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This is Undaunted Life of Man's Podcast.
1:11
I'm your host Kyle Thompson.
1:13
Let's get into it.
1:14
All right, guys, today's podcast is going to be a unique one for you.
1:19
Because this is, I think I can safely say this, the first time I've ever done an entire
1:24
podcast episode about a poem.
1:28
Yeah, I know.
1:29
I know all you tough guys out there.
1:31
You just cringed when you heard the word poem because I know it's like, hey, poetry's for
1:35
wussies.
1:36
We don't really do poems.
1:37
We don't write them.
1:38
We don't read them all.
1:39
Okay.
1:40
And dude, I get it because there's a thing.
1:41
I'm just going to be honest with you from the jump.
1:42
I don't really get poetry.
1:44
I don't really understand it.
1:45
It's not really something that I'm in that familiar with, to be honest.
1:48
I've got some friends that have written some poetry.
1:51
They've got like poetry and books and different things and I just don't get it.
1:55
I read a big book, the book of man that I've suggested to you guys on this podcast before.
2:00
It's on our, it's on our book list on our website, the hundred books every modern Christian
2:03
man should read list.
2:05
And there's a ton of poems throughout there and about a third of the way through the book.
2:09
I just stopped even trying, right?
2:11
I'll just, I'll just straight up admit it to you.
2:13
Here's the guy that's always challenging you to read and push yourself and all that.
2:16
I just stopped trying because it's like, dude, I'm not getting this.
2:18
I'm not quite understanding, but I came across a poem because I was interviewed on a podcast.
2:23
It was the, thank the universe podcast.
2:26
And this guy was doing kind of a deep dive into manhood and what manliness means and masculinity
2:32
and all these different things.
2:33
So he wanted me to come on and speak about that, but he mentioned the poem if that's
2:38
I F if by Rudyard Kipling and obviously having not been a literature major, done a lot of
2:44
poetry or short stories or anything like that.
2:46
I had never heard of this guy, okay?
2:49
But even if you haven't heard of Rudyard Kipling, you've heard of some of his work.
2:52
So just to give you a little background on this guy, he was born in December of 1865
2:56
and died in January of 1936.
2:59
This was an Englishman, a journalist, writer, a poet.
3:02
His most famous book is the Jungle Book, right?
3:04
So we all know that at least from the Disney movie.
3:06
But he was seen by many kind of at his time in history as an innovator in the world of
3:12
short stories.
3:13
Okay, so short stories apparently hasn't always been a thing.
3:16
This guy is one of the main innovators of that whole movement.
3:20
The guy even won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1907 and he won that at the age of 41.
3:26
You don't really see a lot of folks that are that young winning that award, but the unique
3:29
thing about when he won and he was actually the first English language writer to receive
3:34
that award and he was the youngest writer at that time up to that point to receive that
3:39
award, which is, which is pretty incredible.
3:42
But if the poem is considered by many to be his most famous, if not his greatest poem written
3:49
in his entire career.
3:51
And so the thing about this poem, again, for whatever reason, there's some things that
3:55
when I read it, I can really jive with it and I can really get into it.
3:59
But other times I feel like I need to listen to it to actually kind of get the sense of
4:02
what it's all about.
4:04
So I read this poem and I feel like I got it a little bit.
4:07
But then for whatever reason I plugged in if Redyard Kipling into YouTube and I found
4:12
a really interesting recording or it was a video rather of Dennis Hopper reading it.
4:18
Okay.
4:19
So if you're not familiar with Dennis Hopper, I'm sure you would recognize his face.
4:22
He's been in a lot of things on television and movies.
4:24
I think, I don't know, he had a bunch of villain roles back in the nineties.
4:28
I think it was the bad guy in the movie speed, something like that.
4:31
But this was actually a recording of him reciting this poem on the Johnny Cash show.
4:37
So the Johnny Cash show was like 1969, 1970, 1971.
4:42
It was kind of a short-lived show.
4:43
But I mean, Johnny Cash was kind of the host of this variety show and things like that.
4:48
And so it was really interesting.
4:49
The audio on it isn't the greatest because again, this is late 60s, early 70s audio.
4:55
But I just wanted to let you hear somebody else read it.
4:57
I was thinking about reading it myself, but I didn't know if I could really do the poem
5:01
justice.
5:02
But what I want to do is I want to let Dennis Hopper read this for you guys and I'll include
5:06
the link later.
5:07
So if you want to watch it visually, you can certainly do that.
5:09
And then we're going to break down the poem, you know, basically line by line.
5:13
And again, I know for some of you guys are like, okay, this is going to be one of Kyle's
5:16
podcasts that I skip.
5:18
Just hang with me.
5:19
All right.
5:20
There's a lot in this very short poem.
5:21
There is a lot to talk about.
5:23
So let's go into Dennis Hopper's reading of that here, his recitation rather.
5:27
And then we'll be back here just a second after he's done with that.
5:32
And it's called if, if is a middleware guy, a special spot for you, Dennis Hopper ladies
5:36
and middle.
5:37
Thank you.
5:38
If you can keep your head, when all about you losing theirs and blaming it on you, if
6:00
you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for the doubting to,
6:09
or being lied about, don't deal in lies, or being hated.
