accidentally emasculate and disrespect the man because she is in a masculine frame of mind out of necessity. She’s been wounded and traumatized in life. She’s just protecting herself. Unfortunately, she needs to do that often because of abusive men in the past maybe you. You are not expressing loving and devoted leadership. And maybe you’ve become a doormat and are afraid of her. So she is leading and that frustrates you. You aren’t open to her feelings. But often she’s not even actually sharing any. Stay tuned as I review polarity.

00:01:04:29 – 00:01:26:06
Intro
If you’re a man that controls his own destiny, a man that is always in the pursuit of being better, you are in the right place. You are responsible. You are strong. You are a leader. You are a force for good. Gentlemen, this is the Alpha Quorum.

00:01:30:10 – 00:02:20:09
Brad Singletary
Welcome back to the Alpha Quorum Show. Brad Singletary here, you guys. This is going to be the best thing that I’ve ever talked about on this show. I can’t even tell you how excited I am. I know it’s been a few weeks since we posted a show. It’s sometimes a little bit difficult to get people lined up when our schedules match up and so forth. So if you have potential guests you’d like to have us feature on the Alpha Quorum Show. Send us a link. Send us a, you know, notification about who that might be. Today, I want to talk about something that has been a mind blowing like revelation. This information that I’ve been reading has been just a game changer for me. So I’ve been in behavioral health for 24 years, working with individuals and families in all different kinds of settings.

00:02:20:27 – 00:03:15:11
Brad Singletary
And I’ve done a lot of work recently, meaning the last several years, the last, you know, ten years or so of my life with couples. I’ve done, there’s lots of different models, lots of different types of therapy that you can do with couples. And some of that stuff has been really difficult with, some of the concepts are great. They don’t seem to kind of work in every situation. Some of them are overly simplistic. Some of them are overly complicated. This information that I’m going to share today. It’s just. I can’t believe that I’m 47 years old. I have a master’s degree. And I even taught in graduate school. I taught in a graduate program for six years. And I’m just now finding out this information about polarity in relationships.

00:03:15:11 – 00:03:59:20
Brad Singletary
So a few years ago I read David Deida and when I started getting into the manosphere stuff a little bit, some of the men’s literature I should say, and I read David Deida, like The Way of the Superior Man and some of his other stuff and listen to some of his videos and he talks a little bit about polarity, but this brand of polarity talk that I want to share comes from a specific guy I forget who even turned me on to this dude and this author his name is Zak Roedde. And he’s just some young younger guy.

00:03:59:20 – 00:04:35:17
Brad Singletary
I don’t know. He’s probably younger than me. I don’t know his background, and I don’t believe he has professional training like myself. But what he’s talking about is the truth. It is the truth. And this is why I’m so excited to tell you because I’ve never understood the problems with romantic relationships like I have in the last month. So what I’m going to do is just kind of summarize what they teach, Zak Roedde and Mark Binet.

00:04:36:16 – 00:05:37:08
Brad Singletary
Those are the the guys that I’ve learned from the most here. They’ve got YouTube. We’re going to put links in the show notes and stuff here. It’s about the balance between the masculine and feminine energies in relationships. This is Zak Roeddes, he’s the author of three books. I can’t remember the names exactly. One of them is like “Irresistibly Feminine”, a book for women. One is called “Don’t Let Her Lead” And there’s another one. I don’t have that right up in front of me. But it talks about the need for men to be the leader and for the woman to be in the submissive role. Now, let me just warn all of you who may be triggered by just those comments and those words about submissiveness and so forth. You know, I look at almost everything a little bit skeptically. It takes a lot to impress me. It takes a lot.

00:05:37:08 – 00:05:46:00
Brad Singletary
When I see some YouTube or some teaching or someone’s book. I’ve read so many things. It takes a lot to really impressed me. This shit is impressive. And I think you have to look beyond what you think they’re saying. Okay. This isn’t. I don’t know, this Andrew Tate, you know, he’s a guy out there who’s been ridiculed. And kind of, they’ve canceled him now. I guess he, you know, had something surface or whatever, but it’s not quite that brand of how women should be property and that kind of stuff. But he talks about some of the natural instincts with with men and women. And so I listen to him. I listen to him, and I applied it to myself.

00:06:23:25 – 00:07:02:21
Brad Singletary
First of all, I’m in my second marriage. I’ve been basically in a marriage or in a relationship with someone that I was married to since 1998. I’ve worked in behavioral health for 24 years. I’ve worked with tons of couples in you know, marriage and family type situations. And so I’ve seen this and as I’ve learned this information about polarity, I go back through all the cases that I’ve ever worked with and just look to see if this model applies or if this dynamic applies to these people. And it does in every single one, when things weren’t good in my marriages. This is what’s happening.

00:07:02:21 – 00:07:49:26
Brad Singletary
So I’m about to tell you what’s wrong with your relationship and I’m going to tell you how to fix it. This could be difficult to fully take in because it’s very different than what we’ve been taught, the influences on what men and women should expect from each other. It’s all kind of screwed up, though. The messaging is a little bit distorted. So what I want to do today is talk about polarity through the lens of the work of Zak Roedde and Mark Binet. Now, I don’t know all of their teaching. I did a masterclass, read some of the books.

00:07:48:24 – 00:08:16:23
Brad Singletary
I’ve joined the Facebook Group. And I’m just learning from like their TikTok accounts. Just learning about some of these concepts. So it’s new to me. So I’m kind of doing this to synthesize the information, all this buildup, because it’s going to be powerful when we get there. But I wanted to actually message Zak and ask him to be on the show. And he said,you know, maybe when the audience is a little bit bigger. That’s why we need you, bro.

00:08:16:23 – 00:09:15:01
Brad Singletary
So I need you to be a part of this so we can grow the audience anyway. And he offered to have one of his kind of trainees or, you know, his protege or whatever do that, do join the podcast but instead of taking the time that it would, that we would probably need to arrange something like that, I have to get this information out there. I want to record this because I think this is going to help people. And this is going to help people. See what happens when a relationship is broken and how you fix it. So the first point here is that problems in relationships come when the partners, the husband and wife, you know, when the male and the female. And yes, I’m talking about heterosexual relationships here. But when the masculine and feminine polarity is inverted, there are Problems.

00:09:15:01 – 00:09:57:11
Brad Singletary
She’s in the masculine. And that means that she’s trying to lead and she’s trying to protect and she’s trying to Direct and do all of those things that she needs to do to feel safe. And that’s not a that’s not problematic. That’s her adapting to the life that she’s lived. She’s probably a person who has been, you know, harmed and injured in relationships, may have dealt with trauma. All of that stuff is very valid as a as a precursor or a predictor of what happens when the female is living in masculine, when she’s masculinized. So she’s kind of tough, maybe too tough. Maybe she’s guarding her feelings.

00:09:57:11 – 00:10:40:08
Brad Singletary
Maybe she doesn’t want to talk about her. She can’t acknowledge and talk about her feelings. And she’s unhappy. I believe that a woman who is living in masculine energy in her relationship, if she’s in a relationship with a man, it’s not very happy. Because that means he is an emasculated man. Because a polarity exists. We have this polar. So we kind of create the level of like feminine or masculine presentation in the other and the other person. We were part of it. We were part of that dynamic.

00:10:40:08 – 00:11:33:01
Brad Singletary
So if the female is masculinized because of the threatening things that she’s been through in her life, because of her childhood upbringing. There’s abuse. There’s, you know, whatever kind of things back. Or in romantic relationships, she’s been hurt or somehow has been made to feel unsafe. She’s been betrayed. Totally makes sense. Why she would be a mrs.
‘Little Miss Tough Girl’ in the masculine frame. Well, if she’s in the masculine frame guess where he is? He’s in the feminine frame. And what does that look like? He’s all about his feelings. And this is kind of the negative side of the feminine, which would be about, you know, emotional states and it would be maybe his caretaking. And so he’s doing a lot of caretaking. He’s the nice guy.

00:11:33:01 – 00:12:22:06
Brad Singletary
He’s a little bit. He’s in a submissive role. But that goes against his nature. Goes against his nature. And so he is not happy. You don’t agree with what I’m saying? You write me an email, send me a similar message. This is what I believe to be the truth. And what I have experienced in life. And as I’ve worked with people in a professional way for I think the number now is about 60,000 hours in my field. So she’s in the masculine, he’s in the feminine. They’re a little bit upside down. I’ll give you an example of one of my cases that I worked with so this guy is maybe 50 years old-ish. He’s an alcoholic. And recovery’s got several years of sobriety.

00:12:22:06 – 00:13:19:28
Brad Singletary
And because of all the nonsense he did as an alcoholic he feels like he doesn’t have the moral authority to, you know, exact any justice at home. He says, you know, his wife is kind of pushy, she’s manipulative. She’s extremely masculine in how she debates him and challenges him. And she’s like a drill sergeant. They also never really have sex. She doesn’t really respect him and he is afraid of her. So that’s an example of kind of an inverted polarity in the relationship. So why is this so important? I think it’s because the natural needs and the natural irritants in the feminine and masculine makeup can kind of be we can kind of understand those. And part of that, what the authors here talk about is that you can do that based on how you feel.

00:13:19:28 – 00:14:09:05
Brad Singletary
So let’s just say, what happens when a man’s wife is telling him what to do. Let me just ask you. In most cases, the wife is barking out orders to the husband and what is happening to him. You guessed it, he’s a little frustrated. He’s irritated this this is rubbing him the wrong way. And we look at that and we say ‘Oh, well, that’s his ego. That is his that’s problematic.’ This is somehow a weakness. He needs to learn to be more patient or whatever, you know, well, maybe this is the wrong person is taking the role of leadership. And it’s frustrating to him. It goes against his nature. Why does it go against his nature? Because throughout all of human history, the man was the protector and the provider.

00:14:09:05 – 00:15:03:27
Brad Singletary
So he needed to to be in the lead of his little unit, and he needed to lead that in order for survival to happen. Well, we don’t have those same survival needs today. Of course, but why do some of this stuff get us so frustrated? So men can’t handle directions they don’t like to be led. They may be a good follower. They may be a humble follower, but they’re not interested in being told what to do. They’re not interested in judgments. They’re not interested in being led by their woman. And when they are, they don’t feel good. They can handle it. They can do it. The old saying the old men say at weddings, you know, they go around. And what is your advice for the new couple? And the old men always say, you know, just learn to say, yes, dear and go along with whatever she wants. That’s fucking horseshit.

00:15:03:27 – 00:16:02:25
Brad Singletary
That’s a cute little thing for Old Men to say at weddings. But it’s horseshit because if you start doing everything that she’s telling you to do, and every time any of her emotion gets to become something that you’re afraid of, you’re losing. You don’t feel well. She doesn’t trust you and she doesn’t respect you because she is wired to follow your leadership. She’s wired to be receptive and be open to be submissive. A different author, someone else kind of talked about the male and female sexual anatomy. So if you think about like the male sex organ, it stands up point forward. It’s penetrating and firm and rigid and so forth.

00:16:02:25 – 00:16:49:25
Brad Singletary
The feminine sexual organ, if it’s soft, it’s open, it is receptive. And so these authors talk about the reason things get problematic in relationships is because he is soft. And she.is hard. She’s in the masculine role and he is in the feminine. And it’s frustrating to both of them and they don’t know why. And nobody can really articulate this. I’m telling you, I read from the best authors on relationships ever that ever have written in our time. And none of it really seemed to touch on what’s going on in our nature when we’re having these problems.

00:16:49:25 – 00:17:39:29
Brad Singletary
So her greatest needs, the female’s greatest need is to feel cherished. Her greatest need is to feel cheered. His greatest need is to feel respected, to be appreciated, to feel respected. And when she is in her masculine energy, when there’s when they’re deep polarized, the woman is leading, she’s directing, she’s seeking an outcome. She’s asking for her needs to be met. And that sounds fine that she can ask for her needs to be met. But guess what happens to every man when he’s asked to do something? He may do it, but he’s frustrated by it. It irritates him. Think of think about this, dudes.

00:17:39:29 – 00:18:39:07
Brad Singletary
If you have a woman who’s ever asked you to buy flowers or complain that you never buy me flowers, what does that do to the motivation to buy flowers? Exactly. So she’s giving gifts to you, you know, and when she’s in her masculine. So remember, the masculine is the is the one that is giving and the feminine is the one that’s receiving. So she’s giving gifts. He doesn’t want or need gifts. He doesn’t want or need gifts he wants to be respected as the leader she is. When she’s in her masculine nature, she’s anticipating needs. Well, that sounds very loving. That sounds very nice that she’s made his favorite meal. But that means she’s mothering him. She’s mothering him, not she’s smothering him, but maybe both. She’s mothering him.

00:18:39:07 – 00:19:25:15
Brad Singletary
And that’s what’s different about this whole philosophy. Some people have said, Oh, we’re trying to go back to a 1950s ethic where, you know, the wife is somehow in some like subservient role or whatever. You know, because even in the fifties that archetype bore wife that even that wasn’t very feminine because she’s always anticipating his needs. She’s walking around like a servant, bringing him his his things. And that’s not very feminine because she’s leading it. She’s leading and controlling the situation. So she’s kind of mothering him. She’s giving reminders. Here some pointers and why is that a big deal?

00:19:25:15 – 00:20:19:08
Brad Singletary
So some guys I know are going to hear this and they’re going to defend that and say ‘Well, I like it when she gives her input and I like it when she helps me set my doctor’s appointments and whatever.’ So why is that a big deal? It’s a big deal because she can that whole thing, let’s say she’s making appointments, reminding you were giving you pointers on things. She’s mothering you. It communicates that she can’t trust you and she can’t trust you. She doesn’t respect you. And if she doesn’t respect you, she’s not as receptive to you. And if she can’t and if she can’t respect you. She’s not receptive to you. So she’s leading and she’s pushing you around and she’s making her complaints.

00:20:19:08 – 00:21:10:27
Brad Singletary
She’s criticizing you and she’s throwing information at you, which just brings distortion into your head. And she’s not very open to you. So you got this bossy roommate who doesn’t want to touch. And she’s unhappy with you all the time. And you hate being around because she makes you feel so bad about yourself. But she’s not even all that into you because you’re not leading. I’ve been this person, by the way. I’ve been that guy. So those are some active forms of the feminine. Those are some active forms of the female being in a masculine, those kind of role. Some passive ones might be that she’s guarded, she’s self-protecting.

00:21:10:27 – 00:22:13:09
Brad Singletary
She’s not talking about her feelings. She’s guarding those feelings. And one of the things that I’m teaching men to try to do is lead their woman to her feelings. Don’t just be accepting of her feelings, but recognize when she’s not even sharing her feelings because what she needs is to what she needs is to feel of her man’s devotion. And she is most often feeling that devotion when she can feel safe in her feelings. But if she’s in a masculine state guarding, protecting, she’s the one seeking outcome. She’s directing and leading, and she’s the one who wears the pants. No one’s happy. No one’s happy with that.

