April 27, 2025 • 32 mins
Let me know your thoughts on the show and what topic you would like me to discuss next.
Strategic slowdowns transform men's lives by replacing relentless hustle with intentional leadership and sustainable momentum. Slowing down isn't a sign of weakness but a tactical advantage that prevents burnout and creates clarity for what truly matters.
• Speed without strategy leads to exhaustion, not excellence
• Busyness often serves as a shield against uncomfortable emotional work
• Burnout creeps in gradually, disguised as normal stress until collapse becomes inevitable
• Masculine energy thrives on cycles of push and pause, not constant force
• Strategic slowdowns help reconnect to purpose and accelerate true growth
• Practical strategies include a morning power hour, 90-minute focus periods, tech-free zones, quarterly reflection retreats, and reframing slowness as tactical preparation
Download our exclusive Strategic Slowdown Blueprint at members.theawakendman.net and take our free integrity challenge to align your actions with your deepest mission.
Key moments in this episode:
03:19 The Myth of Speed Equals Success
09:02 The Hidden Dangers of Burnout
13:27 The Power of Strategic Slowdowns
18:23 Kevin's Story: A Case Study in Slowing Down
22:00 Practical Tips for Slowing Down
28:56 Recommended Reading and Conclusion
Thanks for listening to the Revolutionary Man Podcast. If you want more information about our programs, use the links below to check us out. It could be the step that changes your life.
Want to be a guest on The Revolutionary Man Podcast? Send Alain Dumonceaux a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/revolutionarymanpodcast
👉To join our movement:
⛰The Integrity Challenge
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome everyone to the Revolutionary man Podcast.
It's where we challenge men tolead with intention, live with
integrity and build a lastinglegacy.
And I'm your host, alan Tommaso.
When was the last time that youtruly slowed down?
It's not because you wereforced to and it's not because
you crashed, but because youmade the decision to slow down.
(00:21):
As men, we're going to be wiredto believe that slowing down is
going to either equal weaknessor failure, maybe even our loss
of drive.
But the truth behind all of thisis that constant speed without
strategy is a surefire way tolead to burnout, to breakdown
and even the loss of the missionthat we're actually chasing.
(00:42):
And so, in today's episode,we're going to dismantle the
myth that faster is better.
We're going to explore howslowing down strategically
actually builds more momentum,more focus and much more impact
in our lives.
And so if you're tired ofrunning hard but feeling stuck,
then stick with me in this,because this episode might just
be the reset that you've beenleading for so long.
(01:03):
Because this episode might justbe the reset that you've been
leading for so long.
And so, listen, if you've everfelt trapped in that relentless
cycle of go, go, go, only torealize you're not getting any
closer to what really matters,then I'd like you to take a
moment now, slow down and hitthat like button, subscribe to
(01:25):
the show and drop me a commentsharing where you're struggling
most.
Slowing down, because whenstrong men actually speak up and
lean into this, we're not justhelping ourselves, but we're
giving permission for other mento do the same.
So let's shift this culture andlet's start working together.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
The average man today is sleepwalking through life,
many never reaching their truepotential, let alone ever
crossing the finish line toliving a purposeful life.
Yet the hunger still exists,albeit buried amidst his
cluttered mind, misguidedbeliefs and values that no
longer serve him.
It's time to align yourself forgreatness.
(02:02):
It's time to become arevolutionary man.
Stay strong, my brother.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
So the first question I have for you is when was the
last time that you chose to slowdown?
And it's not because you had toright, it's because you knew it
was going to make you stronger.
Question number two when inyour life are you confusing
busyness with real momentum andmeaningful progress?
And question three if you couldmaster this art of slowing down
(02:35):
without losing your drive, howwould your leadership, your
marriage and your peace changein a year from now?
We're calling out thisinvisible trap that most of us
are running inside, and I askthese questions to help you
really focus on coming up withan honest answer.
(02:56):
So it's time for us to learn toslow down like a warrior and
build a kind of momentum thatdoesn't crash when life gets
heavy.