6:18
Don't give way to hate it.
6:22
And yet, don't look too good in a talk too wise.
6:29
If you can dream, but not make dreams your master, if you can think, but not make thoughts
6:41
your aim, if you can meet with triumph and disaster, and you just treat these two impostors
6:53
just the same, or bear to hear the truth that you've spoken, twisted by names to make a
7:02
trap for fools, or watch the things that you've given your life to broken, and stoop, and
7:15
build them up again with worn out tools.
7:17
If you can make one heap of all your winnings, and risk it, and one turn of pitch and toss,
7:28
and lose, and start again at your beginnings, and repeat the word about your loss, if you
7:38
can force your heart, and your nerve, and your sin you, to serve your turn long after
7:46
they are gone, and so hold on when there's nothing in you, except the will, which says
7:54
to them, hold on.
7:57
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, or walk with kings that never lose
8:08
the common touch, if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, if all men count with
8:16
you, but none too much, if you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth
8:27
of distant run, yours is the earth, and everything that's in it, which is more, you're going
8:38
to be a man, my son.
9:05
So I do think that is a good reading there, I think it was dramatic, and I'm sure back
9:09
in the 60s and 70s that seemed really awesome, and it's just cool, anytime you get to hear
9:12
Johnny Cash's voice on anything, he has one of those voices that just are super unique,
9:17
and I'm literally sitting here in my studio, and I've got a Johnny Cash action figure looking
9:20
back at me.
9:21
I couldn't exactly tell what he said there at the end, if you go back to the last five
9:25
seconds of the clip, Johnny Cash is telling Dennis Hopper, "Hey, I'm going to remember
9:30
that, I'm going to sing it with June Carter," I couldn't really pull out what he said,
9:35
but they shared a little moment there if you watched the video.
9:38
But the thing is, obviously, this entire poem builds up to that last sentence, and in that
9:45
last sentence, he kind of actually botched it, there's a few times in this recitation
9:49
where he gets the words a little bit wrong, but you still get the gist of it.
9:53
But the last sentence is, "And which is more, you'll be a man, my son."
9:59
So you're reading through this entire thing, and again, the poem is called If, and there
10:03
are 13 If statements that are made here, and so what we're going to do is we're actually
10:07
going to break down each one of those statements because I think there's some good nuggets
10:11
to pull out for us, but especially for you guys that are raising young men, right?
10:15
So whether they're newborn or 30 years old, whatever the thing is, you're still technically
10:20
raising them, you're still father to these guys, and I think there's some interesting
10:24
nuggets for you guys out there that have sons.
10:26
So let's go ahead and do the first if statement here at the very top, and that's if you can
10:30
keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you.
10:36
So the thing about this is you look at certain situations, and I'm kind of reminded of things
10:41
from books like extreme ownership or the dichotomy of leadership, or really any of these military
10:46
books.
10:47
I just mentioned the two that were written by Jocko Willink in Lake Babin, but in a lot
10:50
of these situations, the guys who are most successful in war are the ones that can keep
10:55
their wits about them, right?
10:57
And especially in a lot of these other situations, I even recall my stepdad talking about when
11:02
he was in the army, he was in these tank divisions.
11:04
And it was the guys at basic training that were screaming and pounding their chests the
11:08
most, right?
11:09
Man, I just can't wait to get over there and kill me some terrorists and blah, blah, blah,
11:13
and those types of guys that as soon as the bullets started whizzing past their heads,
11:18
those are the guys that were, you know, basically [inaudible] themselves in the bottom of the tank,
11:21
right?
11:22
It's one of those situations where you have to be calm so that you can be definitive.
11:28
And so that's the thing is in a lot of these situations when these people are in frantic
11:33
type situations, it's hard for them to understand why you're not frantic as well.
11:38
And so the second part of that is are losing theirs and blaming it on you, right?
11:42
That may be one of those situations where they're freaking out.
11:44
They don't understand why you're not freaking out, but a good virtue, a good thing for men
11:49
to strive for, especially young men is can you control yourself?
11:52
I even know for me, like as a young kid and even into young adulthood, I really did struggle
11:57
with self control and it was mainly with anger, right?
12:00
I just, I couldn't keep my anger under control and it was one of those things that I've had
12:04
to really work towards kind of getting a governor put on top of that.
12:08
So that's an important statement right there.
12:10
The second if statement is this, if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but
12:15
make allowance for their doubting to.
12:19
So when I think of whenever I hear this statement is you've got to have self confidence.
12:23
I mean, that's, that's pretty, that's pretty duh from that first statement, right?
12:27
Is trust yourself when all men doubt you.
12:30
But the thing is, is when someone doubts you, you do need to investigate where their doubt
12:34
is coming from.
12:36
Now once you do that investigation, you might think to yourself, okay, they're just jealous.
12:40
So you investigate it, you get to the bottom of it and you, they're just jealous.
12:44
They want you to slow down so that you don't make them look as bad, right?
12:49
And they think if you succeed, it's just going to continuously make them further and further
12:52
away from you and other people's eyes.
12:55
But in the other cases, some people are going to doubt you and their doubts are merited.