00:22:13:09 – 00:22:57:26
Brad Singletary
If you have a female led relationship and flower and she’s the boss and you’re so happy and she loves you and wants to have sex with you very often and you’re able to perform that and everybody’s happy. And you’re the woman in the relationship and she’s the man. If you’re happy with that, holler, we’ll get you on the show. Here could you send me a message or we’d like to interview you. A man who’s emasculated is submissive. He does what he’s told. He does things he doesn’t really want to do because he’s afraid to, you know, make waves. Maybe he’s a little bit codependent and he’s in his feelings and he’s weak and he’s not performing. He’s not providing.

00:22:57:26 – 00:23:52:11
Brad Singletary
Maybe an emasculated man is under employed maybe. Or he’s, you know, not providing the things that his unit may need. So what the men should do, the goal of the masculine is to express loving devotion. And a man does that by leading with love and sensitivity. Actually nothing about this nothing about this teaching is, although we talk about, you know, the man should be dominant, the man should be dominant by expressing a warm, loving devotion and that he’s so reliable. And that is so safe. All of the feelings are safe.

00:23:52:11 – 00:24:43:23
Brad Singletary
He’s not running from feelings. He’s actually bringing some order to the sometimes seemingly chaotic expression of emotions, because many times what women are expressing is not emotion at all. Which is very difficult. Even here in my office, as I’m working with them and coaching them through this. They kind of get stuck and said ‘Well, what is your emotion about that?’ And she will often say ‘Well, I just think this is all unfair.’ You see, that’s not that’s a judgment. That’s not even an emotion. You know, if she feels some betrayal, if she feels that she is you know. She feels sad. If she feels fear or anger, those are the things that a man can do to help her to feel safe.

00:24:43:23 – 00:25:31:07
Brad Singletary
So men should express loving devotion. They should lead. They should anticipate her needs. Remember, the man is in the in the role of the giver. So he is the one who meets needs. He’s anticipating her needs. She is not anticipating his need. The man is in the giving role. He, the one of the words they one of the words they use is that he energetically penetrates her. Think about that energetically penetrates her these terms penetrates her like vigorously. As in sexual but also energetically meaning with his energy. He’s he’s driving the car.

00:25:31:07 – 00:26:25:05
Brad Singletary
So he provides he’s the one who sets the expectation. He turns himself into a self-Improvement machine. He’s got to really become a person who’s worthy of respect. This isn’t about the man is the boss, and the woman shuts her mouth. That is not what this is about. This is about we decide who the leader is, what these guys suggest, and what I believe, I think with with only a couple of months of exposure to this. But I believe that the male should lead in a relationship and that doesn’t mean that he’s a dictator. Remember, this is. This is an honor reserved only for the most devoted, kind of loving leader.

00:26:25:05 – 00:27:26:04
Brad Singletary
So this man is true to his word. He turns himself into a self improvement machine and he’s in the giving role. He’s leading. He’s making it very safe. So what is the woman’s role? So the word that they use I love this. Listen to this. The word that they use for kind of the best expression of love from the woman is that she expresses radiance, that she’s in a radiant state. And I thought I knew what a man, but I looked it up. What does radiant mean? It means. It’s emanating light. It’s shining light, it’s warm. And there’s some brilliance and beauty to it. So what does it mean for a woman to be in her radiant? It means that she’s number one in touch with her feelings. She’s able to express her feelings.

00:27:26:04 – 00:28:19:10
Brad Singletary
And when I say express her feelings, I don’t mean run rave about the story that happened last weekend that never got resolved. And she’s running through this list of complaints and she’s bitching at you. That’s not expressing feelings. Expressing feelings is knowing what they are first and then having the ability to articulate those feelings. Our emotional vocabulary is pretty limited. I mean, I have advanced training in this and I’ve even taught in the Graduate programs. And still and I talk about this all day long, every day. And still my own use of descriptors. Of emotion, you know, that’s it’s limited. And so it may take some time to kind of learn the difference between anger and frustration, to learn the difference and to understand what it is you feel and to be able to name it.

00:28:19:10 – 00:29:19:10
Brad Singletary
That’s part of your radiance that you’re in touch with, your feelings. You can express them. And it also kind of represents your just overall feminine like the feminine receptive energy you fully receive from your man. You submit to his leadership. Now, let me just talk about the word submission. This is not subservience. This submission only is valid, it’s only appropriate when there is devotion. And so when he’s not expressing devotion to her and she feels that there’s this trust and this love and this very reliable, stable energy, if he’s not expressing devotion, she’s not expressing radiance, she’s not a lot of fun. She’s not talking about her feelings. She’s talking about facts and figures and the complaints and the list that you didn’t do.

00:29:19:10 – 00:30:10:16
Brad Singletary
And she’s sending an email to your therapist and all those kind of things which upsets you. It’s demotivating. So the woman in her radiance, she’s willing to follow, submit to his leadership. And one of the points that they make over and over is that if a woman can’t be submissive, a masculine man is not going to want you because of polarity. If he’s if he’s masculine, if he’s got some mojo. If he has a healthy nontoxic, strong sense of masculinity, he isn’t going to want anything to do with you if you can’t be submissive and radiant dude. So, okay.

00:30:10:16 – 00:30:38:08
Brad Singletary
So on the surface. This looks all misogynistic. Okay? This is we’re saying the men should, the men are in charge. She just said, you know, kind of to sit pretty and sit there like the flower and let the B come to visit. Not exactly, but remember, we’re kind of talking about the reason that this stuff seems to work. And by the way, I have seen this applied in every everyone who’s tried to do these things.

00:30:38:08 – 00:31:29:11
Brad Singletary
This kind of creates an almost like erotic almost sort of spiritual feeling, because even though a woman doesn’t have to submit to her man, she can be independent. She doesn’t have to submit like that. But if she does, she’s going to feel a lot better. It’s going to feel very safe. It’s going to feel very secure. And if I had one common problem that women have, if you boil it all down, it’s they need to really feel a sense of security. So it’s not just about money and resources. It’s about emotional security. And that security is expressed through his devotion.

00:31:29:11 – 00:32:09:05
Brad Singletary
Which is the one word that describes the man leading with love anticipating her needs. He’s in the giving role. He’s a service oriented man, and he has so much respect that she wouldn’t dare turn him down. She wants to connect with this person who loves her so much because he’s doing his job. And she’s doing her job and they’re feeding each other. These guys kind of say if you’re in a polarized relationship, that’s healthy. There’s not going to be any divorce. There’s not going to be an unfulfilling sexual relationship.

00:32:09:05 – 00:33:18:05
Brad Singletary
Another one of the coaches here, I think his name is Jason McKee, but he talked about submission is and I’ll quote him, “The submission of the radiant woman, her submissiveness is exclusively reserved for devoted leadership. She does not submit to anything that’s bullshit. She doesn’t submit to anything that is abusive. She doesn’t submit to anything that makes her feel threatened or unsafe. And the reason that’s not going to happen is because he’s committed to showing her devotion and showing her love and loyalty. And he’s got calmness and he’s interested in her feelings. He wants to hear it. He’s leading her to that. And so she is happy to be submissive. That’s like a person if you’re in I don’t want to compare this to like a boss, you know, kind of an employee employer relationship. But if there is a leader in you do your best by your leader.

00:33:18:05 – 00:34:19:25
Brad Singletary
Your leader most often is also going to take care of you. And so I love one of the things one of these guys said. And maybe a YouTube video they said, ideally, everyone gets what they want in the relationship. So what do they typically want? You know, the woman wants to feel safe financially. She wants to know that everything’s going to be. Okay. So he’s taking care of business and what makes him take care of business because she is so radiant, she’s expressing beauty in everything. She’s soft. She can open with her feelings. I thought of a funny little visual that, you know, her getting into her feelings is kind of like she’s flashing her tits because she’s showing herself. She’s showing she’s exposing the soft stuff.

00:34:19:25 – 00:35:01:02
Brad Singletary
You know, those feelings that men are so afraid of? She cries. I see this all the time. She cries and the man shakes his head and he’s like, ‘Oh, great, here we go.’ You’re like, ‘This is a manipulation tactic.’ I know that emotion is like the psychological G-spot. You want to get there, you want to get her into her emotion. So if there’s a problem, there’s what would normally be a complaint. If she comes to you with a complaint, you’re going to listen to that and try to. But one of my one of my buddies use this analogy.

00:35:01:02 – 00:36:00:21
Brad Singletary
Derrick Johnson, one of the original founders of the Alpha Quorum. And he talked about, you know, listen to the music. Don’t listen to the lyrics and the lyrics, you know, that’s all the complaints and that’s all of the judgments and all of the expectation and all the bossy stuff that she’s telling you to do. That’s the lyrics. The music is the emotion that’s driving all that. The music is What is she feeling? So skip the words. We’re going we’re going instrumental here. And you want to just listen to the feeling and ask her to tell you what feeling is? What is the emotion behind this? Babe, what is it? What is this? What? Where is this coming from? How would you name the where is it in your body? Because I love you and I just want to sit with you. I want to understand this for a minute here with you.

00:36:00:21 – 00:36:04:06
Brad Singletary
And, you know, I don’t know how this works. If you’re just trying to decide on if this is pizza or pasta, I don’t know how you do that if if you have to use this model. But basically everyone understands that he’s the leader. And she is the supportive, soft, radiant one who equally shows her devotion in her own way. With her radiance, she expresses her emotion vulnerably. She receives him fully. She lives in her true self-worth. She knows her value. She knows her value. She does things that bring her peace. She doesn’t try to give him gifts. She lights up when he gives her gifts. She’s like purring with pleasure when he touches her.

00:37:01:10 – 00:38:00:10
Brad Singletary
And when she needs something, she asks for help. She doesn’t say, Open this pickle jar. Maybe, she says, ‘Can I have help opening this pickle jar? I’m unable to open this pickle jar’ if she’s seeking an outcome, if she’s got an agenda and she’s assigning him a list of things to do is going to frustrate it and so the point of this is not to make this easier for men. This is to make it easier for everybody. This what I’m talking about is going to work for all of you. The magic of this is that she is so receptive to him that he’s never unsatisfied, and that allows him to be so devoted to making her feel safe that he would never do anything, that she wouldn’t choose. Her submission ss her choice because of her respect for him.

00:38:00:10 – 00:38:37:01
Brad Singletary
I heard a lady are, two women recently and one was the lady’s husband plays several hours of video games at night. And I kind of said I probably jumped to a judgment on that, but I just kind of said, ‘wow, that’s a lot, you know, does that make you upset?’ And she says, ‘oh my gosh, no way. He works so hard for our family. Like he’s so devoted to our family that when that’s what he wants to do, I just know that’s what he needs. He does that and it is not at all because of it. Because of my respect for him. That’s not bothersome at all.’

00:38:37:01 – 00:39:32:27
Brad Singletary
Another lady was talking about her husband and she said, ‘You know, he is the man. My husband is the man.’ She was talking about his accomplishments, but she was really kind of saying. He takes care of us and because he takes care of us. And we were working on some other some parenting stuff with adult children that they had. But but their relationship, it was so good that she was able to just, you know, accept and respect him as the leader because he always took care of her. So I think this stuff is valuable because we’re taking a look at what doesn’t work. You’re taking a look at what works and what doesn’t work. And when I look at like when I have started, so let’s say that a couple they’ve been married, you know.

00:39:32:27 – 00:40:22:29
Brad Singletary
Let’s say 12 years or so and you’ve got like an inverted polarity. So she’s too often in her masculine. She tries to lead. Tell things how it’s going to go. This is what we’re doing. Oh, we’re buying. Look, we’re not using that toothbrush anymore. I threw your toothbrush away. And I bought you a new toothbrush that emasculated man, because you’ve taken away his ability to lead his own, to lead his own life. And that stuff is frustrating. If he doesn’t want you to throw his toothbrush and buy him a new toothbrush, unless he does, and then he asks you for it, and you gladly do that because he your tank is so full, he’s been so loving to you, and his devotion is unquestionable.

00:40:22:29 – 00:42:00:13
Brad Singletary
So you have this inverted polarity in a relationship. There have been together for 12 years. There. You know, she’s too often in the pushy, critical role she’s going drill sergeant and he’s just trying to get along, you know, “happy wife, happy life.” He’s just trying to be the nice guy and his life sucks. And he doesn’t feel much like a man because she’s the one with the, she’s that she’s got a big dick herself. She thinks she does. And so she respects him less and less. And she gets tougher and tougher on him, which makes him retreat further. Until someone comes along. Another woman who is high in her feminine energy, she comes this feminine woman, this new feminine woman comes and she receives him. She listens to him. She thinks that he’s great. She’s a big fan and it makes him feel so masculine. So I believe that one of the reasons that affairs happened and when I, when I look at any one where there ever was an affair that I’ve worked with professionally, I look at this and I say, they were inverted in the affair, partner switched it back.

00:42:00:13 – 00:43:03:22
Brad Singletary
You know, their affair partner put them back in their proper polarity. So the female who’s taking care of all the business she’s handling all the stuff, handling all the kids, paying all the bills, tracking everything, making everybody’s lunches. And she’s the boss of everything. She’s tired of living in masculine energy, being the one who’s you know, doing all the provision and so forth, all the providing and protecting. And so along comes a very masculine man who puts her into her feminine. And so because of his strength and he’s just the solid nature of what he brings, she is very receptive to that because now this is very attractive because she’s got a girly man at home who’s feminized and what’s the word, the emasculated.

00:43:03:22 – 00:43:43:26
Brad Singletary
And she doesn’t respect him and she definitely doesn’t want to have sex with him. So this man comes along and he helps her feel very feminine. He shows some kind of devotion to her which is what she really craves. I talked to a woman today and I asked her to scale on a scale of 1 to 10, the devotional level of her husband and I started describing what devotion means. She said, ‘The more you describe, the more the numbers go down. It was like a six, but I think it’s a two now.’

00:43:43:26 – 00:44:39:27
Brad Singletary
She doesn’t feel that devotion. So some man who is in a healthy sense of masculinity is going to come along and he’s going to lead this desperate woman into her feminine, into her emotions. And when she can sit comfortably in her emotions and she can be vulnerable. She’ll probably take your clothes off for this dude. And it feels so powerful. It feels so good. Why does it feel good? It’s because the rest of their life, the other relationship their primary relationship, their marriage or whatever is upside down and they feel like shit. Nobody’s happy. But this guy or this girl comes along. And that’s what I think courting is all about, sort of the courting rituals and so forth.

00:44:39:27 – 00:44:40:28
Brad Singletary
It kind of lends to this whole idea that the man should lead. But what we’re being taught and what’s and I don’t even want to get into political debate about this, but obviously this is going to fly in the face of what some of you may believe about gender roles. But I’m telling you, with 45 to 60 days of study that I’ve looked at, looked at this stuff, almost in all of my spare time. And when I’ve looked at the people that I’m working with, this is the language. I believethat I’m changing my entire practice. I want to I want to figure out how to work this into the stuff I’m trying to put together for the Alpha Quorum stuff, specifically for men.

00:45:32:02 – 00:46:36:02
Brad Singletary
But I think this is the problem in your relationship. He’s not leading. He’s scared of her because she’s in her masculine. She’s in she’s in toxic masculinity, the woman is in. She’s taking care of him and she’s anticipating his needs. She’s mothering him. She’s choosing what toothpaste he uses. She’s leading so much and it takes away his opportunity to lead. It takes away his opportunity to decide. It kind of silences him because he doesn’t want to seem ungrateful. For all the stuff that she’s doing. So he backs away, but she’s not very attracted to him because he’s not in his masculinity. He’s emasculated to the point where she’s not all that impressed. So he does not feel received by her. There’s no radiance.

