[00:00:00] We grew up in a time where we were shamed for all things manly and masculine. Traditional dynamics were shunned and men were told to be more feminine and gentle. We were brainwashed into believing that the value that we had as men for thousands of years was now irrelevant, leaving most men lost, trying to understand their place in the world. And now it seems that we are entering the era of the backlash. More and more young people are favoring traditional dynamics, while the older guys are discovering for the first time that it's okay to be a strong, honorable man. That's what we're talking about today on the Warrior Kings podcast. Stick around. Hello and welcome to the Warrior Kings Podcast. I'm your host, Michael Riggs, here to assist you on your journey to living a fully optimized, leveled up life as a man. So again, welcome. Welcome to the Warrior Kings podcast. It's good to have you here today. It's good to talk to you today if it's your first time here. My name is Michael Riggs. I'm a full time author, artist and entrepreneur, husband and father of five. And I teach men all over the world how to live fully optimized, leveled up lives. So if that's something you're into, definitely subscribe to this channel. Subscribe to this podcast because that's what we do here. Every, every week, we grow together to get optimized in our lives. It's a new year, and a new year is time to level up. It's a new cycle, it's a new beginning. It's time to make some new goals, have some new visions and set ourselves on the right path to success. And one of the ways that we're leveling up this year is in our marriages. And right now you can join thousands of men all over the world on that journey to leveling up their marriages by getting my new book, Warrior Husband, how to be a better husband and save your marriage. I'm going to put a link to that book in the description of this podcast episode and video. And that book is available in paperback, ebook and audiobook. So whichever format you prefer, it's available in that. I just want to give a shout out and thank all you guys who have gotten the book so far. I'm so excited for you guys to dive into it and I'm super grateful for this book's success. You know, I'm selling a whole bunch of copies of it all at once. It came out on January 1st, the ebook came out on the 4th because we had a delay in the publishing process. Again, I apologize for that delay for those pre orders, but this book is taking off and I'm so excited about it because it's my mission to level up as many men's marriages all over the world as possible in 2025. And it seems like we're on our way to doing that. So I really hope that you guys dive deep into that book, take it very seriously and level up your marriages in this new year. And thanks again for grabbing a copy of Warrior Husband. And with that being said, let's dive right into the topic of the day. Embracing and owning your masculinity. Do you remember the first time you picked up a stick off the ground when you were a child and suddenly it was a sword? Do you remember what it felt like to swipe it through the air for the first time and something ignited deep within you? That is the warrior spirit and it belief that this is innate for boys. And if you don't know what innate means, don't worry, I got you. According to our old friend Miriam Webster, innate is defined as existing in, belonging to or determined by factors present in an individual from birth, native, inborn, innate behavior belonging to the essential nature of something inherent. So these are traits that you are born with naturally. It's just part of who you are by design. So why would swinging a stick through the air like a sword be innate or natural? Because before these modern times, where everything is so comfortable, so relatively safe, it would have been natural for men to be fighters. We would have needed to hunt and provide for our families. We would have needed to fight off invaders to our villages. The way we live right now, where we are relatively safe and we're always so comfortable and everything is so accessible, there's hardly even a need to know how to fight. And this life that's so comfortable and we can just go to the grocery store to get our food and there's no need to hunt. It's actually very abnormal when it comes to who we are naturally as humans. A long time ago, we wouldn't have even had time to consider the role of men or to have conversations, debates about what that might mean. It would have just been who we are. We would have been naturally who we are. And because there's hardly a need for our natural masculine traits anymore, and because we all have so much free time to talk about stupid. The debate about the role of men is an actual conversation and something people actually spend a lot of time thinking about and debating with others about. Most of the time, men aren't even taught their Place their value, their duties and responsibilities, mostly because there's hardly a need to teach these things anymore. So if you're anything like me, you might have had to learn these things yourself, yourself, the hard way, or you might be doing that right now. When I was a kid, being manly was mostly considered wrong. And that only got worse in media and culture over the years. Growing up in a house with only females and being influenced by media and culture, what I knew about men was that they're disgusting. If they're attracted to beautiful women, they're chauvinist pigs. If they were confident, they were douchey or cocky or conceited. And if they were tough and manly, there was something wrong with them. The modern feminist view did more harm than good because it shamed men for being who they are, just naturally, just innately. It's pretty difficult to live in a world that tells you that you're wrong for just being who you are. It's no wonder so many men are anxious and depressed. The closest we could get to expressing our warrior spirit was to put a helmet and pads on and smash into each other over and over again on a football field or go to a hardcore show. Or we could go ballistic in the pit and swing our arms and bash into each other, run and smash into the crowd to let them know that they should back up or get smashed up. We were gladiators. We're so detached now from masculinity that if a man has muscle definition, the automatic assumption is that he's on steroids. Imagine that. That's how rare a strong looking man is now. The boss babe culture, while empowering to one group of people, hardly considers the damage it does to another. I don't need no man or who needs men? I can take care of myself. Tells men that they are useless, that they have no value, and everything that they are naturally, inherently, innately is not needed. What they came to this world to do, the natural purpose for their life, to protect and provide, is now viewed as irrelevant. When I talk about this stuff, a certain guy pops into my head and I laugh to myself a bit because he calls it a misogynist rant. And that's another thing. If you talk about being a man or being manly, automatically you're viewed as a misogynist. Little does he know, I love women, women, women, women. I just want women to be able to be women and I want men to be able to be men. That's all. Did you know that you can be manly and love women at the same time? Because I don't think some of you got the memo. Some of the top motivational speakers, entrepreneurs and motivators that I