13:00
These are people that have watched you not be able to control yourself.
13:04
And so when you need to be in a situation where self control is paramount, they're going
13:09
to doubt that you can make that happen.
13:11
If you continuously underperformed and now we have another project, a big project that's
13:16
in front of the team and you've continued to underperform, you should look at their
13:20
doubt and take it seriously.
13:21
Think about it in a team context.
13:23
If every time that you've had runners on base, you've struck out, like you kind of freak
13:27
out because you see that runner sitting out there on second, you're all you want to do
13:29
is bring them home and then you just, you know, clam up and you strike out.
13:33
The team shouldn't be terribly confident the next time that there's a runner on second.
13:36
You know what I mean?
13:38
And so for you to understand that and have the self awareness to where you can actually
13:41
dig into that and think through that, that helps you prepare.
13:44
And I know you some, some examples that I think most of you guys will recognize, but
13:48
I'm sure even as I described that, you thought of other examples as well.
13:52
So the third if statement is this, if you can wait and not be tired by waiting or being
13:58
lied about, don't deal in lies or being hated.
14:03
Don't give way to hating and yet don't look too good nor talk too wise.
14:09
So the first part of that is again, is if you can wait and not be tired of waiting.
14:12
That's just patience.
14:14
And I mean, guys out there, raise your hands.
14:16
If you're one of the guys that struggles with patience, right?
14:19
It's just, I can't stand it.
14:21
That's why you can angry behind the wheels because you're selfish because you think you're
14:23
the only guy on the road, but also you got somewhere to be, you got somewhere to be man.
14:28
But again, just another reminder that we need to be patient.
14:30
I don't think I need to beat that dead horse.
14:32
The next line of that is or being lied about, don't deal in lies.
14:37
So it was funny, I was listening to a podcast today, it was Grand Allen's podcast, where
14:41
he was on with a representative, Dan Crenshaw.
14:44
So if you don't know who Dan Crenshaw is, he's a former Navy SEAL Harvard graduate.
14:48
And now he is a state representative or sorry, it's a house of representatives representative
14:52
for Texas.
14:53
He lost his eye in war, so he's always, you know, walking around with an eye patch and
14:57
all that.
14:58
It's pretty dope.
14:59
He's a lot of people are wanting him to run for president in 2024, you know, those types
15:02
of things.
15:03
But this is a guy that was talking about, you know, they kind of asked him, you know,
15:07
him and his wife were being interviewed and it's like, what's the hardest part?
15:09
What's the hardest part about being in public life being in the political sector?
15:12
And they were just like, man, it's when people lie about you, when people purposely mislead
15:17
the public about things that you've said or things on your record, and you spend so much
15:20
time and energy and focus just trying to correct the record.
15:23
But the thing about it is is some people fight lies with lies.
15:27
I mean, especially in the political sphere.
15:29
So someone, you know, print something or says something that is in direct contradiction
15:33
to something that you've said before, and you could just make up a lie right back because
15:36
here's the thing in most of the media knows this.
15:39
That's why they do it this way.
15:40
They'll get you with the lead of the story and the title of the story.
15:44
Even if in that story, three or four or 10 paragraphs down, they basically go against
15:50
what was said in the lead.
15:52
They know most people don't read past the lead, right?
15:56
They know most people don't even go past that.
15:59
So they're operating in lies and they're thinking about things in terms of lies.
16:03
But again, it's okay if you're being lied about, don't deal in lies.
16:06
And the next side or being hated, don't give way to hating.
16:09
It's kind of the same thing.
16:11
Some of us have experienced real hatred.
16:14
And this could be from busted relationships.
16:16
It could be from people being racist.
16:18
It could be from people being judgmental.
16:19
It could be from people, you know, evaluating their religion as being above yours.
16:23
Some of us have actually looked at situations and can surmise it.
16:27
Yes, this is hate going on right now.
16:29
But the thing about it is is being hateful only begets more hate.
16:34
So you do what you can to go, you know, basically go to the other side of that continuum.
16:38
And the last little line here was, and yet don't look too good nor talk too wise.
16:42
I think that's obviously talking about being humble, having humility.
16:47
And for you guys out there that are very alpha and very talented, this is going to be difficult
16:52
for you, right?
16:54
And so if you have some of those characteristics, you're competitive, you're alpha.
16:58
You're an achiever, you're a maximizer.
17:00
Sometimes you're going to walk around with your head a little bit too high and your chest
17:03
puffed out a little bit too much.
17:06
And I mean, I got to watch that.
17:07
I know a lot of guys in my life that have to watch that.
17:09
But again, it's just another reminder that humility wins out.
17:12
The next if statement, this is the fourth one is this.
17:15
If you can dream and not make dreams, you're master.
17:20
So I think the obvious thing here, and I think there's a corollary here for the Christians
17:23
that are listening is a lot of us have dreams and we have aspirations.
17:28
Those things can become idols because if dreams become your master, then nothing that
17:34
you have at this exact moment is going to be good enough.
17:38
So you think about guys that, you know, they just moved into a new house and they're already
17:43
kind of looking around and they see stuff on, you know, Facebook or on Zillow about a friend
17:47
that moved into a better house and a better neighborhood, right?