And if we're ready to reclaimcontrol, then this is where
we're going to begin, and sowith that, let's get on with
today's episode.
(03:19):
Welcome back everyone, and Iwant to start off our
conversation by this firstdiscussion point in unpacking
the myth that speed equalssuccess.
When we consider, in today'sworld, men are bombarded with
the message that relentlessspeed is going to be the key to
winning, isn't it?
And it's this hustle culturethat glorifies the 4 am wake-ups
(03:40):
, the 18-hour working days andthe jam-packed schedules.
And so if you're not movingfaster than everyone else, guess
what You're losing?
Or so that's what we think,because that's what we're told.
Here's the honest truth Speedwithout strategy leads to
exhaustion.
It's not excellence, and so,without clarity, all that
(04:01):
movement becomes nothing morethan a sophistication,
procrastination.
And so we're feeling busy,right, but we're actually
drifting, we're not trulyleading, and so it's this belief
system that has really thatbecomes deeply ingrained in our
lives, and especially if we'reentrepreneurs and high achieving
(04:22):
men, we're going to tie ourworth to how much we're doing
versus whether or not what we'redoing even matters in life.
And so consider this that speedcan feel productive, but more
often is masking a lack ofclarity for us, and so moving
fast will give us this illusion,won't it, of progress, that
(04:42):
we're actually moving forward.
So our days are packed.
Maybe our calendars are full Iknow mine are.
It looks impressive, doesn't it?
But when you stop to slow downjust long enough to think about
what's going on in your life,you're going to realize that
you're reacting instead ofcreating, and so, without a
clear target, we can truly be100% busy and still be 100% off
(05:06):
course.
Just consider that for a moment.
And so clarity, not velocity,is what's truly going to define
our success.
Imagine that we're grinding awayto grow our own business, or
we're in a business.
We're grinding away, so maybeit's launching products.
It's product after product, andwe're not really stopping to
ask is this aligned with abigger mission, my bigger
(05:28):
mission?
And maybe a few months later,we recognize that not only are
we burned out, but we're alsodisillusioned because none of
this is truly making us feelfulfilled.
And so speed has hid this lackof purpose, has hid this lack of
purpose, and so if we take amoment to slow down, we can
re-center on why we're buildingand what we're building.
(05:49):
It would have truly saved ustime, money and our own sense of
meaning, wouldn't it?
Here's the second thing toconsider.
There's an addiction to busyness, and the addiction keeps us
from facing real emotional work,and so busyness isn't just
going to be about ourachievement, right, it's often
we use it as a shield, and whenwe're constantly in motion, we
(06:11):
don't have to feel thediscontent that's really
creeping underneath everything.
Maybe it's from fears, it's ouremptiness, maybe it's
disconnection.
All of this for many of us, asbusy men are there to help us
avoid this uncomfortable truth,and so we stay busy.
So, when that happens, thereare truths that we may not want
(06:31):
to really discuss and dive into,and that may be with our
marriages, maybe in our faith,or even in our purpose, and so,
again, I ask to ask you toconsider that, if we're just
throwing ourselves into our workconvincing ourselves that I'm
doing this for my family, but ifwe really sit down and ask them
what was truly behind all ofthis, it's a pretty vulnerable
(06:53):
conversation, and it's aconversation that you should be
having with your wife, with ourkids, maybe even with a close
confidant, because remember,remember, being busy isn't noble
, it's a defense mechanism, andso, if we can take that
opportunity to slow down, it'sgoing to force us to confront
where we're being absent andit's going to give us a chance
(07:14):
to rebuild what truly matters inour lives, and so slowing down
is going to allow us torecalibrate, isn't it?
It?
It's not about retreating, it'sabout stepping up, it's about
leaning into our awareness, it'sabout gaining wisdom about
what's going on, and realignment, because true warriors retreat
strategically to sharpen ourweapons, to heal our wounds and
(07:37):
to rethink our strategy beforewe re-enter the battle whatever
that battle looks like.
We re-enter the battle whateverthat battle looks like.