00:46:36:02 – 00:47:47:17
Brad Singletary
She’s lost her little her little glow. She’s lost her softness. She’s lost her sensuality. She’s lost her smelling good. She doesn’t wear the jewelry anymore, doesn’t do her hair unless she’s going to the doctor. You know, the dentist, the man who’s probably in a masculine way. So she responds to that. So that’s what we’re doing in our relationships. We’re responding to each other and we’re creating in the other most of what you. It’s probably coming from you, not in your natural state of polarity. So I really believe that this stuff is super valuable. I want to just try to review this again about what do we do and what is the problem? What are we doing this wrong and what we need to do to fix it? Number one, she needs to soften. She needs to accept him as the leader.

00:47:47:17 – 00:49:05:01
Brad Singletary
She’s not pushing an agenda. She’s not telling him what to do. She’s not coming at him with the list, how she motivates him, what’s natural, what he can receive in a softer way. You know, when this woman is presented as emotion he’s wired to respond to feminine softness. He didn’t choose her for her brain. He chose her for her softness. And she didn’t choose him for his softness. She chose him for what she may be perceived as some strength. So we’re going to not frustrate each other not piss each other off and realize that some people need things. And some people were going to stir up problems if we don’t handle the person properly. And so men handle their woman properly by loving devoted leadership, by their by their devotion and their devotion means that they’re 100% committed.

00:49:05:01 – 00:50:03:17
Brad Singletary
They know this person so well. I heard a girl today she’s been married several years and her husband keeps trying to do all these things as gifts and as special occasions and so forth. And she just cries on the inside because he has not been listening to her. He has no idea that she doesn’t like that shit. So she’s just feels hurt. The the trip was nice but he has no idea what I really want. And so she, she doesn’t really trust that she knows he’s not listening. She knows he doesn’t really seem devoted. So that numbers two out of ten, well he complains about having not having enough sex. She’s not very open to him because it doesn’t really feel safe. ‘This person doesn’t really care about me very much. And I’m not drawn to that.’ He’s in an emasculated state.

00:50:03:17 – 00:51:22:18
Brad Singletary
He’s all in his feelings. He’s complaining, he’s whining. He doesn’t see himself as the leader. He gets flustered. He gets all in the words of Taco Mike “Tipped over”, he gets all tipped over by her feelings. He tries to argue with her feelings and refute what she’s saying instead of sitting there with it and really taking her deeper into her feelings. And he hears the complaints coming and he hears, you know, all the stuff that she’s just kind of firing away, maybe. And he says, ‘Babe, I hear what you’re saying, but I want to understand you. I want to understand what you’re feeling here. Tell me what emotion is this causing you or what emotion is stirring you to think this way? What’s happening for you?’ And if you can just sit there with it, if we can just let the process work very comfortably and safely and calmly, and she can get to that feeling and she can name it, she can say, this is what this is what’s going on with me.

00:51:22:18 – 00:52:23:20
Brad Singletary
That’s how you motivate a man. Don’t give him orders. Don’t give him complaints of problems. Don’t give him a set of chores to do. Don’t harass him. Don’t hound him. Don’t push him. Tell him how you feel in a soft way. Tell him. Express your emotion vulnerably ask for help. I’m really confused about what I found in your car. Can you help me with this? Really scared. This is how she might talk to him. I’m really confused. She doesn’t come accusing him of the receipt that she found. She didn’t say who the. Who is this? You know, what is this thing? What are you doing? What do you mean? Let me see your phone. That is totally jacked up. That is going to, that’s failure 100%.

00:52:23:20 – 00:53:34:10
Brad Singletary
So she doesn’t jump the gun. She is a grown ass woman. She doesn’t jump the gun. And she asks first because she’s not leading the meeting. She’s not running this little staff meeting. She’s saying, ‘Can I share some of my feelings?’ He says, ‘Yeah, sure. Go ahead.’ You know, if that’s a right, if that’s a good time, if it’s not a good time, then the leader sets another time. He says ‘Not right now is not good. We’re putting the kids to bed, whatever. Let’s do this later on.’ And then he follows up and he comes back to it when it’s a good time. So she says, I have some feelings. Can I share them? He says, Yes. And maybe she starts talking about the details of the stories and he says, No, no, that matters. Okay, but at first I just want to understand what you’re feeling. And it really is a shortcut. It’s a shortcut to the problem solving. If there’s a conflict or there’s a disagreement.

00:53:34:10 – 00:54:18:2
Brad Singletary
Or there’s something that she wants she should feel so safe in talking about that. But guess who’s not being vulnerable these days with their emotions? Guess who? Women. Women. They feel the emotion. They just don’t express it. Express is. Ex means out in press means to push. Express it. They’re pushing out feelings. They’re not expressing their emotion. They’re ranting and raving or they’re closed up, bottled up, not talking at all. And see, that’s when they’re in their masculine because they’re, they’re in self-protection mode.

00:54:18:21 – 00:55:05:29
Brad Singletary
I just think this is some of the most brilliant stuff ever. You know, you can listen to these guys, read their books, get to understand their concepts for exactly how they teach it. And some of it may not fit for you. You know, some of it may sound extreme or whatever. But I believe that a properly polarized relationship, when I’ve seen that happen, when I’ve watched these things, I’ve just, I’ve seen miracles happen in the last month by working with people on this stuff and the guy stops being a little bitch, he stops whining and he starts making decisions. And he starts making plans that are just killer plans. He’s he’s in his best state.

00:55:05:29 – 00:55:52:01
Brad Singletary
He’s in his Alpha thinking, his Alpha brain. He is performing with love in his heart. He’s a service oriented, devoted leader. This is not somebody who’s being being the boss and being oppressive. This is, that this is not that at all. It’s the opposite of that. But I just watch that Elvis movie. She looks to him like Priscilla Presley, looks at Elvis, looked at Elvis and well, how they portrayed it in the movie. She was such a fan. She was so impressed by him. She made him feel good and he felt like a stud when she was around. She was at all the shows and whatever.

00:55:52:01 – 00:56:59:02
Brad Singletary
Anyway, I don’t know what their story is, but so the feminine is soft and supportive and radiant. In her supportive, like loving receiving him, she receives him fully. She lets him lead her. She’s not resisting his leadership. If she doesn’t like something, she’s free to talk about that. But the most effective way of using her voice is by sharing it in emotional terms. And I’m saying that it’s a natural way for men to be motivated is by, you know, hearing the softness, you know. They’re seeing these, you know, emotional titties. And so they respond to that. They like it. They’re comfortable with that, they want that and they make her like that, too, because they make it real safe. So she’s exposed herself and he gets to work. That’s what pushes the mojo through his veins to go take care of business.

00:56:59:02 – 00:57:57:03
Brad Singletary
And then when he does it right, she she shows her joy. She shows her pleasure. She’s radiating with the love that he just put into her heart because he’s devoted to her heart. I think there’s something to this stuff. I appreciate you guys listening this far I am going to continue devour this and experiment with people. I think the only problem with it is learning how to kind of state this stuff to to two couples in the world that we live in where I mean, some people just ridicule this completely. But I think if men and women are honest,they will say women will say, I just wish she could take care of things.

00:57:57:03 – 00:58:45:03
Brad Singletary
I wish that he I knew that he had us that he that it was all going to be okay because of him and she’s saying it’s all okay because of me. We talk about the woman being the glue holding it together. Man, that’s that is the wrong place for her. She doesn’t want to do that. She does want to provide and protect. Women will say he that he doesn’t protect me, he doesn’t defend me. We can even be out in public and someone would be rude or disrespectful to me. And he doesn’t even say anything. He doesn’t protect me when the, you know, the in-law, the weird uncle or whatever. When he does that, we know he doesn’t he does not show his devotion.

00:58:45:03 – 00:59:39:14
Brad Singletary
I believe if women are honest, they feel safe when they’re led by a strong and capable and loving man. If that’s the kind of relationship they’re in, when she’s having to make the decisions and call the shots and earn all of the money. She doesn’t feel very safe. She doesn’t feel very secure. So she’s not open and he’s frustrated. Now he’s blaming her because they never have sex and in this stuff, just all works together. So if you’re a woman and you are in a inverted relationship, if you’re upside down, you’re not respecting him, you’re not appreciating him. You’re not believing 100% that it’s a privilege to to be with your man. Then maybe he’s not showing the kind of devotion that he should.

00:59:39:14 – 01:01:03:26
Brad Singletary
Maybe he’s got to change some things. Maybe he needs to provide better. Maybe he needs to be more protective. Maybe he’s got to serve and lead with love. But if he is doing those things in your failing to recognize that and you’re not receiving him you don’t believe that he has your best interests at heart. You’ve secretly got this list of complaints that you’re always kind of focused on, and you don’t receive him physically, sexually, intellectually, spiritually, then he’s not going to be very interested in who he is going to be interested in is the girl who takes an interest in what he’s doing. And the girl who is supportive and soft in her words, and the things that she says. Not the bitchy woman at home who never gives it up. But I get it. If you’re a woman who’s in that masculinized role, it’s probably not your fault. You probably did not choose to be such a tough ass person like that some of it came from hard knocks, some of it came from trauma.

01:01:03:26 – 01:01:55:26
Brad Singletary
Some of it came because of, yes, men have been oppressive and abusive and things have been kind of crazy and in the history of human beings. Yes. But I’m telling you right now that if you were a woman in a heterosexual relationship with an emasculated man and you’re trying to lead or you’re not tuned in or expressive with your feelings, you’re going to be unhappy until you can learn to turn that around. Or you’re going to have weak men who don’t show up for you. They don’t penetrate you. It’s amazing to me, you know, who’s complaining about sex these days. A lot of times women there. It just seems like, you know, women are complaining that the man he’d rather play his video game.

01:01:55:26 – 01:02:43:02
Brad Singletary
She’s trying to she’s in a teddy with the candles lit and rose petals on the bed and she got some new massage oil and he’d rather be playing a video game. That’s the kind of that’s the kind of men that I see all day long. They keep they. They’re not even interested and they get maybe they get some of their need for feminine out of like porn. Maybe they’re looking at porn because there’s no nothing feminine in you and again, you’re. Why are you that way? Because that’s how it happens. That’s how it happens. Almost everyone, if you’re in a relationship long enough and you’re not intentional about where you’re at.

01:02:43:02 – 01:03:38:09
Brad Singletary
If you’re not intentional about what role everyone plays. Think about jobs you’ve been in when the roles weren’t very well defined. And people, you know what, we’re stepping on each other’s toes are. There was duplication or there was inefficiency, ineffectiveness. When there’s a strong capable leader who’s leaving with loving, devoted leadership, it is much more likely that you’re going to have a soft and submissive, supportive, radius and feminine energy around you. And if you’re the soft, radiant, feminine energy who’s receiving your man fully, you can expect good from him. You should expect good things from him. That’s the only way that you can feel those radiant things.

01:03:38:09 – 01:04:49:15
Brad Singletary
That’s the only way that you can even be in that place, is because he’s inspiring it. If he’s not inspiring that and you’ve got all the radiance in the world, you know. So I suppose you could be in the wrong relationship. So I’m going to wrap this up here, you guys. I think this work is there is something very significant about it. I don’t claim to you know, I don’t I haven’t researched it a ton. I can just tell you that in my lived experience with couples. They come in here at the very end when they’re upside down, when they if there’s been an affair. It’s because the man was getting his ass kicked at home and the girl at work thought he was a stud. Or it’s the woman who’s taking care of all the business at home, and she’s in this masculine workhorse role. She gets around a masculine man at her job who makes her feel beautiful. He makes her feel like she can radiate. She she can be radiant. And so she does.

01:04:49:15 – 01:06:02:04
Brad Singletary
She opens like a flower and just let the be. Come. Come, come by. So if your relationship is failing, consider what I’m saying here. Consider if the woman is masculinized out of self-protection. Out of necessity throughout her life, out of how the man has treated her. For whatever reason she’s talking like a drill sergeant. Her man is not devoted to that. He doesn’t like it. He doesn’t want it. He’s probably looking elsewhere at the moment, and there’s an abundance of feminine energy out there. And when he’s ready to receive that, he is going to show devotion to that feminine energy. And if she needs masculine energy. And she doesn’t have that at home.

01:06:02:04 – 01:07:08:04
Brad Singletary
Someone’s going to come along and provide that. And the buzz that she feels from being placed back in her feminine, natural, feminine state, it’s going to feel so good. That’s what the attraction is. That’s what the addiction is. That’s the chemistry that keeps all that going. Think about that. If you’ve had an affair, someone in your relationship had an affair. It was depolarize. The whole relationship was depolarize and then they found some polarity in the affair partnership. Tell me a date. Tell me that’s not true. Send me your thoughts. I really need you to help me think this stuff out. Maybe you look into these guys information. I think one of my favorite things was Zak Roedde’s TikTok, because all the videos are like one one minute long.

01:07:08:04 – 01:07:38:07
Brad Singletary
So check this stuff out. I think it’s going to be valuable if you have an open heart, really evaluate your own relationship. I’m going to try to do some really good show notes on this so that we can maybe kind of produce maybe some even some written materials for you, like a PDF, you know, kind of a downloadable thing or, or maybe an assessment or something that you can answer some questions. Just kind of see where you might be on that gentleman until next time. No excuses. Alpha up.

01:07:39:08 – 01:07:50:16
Outro
Gentlemen, you are the Alpha and this is the Alpha Quorum.

 

Click your podcast platform below or listen to the embedded file on this page.

081: NO MORE MR. SOFT GUY with Steve Edwards and Kevin O’Neil

081: NO MORE MR. SOFT GUY with Steve Edwards and Kevin O’Neil

081: NO MORE MR. SOFT GUY with Steve Edwards and Kevin O’Neil

In some colorful and humorous yet insightful commentary, gangster BFF’s Steve Edwards and Kevin O’Neil continue the discussion on the book “No More Mr. Nice Guy” by Robert Glover. They discuss the societal shifts that happened decades ago to create a generation of men with Nice Guy Syndrome. They outline ways to get away from these self-destructive behaviors which are deceptively (and sometimes unconsciously) cloaked in “nice” behavior which becomes super-unfulfilling forms of manipulation where everyone ends up miserable. They get a little rowdy with their riffing banter and ball-busting and demonstrate through their charming camaraderie what it looks like to have a stimulating friendship with a dude. **These are adult conversations meant for adults only.

TOPICS DISCUSSED:

Attributes of a Nice Guy
The Covert Contract
Relationship Issues
RECOMMENDED BOOKS:

The Way of Men by Jack Donovan
The Way of the Superior Man by David Deida
Sell Or Be Sold: How to Get Your Way in Business and in Life by Grant Cardone
The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure by Grant Cardone
The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday
Own the Day, Own Your Life: Optimized Practices for Waking, Working, Learning, Eating, Training, Playing, Sleeping, and Sex by Aubrey Marcus
Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds by David Goggins
Chicken Soup for the Soul by Jack Canfield
The Success Principles: How to Get from where You are to where You Want to be by Jack Canfield

 

LINKS:

https://www.aamp.agency/

Water Sport Excursions and Rentals in Florida

https://www.watersportpodcast.com/

https://the-podcast.aamp.agency/

https://www.vegasjeeptours.com/

OTHER RELATED LINKS:

https://andyfrisella.com/

FULL TRANSCRIPT
Click your podcast platform below or listen to the embedded file on this page.

