For those of you who don’t know, last weekend was our inaugural live retreat called the Uprising. We had 20 men fly in from all over the country to gain the skills, tools, and resources needed to step up fully as men in their lives – and in the lives of their families, businesses, and communities.
Men, what is going on?! My name is Ryan Michler and I am the host and founder of Order of Man.
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Now, let’s get to the topic of discussion of today. I’ve had quite a few requests to recap last weekend. For those of you who don’t know, last weekend was our inaugural live retreat called the Uprising. We had 20 men fly in from all over the country to gain the skills, tools, and resources needed to step up fully as men in their lives – and in the lives of their families, businesses, and communities.
The retreat was such a huge success that we’ve already confirmed some of the details for the next Uprising which will be in April of 2017. I’ll give some more of the details towards the end of the show so, if you’re even remotely interested, stick around and get all of that information. We’re going to sell these out quick!
So, like I said we had guys fly in from all over the country. We picked the guys up Las Vegas and drove them to a somewhat remote cabin in a small mountain town in Southern Utah.
I’ve been to some events in the past and one of the hardest things is getting the attendees to interact so, we decided to really shake things up a bit so we could get the guys interacting. The very first thing we did after the guys got their room assignments is we went and played airsoft. If you’ve never played before, you’ve got to go try it. It’s amazing how quickly men come together when they’re literally shooting at each other.
But that was the whole idea around the event. Our goal was to really shake the men out of their current reality. We wanted to create something that the men had never experienced before and I know all of them tried some things they had never done.
I’m not going to give away all the details because part of the draw is the mystery surrounding the event and flying across the country without a clue as to what you’re getting yourself into.
A lot of you probably know my favorite quote regarding masculinity which is John Eldredge’s quote, “Deep in his heart every man longs for a battle to fight, and adventure to live, and a beauty to rescue.” Minus the “beauty to rescue” part, that’s what we wanted to create.
For food, we did a lot of different things. Some of it was catered. We did some Dutch Oven meat loaf, chicken, potatoes, and cobbler one evening. Most of the meals we did, the attendees were the ones preparing and cooking the food. It was pretty cool to see these guys come together and work as a team and communicate efficiently to make sure dinner was prepped.
So, here’s the cool thing about this. Every situation, every opportunity, every moment (from shooting, to survival training, and everything else we did) is a metaphor for life. And, there’s lessons to be extracted from everything we do on a daily basis. So we made sure we were conducting our “after-action reviews” after each activity to see what lesson we could extract from the activity and implement in our everyday life.
We got up and did PT early each morning, had some killer food, and we also had some world class instruction on the topics of survival and firearms training. We build fires. We shot 6 or 7 different weapon systems, and at the end of the day, we did some really manly stuff.
But, the biggest learning opportunity was, far and away our firesides. Each night we gathered around the campfire and talked about real issues - not what others thought we should talk about. There wasn’t any worry about being politically correct. These were real conversations with real answers and solutions to real problems men like you and I are facing every single day.
Again, I can’t divulge all the details but each and every one of these guys forged new bonds with men all over the country who are continuing to connect outside the event and help each other succeed. Every single one of the men did something they’ve never done before.
We also had some self-defense instruction from an MMA fighter, participated each and every morning in a morning routine, had some great keynotes and the laws of influence and leadership, and had a killer steakhouse dinner to cap the weekend.
Each of us, as men, really needs to step into the role of protector, provider, and presider over themselves, their families, and their communities and this whole event was designed to help guys do that.
Now, with that said, and as successful as the experience was, there are always opportunities to learn. We’ve already started planning the next event and we’ve built in some more efficiencies during the weekend so we can do more and go deeper on a few of the exercises. We’re going to have even more powerful information, we’ve mapped out some additional breath-taking hikes, and we’re going to be implementing some more survival training including land nav. and situational awareness courses.
I know there are a lot of guys struggling in their relationships. They’re struggling with their careers. They’re struggling with their weight. And, although we can’t help men in a weekend overcome the choices and actions they’ve developed over a potential lifetime, we can help point them in the right direction and give them some tools to make massive change in their lives.
If you’re feeling stagnant, if you’re feeling like you need a change, if you’re feeling like you need to mix things up a bit, I invite you to join us at our next Uprising. It’s going to challenge you. It’s going to test you. It’s going to disrupt the path you’ve been on for decades potentially. But it will also change you. It will help you develop confidence. It will help you develop clarity. It will recharge you. It will energize you. And, it will change you.
If you want to know more about the event and get the details, head to wwworderofman.com/uprising. I’ve got the dates up, some of the activities, and the registration page. It is going to sell out quickly (we only have 24 spots) and I wouldn’t be surprised if half of the guys from last time decided to come again.
Again, head to www.orderofman.com/uprising to get the details and I hope to see you in April. My goal is to change your life.
Until then and until our podcast on Tuesday, take action and live manfully!
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