Franklin: [00:00:00] Right now, the world needs great men who will stand up and lead with honor, serve with purpose and courageously fulfill their God given roles as husbands, fathers, leaders, and men. I'm your host, Franklin Swan, bringing you practical tools and powerful conversations you can use every day. To build yourself into the man God is calling you to be.
This is the world needs men. Let's go. All right. Welcome back to the world needs men podcast. I'm your host, Franklin Swan, and going to do a bit of a shorter episode today. But. Really what I want to communicate men today is that we need challenges. We need challenges in our life. And I think it's really easy to, to not want challenges and to try to get out of [00:01:00] challenges and to do everything we can to avoid challenges.
But the reality is, and the truth is that challenges are what build us. Challenges are what help us to grow challenges are what help us to to learn and just to be better men. You look at any great men in history like they are defined not by the easy days they had, but by the hard things that they overcame the challenges that they faced and and whether they won or lost like they faced their challenges.
If we look at any good movie, Braveheart, Gladiator. Men face challenges and they face them head on and, and they face them with uncertainty. They face them even though they may be fearful. They face them knowing that there's a good chance that they may fail. But I think when, when you look at our modern world, like.
We just have the opportunity to, to make things so easy and [00:02:00] to be pretty soft, honestly, we can go pretty much day to day in our modern world and just kind of avoid anything that, that would challenge us. And, but the reality is at some point, a challenge is going to come like in two days, I'm supposed to have a, a fusion in my neck.
I was doing jujitsu and I mentioned it in a previous podcast on, on, Steps to overcoming a challenge. But I really wanted to dive into a conversation around like, even though we should have a plan and a path for overcoming a challenge, we need the challenge. Like, we need that in our life. And on, on Friday, by the time I, you know, this comes out, it'll all be done.
But on Friday, I'm going to go in and they're going to remove my the disc between my C5 and C6 vertebrae. They're going to fuse that together and, and provide some relief for my C6 nerve, which is going into my left arm. And, and it's, you know, I've got muscle atrophy. I've got nerve pain. I've got a lot of weakness in my arm and numbness.[00:03:00]
And the only way to solve that is to, is to fuse that disc together. And so, you know, this is a challenge that I did not choose. Like I didn't go and sign up for this and yet here it is. And so, you know, when we avoid challenges, the thing is, they still end up coming along. They still end up showing up on our doorstep.
And I think the only question is when it when a challenge arises, like, are we prepared for it? And are we willing to face it and to walk through it and and to not just endure it, but to grow from it and learn from it? I think that we can We can become such better men when we learn how to face challenges.
And I think there's, there's really two types of challenges that we face. There's those that we choose willingly and those that we don't choose. The ones that show up, you know, it's, it's the car wreck. It's the, the relationship struggle. It's the, the financial challenge that, you know, blindsides us. Like there's all these challenges in life that we're not going to choose, but they're going to come our way.
But then there's other challenges that we can choose. [00:04:00] We can choose to do hard things, to build ourselves as men, to build ourselves physically and mentally and emotionally and spiritually so that when the unforeseen challenges come along, we're prepared and we've built ourselves into resilient, strong, courageous men who can face those things.
So what would be some examples of challenges that we choose? I mean, it could be as simple as signing up for a race. It could be learning something. It could be, you know, taking on a new business venture. It could be, you know, speaking in public. I mean, shoot, this podcast has been a challenge for me, you know, to step out into it, to challenge myself in a new way.
You could choose to sign up for some kind of a bootcamp or, you know, even, you For some of us waking up 30 minutes earlier, like if you set your alarm for five o'clock, that may be a challenge for you. But the thing is, is I think you can can do a couple of different kind of challenges that will build you.
One is is big event [00:05:00] challenges. So this would be the, you know, running the marathon or I mean, shoot. What about an ultra marathon? What about completing a 24 hour boot camp? or a six hour boot camp. Like there's things that if you choose to step into them and you push yourself past your perceived limits, then you grow who you are and you see that you're a lot of times capable of way more than you even can imagine.
I remember about a two and a half day, three day boot camp I did. And we were awake for two nights straight. So on that second night, we were marching and carrying sandbags and all. And it was in this event called Goat Rock. And I would literally start falling asleep as I was walking. And then I would catch myself as I started to fall and I would wake back up.
But I'm literally walking along and falling asleep as I was walking. And And, you know, I get to the end of that, that challenge and what I realized is my limits are so far [00:06:00] beyond what I think. And that's the thing, men, as you're listening to this, I don't care what you think your limits are. They are so much greater than what you perceive them to be.