And so, men who choose to notpause the beat-ups, don't burn
out, but we risk losing the verymission that we're striving for
.
And so consider anything thatyou're working on.
Maybe you're the CEO of yourown company, but you're losing
(07:58):
touch with your leadershipbecause you're not taking a
weekend retreat.
You're not doing this for yourfamily, so there's no meetings,
there's no obligations, maybethere's just silence and there's
opportunity for you to journalor to consider, and when you do
that, you're going to have amuch clearer vision, you'll be
able to be much tighter in yourcommunication and you'll be far
(08:20):
more powerful in your leadership.
And so time away isn't aboutjust slowing yourself down, but
it's all about catapulting youforward in your life.
And so speed is going to feelsexy, busyness is going to feel
heroic, but clarity, wisdom andstrategic stillness are where
(08:41):
the real momentum is going to bebuilt.
And so, if we can be men whocan just dare to slow down on
purpose, we're always going tooutperform the man who just
sprints blindly toward nowhere.
And Socrates, I think, said itbest, and he says Beware the
barrenness of a busy life.
Let's move on to the secondpoint I want to bring up about
(09:02):
this why most men burn outwithout even seeing it coming.
Consider this burnout doesn'tannounce itself with a warning
siren, does it?
It just creeps in slowly andit's often going to be disguised
as either normal stress or justbeing in a busy season.
And as driven men, especiallythose who are wired to perform
and achieve, are going to behighly vulnerable.
(09:24):
See, it's not because ofweakness, but because we are
strong and stubborn enough toignore these early warning signs
.
And so most men don't crashbecause we're incapable.
We crash because we've beenconditioned to believe that
needing rest, recalibration orrecovery is going to be weakness
.
And if we live at red linespeeds until our mind and body
(09:47):
and our marriage gives out, youknow very well what's going to
happen, don't you?
So burnout is death by athousand cuts, isn't it?
It's not going to be just thatone single late night that's
going to break you or thatsingle fight that you might have
with your spouse.
Burnout is going to occur froman accumulation of small,
(10:07):
seemingly harmless choices.
Right, it's the skipped workout, it's the lost sleep, it's the
ignored spiritual practice, theemotional shutdowns that we have
.
And so every time that we makea choice to push through
something instead ofrecalibrating, we're just moving
an inch closer to collapsing.
And so consider that in ourlives, when we keep proming
(10:29):
ourselves that we're going totake a weekend off after the
next big project or that nextthing that's in our lives, then,
as time goes by, don't besurprised if it's a year later
that you're going to wake upwith chronic fatigue, a failing
marriage and no one left.
And it wasn't that the oneevent broke you down, it was the
daily refusal to rest.
(10:50):
And so consider that ourmasculine energy thrives on
cycles of push and then pause,and because our masculine power
is all about rhythm and notconstant force even the elite
warriors, athletes or leadersunderstands this Our true
mastery is sustained duringstrategic recovery, and so if
(11:11):
we're always pushing forward andnever pausing, then we're
eroding our own foundation.
So let's think about it.
We're in the midst of theStanley Cup playoffs.
Here in the National HockeyLeague, they train hard, but
they're also prioritizing thingslike deep rest, sleep therapy,
hot and cold therapy for theirbodies to promote active
recovery and nutrition.
(11:31):
All of these things help buildthemselves to be elite athletes.
You can realize that it's trulynot a constant all-out assault
during the game or the game oflife.
So it's measured cycles ofenergy exertion and then
strategic recovery, and withoutthese truly happening, then the
(11:51):
performance would plummet,wouldn't it?
Nobody can sustain that.
So consider this.
If elite athletes can buildthat, so consider this.
If elite athletes can buildintentional rest into their
preparation, what makes us thinkthat we're above that?
Because rest isn't retreat,it's about reinforcement, and so
let's not ignore the warningsigns that leads to our collapse
(12:12):
, right.
And so these early warningsigns of burnout, irritability,
emotional numbness, chronicfatigue, declining libido,
strained relationships thesearen't just stress.