080: NICE GUY SYNDROME with Steve Edwards

080: NICE GUY SYNDROME with Steve Edwards

080: NICE GUY SYNDROME with Steve Edwards

If you’re like most dudes, no one taught you how to be a man. Instead, you’ve probably been taught pretty much the opposite. So many personal influences in our lives: our parents, our peers, and society has conditioned us to be obedient rather than strong. We’ve been taught to be a good boy, follow the rules, not be rude and these ideas have been forcibly injected in our heads since we were able to speak. The problem is it doesn’t work and is hardly ever in our best interests. These messages manipulate us into being manageable and compliant, the standards of systems that are about control. Sometimes giving is not right. Sometimes sacrificing is wrong. Sometimes being nice damages us. Today we’re going to discuss the book No more Mr. Nice guy by Robert Glover.

 
Questions answered on this episode:
1. What’s wrong with being a nice guy?
2. What does it mean to be integrated?
3. What’s the making of a Nice Guy?
4. How do you please the person who matters the most?
5. How do you prioritize your needs?
 
What ways we can do to be integrated?
  • Be honest about your feelings, your interactions.
  • Quit being afraid of new experiences or what’s around you.
  • Learn to surrender what you can’t change.
  • Do what you want to do.
  • Learn how to get help.
  • Recognize that people are human.
  • Stop trying to be perfect.
  • Stop seeking approval.
  • Take care of your own needs with integrity.
  • Stop building such huge walls and let people in.
  • Don’t try to cover up or take attention away from your weaknesses. Don’t be afraid of your shortcomings.
  • Be aware or cognizant of your childhood events and some of the conditions or influences that led you to where you’re at today.
  • Set boundaries.
  • Be transparent about what you’re feeling about things.
  • Spend more time with men.
  • Recognize that women, they reject nice guys.
  • Learn to be more passionate, more assertive, more responsible.
  • Recognize that you don’t have to do everything right, or you’re allowed to be flawed.
  • Don’t let the fear of failure or the fear of success.
  • Go after the life you want, quit settling.
  • Make your own rules.
 
FULL TRANSCRIPT

Brad Singletary (00:00:00):
If you’re like most dudes, no one taught you how to be a man. Instead, you’ve probably been taught pretty much the opposite. So many personal influences in our lives. Our parents, our peers and society has conditioned us to be obedient rather than strong. We’ve been taught to be a good boy, follow the rules, not be rude. And these ideas have been forcibly injected in our heads. Since we were able to speak the problem is it doesn’t work and is hardly ever in our best interests. These messages manipulate us into being manageable and compliant. The standards of systems that are about control sometimes giving is not right. Sometimes sacrificing is wrong. Sometimes being nice damages us. Today we’re going to discuss the book No more Mr. Nice guy by Robert Glover.

Intro (00:01:06):
If you’re a man that controls his own destiny, a man that is always in the pursuit of being better. You are in the right place. You are responsible. You are strong, you are a leader. You are a force for good. Gentlemen, you are the Alpha, and this is the Alpha Quorum.

Brad Singletary (00:01:30):
Welcome back to the Alpha Quorum Show. Brad Singletary here. I’m really excited about this episode. This is episode number 80. I can’t believe that we’ve come this far. It’s been over three years now and it’s just exciting. The feedback that we get from all of you, thank you for what you’ve shared with us in the social media and the messages and emails and so forth that we’ve gotten. Our guest today has been an entrepreneur from his first business owning and operating a car stereo shop 20 years ago until today, right here in Las Vegas. Since then he’s owned a car dealership, a bar, a strip club, and currently owns a Jeep boat and jet ski rental company. A whole bunch of ATM machines as well as a marketing agency that works with tour and rental operators around the country. Steve Edwards is the dad of two boys, one in the air force and one who just recently enlisted in the Navy. Welcome, Steve. Appreciate you being here, brother.

Steve Edwards (00:02:24):
Hey, thank you so much for having me the episode 80. That’s pretty impressive. Yeah.

Brad Singletary (00:02:28):
Yeah. Well, I should mention here too, that you’re a podcaster yourself and you’ve done played with this a little bit and he’s teaching me how to get my mics and stuff dialed in a little bit better tonight. Appreciate that, man.

Steve Edwards (00:02:41):
This is fun. I love this stuff. This is great.

Brad Singletary (00:02:42):
Well, this topic seems to be something that you really are. How are you? How are you so familiar with this information? This is like your hobby horse of…

Steve Edwards (00:02:55):
This is my catalog. This is my book.

Brad Singletary (00:02:59):
So we want to talk about the book No More Mr. Nice guy by Robert Glover as I’ve worked with men. And as I’ve figured some of my own out, I’ve realized that far too many of us are just too soft. I did a little survey recently on a private Facebook group, by the way, if you’re listening to us and you’re not a member of the Facebook group, check it out. It’s called the Alpha Quorum. It’s a private group on Facebook. No one can see that you’re there. What you post, unless they’re in the group.

Steve Edwards (00:03:28):
And you’ve got to be a man which helps.

Brad Singletary (00:03:31):
Yes, everyone there is male. We verify that. I guess we’re only looking at pictures and names, but we think we have a pretty good idea.

Steve Edwards (00:03:37):
I said, man, loosely, I guess you need to be a male. Probably a couple of not men, but there’s some definitely, everybody’s a male.

Brad Singletary (00:03:47):
You know, it’s funny. We have, I think 1% of our audience in there, it shows up is female. And I think it’s because you have, there’s a couple of guys who share their their Facebook accounts with their wives and maybe that’s where that comes from. But

Steve Edwards (00:03:59):
I mean, that could be its own podcast on its own. What does it mean when you start sharing your Facebook account with your significant other?

Brad Singletary (00:04:06):
That’s being a little bit too nice. Maybe. Definitely. So No More Mr. Nice guy. What, what led me to this entire thing that I’m doing as I speak to men as I’m working with men in my practice is just noticing that men are either too hard or too soft, too nice or too difficult. And I read this book probably three or four years ago. It was it was recommended to me by Derek Johnson. We kind of started this whole thing together, Derek and I, and he showed me this book and told me that he himself was a nice guy and recovering nice guy. So Robert Glover is a therapist and he recognizes some of the patterns that he talks about in the book, recognize that in himself. And he describes a little bit about how that has harmed his harmed his relationships. And he’s teaching this to other men so that we can get ahold of ourselves and get our balls back basically.

Brad Singletary (00:05:03):
So we want to review a little bit about this content. We’re going to talk about just nice guy syndrome, what it is, how we become this nice guy, learning to please the person who matters most making your own needs a priority, reclaiming your personal power, your masculinity, and more about getting the love and the sex and the life that you want. Those are basically the chapters of his book. Start us off on a high level here. Steve, what, what is this about and what do you recognize in general? We’ll hit some specific bullet points later, but sure. You know, plenty of guys who behave this way, they’ve surrendered their masculinity itself to the system, to their spouse, to their parents or whomever. They’ve given that up to what do you notice?

Steve Edwards (00:05:51):
I even think that this isn’t even something that I need to kick down the road. You know, this is something that I can take full ownership of as I was as nice of a guy as you could possibly meet the nicest guy. And you know, when you start seeing some of the traits that represent being a nice guy, you know, at surface level, they sound like really admirable traits. Like you’re a nice guy. You’re willing to, you know, do things for others. You want to fix problems. You are a giver. You you know, you are seek, you seek the approval of others. When you say these at surface level, these sound like great, wonderful things that you would want out of a guy. Yeah.

Brad Singletary (00:06:33):
This is the dream husband you’re talking about.

Steve Edwards (00:06:35):
Absolutely. But what ends up happening is you end up with a guy with no backbone. You end up with a guy that can’t deliver on his promises because he is incapable of it because he’s living a lie. He’s not happy. Most of this is all self-deprecating behavior because they’re not serving themselves first. They’re not taking care of their own wants and needs. And yeah, they end up in a really tough spot.

Brad Singletary (00:07:03):
Yeah. They, everything they’re doing is really calculated to try to gain approval or avoid disapproval. So we’re always trying to do the right thing so that, you know, nothing is ever hard for anyone. We want to protect everyone. Else’s feelings, repress our own. Of course. Yes. That’s so unhealthy.

Steve Edwards (00:07:23):
I’m healthy because you know, I was like to take this back as if any of you guys have ever did it. And every, every guide knows this, that women love a bad boy. Right. Right. and we see it in media. We see it in everyday life and you never really understood the why. Why do they go after the bad boy? Well, because there’s an edge because they, they appear to be a man. They have this backbone, this, this spark about them that feels alive. And when you start looking at a lot of nice guy behaviors, you know, the, this idea of not being able to stand up on your own feet, it’s almost like codependent in its own way. Totally. But they’re not, they’re not fulfilling their own wants, needs and desires because they’re so busy worrying about everybody. Else’s

Brad Singletary (00:08:14):
And the hope, why, why is that? What is the hope in trying to please everyone? What are they trying to gain from that?

Steve Edwards (00:08:20):
So the term, and I mean, we’re kind of like without jumping too far ahead, but the term is it is a covert contract. Most of everything done as a nice guy is done with the idea that you will receive something in return. The easiest way or the, you know, the dumbest way to explain this in a guide type of mentality is, you know, the time you did the dishes or you did the laundry in order to have sex,

Brad Singletary (00:08:47):
Hey babe, I changed the light bulbs. You think we could have some alone time now, a hundred percent, but this covert. So that means we’re not really, this is, that would be even better. That’s what the bad boy move is like, Hey, I changed the light bulbs. I did the dishes now let’s get naked.

Steve Edwards (00:09:03):
Yeah. But that doesn’t even express that it’s not even said what it, what it’s done is it’s almost like, I think every old person under the sun has always said it, you know, what does assuming mean? It makes an out of you and me. Right. And, and it’s that, it’s a game. It’s mental gymnastics. It’s I’m going to do all these things, right. I’m going to, I’m going to vacuum and I’m going to dump a dishwasher and I’m gonna, you know, I’m going to take care of the kids. Like, and they expect that the sex would be reciprocated. Now this has done in a million other things. This is just the easiest one. And probably the biggest miss for guys is because, you know, as you being a therapist and talking to a lot of men, what do men complain about? Hey, I’m, I’m married and my wife doesn’t put out.

Brad Singletary (00:09:53):
We have a great relationship except we never touch each other.

Steve Edwards (00:09:56):
Yeah. Because I’m, she’s absolutely disgusted by me. Sounds awesome.

Brad Singletary (00:10:00):
Well, she’s probably not disgusted by your beer gut. She’s probably not disgusted by your morning breath. She’s probably disgusted that you’ve emasculated yourself and you’ve given your handed your balls away to someone or to her maybe. And you’re, you’re not making your own needs a priority. I probably used to say this kind of thing about you’re the center of my world. You’re everything to me in that kind of stuff. When I hear that now, or I see that anywhere, I just cringe and I go, oh, please do don’t. Don’t don’t, don’t, don’t be like that because that’s not going to work out very well. And women are not very interested actually in being the center of your world. If you’re the, if they are the center of your world, that means your world isn’t very freaking exciting. I’m going to lose respect for you, man. They just, they’re not going to have much interest in you. And it doesn’t matter how you look or how much money you have. If you’re overly focused on making your partner happy, none of you are going to be happy.

Steve Edwards (00:11:00):
And I think the, as we dig into it here a little bit more, it’s not necessarily the idea of doing a nice thing with, you know, something expected in return. It’s all the other actions that lead up to it. It’s, it’s basically all the steps that have turned you into a nice guy that have made you a disgusting human to your, to your wife, to your significant, other to the female gender, you know, to females in general, you know, in order to be a nice guy in order to protect everybody from everything, you have to be dishonest, you’ve gotta lie. You’ve got to, you know, you can’t be fully transparent because there’s things in life that if you’re totally honest about them, they’re going to hurt somebody’s feelings.

Brad Singletary (00:11:43):
You’re making me think of a, what was that movie? Old School Will Ferrell and they’re in, they go to therapy and they’re like, oh, we’re in the trust tree. We’re in the trust tree. You know, you can say anything, go ahead, open yourself up. And he’s like, oh, I’m imagining what kind of panties you’re wearing to the hot female therapist. And he gets in trouble. And he said, wait a minute. I thought this was, I thought we were in the trust tree. I thought this was safe.

Steve Edwards (00:12:04):
Nope. That’s a great example because guys, guys are so scared to be honest, but you know, because it sounds bad. Nobody wants to be labeled a predator, but guys are certainly more animalistic than women. They definitely think with their wrong head most of the time, and guys are very simple in the fact that like they would trade out a lot of things in order to have sex. I mean, if they could make those contracts, Hey, all dumped a dishwasher for sex. I will run 12 laps around the block for sex. And that’s where it all goes wrong because guys end up running with the wrong brain and they make decisions. And basically the rest of their life is basically decided by these horrible decisions.

Brad Singletary (00:12:54):
Yeah. They’ve got to hide the evidence of their weaknesses. They’ve got to hide their feelings. They’re, they’re loaded with secrets. They’re trying to like be, you’ve mentioned dishonesty. They’re like compartmentalizing, everything.

Steve Edwards (00:13:06):
Manipulation is a big one. You know, again, it’s like using a different term for the same type of thing. But if you’re lying, you’re probably manipulating situations. You’re telling half-truths I was a liar. That was my thing. I like to lie lying was my drug. It was like, you know, if I could just tell a little white lie to protect my own, to, you know, ease the situation. And you know, as everybody’s aware, your lie, catch up to you, your lies bite you in the. And that, that was my, that was my game.

Brad Singletary (00:13:38):
That never, ever, ever plays out well. And it actually causes the thing that we’re trying to avoid. So why do we lie? Why do we manipulate is because we don’t want to lose the other person. We’re just terrified of abandonment, which is a theme that runs throughout this book is we’re so afraid of being abandoned. We’re afraid that if we show any need or have any of our own wants, or we want to go fishing or go on a guys trip or do any of those things that we’re going to be seen as selfish and therefore abandoned. But then we lie in compartmentalize and we’re dishonest. And we have this like covert control, this covert contract stuff that we do. And we ended up losing respect anyway, they become disgusted by that anyway. And we would probably, you know what, man, I’ve heard women here in my office, let’s say, they’re dealing with an affair. The man’s had an affair. Yeah. In 100% of the time she doesn’t obsess about what the, you know, what the girl looked like or how good the sex was or what did he say to her? What she’s hurt by is the dishonesty. And he’s dishonest because he’s afraid of what would happen if she were to find out. So yeah, tons of manipulation and all this is really, there’s a lot passive aggression that goes along with this stuff.