17:49
With a bigger pool or whatever the thing might be.
17:52
And all of a sudden you were excited a day ago, now you're not excited anymore.
17:56
And so your dream has shifted this, this idol of having things and having people look at
18:01
what you have and being impressed by it is all of a sudden your master because the point
18:07
here is not to, you know, not have dreams.
18:09
We should obviously have dreams and aspirations, but you should also pass that through the filter
18:13
of, is this what God wants for me?
18:16
Because if you spend all this time and effort building this lifestyle that, you know, is
18:21
surrounded around things that you have and trips that you take and people that you hang
18:25
out with, it's going to be that much harder if God says, Hey, I need you to sell everything
18:30
and move to like the middle of nowhere, Asia and spread the goodness of my name.
18:37
I mean, it's going to be difficult.
18:39
I mean, what was the parable?
18:41
It was, you know, it'd be harder for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich
18:44
man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
18:46
It's one of those types of situations, right?
18:48
So we have to make sure that we can master our dreams or are probably better yet, give
18:52
the keys to God and let him master that.
18:54
Let's go to the fifth if statement here and it's this, if you can think and not make thoughts
18:59
your aim.
19:01
So I remember whenever I was hearing didn't stop or even just go through it just now,
19:05
the immediate word that came to mind was action.
19:09
Because I know so many guys that are thinkers, right?
19:12
They just think and reason and they're trying to, you know, basically traverse certain situations
19:18
and all they want to do is think about it.
19:21
But if thoughts are your aim, you're never going to get anything going.
19:26
You're never going to get actual tangible results because you're just going to be intellectualizing
19:32
and theorizing about things.
19:34
So if you can think and not make thoughts your aim, we should all be thinkers again.
19:38
You probably heard me say this a lot on this podcast.
19:40
I want us to be thinking Christians.
19:42
I want us to be thinking active type Christians, but at the same time, thoughts and thinking
19:49
alone can't be your aim.
19:50
That's why when I read some of these philosophers and it's just like, okay, what do you do for
19:54
a little bit?
19:55
I'm a philosopher.
19:56
It's like really?
19:57
So you're like a professional useless person like you don't, you just think all day is that
20:01
all you do?
20:02
It's like, bro, you're not going to come out and be one of the world's greatest philosophers.
20:05
I mean, it's just almost every good idea is already taken.
20:09
You know what I mean?
20:10
It feels like I know that's a little bit judgmental for me to say, but it's just like, at the
20:13
same time, it's it you're just thinking all day.
20:17
It's like, have you done anything?
20:19
Oh, no, I just think and then let other people read my words and let it move them to action.
20:24
It's like, okay, bro, like whatever you want to do.
20:27
But again, the encouragement here on this fifth if statement is just basically, you can't
20:31
just let thoughts be your aim.
20:32
You got to take action at some point.
20:34
So the sixth statement is this.
20:36
If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two impostors just the same.
20:43
So if you're actually looking at the text of the poem, the words triumph and disaster
20:47
are capitalized, right?
20:49
So like they're proper nouns.
20:51
And I thought that this was really interesting because a lot of us spent that's kind of the
20:56
carrot and stick dichotomy.
20:58
So you have triumph, right?
20:59
You know, that's that's the carrot.
21:00
You know, you're working for the carrot and the disaster.
21:03
That's the stick, right?
21:04
I'm trying to avoid that at all costs.
21:06
And for me personally, I'm more motivated by potential disaster than I am for triumph.
21:12
Now everyone's kind of want to continue them, right?
21:14
You know, they're somewhere in between those two.
21:17
Not everyone's probably going to be completely to one side or the other.
21:19
But I definitely lean more towards the disaster side.
21:22
And so I think what this is saying is you need to be leveled out.
21:26
You need to be leveled out right there in the middle because triumph and disaster again,
21:31
it calls them imposters and you should treat them just the same.
21:35
And so if you can even out that fear and that excitement, so the fear of basically succumbing
21:41
to disaster or the excitement of reaching that point of triumph, I think it's a great
21:46
thing for us all to remember that the motivation doesn't win the day.
21:52
It's the outcome that wins the day.
21:55
So regardless of what you're motivated by, there still needs to be movement, which goes
21:59
back to the last statement that there's got to be action.
22:02
So the seventh statement is this, if you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken, twisted
22:07
by naves to make a trap for fools or watch the things you give your life to broken and
22:14
stoop and build them up with worn out tools.
22:18
So the cool thing about this, there's a lot of things in here and again, if this guy was
22:23
alive, I'd love to kind of hear why he put things this way.
22:27
But it's basically where you see your life, the things that you've created and they don't
22:32
work out for whatever reason.
22:35
So for some of you guys listening to this, maybe it's your marriage that broke down.
22:39
Maybe it's a business that you built that didn't quite work out.
22:42
Maybe it's a job that you were let go from.
22:46
Maybe it's a relationship with a family member, a sibling or even your children, something
22:50
like that.
22:52
And for whatever reason, it's broken.
22:55
Do you have the ability to build it back up and are you even going to try?
23:02
I think that's pretty important, but I like the last few words.