watch are women who are empowering other women. But like I was saying, I do think that we have entered the era of the back. More young people on social media are advocating for traditional dynamics. More and more creators who are teaching young men how to be men are rapidly growing in popularity, myself included. There's a trend growing right now on social media where men are saying that the biggest flex is to make sure that your lady never has to work again. And you know what? That is the ultimate flex. Men are inherently, naturally, innately providers. In the UK they have stated that misogyny will be treated as a form of extremism and can be punishable by law. The problem with that is that it's up to one's perception what misogyny actually means. Like, how do you gauge that? Because like the guy I talked about before, some people view just being manly or talking about being manly as misogyny. Many feminist women think that a man being attracted to women is misogyny. That word is based on the perception of the one who uses it. So I do believe that in some places we're getting very close to it being illegal to be a masculine man. Isn't that scary to consider? There's a video that went viral that was going around on Tik Tok where they interviewed American men and Russian men and asked them if they should provide for their ladies or be to be providers in their households and if their wives and girlfriends should have to work too. Most of the American men that they interviewed said that they shouldn't have to be providers and that their woman needs to handle herself and bring money in too. And all the Russian guys said of course they should provide for their lady. Of course their lady shouldn't have to work because it's their duty as men to do that. And that comparison is embarrassing. We need to make American men men again. Let's go back to the early 1900s and talk to all the men who were shipping out to defend their country and the world as a whole fearlessly and show them what men look like, sound like today and tell them that that's what they're fighting for. That's embarrassing, bro. And I know I've never gone this hard on this topic before, but it needs to be said. I did a survey on Tick Tock a While back where 100 of the answers that women gave were in agreement and they said that they are tired of handling everything and planning everything themselves and that they wanted their man to start handling and planning things more. That means that most men are having their lady handle and manage everything in their relationships. And that's largely because we were taught that it was wrong to be men and we weren't taught how to be men. Because who teaches their to do something that's considered wrong before now? At any other point in history, being a man and being manly wouldn't have just been who you are naturally, but it would have been absolutely necessary for survival. So please, I implore you, embrace your masculinity. Embrace being strong and manly. Know that it is one of the most valuable things in the entire world and the history of the world. Without men being strong, none of us would be here today. Don't betray your ancestors by being a weak wimp. Don't betray your woman and your family by not being who you are innately, inherently. Inherently naturally, by design. You are a warrior. You are a protector and provider. You are powerful. If the world considers being a masculine man wrong, then consider the world lost and confused. Know your value and know your worth. Know that you and everyone in your life will benefit from you being a strong man. Inspire other men to do the same by the way that you live. Set the example. Show them how to be good, honest, honorable, righteous warriors. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being a man, no matter what the world says about that. So stand up and be one. Other than my own books, Warrior King and Warrior Husband, I have some recommendations for you. These are the books that changed my life. When my life fell apart and I had to turn my life around and learn what it means to be a man. The first book that I read was the Way of the Superior man by David Da. That book completely changed my life. I have read that book so many times. My first copy of it is basically falling apart. It's on the bookshelf behind me. And I bought another copy that I've gone through several times. One of my favorite books of all time, the second book I read was Iron John by Robert Bly, where he talks about masculinity and manliness and what it means to be a man and does it in more of like, a scholarly way. That one's a little harder to pay attention to. It's very complex, but if you take the time to get into it, absolutely incredible book about masculinity and what it means to be a man and the complexities of that. And he talks a lot about the initiation into manhood being lost in our modern society. And things like that. Amazing book. Check it out. The third book that I want to recommend is Wild at Heart by John Eldridge. Another one of my favorite books, and that one's about biblical masculinity and what it means to be a man in a biblical context. And it's mainly about how boys and men are natural, truly wild, and how that wild spirit is taken from us in this modern society and when we're growing up and things like that, and how we should embrace our masculinity and our biblical masculinity and learn what it means to be a man to transform our lives. Absolutely amazing book as well. Those are the three books that I read when my life fell apart and I was learning what it means to be a man. And now I'm living my dream life with my dream wife and I teach this information to men all over the world. So right now I just want to express my gratitude for having this platform and having you guys here to listen to me rant and talk about all of these things. This podcast grows every single day. I'm kind of obsessed with watching the numbers go up. It's really just exponential growth. And I just want to thank you guys for that. Thank you for being here, thank you for being part of this community. And don't forget, we're leveling up our marriages in 2025. That's going to be one of the main focuses in our level ups. So definitely grab a copy of Warrior Husband if you don't have it yet. And if you're in a bad place right now, if you just can't spend the money on that book, send me an
[email protected] Mr. I g g s contact gmail.com all one word and I'll talk to you about how I can get a copy of that ebook to you. Because like I said, it's my mission to level up as many marriages in this new year as possible. So I would love to do that for you if you just can't buy that book. But for those of you who are buying the book, I really, really appreciate that support and I'm really excited for you to dive into this book, transform your marriage, transform your mindset and your life. Now get out there, guys. Go and do it. I love you. I'm proud of you. And there are great things in store for you in this new year and in this life. A life of overflowing abundance awaits you on the other side of you deciding to make the switch, make the change, and become everything that you know that you should be. Start doing all the things that you already know that you should be doing that you're just not doing yet. Transform and level up your life. A life of overflowing abundance awaits you on the other side of that. Have a good week, guys, and I'll talk to you soon. Thanks, guys. Bye.