Steve Edwards (00:14:53):
Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, there’s a million different little pieces of this that I think every guy to some degree can look in the mirror and start unpacking some of these characteristics, some of these behaviors. I mean, I don’t know a single guy that I know that hasn’t made a covert contract about something or that, you know, is a hundred percent honest all the time. That’s totally transparent. Cause I mean, even now, even even saying that I’m, you know, a recovering nice guy, this idea of like complete transparency and total honesty is frightening as hell. Yeah. It is. I’m not saying that, you know, it isn’t the right direction and it it’s hard. But the, the other side of it is also very, very challenging. This idea of like lying your way out of situations, lying to, you know, controlling the situation.

Steve Edwards (00:15:48):
I’m, I’m, I’m a controlling guy. I’ve been the boss for a long time. Probably, you know, you take those Myers-Briggs tests. It comes back I’m, I’m a manager type. I am the boss type. So to remove controlling feelings and controlling situations and letting situation, you know, letting situations play out. I remember in a previous relationships, you know they, she would have had a disagreement at work or an argument at, with friends or something like that. All I wanted to do was fix it, or I wanted to take the edge off. I wanted to do anything to create less friction and just trying to remove all the friction from everything that, you know, I think every, what else have we always heard? Like, we don’t want you to solve the problem. We just want you to listen to us. Well, I think all the guys are fixers.

Brad Singletary (00:16:44):
It’s kind of in our nature a little bit.

Steve Edwards (00:16:45):
We’re built to fix it.

Brad Singletary (00:16:46):
One of the things he, one of the things he mentions in the book is that a lot of these nice guys are even attracted to people that they can try to fix protracted to the broken person. Codependency was a term that you used before. Maybe this is maybe this guy has made a multi-million dollar fortune right in this book. And he’s really just describing codependency. I don’t know, but it seems like a lot of those things are common things. Another negative about being a nice guys that we’re swinging back and forth for being nice and not nice. So these guys aren’t always necessarily, you know, nice. And the doormats, sometimes we, we, we let all that stuff build up and it turns into like explosive anger and those kinds of things you ever go to a domestic violence class and the room was full of nice guys.

Steve Edwards (00:17:32):
Yeah. I mean, that’s, you know, I had to had a Google it, but you know, it’s like a narcissistic style of behavior and, and it it’s because it’s so self-serving, and it’s really only built for the interest of the nice guy and not the party around it. It’s like this exchange of, of feeling like you’re going to continue to do these things in exchange. I want to feel a certain way. I want a certain reaction. I want a certain amount of touch or whatever it might be that you’re never left fulfilled. There’s never a fulfillment of like, wow, that worked out. I feel great about it. I should continue to do this. In fact, it’s the exact opposite where you’re constantly left disappointed and that disappointment builds up to resentment and resentment as you’re well aware, you know, in therapy is what ruins relationships guys are just begging for any amount of intimacy, any amount of affection from their significant other. And she’s pulling away even harder because all she’s seeing is the. She’s seeing the lying. She’s seeing the controlling manipulative guy that, yeah, maybe he dumped the dishwasher. Maybe he did this, but then he’s also yelling at me about, about not contributing about not helping about not being an equal member of the, of the family. And it’s like this weird tug of war with yourself, the only person you’re fighting with is yourself.

Brad Singletary (00:18:58):
Yeah. So there’s a lot of sexual problems with this guy. He’s usually extremely dissatisfied. There’s some often sexual dysfunction. So like erectile dysfunction, there’s like inability to orgasm. There’s all kinds of different things that go along with that. Maybe they’ve acted out sexually. Maybe they’re addicted. They have some sexual compulsion. There’s a lot of this is focused around sex. And he talks later in the book, he talks about one of the things that nice guys do is that they settle for bad sex. So they’re settling, always perpetually unhappy with that. Either not able to improve it, recognize their role in it, but you know, the bad boy, he’s not getting a lot of bad. He doesn’t have, he doesn’t have that. And it’s like, what is it about why is that?

Steve Edwards (00:19:49):
Well, because I think, again, not to dumb guys down to just three things, but you know, food, sleeping, sex, but you know, guys are hunters by nature and they definitely are seeking. They’re seeking that sexual relationship. Do they want more than that? Absolutely. A hundred percent. There’s certainly far more to guys than just food, sleeping, sex, but guys are certainly more driven to go get sex. And where I think the word falls apart is when you look at like porn of today, you know, porn on its own is like a next level thing where it’s not even like normal porn anymore. Like who even knew that everybody wanted to just have sex with her steps. I mean, who do that was like the hottest,

Brad Singletary (00:20:35):
Is that what they’re talking about now? I guess I don’t, I don’t, I don’t, I don’t know

Steve Edwards (00:20:40):
No idea, never over what PornHub is like the top fifth or sixth visited the site on the internet. I had no idea. I don’t even know what goes on there. Yes. You know, so the perversion level of like what is even being presented, it’s not even normal consensual sex, like what you’re used to or what normal people, I guess, would be seeking. They’re being exposed to something that isn’t even realistic. So they’re going home or they’re bringing that vibe. If you want to call it to their significant other. And you know, they’re not living up to it. Like everything else in their life, they’re not living up to it. It’s basically a constant feeling of disappointment and the lacking, because you’re not having the sex you want, you don’t have the relationship you want, you know, you’re not getting sex enough or up to the standards that you would want. Your wife has constantly mad at you. It’s this constant letdown. And all it does is build up into a huge, huge fight. And that’s where most of these guys go wrong. And that’s where they end up with domestic violence. That’s where they end up in cheating. That’s where the whole thing starts by alert, spiraling out of control.

Brad Singletary (00:21:50):
Yeah. So like relationship problems, this stuff, you know, goes into careers and people are unfulfilled in their careers and not living up to their potential. But usually when a guy comes to see me here, they’re, they’re coming in talking about their relationship and yes, they may have depression or anxiety. They may have anger or whatever at their core of what I see an 80% of the men that I, that come here, they got nice guy syndrome going on. And by the way, you’ve kind of acknowledged that I got to say that to myself. If you go back to episode one of this show, I talk about that, that in my first marriage, I was a little bit controlling, a little bit pushy and a little bit demanding and so forth. And in my current marriage, I tried to correct that by being super accommodating and turned into the nice guy and that didn’t work either.

Brad Singletary (00:22:37):
So we’ve been going at this 10 or 11 years now, 11 years. And we finally figured some of this out, but it took me. And I guess if she’s listening to this show, maybe she’ll comment in the, in the social media, whether or not this is true, but I feel like I did. And I have a had to just take, get my balls back. Yeah. I want to skip the part about being integrated. I want to come back to that later, but the working paradigm of the nice guys is this, if I can hide my flaws and become what I think others want me to be, then I will be loved. Then I will get my needs met. Then I can have a problem free life. But even when, even though this is effective, they only see one option is to try harder. So we just keep trying. We just keep doing more and more nice things. I hear it all the time, man. I bought her a $12,000 ring for our 12th anniversary. I did all this stuff. I had all these things and made these special trips. And I did all this thing in my I’m just orbiting around her as the center of the universe. It never seems to pay off. I don’t understand it. Why is that?

Steve Edwards (00:23:47):
You know, you’ve got these guys coming into your office and at the point, a lot of the guys are coming into your office. I don’t want to be the cynical guy and say that it’s too late, but you’re definitely, you know, now you’re trying to really fix something that’s broken versus doing a lot of the maintenance work that is required to keep a relationship healthy. And they’re at this point because they’ve basically dropped the ball so far along the way. And you know, not that we, we can’t put any blame on, on women, but when a lot of like the problems that have, I’ve heard, I know you’ve heard that guys are dealing with the blame does come back to the guy because it is such nice guy behavior. So talking about like this idea of like exerting more, being more continuing to you’re going to keep pouring from an empty bucket, into her half full cup.

Steve Edwards (00:24:42):
Right? And you’re trying to fulfill the marriage in ways that are not what she’s asking. So it’s like you even brought up the example of like buy a new car, buy this pay. I can fully admit I’m the guy that always reverts to solve it with money. Well, that doesn’t solve most problems. I mean, it doesn’t solve most relationship problems. You know, your wife has an asking for you to buy her a new bag, to keep her happy. She is asking for you to participate in the relationship, participate in your kids’ lives. Be a good, be a good partner, be a good father, be present, show up. And unfortunately Louis Vuitton doesn’t sell any show up medicine. It’s always a very nice bag, but that doesn’t buy love.

Brad Singletary (00:25:31):
They need you to be a bad-ass that probably has nothing to do with them. You’re not going to wash dishes enough. You’re not going to do these household things enough. It’s not how many diapers you changed. You know, we still need to do those things, but we lose ourselves in the process. When I look at someone who’s divorcing, I ask and I’ve been there before. And so I know that feeling personally, I ask, well, how do you feel about yourself, your own individual kind of walk in life. How are you doing with your own journey? They always say, I’ve lost myself. I don’t even know who I am.

Steve Edwards (00:26:05):
So to touch on that because I got a little left of center of where I wanted to go on this. But you know, the biggest mistake I see is that guys have lost all touch with other guys. Guys don’t have hobbies. They don’t have real male friends. And they don’t. That’s the sort of stuff that keeps you at guy. I don’t want to, you’re not probably needing to go out grunting out in the woods and like burning pallets and stuff like that. And like just screaming from the mountain tops that I am man, but you need male testosterone around you. You need guy friends, you need to, you need have hobbies that are not including of her. You know, you need a life that does not fully encompass her in it. And that’s hard for a lot of guys to hear. You know, that’s hard for a lot of guys that have been in long marriages, 15, 20 years, they’ve lost connections with their wife or I’m sorry with their friends, their only friend is their wife. You know, they’re sitting around saying my best friend is my wife. My, you know, and that’s great. That sounds super sweet, but it’s also kind of scary because if your best friend is your wife, what happens when that don’t work?

Brad Singletary (00:27:18):
Yeah. It seems like the passion fades on, on those kinds of relationships. And that may be a great friendship. That’s good for you, bro. You got a good friend, but are you getting any bl*wjobs?

Steve Edwards (00:27:29):
It’s true. You know, I can already hear the pushback of like, well, don’t you want to be friends with your wife a hundred percent. You definitely want to be friends with your wife. And, but there was a different friendship. I don’t care how close to your wife you are. You have a different conversation with your guy, friends than you do with your wife. And I think that element of, you know, getting out and shooting guns or riding UTVs or going out, being out on the water, going hunting shooting pool, working on cars, any sort of thing that you can do where you get some male testosterone, you have like real male friends and quite honestly open up, start talking like guys are so terrified of like exposing themselves in any sort of weakness. And yet they’re at home just weak as hell, just soft as can be. But God forbid, they let another guy actually know that they’re hurting. That they’re struggling, that they’re going through anything because you know, the machismo is just pouring out of them except at home where it matters.

Brad Singletary (00:28:35):
I asked guys sometimes to draw like a pie chart, draw a circle and divide this pie into the things that you think about the things that you spend your time in time on your concerns in life. And when a guy shows me, you know, it’s, he’s got 70% of his pie chart is his woman. I can already tell. He’s not very happy. He’s not very fulfilled. And, and I just pulled this number out of thin air. But you know, one thing I say is like, what if she was 20% of your life? What if she was a 25% of your life? And maybe the biggest portion, maybe the biggest percentage of that pie of your time and your focus and your energy. But what if you throw some other things in there you need to have beyond the bowling team, you need to go on a golf league. You know, there’s gotta be some kind of connection to life outside of her and your home.

Steve Edwards (00:29:25):
Well, I also, you know, this is a metric that I’ve taken into account is that unless you actually have the five phone numbers to somebody you could call right now and ask them connect, come stay at your house. I need a friend. And maybe that’s even too big of an ask. Do you have five friends that you can call right now and go have a beer with, you know, or go talk to or go stand in their driveway and shoot the. Do you have five people you can do that with? And my guess is it’s like 97% say, no, it sits. They’re being real. It’s, it’s a no,

Brad Singletary (00:29:59):
It’s so wild. That we’re the biggest like consequence of being a nice guys, that you have terrible relationships with women, your romantic relationships are suffering, but the remedy, the cause and the remedy have nothing to do with that woman or that relationship or how you look. It has nothing to do with what’s within the relationship. So much of it has to do with what’s outside of it. There are some dynamics and some interactional things that cause problems. But let’s talk about the making of a nice guy for a minute. What, how do we, how did we become these weak dudes who are just so ultra nice and unhappy?

Steve Edwards (00:30:40):
Fifty, sixty years of being raised by women, your dad went to work. The, you know, the cleavers were the real thing. You know, dad went to work, mom stayed home. Mom raised you. Mom was your first girlfriend. Mom was your first love. Mom was everything. And you know, for a lot of guys is still everything I grew up. I was a mama’s boy. I’m not afraid to admit it. That’s the problem because there hasn’t been, you know, that idea of like being raised by men, going out with men, having that sort of like male testosterone around you, you’ve just, you’ve spent so much time around and being guided by women that you’ve lost a lot of that male edge. You’ve you’ve seen what your mom needs to be happy. You’ve seen like what the male energy looks like, or I’m sorry. The female energy looks like so strongly that it feels like you’re constantly like, man, I should fix this.

Steve Edwards (00:31:37):
I should be a nice guy. I should help out mom more. It’s like all these things that it becomes super unattractive to females. And some of this does go away when you’re dating. You know, when you’re dating, when you’re out hunting for the next girlfriend, there is that edge. You have to be witty. You’ve got to put, put yourself out there. You’ve got to, you know, you’ve got to lead with some testosterone and some masculinity because you’re a tiger and a group of other tigers. If you don’t, if you don’t attack somebody else’s gonna attack. If you don’t have some sort of push in you and that all goes out the window, the second that these guys become in a relationship that they, they find misses, right? They say, I love you immediately. They’re attached it’s codependent. And they’re just pouring themselves into this other person, which feels like the right thing to do, except they’re also pouring all the things that they need into this and not getting it in return.

Brad Singletary (00:32:36):
You mentioned being raised by women. Think about school teachers. So you’re home, mostly with mom, dad’s working late. He’s gone. Now another great example. One of the things that mentioned in the book is that most of these guys were, they either had absent fathers, avoidant, fathers, addicted, fathers, philandering fathers, angry fathers. And so part of it too, is that I want to be anything except like what my dad was. And then mom is trying to program us to like, don’t be that, be a nice boy. She needs you to be kind of her surrogate husband almost. That’s a whole another dynamic. That’s a whole another show. We’ll have to do at some point. But so we’re getting programmed by the schools. We’re getting programmed by in our own homes. Society just kind of wants to water down masculinity. I saw some stuff recently talking about the toxic masculinity idea and that the problem is not masculinity. The problem is the absence of masculinity. Jordan Peterson talks about, if you, if you think a strong man is dangerous, wait till you see what a weak man can do.

Brad Singletary (00:33:38):
If you can’t see that in our society right now, you know, the woke culture, the woke mob cancel culture. The second somebody doesn’t like something they’re, you know, they’re canceling everything and that’s, that’s its own separate topic. But if you don’t think that a correlates, not everybody’s a champion, not everybody can be a winner. Somebody is going to have to lose. Somebody’s going to have to learn a lesson. And I think it’s so prevalent today. I seen that pie chart, you know, where it goes around that circle of like weak man, strong man, you know, like I forget the four quadrants, but how it goes around. And yeah, I think, I feel like we’re in such a weird spot that like, it’s going to be very, very hard for somebody to break the culture of it. But I think at some you can recognize, recognize in your own house with your kids.