23:06
It's build them up with worn out tools.
23:10
So what this is assuming is that the tools that you're using are, they're used.
23:15
I mean, they've actually been used before, right?
23:18
So you've been building other things.
23:21
You may have even been trying to build up the situation that now you would consider
23:26
to be broken.
23:27
So I think it's important, then I don't know if he put a ton of meaning there with the
23:31
idea of worn out tools, but in that entire little section, the word worn out was the
23:37
one that that really made sense to me because it implies that there's been work that's
23:42
been done up to this point, not that you know, you waited until everything was broken and
23:47
then we're just going to pull these brand new shiny tools out to try and fix things.
23:51
It's like, nope, we're just going to stoop down, we're going to build back up with what
23:55
we can.
23:56
We're going to use what's here in front of us and we're going to make it happen.
23:58
So maybe I'm reading a little bit too far into that, but that's what I got out of that
24:02
section.
24:03
So let's go to the eighth if statement here.
24:05
If you can make one heap of all your winnings and risk it on one turn of pitch and toss and
24:11
lose and start again at your beginnings and never breathe a word about your loss.
24:17
Okay, so obviously I'm not advocating that you guys put it all on red seven or whatever
24:22
the thing is.
24:23
I don't know they've ever played the game, but like, you know, this isn't an all in type
24:26
deal, right?
24:27
So guys, let's just, you know, you're a real man, if you can take all your winnings and
24:30
just push it into one hand, like I don't think anybody's advocating for that, but I think
24:34
it's really key what he says that they're very in there and never and never breathe
24:38
a word about your loss.
24:40
So something that I've seen from some guys, not a whole lot of guys that I keep close
24:44
to me now, these guys just love to talk about how hard of a life that they've had.
24:49
Oh, you know, when I lost this job, oh, you know, when I got screwed over by this person,
24:54
oh, you know, when my wife left me, oh, you know, when this and when the churches didn't
24:58
see it my way and I just, whatever.
25:01
And they're just a broken record of nonsense.
25:05
It's just stuff that didn't work out and the whole time in my head when those people
25:09
are talking, I'm like, these dudes would really get some use out of reading extreme ownership
25:15
by Jocko Willink.
25:16
Because then if you ever read that book and if you haven't heard him talk about that concept,
25:19
it's about taking ownership of everything and realizing that if it's a situation where
25:25
you're involved, you have an impact on the outcome.
25:30
Even when things seem completely outside of your control, there's some bit of it, even
25:34
if it comes down to the planning that is in your control.
25:38
But the thing about it is this my encouragement to guys out there, if that's you, if you're
25:42
constantly complaining and constantly thinking about ways that life has done you wrong and
25:47
people have done you wrong, what are you gaining from that?
25:52
How has your life improved since you've been thinking that way and operating in that way?
25:58
Because there's some virtue in the guys that endure loss and endure things quietly.
26:06
Now what I'm not saying is if you're hurting, right, that if you're, if you're hurting
26:11
down to your soul, I mean, if your family is falling apart around you, that you should
26:15
just sit there and take it like a man, that's not what I'm saying.
26:18
There are certainly times when you should reach out and talk to people, dude, I don't,
26:21
what was it?
26:22
Two months ago, I have a podcast called loss where I talk about my wife and I losing two
26:26
babies in the last year.
26:27
So obviously I'm not advocating for complete silence, but at the same time, if you're just
26:33
this incessant bullhorn of negativity and all these things that have happened to you,
26:39
at what point are you helping yourself and you're certainly not helping the people around
26:43
you?
26:44
And have you noticed, if that's the type of guy you are, that you don't have a lot of
26:48
friends hanging around?
26:50
Want to hear the latest story about how life kicked you in the gonads?
26:53
I mean, have you thought about that at all?
26:56
Have you noticed that people don't really want to be around that?
26:58
And it's not just about people like, oh, I just don't really want to be around them.
27:01
He's bringing me down.
27:02
It's even deeper than that because you're making them think about all the things in their
27:06
life that haven't gone their way either.
27:09
Guess what?
27:10
A lot of us have gotten a raw deal.
27:11
We were dealt a raw hand from the beginning, but you have to play it.
27:17
That's where I get so confused by these people and to get a little bit political here, but
27:20
these people that talk about privilege and the things that one person gets above them.
27:25
It's like, well, man, would I have preferred to have been born six foot six with tremendous
27:30
athletic ability far and away above what I have now?
27:34
You darn right that there's a chance I could have turned that into millions and millions
27:38
of dollars, right?
27:40
But I wasn't dealt that I'm five foot 10, slightly above average height, right?
27:46
But that's the hand I was dealt.
27:49
Some people, you know, they talk about their race or they talk about their gender and that
27:52
everything's just an excuse to complain about how the world has just been so unfair to me.
27:57
It's like, bro, being an overcomer, like, how many great stories are written about people
28:03
that just lived up to their current circumstances?
28:06
That's something no one's making a movie about that.
28:10
No one's reading a book about somebody that just lived a normal life and, you know, every
28:14
time life knocked them down, they stayed on the mat for an extra few seconds.
28:19
It's always those stories of people that overcome.
28:22
So be thinking through that.