They're signals that our souland our mind and our bodies are
calling for a realignment.
So ignore them long enough andguess what's gonna happen?
(12:32):
Our collapse won't be optional,it's going to be catastrophic.
And so consider things likesnapping out our kids for just
minor mistakes, or stopping toconnect with our wives or
hobbies that maybe brought usjoy at one point and no longer
give us any more joy If we'reconstantly feeling tired and we
can't sleep.
(12:52):
Well, these aren't random.
They're signs that our engineis overheating, and slowing down
could prevent a total breakdowncoming down the road, couldn't
it?
And so consider, as we thinkabout this second point, that
burnout doesn't really respectbusyness, it doesn't reward
loyalty to the hustle and itsure punishes us who refuse to
(13:13):
listen to the internal warningsystems.
And so if we can learn to slowdown, it's the path to a
sustainable, unbreakableleadership.
So we need to truly take careof ourselves first.
So that leads me to this thirdpoint that I want to bring up
today the power of strategicslowdowns.
So we've been talking about howwe can have more strategy so
(13:35):
far in this episode with beingable to slow down, and about how
can we find real, sustainedvictory in our lives.
And so in ancient times,seasoned fighters didn't fight
all day.
Every day they trained, theysharpened their weapons, they
studied their enemies, theyrested because the battle
required them to be precise.
It wasn't just about raw effort.
(13:57):
And so today, as modern men, weforget this.
We think slowing down meanslosing momentum, but in reality,
slowing down is the intentionof what creates the momentum, of
what truly matters most for us.
So having deep focus, emotionalresilience and spiritual
grounding this we can puttogether and use it as a
(14:17):
tactical advantage inaccomplishing our mission.
So the man who knows when andhow to slow down doesn't fall
behind, but we're actually goingto rise above, won't we?
And so how do we do that?
We start with some reflection.
That's going to help us createmore precision in our lives.
So, without reflection, ouraction is going to be blind,
(14:38):
isn't it?
And when we move fast withoutpausing to assess, you can waste
time, years, trying to climbthe wrong ladder.
I know that is something thathas occurred for me many times
in my career, and so when westart chasing someone else's
definition of success orbuilding things that we secretly
resent, then we're going toneed to slow down to have some
(15:02):
honest reflection that bring usback into alignment with our
mission, and that precision willhelp us beat anything that's
standing in our way.
If you were to take just anhour every Sunday and reflect on
where did I lead well this weekand where did I drift, and what
needs to be changed for theupcoming week, I think you find
(15:25):
that practice over time reallyhelp focus on exactly what we
need to do, so our actions willbecome much more aligned with
our deepest values.
And so the next thing toconsider is that strategic
slowdowns help us reconnect toourselves and to our purpose,
and so when life's moving alittle too fast, it's easy for
us to forget why we even startedthis and why we're doing what
(15:47):
it is that we're doing, and sowe can get caught up in
deadlines and metrics and thenoise and we can lose that fire
that really made us dangerous inthe first place.
And so having strategicslowdowns, whether it's a daily
meditation, quarterly retreatsor just simply deep prayers and
solitude, is really going tohelp us reignite the why in our
(16:08):
life Again.
Consider, in our busy lives, ifwe could take a two-day silent
retreat no phones, no laptops,no agenda, just stillness, maybe
some journaling.
It's just quietness becauseit's going to be in that space
where we can reconnect with theoriginal vision behind all the
work that we're doing, thefreedom, the impact and the
legacy that we've been strivingto attain.
(16:30):
It's really an opportunity forus to have clarity in our
mission and then to get back ontrack to the things that truly
matter in our lives.
And so intentional slowing downis actually going to accelerate
our true growth, isn't it?
And so it does sound a littlebit paradoxical, doesn't it?
But slowing down to build asystem, our habits, our
(16:52):
spiritual practice, maybe evenour emotional capacity, is going
to lead to exponential growthover time.
Without these intentionalslowdowns, growth becomes
chaotic, it becomes erratic andeasily destroyed by crisis,
isn't it?