But if we don't, it's, it's just like exercise and building a muscle. If we don't consciously build that and invest into it, when that challenge comes along, that's a health challenge. or that is a financial challenge or a relationship challenge, a challenge with your kids, a challenge in a friendship, whatever the case may be.
Are you going to be prepared for it or not? And then how you're able to face that challenge is going to begin to define and create a narrative of who you are as a man. So embrace challenges. Other ways you can do this can be small, right? It can be waking up every day. early. It can be going on a run every day.
It can be. I mean, for me, I do a couple minutes in a cold plunge every morning, so it may seem small and trivial. But the thing is, if you get up and if the first thing you do in the morning is cold plunge for two minutes and 40 degree water, [00:07:00] and if you do that for a year, What will happen is you begin to binoculate yourself to hardship, you begin to build resilience and over time that just strengthens that muscle in your mind that says, I'm going to go forward and step into this thing, even though my mind is telling me to run and telling me all the reasons I shouldn't do it and trying to convince me that it's, it's a bad idea.
Well, I shut that down. I step into it. I do that hard thing. And then when the, unforeseen challenge of a neck injury comes along. Okay. I have built myself into a man who is better prepared to handle that. And, you know, the challenges, I think they can help build us physically, right? They can help build us mentally.
I mean, I'm going through a, I mean, this is kind of a physical challenge right now, but it is testing and challenging me way more mentally than it is physically. Cause I can't go run. I can't lift. So I'm out walking every day. Yeah. And that's the extent of what I can do physically [00:08:00] and that is challenging me mentally.
When we go through a challenge, it can help us grow emotionally because we have to learn to control our emotions in the midst of that challenge, right? We have to be able to respond even though we're dealing with something challenging. And potentially still show up as a great husband, still show up as a great father, right?
Still show up as a leader and, you know, show up for work, show up in your business, like all these things still have to happen. But those take emotional control. And when we develop ourselves and face challenges, it helps build that resilience. And the next thing I think that's really important is when we're at our limits of who we are physically, mentally, emotionally, that is when we have the opportunity to lean in and realize.
that there comes a point where We just need God on our side. And we, you know, I think God uses these moments. I don't think he, he necessarily puts us in these challenging circumstances, but that doesn't mean he can't use them [00:09:00] to reveal more of who he is to us and allow us to use those moments to lean in more on him.
I know during this time, like I have had to lean in and there've been moments where it's like, I just don't have anything left, but I know that. There is more out there that I can see, and I know that my Savior is there to pick up what I can't, and to carry the load when I fail and when I fall. And so men, just as I go into the next challenge, and this whole year for me has been a challenge, I have faced relational challenges, business challenges, now physical challenges.
right? They're always coming. The next challenge is always coming. It's not a matter of if it's just win. And so we can either prepare ourselves for those challenges. We can embrace and we can have this attitude that says I don't have to face this challenge. I get to face this challenge and you can develop a mindset in a in a perspective that says, you know, this thing as much as [00:10:00] painful as it may be, as much as I might not want to do it, I recognize that this is the path and the way forward for me to become a better man.
Because if you'll embrace it, if you'll learn from it, if you'll allow yourself to grow from it, then on the other side of it, you will be a better husband and father and leader because you're able to endure more. Like, the more you're able to endure, the more you can carry that burden so your family doesn't have to.
If you're physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually resilient, strong, and courageous, then you can carry a heavier load and keep your family from having to carry part of that load for you. Like, that is not their job. That's yours. As men, we have to take this on. As men, we have to realize that. So I'm going to sign off.
This is going to be a fast one today. But men, where in your life do you need to start facing some challenges? Where in your life do you need to start manufacturing challenges that help you to grow, that help you to build who you are? The world doesn't need soft men. The world [00:11:00] needs strong men. The world needs courageous men.
The world needs men who face challenges and aren't afraid to manufacture and to create some challenges on their own so that when the unforeseen challenges arise, they're prepared and they're ready for it. Your family deserves that. Your family deserves a man who is ready, willing, and able to face challenges and doesn't run from them, doesn't hide behind someone in the midst of them, but is able to lead and love and be there even when things are hard.
That's the kind of man the world needs and you need a challenge. If you're in the midst of one, face it. Bring other good men around you to walk through it with you. Lean on God, like reach out and just consider the fact, consider the possibility that there's a lot more going on around us than we can see.
And face your challenges and just do the work one day at a time. Cause that's, that's what our families deserve. [00:12:00] Let's go get them in.
If you enjoyed today's episode, please subscribe to the podcast, give us a rating and review and share this episode with one man. You know, needs to hear this message. We want to encourage as many men as possible to show up as the strong leaders, loving husbands and intentional fathers, their family deserves.
And until next time, Be the man the world needs.