28:24
All right, guys.
28:25
The ninth if statement here, if you can force your heart and nerve and sinew to serve your
28:31
turn long after they are gone.
28:34
And so hold on when there is nothing in you except the will which says to them, hold on.
28:41
So will here in the last little, um, last little section is capitalized, right?
28:46
So another proper noun there.
28:48
So I think there's a few ways to take this.
28:50
Um, and I could be missing it out, missing out on it here.
28:54
But the way that I took that is it kind of even goes back to the podcast.
28:57
I did a few episodes ago called go there.
29:01
Now it's probably a little bit deeper than that, the, the go there thing was basically
29:04
talking about how dudes just give up on working out way too, way too early.
29:08
And they're just a little bit too soft.
29:10
Um, so on a micro level, I would say that this, this kind of goes on to that.
29:14
So hold on when there is nothing in you except the will, which says to them, hold on, right?
29:18
You know, just hold on to, you know, the bar just a little bit longer, you know, uh, to
29:24
put a little bit more weight on the bar, whatever the situation might be.
29:27
But I think the macro side of that could even go as far as suicide.
29:32
And I'm just kind of spitballing here.
29:34
I didn't really plan to talk about this side of it, but it's just like where you have these
29:38
suicidal ideations, uh, when life is, is really, really getting after you and you feel, uh,
29:44
this dark presence on you that, you know, a psychologist that has a humanist worldview
29:49
would just say, oh, that's just negative feelings, whereas most of us that are Christians understand
29:52
that that's, that's demons, that's demonic, uh, presence in your life.
29:56
But this is kind of making sure that you have that inner will, that resilience to just hold
30:01
on that you're in it right now.
30:04
You're in the thick of it and things don't look good and it doesn't look like you're
30:06
going to get out on the other side.
30:08
Again, I think there's a micro point to be made here in the macro point.
30:11
So for some of you, it's, it's just another example, hey, you need to go there sometimes
30:15
you need to, you know, just tell that internal week person that they need to shut up long
30:20
enough for you to get through this workout.
30:21
But then the other side is it's just for guys that are feeling like they've got nothing
30:24
left.
30:25
There's always something left.
30:26
There's still a plan for you because you're still here.
30:28
All right, guys, 10th if statement here, if you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue
30:34
or walk with Kings nor lose the common touch.
30:39
So the thing about this here that I think of because I find myself up in front of groups
30:42
talking somewhat often is it's kind of enticing and intoxicating and attractive.
30:49
When you get up in front of a group of people and you make them laugh and they're having
30:53
a good time and you teach them something and they come up to you afterwards and they're
30:57
just like, man, you did such a great job.
30:59
Thank you so much for coming about.
31:00
It makes you feel good.
31:02
I mean, I had a good buddy of mine come up to me at the gym on Sunday and he just goes,
31:06
man, you're really good at podcasts.
31:08
Like, dude, you're just, you're just awesome at it.
31:11
And I just wanted to tell you, no, hello, not.
31:12
Hey, how's it going?
31:14
He just went right into that.
31:15
He's like, dude, I need to give you a hug.
31:16
You're good at this.
31:17
And I was like, man, this is like a really smart dude, a guy that I respect a lot and
31:22
to give me that compliments, like, you know, shoot, I'll take that.
31:25
But man, that can go to your head, right?
31:28
It kind of can be hard for you to keep your virtue.
31:30
I know that there's some guys out there.
31:31
I've heard these stories about these guys that go around.
31:33
They do keynote presentations and then they end up cheating on their wives because all
31:39
that excitement of it goes to their head and then there's usually some tramp up in the
31:43
audience that's like, Hey, I'd love to wreck your home life.
31:46
How about we go back to my hotel room, right?
31:48
So it started with a, an instant enough conversation that ended up at the bar that ended up in
31:52
their bedroom, right?
31:53
That's just kind of how it goes.
31:55
But the second side of that is or walk with Kings nor lose the common touch.
31:59
I think for some of you guys out there, especially if you've done well in business, if you've
32:03
done well in life, if you were popular in school, all those different things, sometimes
32:08
you end up in rooms with people that are, that are important.
32:12
I mean, maybe there are people that are worth a lot of money.
32:14
Maybe they're politicians or athletes or something like that.
32:18
But the thing about it is is you should never lose that ability to have that common touch.
32:22
Again, it comes back to being a humble.
32:24
So if you're one of those people that is, is well to do or well known, or you are one
32:29
degree of separation from people that are like that.
32:33
You didn't like its old hat because they're not Jesus.
32:38
So they might be a pretty cool person.
32:40
They might be an interesting person, but man, they just don't even rank.
32:44
Just treat them as such.
32:46
I remember back in 2012, I had a, a fairly unique opportunity to help out Major League
32:51
Baseball up in New York with this marketing thing that they were doing called the MLB
32:54
fan cave.
32:55
And we were around literally in nine months, hundreds and hundreds of current players,
33:01
former players, Hall of Famers, celebrities, musicians, actors and actresses, models.
33:08
Like there were just people that were around all the time.
33:12
But the thing I had to constantly remind myself of is these are just people.