And so making time for astrategic slowdown is going to
help us build ourselves tobecome unshakable.
(17:16):
So look at how often you'resaying yes to things, because
being yes to every opportunityisn't always the best thing for
us to do.
If we focus on building coreskills and deepening our key
relationships, sharpening ourleadership, instead of this
constant idea of always beingthe new thing, we're going to
(17:38):
find that grow much more when wecan strategically learn to say
no to things in our lives.
And so slowing down isn'treally an art.
It's really about discipline,isn't it?
And so those of us that canslow down with strategy,
reflection and purpose, we canbuild an internal engine that
doesn't break even, andespecially when life does get
(18:00):
hard for us.
And so we're not going to loseany momentum.
We're going to actuallyredefine what momentum looks
like, and I always appreciatethe thoughts of Henry David
Thoreau, and he says it is notenough to be industrious.
So are the ants not enough tobe industrious?
So are the ants?
(18:20):
What are you industrious about?
I think that's very key forthis particular point.
So I'd like to talk about agentleman by the name of Kevin.
He's a 41-year-old entrepreneur, a man known for his relentless
drive and up before sunrise,emails firing before breakfast,
client meetings stacked frommorning till night, and to
everyone else he looked like hewas winning, building and
growing.
But inside, kevin felt agrowing emptiness that he just
(18:44):
couldn't shake, and so every daybecame a blur Meetings,
deadlines, deals.
He was moving fast, but hecouldn't remember the last time
he actually felt something otherthan exhaustion.
His marriage was on autopilotand his friendships were distant
memories.
And that night, after the noisehad died down, he would be in
(19:04):
bed staring at the ceiling,wondering why he felt like he
was losing a race he wassupposed to be winning.
But it came one day his bodygave out.
He had chest pains,shortnessness of breath and an
emergency room visit that reallyshook kevin to his core.
It tested the rules and ruledout a heart attack for him, so
(19:24):
thank goodness for that.
But the doctor's words hit himharder than any diagnosis could
have.
The doctor told him your bodyisn't broken, it's just
exhausted.
And if you don't slow down,something will break, and next
time you might not walk out ofhere driving home from the
hospital in silence, kevin sawthat it was clear that he was
(19:46):
sprinting towards a cliff, andthe worst part is that he just
wasn't burning himself out.
It was that he couldn't evenremember why he was running so
hard in the first place, and so,somewhere along that way, he
had traded meaning for motion,impact for image.
Success he was chasing wascosting him just about
(20:08):
everything in his life.
And so it was that night, thatmoment, that epiphany moment for
Kevin, that he made a decisionthat he would slow down, not as
a retreat, but as a revolution.
He created boundaries that henever dared set before.
He blocked sacred time for hiswife, his kids and especially
for himself.
He built morning routines ofstillness, prayer, meditation,
(20:30):
journaling, and, before theworld demanded any of his
attention, he set his intention,and then he took quarterly solo
retreats to review his life'strajectory, not just his
financials.
So soon Kevin was realizingthat just this, how much power
there was to slowing down itreally wasn't costing him any
(20:50):
momentum, it was actuallycompounding it, and so he wasn't
reacting anymore.
He was choosing, he wasmarching with precision, and it
was for the first time in hiscareer that he wasn't surviving
success, he was actually livingit with strength, with clarity
and with gratitude.
Fast forward six months, andKevin's business wasn't just
(21:12):
surviving, it was thriving, butnot at the cost of his health or
his family, his marriage,vibrant again.
His kids no longer saw a ghostat the dinner table, his
mornings were filled withpurpose, not panic, and his
energy, once fragile and frantic, now felt forged in steel.
Kevin learned that there's asecret.
Very few men discover that theman who masters himself, his
(21:36):
pace, his presence, hispriorities, masters everything
else.
Slowing down didn't weaken him,it weaponized him, and now he
led his life like a warrior, notwith constant struggle, but
with calibrated, unstoppablestrength.
