Don't "try" to make 2023 better, TRAIN to make it better

Published: Thu, 12/29/22

December 29, 2022

CONTENTS:

A Personal Note
Don't "try" to make 2023 better ... TRAIN to make it better
FEATURE ARTICLE: We need not reject ALL pleasures in 2023 … just the reckless ones

1. A Personal Note

Thanks for reading my newsletter. I hope you're getting ready for a great New Year! Feel free to share this with anyone you know.

WORKSHOP -- The Fight of Your Life

I'm working right now to schedule workshops and retreats for churches and other communities. I've put together a workshop based on the research and work of the Renewed Man Community. It would apply to men AND women, but the follow up program I run is for men.

The Workshop is: "The Fight of Your Life: Facing and Overcoming the Inner Challenges of Life Today." The four inner battles:

Disconnection — The Battle with Loneliness and an Intimacy-Deprived Marriage
Distress — The Battle with Anxiety and Stress
Disillusionment — The Battle with Doubts and Spiritual Disillusionment … finding a way of spiritual living that works.
Desire — The Battle with Sexual Temptation

Would your church be interested in getting in on this? Would YOU like to learn more about being in a Renewed Man group? Let me know!

2. Don't "try" to make 2023 better, TRAIN to make it better

This new year can be better ... but only if you work to make it so. If you just drift, you'll probably drift into a bad place. That's the nature of life today. Let's dispense with all the "rah rah, new year, blah, blah, blah" talk. If you're an adult reading this, chances are you've heard all that before. You've tried out New Year's resolutions, and been disillusioned.

I am convinced by the wisdom -- served up from a variety of sources -- that the essential key to changing your life lies in making changes to your daily routine. Don't just try to get better, TRAIN to get better. And the way you train is by doing things daily.

As my own coach Brian Johnson is fond of saying:

"TODAY is the day! Don't waste hours debating about what would make you a good man, and how you might be one tomorrow ... be one today."

He's not the only one saying this:

"You'll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.” - John Maxell

“If you want lasting change, you have to give up this idea of just trying something, and you have to commit yourself to mastery. That means not just “dabbling,” but fully immersing yourself. Because your life is not controlled by what you do some of the time, but by what you do consistently." - Tony Robbins

This is why I created the Renewed Man program. It's a process people go through, and a community they are a part of, in order to grow strong in today's world. The whole program is built around a commitment and process of DAILY action: reconnecting to God, to one's purpose, and to one's intentions about how to live. Daily instruction, and an action step to help you move forward.

The feature article below is a sample of the kind of content you get each day, as part of the program.

What is "Renewed Man" about? What do we focus on in the program?

This is our mission, and this is what we focus on:

We help men grow in self-mastery (1 Corinthians 6:12) in response to four pressing challenges for men today: finding deeper intimacy, maintaining mental/emotional health in the face of today’s stress, developing an honest and meaningful spiritual life, and increasing our capacity to resist the distractions and temptations of today’s overly-sexualized world.

These challenges are not unique to our time, but they are especially problematic today … and they all relate and interact together.

Now is a great time to get on board. You can start with a 12 Week "Boot Camp" immersion. You can get other guys and go through the program together, at a discount. Or you can go through the program, while also getting support from a weekly coaching group led by me (we call this coaching option "Level 2").

Find Out More Here!

3. FEATURE ARTICLE: We need not reject ALL pleasures … just the reckless ones

We need not reject all pleasures — just the reckless ones. The dangerous ones. Jesus himself said that he came that we might have “life … and life TO THE FULL!” Sure, this life will involve self-denial, and “taking up our cross daily” (which refers to putting to death our old, false self) … but doing so actually makes life better, more peaceful. To use the word that contemporary positive psychology likes to use: this is what leads to human flourishing.

In Galatians 5:22, as Paul lists the fruit of the Spirit — the result of the Divine indwelling in us — and number two on the list is JOY. In fact, think of the first three qualities on this list: “love, joy, peace.” Wouldn’t it be great to have a life characterized by those qualities?!

Listen to Ryan Holiday talk about "pleasures" from the perspective of Stoic philosophy:

The Stoics did not reject worldly pleasures. They rejected the reckless ones. The dangerous, ephemeral ones.

The Stoics were not afraid of joy, but they found joy in a different place than most people. It wasn’t pleasure. It wasn’t accumulating money. “Just as one person delights in improving his farm, and another his horse,” Epictetus liked to say, “so I delight in attending to my own improvement day by day.”

Delight! Not a word you’d expect to see from Epictetus, but there it is. And to be found in such an unexpected way. Not in material things. Not in a hobby. But in oneself—in improving oneself. And when you think about it, isn’t that a wonderful feeling? When you get better? When you realize your full potential?

We can imagine Marcus Aurelius actually having fun while writing his Meditations, because he was attending to his own development. The same goes for Seneca as he did his crazy philosophical practices, whether it was diving into a freezing fountain at the beginning of the new year or living frugally to prepare himself for changes in fortune. Cato took real pleasure in challenging himself—to walk barefoot and bareheaded, to sleep on the ground with his soldiers, to dress simply and to work hard. They took pride in self-actualization, in knowing they were becoming what they were meant to be.

And so can you. We can become our own hobby. We can become our own source of satisfaction. The economy determines what we can do professionally, but no one can stop us from working on our inner selves. Nor can anyone or anything take away the pleasure we earn by getting better day by day.

There you go. Here’s a new hobby idea for you — something to focus on in 2023 — self-development. Growing in self-mastery. Becoming a Renewed Man. Epictetus, Marcus, Seneca — and certainly the apostle Paul — would surely endorse the idea.

This article is one of the daily emails I sent out this week to guys who are in the Renewed Man Community. These daily lessons are part of a systematic teaching series designed to help men grow emotionally, relationally, and spiritually ... developing the essential character quality of "self-mastery." People in the Renewed Man community get these daily teachings, a weekly video on one of the 12 Keys of Being a Renewed Man, and access to a support group and/or a coaching group that I lead.

Find out more about the Renewed Man Program here.

Mark Brouwer, Director
Renew Resources Group
http://lastingleaders.com

8938 - 33rd Street
Princeton MN 55371
USA

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