33:17
I mean, I remember one time when Derek Jeter walked in, it was just like, dude, you're
33:20
in the middle of New York and Derek Jeter walks in and you're sitting there just talking
33:23
to the captain towards the end of his career.
33:25
It's like, that's DJ like, man, that's the captain right there.
33:29
At the same time, it's like, he's just a regular dude.
33:32
He doesn't want to be bothered.
33:33
Like, he doesn't want people meddling in his personal life.
33:35
He wants to have fun.
33:36
He wants to enjoy himself and he wants to do well while he's on the field.
33:39
Right?
33:40
Kind of like us.
33:41
You know what I mean?
33:42
Just trying to get through life, trying to enjoy himself, trying to do well at work,
33:45
type of a thing.
33:47
So regardless of who you're around, you should be able to be the same person.
33:51
You should be the same person with, you know, the celebrity or the politician or the rich
33:54
person or whatever as you are with just your neighbor.
33:58
Just asking for help for something, right?
34:00
You should be able to continue to comport yourself in the same way.
34:02
All right, just a few statements left here.
34:05
So here's number 11.
34:06
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you.
34:11
So again, gonna have to bust the word out again, resilience because the thing about it
34:16
is you know, guys, you've got people that don't like you and you got people that like
34:19
you a lot and they can hurt you the same.
34:23
Now there's going to be a little bit more psychological strain when someone that you
34:26
love hurts you or lets you down or backstabs you double crosses you, that type of thing.
34:32
But the thing is, is we've got to stand.
34:35
So we'll take this from, from the secular point of view and then we'll take this from
34:38
the Christian point of view.
34:39
The secular point of view is you got to be able to depend on yourself and you got to
34:42
make sure that you were impenetrable to other people's arrows, right?
34:47
Don't let anyone bother you.
34:48
My dad always used to tell me, Kyle, don't sweat the small stuff.
34:50
Now I always thought about that.
34:51
Just let it roll off your back.
34:52
Don't worry about it.
34:54
But then on the Christian side of things, these are just people that are in your life
34:58
that need Jesus too, whether they hate you and they're doing things actively to destroy
35:03
your life, whether they're loving friends of yours that will never live up to the expectations
35:08
that they have for themselves, much less the expectations that you have for them, understand
35:12
that every single one of you has fallen short of the glory of God, that you don't have anything
35:18
to add to what Jesus has already done and accomplished on the cross.
35:23
I mean, sorry to be the wet blanket here, but isn't that the truth?
35:27
I mean, because really the people here on this earth can only hurt you so bad as to take
35:32
your life, right?
35:34
That's the worst thing that somebody could do to you or take the lives of those that
35:37
they that you love most.
35:39
But again, whether you're thinking of this as a, as a humanist point of view, secular
35:43
humanist type point of view, or if you think about this from a, you know, Christian Amago
35:46
Day point of view, you got to make sure that people can't hurt you.
35:51
You're going through actual persecution or just the persecution that you've made up in
35:54
your head.
35:55
All right, twelfth statement here.
35:58
If all men count with you, but none too much.
36:02
So as I read through that again, if all men count with you, but none too much, the way
36:08
that I take this and I've reserved full responsibility or the right to change my mind later, I've
36:15
kind of had to read through that line several times.
36:18
And again, if all men count with you, but none too much, the best I can come up with in
36:22
my, in my brain is that, that men, okay, I'm trying to think of the best way to describe
36:30
it.
36:31
But basically, people are important to you men are important to you, but there's not any
36:36
man around you that is so overwhelmingly important.
36:40
I know it took me like forever to just spit that out and some of you guys are like, okay,
36:44
Kyle, Kyle, come on, let's go.
36:45
We get it.
36:46
Again, men count men matter.
36:49
Like the people around you, they matter to you, but none of them matter overwhelmingly
36:52
too much.
36:53
Because I know a lot of people, including myself at different points, you put some people in
36:57
your life up on a pedestal and it kind of goes back to the last thing.
37:00
I mean, foes or loving friends being able to hurt you.
37:03
You put these people that you really, really like on this pedestal and then they just let
37:06
you down or they actively do something that doesn't have your best interest at heart.
37:12
I think it's good for us to understand that it is important for us to trust that we can
37:17
have men around us, especially like what I talk about all the time, foxhole guys, that
37:21
can matter to you.
37:24
But don't make them an idol either.
37:27
I mean, some of you guys out there, you've got, you've got deep friendships.
37:32
Maybe you grew up with a guy.
37:34
You both went to the same college.
37:35
You got into the same frat or you played on the same team and you know, you both got
37:39
married in near around the same time, you're the best man in each other's weddings and
37:43
you kind of got this crew of guys maybe from, from college or high school or work or something
37:47
like that or the military or the police academy and it's just like, that's like your crew.
37:52
And you should adore that crew and you should cultivate those relationships on a constant
37:56
basis.
37:57
But again, don't make them an idol because again, I talk about my Sunday night crew all
38:01
the time, that group of dudes that's like, that's, that's my group, right?
38:06
Like that, that is, I just wish I had found them earlier, right?
38:09
So that I could have deeper relationships with these guys, but you know, we're just
38:12
all wired the same, you know, we, we challenge each other like we just like that, right?