Steve Edwards (00:34:28):
I think it’s you, it’s something you can recognize as a man of like tendencies that you’re doing. And I I’ve recommended to everybody to read the book. The book is amazing. The book I feel like is a game changer. And the second, once you start reading it, you’re like, oh my God, I do that. I do that. Look at this. I do that. These are all like things that you can start seeing in yourself that you’re doing that have a huge difference in your overall happiness and wellbeing. And to the idea of like these teachers, these moms, all of this, you know, you can’t blame your mom for raising you the way she, you did. But at a certain point, the accountability of like why your relationships aren’t working. You do have to be able to look at a mirror and say, Hey, these are probably some of the negative traits that I’m presenting in this relationship. And if I can find out how to be a better version of myself, maybe I ended up with a better relationship.

Brad Singletary (00:35:24):
So I want to ask about something personal here. Tell me some of your worst, nice guy. Give me some stories.

Steve Edwards (00:35:33):
Oh man. I just, I was such a nice guy and I mean, I’m sure of my two ex-wives. They would love to chime in and pour into this bucket. But you know, I was, I was manipulative. That was definitely a good one. I was gaslighting king. I could Gaslight the out of a situation, you know, because, cause you don’t want to look in the mirror. You don’t want to take any ownership of it. So it was like, that’s why it’s on you. It’s not me. This is your feelings like this. And you know, I was, I, I think I wrote the chapter on the covert contract. I was the guy of like, oh, let me dump the dishwasher. Let me help with laundry. Oh, I’m going to vacuum. I’m going to do all this that you never asked me to do anyways. But I really expect some sex out of this at the end.

Steve Edwards (00:36:19):
And yes, I never got any sex. It was like, it was like, that was, it’s so dumb looking back on it because it all makes sense. It all makes sense. And now hindsight looking back, you know, this could have all been solved, you know, not happy to say it, but I have two divorces under my belt and the second one hit me pretty hard. The second one was rough. And when I’m looking at them now, I mean, I was as mad as I wanted to be at them. I, I have to take a lot of ownership. I was a pretty weak man. I was definitely not the best version of myself. I had every nice guy tendency that you could write and you know, and already led to resentment. It led to argument after argument about not having sex in our relationship, it led to fights about like, you know, doing stuff together or why isn’t this good enough? Why isn’t that good enough? And it makes for a miserable life

Brad Singletary (00:37:19):
For me, some of those things for sure, but to add to that, my own problems with this in relationships, I was kind of the simp, you know, I was like, I was writing poetry. I literally was just trying to be like, Mr, let me, let me do that for you. Let me do everything for you. Totally. The covert contract, like, man, let me just show you what a stud I am. And, and even, you know, I took pride in my, in my vulnerability. I could talk about my feelings. You know, I’m a sensitive guy and let me show you my sensitivity. Let me be this. Ah, it’s just disgust me now to think about it. And, and I, part of that was just it’s who I am. And I needed to kind of toughen up and get a backbone like you talked about, but also just not trying to show off. I mean, I remember one time I wrote this really long Facebook posts on my wife’s page just to like how wonderful and beautiful she is and all this stuff, bro. She deleted it. I’ve never done that again, man. I’ll I’ll, I’ll, I’ll be the guy who I would get her like I’ll buy a $7 card for Valentine’s day and put love you. He like, I can’t, I won’t even say, I love you. I’ll be saying love you, you know, not hard to draw the heart to heart and that’s it sign my name, you know, I’ll put B instead of Brad.

Steve Edwards (00:38:41):
So my biggest runaway with us, I didn’t actually discover this until I was going through the second divorce. So how mine actually sprung on me was like, it was, you know, we grew apart and I was really not playing the right cards. I was playing the game entirely wrong. And you know, when, when she was ready to call it and she wanted a separation and that’s where it started, all of a sudden I went into my F you know, fight or flight. And I did exactly that. I was like writing, like the longest, most heartfelt texts you’ve ever seen in your entire life. Like literally just total samp, total, oh my that’s disgusting. It’s like gross. I mean, I look back and I’m like, and that was some real pathetic behavior. And you know, all she wanted was space. She was like, Hey, I just need some time could not give her time.

Steve Edwards (00:39:36):
Time was like the most impossible thing. And if you anybody’s like Google, you start, they, they have a thing like 30 days of no contact. We’ll think about that for a second 30 days. Not talking to your significant other when she doesn’t like you and you’re trying to make up with her. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever tried in my life. But to that, I mean, there’s a lesson to be learned about that. I mean, the lesson is in the time it’s in this idea of like being so insecure in your own skin, that you’re not deserving of love, that you’re not deserving of happiness in your relationship. A lot of this book passes all the blame down to guys, and I’m a strong believer. Like I want to own my. I want to own it all the way through, you know, it’s way too hard to kick the can down the street to somebody else.

Steve Edwards (00:40:27):
But there is an element. It’s two people in a relationship. And if you were strong in your own background or in your own backbone, and you saw how this played out and you were being a man, you would have never dealt with any of the anyways. You know, if she isn’t providing, if she isn’t pulling her into the, you know, end of the deal, you’re being a man you’re helping, you’re contributing. You’re being this good dude without being a nice guy. You’re not going to be in a relationship that fulfills you like that. You know, not every relationship is meant to last forever. Maybe you’re with the wrong person, but if you’re good with you, that don’t matter. And that I think is the hardest thing for people to wrap their head around.

Brad Singletary (00:41:10):
Yeah. So our value, we see our value, our like human value, our value as a man is all wrapped up in how we’re being treated and like sex is that’s the ultimate evidence of being accepted. And when we don’t get that and we don’t get the time or attention or whatever we used to, we get into this like existential panic. You don’t want to talk to me. You don’t want to touch me. You don’t to spend time with me. I am nothing. Well, that is going to just escalate. That’s going to just devolve even more and more and more you’re spiraling down. And this going to end in total heartbreak. That’s what, that’s what happened to me for sure.

Steve Edwards (00:41:48):
No, and I mean, it’s easy to say it from standing, you know, sitting outside of it now and having gone through it. When I was going through it, I was a puddle of goo. I was, you know, I, I was soft as hell. I, there was nothing about me that was man. I felt like I was, you know, being a simp. And that was like the awakening that I needed to do some real self work. Cause I didn’t have, I didn’t have five people in my phone. I could have called to spend the night at their house or to go grab a beer with, I had me and my own depression and my own, my own negative beliefs about myself, not believing that I was good enough. And that’s where it starts and ends is like, you have to believe that you’re worthy of the love and affection that you need to be happy in a relationship. And the hard part, the talking out of both sides of my mouth on this is that you might be in this relationship with somebody that is not fulfilling your needs. And at a certain point, you have to be able to draw a line in the sand and say, I’m not getting what I need out of this relationship and be okay with the outcome because you know, you’re not happy. And that’s hard to say,

Brad Singletary (00:42:59):
I want to talk about this list of habits of highly ineffective men. Number one, looking for the approval of others, trying to conceal our apparent blemishes, you know, our mess up our mistakes, putting other’s needs in front of our own sacrificing our own power. I like this one too. This is what you’re talking about. This associating ourselves from different guys and our own manly energy. We’re totally disconnected. You’re let me say this loud and clear for you guys. Your most unhappy moments in your life have come or will come when you are the most disconnected from other men. Nope. That’s crazy. You’re most unfulfilled, unhappy times in your life will or have come when you are most disconnected from other men. So we make connections with women that aren’t fulfilling. We’re creating the circumstances. Co-Creating the circumstances for bad sex failing to live up to our own potential. So if we’re going to fix this stuff, we got to look at Glover talks about being integrated, being an integrated man. So what does it mean to be integrated?

Steve Edwards (00:44:16):
And integrated man, as somebody who is comfortable in their own skin? One of the biggest mistakes or one of the hugest problems with this nice guy is this belief that they’re not good enough. And this w this need for acceptance by everybody. You know, a lot of people say, I don’t care what other people think, but we all know that that’s a lie and that’s actually became even worse as time’s gone on where our entire culture and civilization is ran by, you know, fake Instagram and, you know, seeing everybody’s life. That seems amazing. Everybody’s beyond happy, but actually everybody’s really sad and depressed and going through a lot. And you know, they’re dealing with things and they have mental health issues. And at a certain point, you have to just believe that you’re okay, that you’re okay as you are. And your people will love you regardless. And that’s hard for people to say,

Brad Singletary (00:45:14):
Yeah, we’ve got to make our own needs important. We need to find people who can meet our needs when you’re integrated, you can live in some, with some confidence.

Steve Edwards (00:45:27):
And I think this all, I think this is the big takeaway for all of this is like, you have to just figure out how to be good with you. Like this idea of masculinity and like, you know, I don’t think you need to be this super machismo Dick. That’s what a lot of people hear is like No More Mr. Nice guy is that they have to turn this around and they’ve got to be this non-caring Dick we’re. In fact, actually, you know, somebody who is an integrated, truly good guy that gets what he’s doing. That’s a good man is caring. He’s probably way more caring, but he also recognize the difference between caring and care taking your job is not to solve everybody’s problems. But that doesn’t mean you don’t care. I have struggled with empathy for a very long portion of my life, of not being a very empathetic person.

Steve Edwards (00:46:23):
And I thought it just actually meant that I didn’t care, but where I got confused in this are where my mistake was made is that I felt empathy was also me having to solve the problem. I always had to have a solution to a problem versus just understanding that there was a problem. Sometimes you just gotta listen, you gotta just be able to hear that, okay, this is what’s wrong. This is what I don’t like. This is what makes me unhappy. Or this is what is making somebody unhappy and be okay in just, Hey, I hear what you’re saying. I hear what your problem is and leave it at that. You’re not in business to solve everybody’s problems.

Brad Singletary (00:47:05):
Yeah. We got to just deal with things in a straightforward way, learn to experience and express our feelings. We need to just find harmony with the, the delicate things of life. And another thing he talks about is that you build significant relationships with men. I always say the womanizer needs men, not women

Steve Edwards (00:47:27):
Or womanizer does need. And you know, the other thing is just being transparent about your wants and needs. He, covert contract will be the death of like, it will be the death of many marriages. And it has up to this point. And you know, because we’ve touched on the sex portion of it, this has to be a clear and present thing of what you’re in need of in this relationship. Maybe you’re not going to go and just say, Hey, I need more sex. I need more intimacy in my relationship and immediately get it. It’s not as if you’re going to go walk to her and be like, Hey, I definitely need more sex. And she’s like, you know what? You’re right. Let’s go, you know, you’re, this is a work in progress. And you’re going to have to work these steps to get to a spot of her trusting that your not going to be this passive aggressive guy, that your going to be the best version of yourself that you’re going to show up, that you’re going to listen. And in return, the end goal is that she will be able to be the best feminine version of herself, which is in return, is going to reflect on a better sex life, a better partner and a better relationship.

Brad Singletary (00:48:39):
Yeah. We got to face our fears. We need to become trustworthy and genuine. We’ve got to set limits. I think an integrated man is able to say, no, that’s something that I’ve struggled with. You talked about empathy, something I’ve struggled with is going along to get along, giving to get. He talks about that a lot in the book, you give something to get something back in return. So when you move come integrated, we’re not afraid. We’re not even afraid of losing the relationship. Think of the things that we do, the bonehead things that we do to try to save a relationship. We’re trying to force someone to let us stay at the party that no one wants us at. And I think if we can get to the point where like, it would be inconvenient, but I’m not, as I’m not scared to be alone,

Steve Edwards (00:49:31):
You know, it’s a, it is that fear of abandonment. It is that major fear of abandonment and whoa, what if nobody ever loves me again, somebody is going to love you again. You know, when you’re the best version of yourself when you’re showing up, when you’re caring, when you’re, when you’re that guy that was outdating, your you’re putting off, it’s a different energy. You care different. You know, you, you see that you’re, you’re in this. What happens when guys start going through breakups or in the gym, they’re working on themselves, they’re eating better. They’re doing basically everything that their spouse asked them to do in the relationship, just after the relationship

Brad Singletary (00:50:12):
That would’ve made everybody a lot happier. If they were just taking care of themselves, he talks a lot about that. And if we want to turn this around, he specifically talks about building muscle and like working out and becoming physical.

Steve Edwards (00:50:26):
Yeah. You know I, I saw it earlier and I, and I love this term as this I, and I’m going to read it. A lot of people say, I love hard instead of saying I’m codependent, lack boundaries, and become borderline obsessed with a person I’m interested in because of my anxious attachment style and fear of abandonment. But yeah, I love hard. Does sound better. I heard that. And I’m like, man, I, I feel that I get it because everybody gets in these relationships and you get in a relationship. And at first it’s like the greatest feeling ever you’re. So in love, you’re ugly. It’s oh my God, I can’t even imagine my life without them. And then like the real life sets in. And like, you have the same problems everybody else does. And relationships are hard when you’re not having sex with each other.

Steve Edwards (00:51:16):
You know, you with work with friends, with relationships, take a lot of work. And then when you add kids in the mix, you had a relationship, you had money. It’s a, it’s an uphill battle. The entire way we all have wants, needs, desires, that sort of thing. But we’re so afraid of just expressing our feelings, expressing how we feel, you know, what we need out of this relationship to be successful. You know, we’re terrified, terrified of the, what if it doesn’t work. And because what if, if it doesn’t work means you’re a failure. It means you’re not worthy of love. It means you’re not, you know, all these things you tell yourself, it means you’re never going to be with somebody else again. So instead you just pour the nice guy on like, it’s, you know, the thickest you’ve ever seen. It just thick country gravy.

Steve Edwards (00:52:07):
And you end up in a situation where you’ve got everything that you didn’t want. You’re not loved. You’re unhappy. You’re not getting, you know, you don’t have the sex. You want it. You don’t have the relationship you want and your partner checked out. And now you’re sitting in front of Brad and you’re wondering like, how does, how the hell did I get here? And how do I get out of this? And the unfortunate part is a lot of times, once you’ve gotten in front of Brad, it’s too late, too little, too late, myself included. Once you’re in front of Brad is too little too late. You can choose to solve it. Today is an overnight fix handle. No, there’s no overnight fix behind this. You’re not going to read this book and go home. And all of a sudden be this well adjusted mail. But if you don’t take some action, if you don’t find a reason to go out with the guys, if you don’t have any guy friends, you got to start somewhere. You’ve got to start. You gotta take that turtle step forward to take some action, to get to a better place, because otherwise it all unravels. And then, then you’re sitting on a podcast three years later talking about being a well adjusted male or so, whatever the hell that means some adjustments in the mail, the integrated mail. I’m sure if you have somebody there’s no well-integrated anything about this, but on, at work in progress,

Brad Singletary (00:53:27):
I think that’s important. We, he talks about you would need to please the person who matters the most. And that sounds a little selfish, but if we’re talking about coming out of nice guy syndrome, we gotta, we got to shift the balance a little bit more that way, because by trying to please everyone, nice guys end up pleasing, no one, including themselves. We see sex as the ultimate form of acceptance. And when our woman gets angry or upset, we think we, we start to panic like, oh, I got to do something quick, quick, quick, quick, how do I fix this? I need a lie. I need to manipulate. I’m going to offer some ideas. Here’s let me appease you in some way. And if we can just learn this, be okay with that little wave, that little emotional wave and just not feel like we’ve got to prevent her from feeling angry or upset. Because when we do that, when we’re rushing to some quick action, some urgency it’s based on, like you said, the fear of abandonment is based on, I am nothing without you. And that’s just. That’s going to lead you to pain.

