MDI Ontario Forum

I found an interesting article today about being a man. You can read it, too.

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2008/05/how-to-be-a-man/

I’m not sure I agree with the second point (Put your relationships second). Point number 9 tends to say more about relationships that I agree with.

The question that the second point raises is: Am I using my relationship with my spouse/family to hold myself back from being the best I can be?

Another way to look at this question is similar to a question I would ask myself about whether or not I am behaving in an “addicitive” way. One of the questions that I would ask myself when I suspect I am being compulsive and obsessive is: Does this relationship interfere with my job?

When I make a comittment to go from A to B, what life events am I allowing to get in the way of that? Can I get my life together, find enough support, enroll my family members, my boss, my men’s team to support me in this effort?

When I hear a man say “My family comes first” it sounds noble and committed at first, but I get a niggly question in the back of my mind that asks: What is it about this man that he allows his family to suck the life out of him?

At this month’s Division Meeting, the core team presented an exercise to encourage the men to share their ideas and dreams of what their ideal organization would look like. We challenged the men to look within their imagination and to make powerful statements about the organization of their dreams, in terms of how we build it and what we will do. Here are the top ideas that the men shared.

The organization we are committed to:

• speaks to men’s emotional, spiritual, intellectual, physical needs and well-being
• has a mission agreed to by all men, standards, and code of conduct that support it
• has a purpose bigger than all individual purposes
• is an organization way more public than we are now, with a solid marketting plan
• is a place where men want to be
• provides clarity around the organization and Legacy Weekend
• enrolls, inspires and trains great men
• understands what winning means for each man
• has standards, responsibilities, consequences
• is accepting of all men
• has a system of open and honest communication
• is a world-wide organization with its own building
• is dedicated to learning
• we are teachers and we learn by teaching
• has a clear purpose and a structure that supports the purpose
• sets tangible measurable goals for group to rally around
• its leader acts as a rudder that keeps the organization on track
• transfers men between teams