38:17
This is real iron, you know, this is real iron sharpening iron, like I just freaking
38:22
love it.
38:24
But those relationships shouldn't become overly important to the detriment of my number one
38:30
relationship on this earth, which is my relationship with my wife and my number one relationship
38:35
in the universe, which is my relationship with Jesus, right?
38:37
And again, there I go saying relationship.
38:40
I know I've talked about you shouldn't say it's a relationship with Jesus.
38:42
But again, I mean, that's the discipleship setup that I have with the Lord of the universe
38:48
and the Savior of us all.
38:49
That's a very, very important thing.
38:51
All right, guys, last if statement here.
38:54
If you can fill the unforgiving minute with 60 seconds worth of distance run, yours is
39:00
the earth and everything that's in it and which is more, you'll be a man, my son.
39:08
And so at this point, you have to take the totality of everything that we've talked about
39:12
up to this point and imagine being a young boy.
39:17
I'm thinking of, you know, a nine 10 year old, right?
39:20
You're hitting your girl spurts, you know, your body's changing, things inside your brain
39:24
are changing.
39:25
You're learning a lot of things.
39:26
You're getting stronger.
39:27
You're getting faster.
39:28
It's becoming more confusing around you by the day.
39:32
And I'm just imagining for the fathers out there with sons.
39:37
Can you imagine that if you, if you can read this poem or listen to this poem and understand
39:43
it yourself, what it would be like if you could pass on that same understanding to your
39:47
son, think of the impact and the overall power that would be able to be bestowed upon your
39:55
son by you.
39:57
I mean, this goes back to where, you know, I'm so, so much looking forward to the fact
40:02
that I may have a son someday, almost just so I can do rights of passage, just so I can
40:06
help usher this young boy to manhood.
40:10
And part of that is going to be by challenging him to read things like this and get stuff
40:15
out of it.
40:17
Because again, I just walked you through it line by line and I told you what I got out
40:21
of it, like there might be a commentary out there where Kipling basically explains line
40:27
by line what he thinks.
40:28
But as with most poetry, there's the intent of the writer, but then there's also the interpretation
40:33
of the reader.
40:35
They read it and they get something out of it that's different than the person that read
40:39
it right next to him.
40:41
And so I think this provides an ample opportunity for dads out there to put this in front of
40:45
their sons, not only so that they can read it and get the depth of understanding, but
40:50
let your son see you live these things out.
40:54
If you mess up on one of these if statements, be the first one to point it out to your son
40:58
and say, son, I fell short.
41:01
I fell short here.
41:03
I wasn't humble in that moment and I know I've been teaching you that you need to be
41:07
humble.
41:08
And I know that you've seen dad be humble in a lot of situations, but you just got to
41:11
know the way that I acted in that situation where you saw me, that was inappropriate.
41:17
Maybe even apologize to him.
41:18
I'm sorry, son.
41:20
And I also want you to see me pray to Jesus.
41:23
I want you to see me pray to God for forgiveness in this moment.
41:27
And I want you to see me ask for his, for, for his forgiveness.
41:30
I want you to see me repent, which means to turn away from my previous self and my previous
41:35
actions.
41:37
Just think about just the living benefit of something like that to where you have a walking
41:43
talking man in your life that is modeling these amazing things to you.
41:48
And again, I don't know if Rodeyard Kipling is a, is a Christian or was a Christian and
41:52
obviously passed away a long time ago, almost a hundred years ago.
41:55
But this is a guy that all soaked throughout this poem, you can pull out Christian truths.
42:02
Because again, God gave us logic.
42:04
God gave us the entire universe.
42:07
And you can take all that and dial it in and be able to put it into a poem like this that
42:13
you can chew on and let other people in your life that are important to you chew on.
42:17
It's a pretty amazing thing.
42:18
All right, guys, we're going to do a quick resilience boost before we let you get out
42:21
of here.
42:22
As you know, by now, we are a men's ministry and our mission is cultivating manly resilience.
42:26
Specifically, we do that by providing content like this podcast that forges spiritual, mental
42:31
and physical toughness.
42:32
So for you today, I've got the Wikipedia page for Rodeyard Kipling.
42:36
So you can kind of read up on his life, dude, had a very, very interesting life.
42:39
I've got a copy of the jungle book.
42:40
I haven't read it yet.
42:41
So it's kind of getting me excited, potentially digging that and then I've got the YouTube
42:44
video of Dennis Hopper on the Johnny Cash show reading the if poem.
42:49
So that's the audio that we had for you earlier, but I want you to see it visually if you'd
42:52
like to dig into that as well.
42:54
All right, guys.
42:55
Thanks so much for listening to the podcast.
42:56
We really do appreciate it.
42:58
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43:19
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43:23
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43:28
whatever, just hit me up info at undaunted.life.
43:31
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43:33
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43:41
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Just search undaunted life under plans and as always, we want to thank the band August
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43:52
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43:57
The links are in the description.
43:59
I'm your host, Kyle Thompson.
44:01
Remember, keep cultivating manly resilience, keep forging spiritual, mental and physical
44:07
toughness.
44:08
Keep seeking the Lion of Judah.