Steve Edwards (00:54:30):
I always, every time, every single time that is going to lead you to pain. And it’s just not the case. I mean, are you the best version of yourself right now? No. Am I absolutely not. I’m sitting here and I’ve been losing the same 50 pounds for the last 15 years. It’s hard work. It’s hard work. And I think a lot of it all starts in the head. I think it’s the, you know, the embarrassment of mental health. I think it’s the guys being like, oh, well, how am I going to go talk to somebody about my feelings and of all the things you should do of all the places you should put money. Maybe you need to go see a therapist. Maybe you need to go talk to your friends. Maybe you actually have to have an open dialogue about what’s going on in your life. And this is where I think a lot of the mistake has made

Brad Singletary (00:55:19):
When we’re in the nice guy syndrome. We kind of feel like we’ve got to hide any of our shortcomings. Think about hair loss and stuff like that. And now we’re both sitting here now, both sitting here, bald guys who proud and true.

Steve Edwards (00:55:32):
You asked me if I was five foot taller and 50 pounds lighter me and me and the rock, same cap. Same.

Brad Singletary (00:55:41):
So yeah, any mistakes where we think about, you know, we don’t, we don’t wanna, we don’t want anyone to know that we farm. We don’t want to have any perfect imperfection of any kind. And so to be okay with that, stop lying, stop putting up walls. You know, people are not drawn to our perfection. Something that I’ve learned as a therapist is in the textbooks. You know, they say not to self-disclose, don’t tell your own stories to your clients. And I’ve really kind of always been a little patch Adams like with that stuff, I just do whatever works. And for me, what seems to work is in small little doses, I tell people about my into jail, but in a psych hospital, been suicidal, took psych meds, been divorced, got ex-communicated from Metro. I tell all those things. And everybody’s like, dude, I like that about you.

Brad Singletary (00:56:29):
I’m glad that you shared that. And I think the same is true of women. We think we’ve got to be perfect to win their acceptance. That’s probably not very good. I hear some women say sometimes he’s actually the perfect husband. Well, why did you cheat on him? Why are you leaving him? Why are you, why is this so perfect? He’s so perfect. And that’s a lot of pressure and it’s a lot to live up to. And I feel like there’s some inauthentic thing about that. So we don’t have to be perfect. What we have to do is get our needs met and do that with some integrity.

Steve Edwards (00:57:00):
This’ll be Billy put out, I’m sure, but it’s that putting the on the pedestal, it’s raising this belief that women are perfect, that women are without flaw and that your, just this piece of meat that she accepted into her life and you bring her no value. I mean, I think that’s where a lot of this self doubt and this disbelief in yourself that you’re deserving of love. I don’t know. Like I think that this is a lot of this has to start inside. This has to start in your own head. This is your own self-worth. And if you have something about you that you don’t like change it, make the change, do the work. If you’re like, oh my God, I’m such a fat obese sack, a shoes. Well, maybe you go to the gym maybe instead of sitting around. And like, if you don’t believe in yourself, maybe you take these changes. I have a mantra that I live by and I think it’s the greatest piece of advice. You either go after the life you want, or you settle for the life, you get hands down, full stop. The only thing you change everything about yourself. You want to be a billionaire, great. Do the work you want to be, you know, you want abs, you want to be ripped. You want the best life possible. Do the work. And if you don’t do the work, then you have to accept what you got.

Brad Singletary (00:58:20):
Yeah. Sometimes when we’re trying to be appear low maintenance. So like, if I, if I don’t have any needs, if I don’t have any way to grow, if I don’t have any imperfection, no one’s gonna abandon me. I want to dig into that covert contracts again, real quick. So basically that is to say, I will do blank so that you can do blank for me. I will do whatever. I’ll do this thing for you so that you can do this thing for me. But both of you act like no one is aware of the contract.

Steve Edwards (00:58:50):
You know, again, we can’t speak for women. We don’t have any women’s setting hair or anything like that, but it’s every guy does it. I mean, you know, they’re probably doing it and they don’t even know they’re doing it. But the, the most popular is always regarding around sex. You know, they on running joke for as long as everybody’s been alive is like the second you get in a marriage, you know, there goes a sax, right? Well, these guys that are in these relationships, he’s sexless, unhappy relationship. You know, that sex didn’t go away overnight and it didn’t go for a way, for any reason, something happened, something stopped, pushed her away where she stopped having sex with you. And maybe it was your lying. Maybe it was you not paying attention. You know, that phone that you’re sitting in there in your hand or the video game controller in front of you maybe you got to put it down, put a little pay, little attention and you know, I’ve had to drink my own.

Steve Edwards (00:59:41):
Kool-Aid on that. I’m the, I’m the worst. Like I worked all the time. I always was on my phone. I’d be sitting and watching TV and on my phone and just like not paying attention. So when she stopped having sex with you at a certain point, you have pull up in the mirror what happened? And it’s two to the covert contract side. It’s this artificial like made up. If you do this, I’m going to give you this. And for guys that’s sex, like I said, it’s the chores. It’s the date night. It’s the, any, any little gesture that should be commonplace in the relationship. Oh, I went and got your wheel changed in your car. Oh, I did this. And it’s like, you laugh at that. I was like, oh, I went and got your oil change. We should probably have sex without

Brad Singletary (01:00:25):
You mentioned, you mentioned the date night. I heard a guy in, one of my men’s groups recently was talking about how he took his wife out to this fancy dinner. They were all dressed up. They bought a bunch of expensive wine and all these things. And he, his whole thing was like, oh boy, when we get home, it’s going down. And it didn’t go down because she’s half buzzed. It’s midnight 30. You know, she’s been up with the kids since five in the morning and she’s tired. And she wanted to get down the next morning when they woke up. And he was all sorts of butt-hurt because I spent $600 on you on this date. And I didn’t even get any so needs are normal. We’ve got to accept that our needs are normal, but we need to talk about those indirect ways.

Steve Edwards (01:01:10):
I’m I’m done that. I’ve done. I’ve like, that could have been me. I I’m I’m that guy that you just told a story about there. I mean, I I’ve, I’ve done it when I planned a big night and we went out to a show and a fancy dinner and we were staying at the Cosmo and it was, I mean, rolled out the red carpet. And then when we got back to the hotel, she’s like, I’m tired. I’m not feeling this. And like a little bit, I’m just like, what are you going to have sex? You they’re going to have sex. I, you know, and those ruined, and then you’re having guilt sex, which is gotta be worse. It’s almost as bad as no.

Brad Singletary (01:01:45):
Oh, it’s worse. Cause it’s building resentment and they they’re just turned off, checked out. There’s nothing intimate at all about that. Earlier, we talked about the difference between caring and caretaking and there was a cool action step in the book. Here’s one of the things that he suggests, he says, stop giving completely for a week, stop doing any care-taking completely for a week. Don’t do anything that you normally do for a week and notice how you feel and how people react

Steve Edwards (01:02:12):
When you say that out loud. And like, guys are going to hear this. Like, you know how absurd that sounds right.

Brad Singletary (01:02:18):
It sounds absurd. He says, but there’s a followup to it. But he says, all right, notice how you feel and how people react when you give nothing. And then he said, after that, then caretake more than you normally do. So go all aboard, all overboard, caretaking, checking in, making sure they have everything, give them everything they ever wanted and then notice how you feel and how people react. And I think I want to try this. So

Steve Edwards (01:02:41):
Without imploding a relationship, do all of this without imploding your relationship.

Brad Singletary (01:02:47):
I think the idea is it’s really trying to get us out of the habit of the covert contract. And just to sometimes I’m sitting around like, okay, you had a shower. I had a shower I’m guess guests. This means maybe we can do this now. You know? And, and I noticed that most of those times disappointed, but when I got to do and it’s like, oh babe, no, I got, I got something going on. I got it. I gotta go. I gotta meet up with Steve over the office to record a podcast. Like that’s when it’s like, I’m being pulled back in to like, whoa, before you leave. And there’s some crazy goes down in two and a half minutes in the closet, you know what I’m saying?

Steve Edwards (01:03:26):
And how does it like, I mean, isn’t that the way you’ve dreamed about it being isn’t that the like fun that needs to be injected into it. I know a lot of guys, if they even had to go to the idea of like scheduling it, because now when you’re an adult and you got kids in the house, you got all this, let’s be real. That sex is going to go away. It’s not going to be like, when you’re freshly dating, no kids and no adult responsibilities or no, like, like, yeah, that’s amazing. And then it all goes away and guys are like, Hey, what happened? Do what happened when we were 22 and things were amazing. And we had unadulterated I don’t know if you want to call it like young kids, sex, college kids sex. I don’t think that that’s I think

Brad Singletary (01:04:09):
That that’s in the car, like that kind of stuff,

Steve Edwards (01:04:12):
Car sex. Now I just, now that practical dad, adult side of me is like, why would we do that? Like, why don’t we like, you know, we have a fully functioning bed, right? Like, God, what if I get a leg cramp? God, I, I even, we should delete that portion out. Cause we ain’t going to be terrible. Nobody wants to hear about like, why Steve doesn’t want to have car sex too old for this.

Brad Singletary (01:04:38):
My favorite lines in the, in the, in the, I was gonna say the movie, they should probably make a movie about this. But in the, in the book is helpless. Whiny, wimpy, and needy men are not attractive. Not at all. He says, put yourself first. It shows confidence. And that is what attractive you’ll feel anxious and guilty at first. But if you can just put yourself first, do what you want to do and do nothing that you don’t want to do. Now, some guys are going to hear this and go to say, oh, well, when I go to church, they tell me I need to serve and love and sacrifice. Well, yeah, if you’re an ego driven person, who’s only selfish and completely, some, sometimes people need to forget themselves and kind of, there’s two ideas. One guy says the king eats first and the other guy says the king eats last. And which one is it? And I think it’s both depending on which you’ve been typically in the past, if you’re a nice guy, I think the king eats first.

Steve Edwards (01:05:34):
Well, and this isn’t a game of absolutes, right? Like this is not something I think that you can just go full, stop on it tomorrow. And you’re going to just have a happy life. In fact, I think you’re going to end up with a more off life than you have. Now. I think that this is something you have to recognize inside of yourself. A big takeaway for me would be the recognizing of the covert contract. I think that that’s the most easy place for a guy to start recognizing the little things that you’re trading off with the expectation of something in return. Start there, stop doing it, stop expecting anything. And maybe then you’re going to stop volunteering to do some of these tasks that I’m not saying don’t help around the house. Cause I feel like that’s like an implosion waiting to happen too. But I think you’ve got to approach us with a different energy, a different mindset and quit trying to horse trade stuff with

Brad Singletary (01:06:31):
Horse trade. I like that. I like that idea.

Steve Edwards (01:06:33):
Yeah. I, you know, it’s like this, this just, it’s a trade. It’s a trade and guys are w and it would be one thing that even if you said it, like, Hey, I’m going to do all these chores. And in return, I would like to have sex. And she says, yes, sir, do you accept this deal? These terms? And she said, yes, that’d be great, but it’s always happening without being said. And then it’s just leading to disappointment. So I think you got to take baby steps, read the book, read the book again and probably read it two or three, four more times. Cause I’m, I’m a like 10 times deep because it’s a huge mindset thing. This is a mindset change.

Brad Singletary (01:07:11):
Yeah. I think you’ve made a good point about this. This can’t happen overnight. Generally. This is just a general idea about the timeframe for change. I think it takes a month for every year that you’ve been dysfunctional. So w our average listener is about a 40 year old man. And if he’s been doing this since he was a child, you know, since he was a boy, he has been, he’s been a nice, nice guy since he was a boy, because he was trained to be that way. So he’s been doing it for 30 years. Been a nice guy. It may take you 30 months of therapy. Men’s groups talking with dudes about this, really getting control of yourself, getting your balls back. It might take you a month for every, yeah. So think of you’re on a three-year plan to get your balls back and we can help you with that stuff if you reach out to us. But yeah, it’s not going to happen overnight, and don’t go do some sudden crazy things, but in reclaiming your personal power, he talks about considering and accepting your gifts. You got to find some things to be proud of. You got to look in the mirror and see something that you like and be able to acknowledge that with yourself and the people you’re around and project a reality that we,

Speaker 3 (01:08:24):
I, I love this. I love this point. Like this, I think is a, I lead with a lot of self-confidence where it comes from. I’m not totally sure. Maybe it’s all a lie, but I have it. Okay. A lot of the guys I talked to, there’s such this belief, this self belief that they’re not deserving of better. And if you don’t believe you deserve better than what you have, how do you ever get it? How do you, how do you demand that? How do you demand more from others? If you don’t even think you deserve it? And of all the things of all the topics that one hurts me the most, because there’s a lot of guys that are in unhappy relationships and you know, maybe it isn’t a woman may, you know, but they’re, but they’re not taking any action. And all they’re going to do is they’re going to keep going down the same path, because it is the path of least resistance, because it’s easier to be unhappy in a relationship with your wife and you know, your kids than it is to break up, get divorced, you know, have shared custody, lose half your money, or lose your money and, you know, start all over and still be this weak man, because you don’t deserve, you don’t think you deserve better.

Steve Edwards (01:09:40):
In fact, now your self-worth has even less guys really have to do this. Some of the self works, you know, look in the mirror. What do you deserve? Why do you deserve it? What are you doing to be the best possible version of yourself? The way at the exercise? The self appearance is a big portion of it. The idea of like, when you start dating somebody, all of a sudden you become attractive to other females. We’ve all heard that. And when you’re single, all of a sudden, you’re basically chopped liver and nobody wants you. Well, it’s because you pull off that like thirsty vibe when you’re single, you’re needy, you want, you know, you’re wanting of love of others and it comes off as weakness versus masculinity and confidence and self-belief, and when you’re in a relationship and you feel like you’re in a S you know, those first three, six months of a relationship, when you feel like man, I’m on top of the world, I’m in this great relationship. I’ve got this girl by my side, you know, that’s that kind of like, that’s that toxic max masculinity. That’s the stuff that pours out of you that feels like you’re conquering the world. And then you let life kick you in the nuts a little bit. And all of a sudden you become this weak version of yourself again.

Brad Singletary (01:10:52):
Wow. So interesting. So true. We kind of project a reality that we want to see happening on to things. And even if it’s not real. So one of the interesting concepts in the book that, that shocked me a little was it talked about, we are trying to be monogamous to our mothers. And the way I read that was we kind of maybe unconsciously sabotage things so that we can really stay true to our first girlfriend. And that’s a very fruity and in nature, but I think it’s true to some degree. So let me go ruin every relationship so that I can get back to my mom or to this in the archetypical sense. This is the ideal love or whatever. I let me ruin this so that I can be comforted and be, you know, go back to this idealistic thing, whether your mom is alive or not. I want to go back to this ideal of unconditional love. I have a client who complains that his wife, you know, says, oh, we need to have unconditional love. And he tells me, and I believe it. The only unconditional love that exists is from God and from your mom and dad and, and no spouse, you know, because we’ve seen it. We’ve been through these situations where we love you when this is going well, when you start doing that now, I don’t love you anymore. It’s not, can’t be on a conditional only for your children.

