Managing Manhood

Men’ Stories by Orin smith

During the summer months of 2021, I had a thought to start a podcast. And as quickly as the thought came to mind it went away but always seemed to linger in the back of my mind.

During that same time I started to become more interested in the self-help space.

Discovering many different voices telling me all of the things I should be doing with my life and others saying the complete opposite of what the last guy was saying.  So many people that claimed that they knew the secret and just for a low low price, you too will know everything that will make you more money and more desirable to all the people you want to be desired by.

After about a year of this, I decided to purchase off a USB microphone and I was going to start that podcast which I named it – Managing Manhood.

Not because I had all the answers of what a man should be or how he should act. But because I wanted to talk to the real men out there, learn how they lived and how they figured out how to navigate the world that was put before them.

As of writing this December of 2022, I have recorded 7 episodes with the intent of doing more the start of January. I have talked to all guys; one that started their own businesses out of desperation for a better life for their family, I have talked to a father who lost his wife to cancer; I have talked to a Semi-pro kick boxer who ended up selling land and taught me about the 3 f’s(Family, Fitness and Finance). I even talked about comics in one episode and how those stores could be considered a guide in looking for personality traits that could make you a better person.

So many different stories and suggestions about how they figured out “how to be a man” and found successes in many areas in there. 

Even though I would say that my journey into this convocation of man hood is not over I have picked up on a few things.

No One Way

First is we are all different and that is okay. I am discovering that there is no one way to be a man, and there is no one way that is better than the others. Manhood is more about discovering yourself and how that plays out in your life.

Things that you can’t change

Second being comfortable with yourself, is one of the best pieces of advice I could give you. There are going to be things in your life you can change and things in your life that you cannot. By learning to love yourself and to being comfortable, you will start to learn that the things that you can no fix are not really as bad as you think they are.

While you can’t change how tall you are or the sound of your voice. What you can do is to learn to communicate better, make your words matter. You will no longer care about the sound you create as much as the feelings you express and the lessons that you are teaching. People will no longer be looking down at you, but they will be looking up to you for the example that you set.

Feeling responsible

Third- we are providers; it is by instinctive we desire, drive to want to provide for our family. How we decide to do that, is up to us. We have to have a clear idea of what success is and only we are responsible for making that happen. You may like to Enlighten yourself more on this here- what does success mean to modern man).

Just Do it

And Forth; we are creators so go out and make something. Again how we do this is up to you. Some of us are writers and story tellers, some of us are builders. Stop feeling bad that you are not as good as someone else at something and take is as a challenge to get better. Just pick something, anything and maybe a few things and start to find a way to make it work for you. After all we are men aren’t we?