Rampage

GTM Part 20

ram ritho -

Intro

Part 16 concluded that learning about yourself from others boils down to either a good, solid friend, or else a good solid mentor.  We’ve already looked at friends (in Part 17), let us now turn our attention to a mentor.

Messi and Ronaldo both have coaches.  Lewis Hamilton has a manager and a personal trainer.  Lebron and Curry both have coaches.  Eliud Kipchoge & Kenenisa both have trainers.  Farrell and Barrett both have coaches as well.  All great sportsmen have a coach of some description. Further, they are great sportsmen not just because of their skill and talent, but because they have and continue to subject themselves to a coach.

They are seeking sporting greatness; you are seeking manly greatness.  You need a personal coach for this.

Commentary
A personal coach by any other name is just as effective: mentor, spiritual director, spiritual coach, life coach, big bro, personal guide, etc.

This mentor for your manliness helps you principally in four things:

  1. To keep the overall picture in mind (see Part 4);
  2. To aim high (since we all tend to wallow within our comfort zone);
  3. To be consistent (since we all tend to be terribly easy-going with ourselves and to give up way too early); and perhaps greatest of all,
  1. To be humble (since pride is the greatest stumbling block to manliness and we all tend to find it terribly difficult to admit our faults and failings out loud).

Who you pick as a mentor should:

  1. Be a man like you (“men are from Mars, women are from Venus” typa thing);
  2. A good, real and loyal friend (see Part 17);
  3. Someone easily and regularly accessible to you;
  4. Someone you find it easy to be brutally sincere with;
  5. Someone who is himself struggling to grow in manliness.

Short Exercise 20

  1. Find yourself a mentor if you don’t already have one.  If you do, reconnect with them.
  2. Between the two of you figure out how you can “meet” in these days for what we call a “chat” or mentoring session.
  3. See if you can make your chats once every 2 weeks. In the worst case scenario, at least once a month.
  4. If you haven’t already, update him on what you’ve been up to during the lockdown and especially your thoughts and responses in the Short Exercises in this Guide so far.

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