Steve Edwards (01:12:08):
Unconditional love is such a weird concept too, of like, I mean, would you expect your parents to still love you if you were Jeffrey Dahmer or, you know, if you’re some crazy serial killer. And I know I don’t feel like I’m deep enough to wrap my head around this whole idea of like being faithful to your mom. I think it comes to this idea that you’re you do, you know, your parents are vital to your mom was in the picture for so long. And a lot of guys are mama’s boys. I was a mama’s boy. I am a mama’s boy. I see my mom a lot. And it’s, you know, you always hear the female saying like, you know, the mom is just too up in our business. You know, they, you can’t stand up to your mom because it’s your mom. You can’t say no to your mom. There’s no ability to push back. And, and over time that that almost feels like it’s how guys end up in relationships too, where they just can’t, they can’t be truthful. They can’t follow through, but you know, this idea of being faithful to your mom, I don’t know. I’m sure there’s a truth to it. I just it’s deeper than me, buddy.

Brad Singletary (01:13:15):
So he’s part of it is he saying that, you know, we are dependent on the approval of women. And so mom is just kind of the archetype of pure love and the, and the love that never goes away and that kind of thing. And so we’re, we become dependent on women. And if we’re talking about trying to take back our power and take back our masculinity, one of the things it talks about in there is we have this belief that we’re different from other men. I’m not the abusive, angry guy. I’m the sensitive, caring, caretaking person. And, and that actually disconnects us from other men, which is part of the problem. I love his definition of masculinity. He says, masculinity is basically what, whatever helps us in survival. So it’s our strength. It’s our ability to strategize. It’s our ability to fight. It’s our ability to protect and those types of things. But since say like the sixties, you know, we’ve kind of distanced ourselves from aggression. And so, but we still noticed that women are attracted to jerks.

Steve Edwards (01:14:16):
It’s like you better off. If everybody just needs to go buy themselves a Fonzie jacket and have a little bit of that. Yeah. I mean, but there is that element girls are attracted because that cause that jerk also spews confidence, whether it’s fake or not. Because I think that there’s a real level of fake confidence that goes with it. But that’s, I think where the attraction comes from is they’re looking for a leader. They’re looking for a guy who can take charge and have a strong backbone and it isn’t going to, or isn’t going to roll over. I think that’s where it comes from is that women are attracted to a bad boy or to this bad guy, because it’s everything they’ve been told that like, they shouldn’t find the nice guy, get the banker, go to go marry the guy. That’s going to raise the kids. Right. And go to work and come home and love you. And it’s like, but everybody’s so unfulfilled by that. Everybody’s so unfulfilled because nobody’s really talking about what they want. Even the woman in this, the woman isn’t saying, this is what I want, need to be happy. She’s just going with the flow too. Because if you don’t talk about it, it’s not really an issue.

Brad Singletary (01:15:27):
Yeah. Most women don’t want a man that who’s trying to please them. They want a man with balls.

Steve Edwards (01:15:32):
Oh yeah. A hundred percent. They want, each woman that could mean different things. That doesn’t mean you actually have to go out and like fight bowls or like jump, jump dirt bikes, or do any of these things, but you’ve gotta be comfortable in your own skin. And that’s hard. I think it’s hard for, you know, for guys to be like, this is who I am. This is the man. I want to be, I like golf. I like cars or dirt bikes or whatever it is. And just having a passion, like, what are you passionate about outside of your wife, outside of your kids? And that’s where I think a lot of guys lose all their happiness. You know, they give it away because it’s like, now I’m an adult. I don’t have any hobbies because I am a dad because I am married. It’s like, well, what were you interested in? You know, you used to maybe ride a skateboard or you used to like play baseball. Maybe you need to be on the softball team. Maybe you need to go play softball once a week. Or, you know, I’m not advocating for you to go on drinking with the boys, but you know that Saturdays are for the boys. Maybe you need a Saturday. Maybe you need, yeah. You’ve got to really find a way to like talk with the guy.

Brad Singletary (01:16:45):
Yeah. So true man. I was so I played college football and the idea of locker room talk and your mama jokes and all that kind of stuff. I was the guy who was offended by all that stuff. And I didn’t even, I never had any comebacks. Literally it took me into well into my adulthood to realize that that’s one of the ways that men bond with each other. And I used to get so offended. My grandfather would always call me like knucklehead, not head, you know, all these things. And I remember crying to my mom. He says, these mean things to me, you know, why does he say that to me? And it took me. I was probably in my twenties before I realized that’s just how guys do and I’ve yeah. That’s ball busting is real. So a Glover talks about, we need to do these four things to reclaim our masculinity, connect with other men, get strong, literally get in the gym, get strong workout, be physically active, have healthy male mentors and connections.

Brad Singletary (01:17:39):
And then look at, look at your relationship with your dad. And that’s something that you might consider doing with the professional, but we’re afraid to upset women because then it means she won’t have sex with us, but he makes a good point that that’s not true with our male friends. We’re not trying to get it on with our homeys. And so we can be real and we can not worry about upsetting them. We can not worry about drama with dudes. You’re less likely to have drama with male friends. And so that’s one of the reasons he says we need to have.

Steve Edwards (01:18:07):
So I know there’s going to be a lot of guys that are thinking like, well, how do I go get guy friends? Well now with the internet, you know, my best friend lives in Florida. Like I talked to him, I talked to him far too often for two males, but he lives in Florida and we talk every day about some, about anything, everything, and anything in between. But nowadays with the internet and Facebook and these different portals, you can find somebody who’s interested in what you’re into. Oh, you’re a weird European stamp collector. Great that guy’s on the internet somewhere. You’re not stuck with this idea that you have to find a friend in your backyard like you used to. But I do think that there is an element of like, you got to get out of the house. You need to find your tribe.

Steve Edwards (01:18:50):
Find those people that you can relate with that are going to check you on your and hold you accountable to your goals. A lot of guys just, they’re not transparent. Transparency being so key to all of this is they’re so afraid to be vulnerable to other men that it’s like when they’re around other men, it’s like a chest beating contest. Like we’re a bunch of gorillas. Have you ever played softball or have you ever hung? So you go to like softball and or whatever you go to hang out with the guys. None of those guys are ever having bad days. None of them are going through divorce. None of their wives are cheating on them or anything like that. Why? Because male, ego is way too high for anybody to ever be vulnerable. You need to find those three to five guys. And maybe it starts with one. Maybe it starts with two, but you need to find people that you can be real open and honest with.

Brad Singletary (01:19:43):
Yeah. Tell him when you’re messing up, tell on yourself, tell him about the problem you haven’t asked for some input. Listen to them.

Steve Edwards (01:19:50):
Find a men’s group. Men’s group is a huge thing. There’s men’s group you can go into and you can be yourself because these are not your friends. They are like-minded individuals, peers that are there to hear your problems and as well as address their problems. And I think that’s a huge step. I think that is such a miss where guys are missing out on is seek some therapy. So you can men’s group be real, like open up and be real about what’s going on in your life.

Brad Singletary (01:20:20):
We want to wrap this up guys. Thank you for being with us, but we’re just going to hit a few points from No More Mr. Nice guy by Robert Glover. Some things that he talks about, that what ways we can do to be integrated and to get our strength back, get our mojo back, get our balls back and have more respect in our relationships. Whether professionally or romantically, let’s just hit a few things here. First of all, I think is have some integrity. Be honest in what you’re saying. Be honest about your feelings, your interactions. Tell the truth.

Steve Edwards (01:20:53):
Yeah, that’s a, I think that’s a great one. Another one is quit being afraid of new experiences or what’s what’s around you. What the world has stopped.

Brad Singletary (01:21:02):
Yeah. Don’t be avoidant of new experiences. I love that. Learn to surrender what you can’t change. That’s one of the big things in alcoholics anonymous, the serenity prayer except the things that you cannot change.

Steve Edwards (01:21:18):
I mean, this next one is an interesting one, because again, it’ll, it’ll trigger some people, but do what you want to do quick, constantly trying to always please other people, make sure you’re taking care of yourself for

Brad Singletary (01:21:31):
Learn how to get help. Ask about help for your feelings. If you’re feeling uncomfortable or guilty about something. Talk about that stuff.

Steve Edwards (01:21:40):
Recognize that that people are human, that people are going to make mistakes, that people are flawed in nature.

Brad Singletary (01:21:46):
Stop trying to be perfect.

Steve Edwards (01:21:48):
Stop seeking approval. And like you don’t need the approval and the external validation from everybody.

Brad Singletary (01:21:54):
Yeah. You got to approve of yourself. Treat yourself to the things that you deserve. Take care of your own needs with integrity.

Steve Edwards (01:22:01):
Stop building such huge walls and let people in.

Brad Singletary (01:22:05):
Don’t try to cover up or take attention away from your weaknesses. Don’t be afraid of your shortcomings.

Steve Edwards (01:22:13):
Be aware or cognizant of your childhood events and some of the conditions or influences that led you to where you’re at today.

Brad Singletary (01:22:21):
Set boundaries. No who to let in who to leave out. Don’t allow yourself to be disrespected or taking advantage of.

Steve Edwards (01:22:29):
There’s a big one on the list, but be clear or start expressing your feelings. Be transparent about what you’re feeling about things.

Brad Singletary (01:22:37):
Spend more time with men. And we’ve talked about that quite a bit. You’ve got to develop your masculine energy,

Steve Edwards (01:22:42):
Recognize that women, they reject nice guys. They see that as weak, recognize that

Brad Singletary (01:22:49):
Learn to be more passionate, more assertive, more responsible, take care of business.

Steve Edwards (01:22:55):
I recognize that you don’t have to do everything right, or you’re allowed to be flawed

Brad Singletary (01:23:01):
And don’t let the fear of failure or the fear of success. Some guys, I think fears success don’t let that keep you away from the things that you want and deserve.

Steve Edwards (01:23:11):
The last I think is don’t settle for mediocrity. Go after the life you want, quit settling. You’re not a Pilgrim.

Brad Singletary (01:23:18):
Make your own rules. There’s a lot of rules out there right now. If they make sense. And if you can jive with that, go for it. But also don’t be afraid to be independent. Don’t be afraid to be, non-compliant do your thing. Get your balls back, guys. We really appreciate you being with us tonight. This is such an important topic. Men must be stronger. And that may, I mean, take a look at your upbringing. That might mean take a look at how you interact covert contracts. We’ve got to turn these things around and what I’ve noticed with myself and with men that I’ve worked with over the last 23 years, when we stand up and allow ourselves to be counted and allow our voice to be heard and be real and genuine and authentic about where we’re at, what our needs are. And we do the things that keep us alive in our spirit. Things just turn out so much better for us. Appreciate you being with us. Steve-O thank you

Steve Edwards (01:24:11):
So much for having me. I hope I come back. I got a lot to talk about.

Brad Singletary (01:24:14):
Yeah, dude, this is good. I feel like we got a good vibe. We get a little slow here, man. I appreciate you being here and we’re definitely happy back, brother. Take care. Thank you. You guys know no excuses, alpha up.

Speaker (01:24:29):
Gentlemen, you are the Alpha and this is the Alpha Quorum.

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She’s a Moving Target: Get in the Game

She’s a Moving Target: Get in the Game

Men expect our women to be easy to deal with. We expect the target to sit still and let us shoot it. That’s not how it works; if it was that easy, we wouldn’t even have any drive for it at all. ⁣

Some men like to hunt, investing all kinds of time and energy and resources chasing down a moving target. We sit in silence, patiently waiting for the elusive animal, using all kinds of bait and camouflage and tools and weaponry. Some men like to fish and spend insane amounts of time trying to capture a creature we cannot even see beneath the water with expensive lures and all manner of techniques. And it’s so much fun. We see it as an adventure.⁣

Some men like sports where there is an opponent running around who needs to be chased. Quarterbacks try to throw a prolate spheroid to a guy literally running 40 yards in 4.2 seconds. We swing sticks just slightly fatter than a broom at balls moving 90 mph. We become entranced in pursuit of the fastball, the curve-ball, the change-up.

In hockey we are fascinated with strapping metal blades to our feet and running on ice to chase a 3” rubber biscuit with a curved stick all while evading the defender who’s trying to knock our teeth out. And it is fun. It is a game. It is something to invest in. It is something that thrills us. Imagine your favorite player whining that the competitor is playing hard to get. Lame. Never happens. ⁣

So why do we have that attitude towards our women? We want them to lay there with their legs open and be quiet. We want them to be easy to figure out and simple for us to understand. Boring. The feminine moves and flows with sometimes chaotic rhythm and retreat. The true masculine is a disciplined pursuer. He is in competition with himself to figure it out and make the right move at the right time. ⁣

Get in the game, bro. Change your attitude about your relationship. Yes, the target is moving, and you may feel like you are never quite sure how to be. See this as a game against a respected rival. Stay focused, stay disciplined and conquer. You’re not trying to win. You’re not trying to conquer her, you’re trying to conquer your impatience. Conquer your s e l f.

🔺 Alpha Up

Disconnection: It’s Not a New Problem

Disconnection: It’s Not a New Problem

Disconnection: It’s Not a New Problem

BRAD SINGLETARY, LCSW

Founder, Producer, Host, Men's Coach

BRAD SINGLETARY, LCSW

Founder, Producer, Host, Men's Coach

He was slammed all day and went without lunch again. The 2-day-old leftovers in his company fridge weren’t very appetizing anyway, but he sure was hungry now. As he walked by his wife, he gave her a kiss and could see she was scrolling through her Facebook feed, so he sat down across from her at the table and took out his own phone.⁣

She looked up after she finished reading an article her sister posted, but her husband was already looking down at his phone. She’d been on her phone too, so she didn’t resent him for it. Much of the time they spent together, they were on their devices – everyone was. She dismissed her thoughts, and looked back down at her feed.⁣

Edward Hopper’s 1932, Room in New York, depicts a similar scene. He’s engrossed in his newspaper, she’s playing a melancholy, one-note song. The disconnection is palpable to the viewer outside their city brownstone.⁣

Fast-forward nearly a century, and the scene has changed, but the disconnection is still there. Instead of a newspaper, it’s a smart phone. Instead of the viewer on the street, it’s the followers and friends on social media. It seems everyone has a highlight reel for the world to view, but if it were honest, it would show the couples looking away, distracted, and disconnected.⁣

Dudes are escaping. It’s not the newspaper anymore – it’s gaming, porn, work obligations, and the list goes on. It’s easier to connect to an online gaming partner 5,000 miles away than it is to connect with our real-life partner sitting 3 feet away. Why?⁣

Science tells us, when we are depleted cognitively, we give up more quickly. By the time we have time, we’re too tired to give much effort. It’s not a coincidence that couples spend their last waking hours in front of the TV before bed. They’re too tired and cognitively depleted to do anything else.⁣

What can you do to take back control and connect? Prioritize your time.Don’t over obligate yourself and try to create white space so you have the energy to connect with your partner. An Alpha takes responsibility. An Alpha stays engaged. Make the time to Alpha up👊💪