And so I think it's importantthat we look at Kevin's story,
and there are a few tips andstrategies that we can start to
(21:59):
implement in our lives, and soone of the first things I want
to talk about here isestablishing a non-negotiable
morning power hour, and it's away to start our day that really
dictates the energy that we'regoing to carry into every room,
isn't it?
A chaotic morning creates areactive mind.
If we can make a powerfulmorning routine, it's going to
create us as centered leaders,and we can't lead our family and
(22:21):
our business if we're not firstleading ourselves and our minds
.
So the most common mistake thatwe're going to make as men is
that we're going to wake up andinstantly react to things.
Try not to pick up that phoneright away and answer, to do
texts and emails or start to putout fires.
Instead, just take a moment topause, so, before you're
touching that phone, takeanywhere between half an hour to
(22:43):
an hour of structured stillness, and however that looks for you
maybe prayer, meditation isn'tfor you but just taking a moment
to contemplate what is about tocome up for you in this day.
If you become, like most of us,shallow breathers, it's a
perfect opportunity to re-engagehow we breathe, and so those of
(23:04):
us that can build this into ourdaily practice are going to
find that our days will start tobecome much more strategic.
What's the next thing for us tomaster?
The next tip I'd like to offeryou is the 90-30 focus rhythm.
This is something that brainscience has shown us that we can
operate at elite levels forabout 90 minutes before our
(23:28):
attention, our willpower andcreativity drops off.
And I've heard varying degreeson that 20, 45, it's 90 minutes.
It's all relative and whatyou're doing, but the point is
that there's a time limit ofwhen we're going to truly be at
our most focused self, and soonce we pass that point, then
our productivity is going totank.
And so trying to do this, livein this, grinding non-stop for
(23:52):
hours without a break, it's notgoing to make us a warrior.
It's not going to make us awarrior.
It's actually going to make ussloppy and reactive.
And I think of those days whereI'm sitting working on the
computer and pounding awaytrying to get all this work done
.
I realized that after a whilethe work is not as tight, it's
not as succinct and it isn't asimpactful as it could be.
(24:14):
Devise a plan and your strategyin your workday to block, do
time blocking of 60 to 90minutes to focus on a key task
and then create some space afterthat.
Maybe that needs to be blockedin the calendar as well to
prevent you from being booked ontop of that, so you do have
some time and then get up and gooutside and move the body.
It's an opportunity for us torefocus our lives, and so if we
(24:38):
can respect this energy cyclethat we have, I think you're
going to find we'll be much moreproductive.
And so let's look at the thirdoption or tip to help slow down
in our lives, and that is todesign some sacred tech-free
zones.
Consider that our phones arereally a portal of endless noise
(24:59):
, and if we can't disconnectfrom it, then how can we
reconnect to our mission, ourfaith or our families?
And so stillness is truly goingto be impossible in a constant
digital chaos that we live, andso keeping our phone within
arm's reach at all times isgoing to train our brain for
distraction, isn't it?
And it's going to weaken ourmasculine presence, because it's
(25:21):
always right there within ourreach.
And so choose at least oneblock per day Ideally maybe
around the dinner table or oneweekend morning or something to
that effect where the phone isgoing to be off, it's out of
sight and maybe even forgotten.
Give us an opportunity toreclaim the attention, like a
king reclaims his throne.
(25:42):
Here's a fourth option for us toconsider, and that's taking a
quarterly solo reflectionretreat, and that might sound
like a big thing, but I'll haveyou consider that if we evaluate
our life trajectory at 70 milesan hour all the time, it will
require us to really slow down,and so to do that, some deep
reflection demands us to havestillness in our lives, doesn't
(26:04):
it?
Silence and, obviously,solitude, and so if we can
become men who regularly stepback and see patterns that
others are too busy to notice,then we're going to course
correct far before we hit thatdisaster point.
And so most men are going towait for life to force us to
into some deep reflection, andit's going to be through that
(26:26):
crisis and collapse or evenchaos, and we're going to
finally look at making changesin our life or on the worst side
of it, maybe it's total chaosfor us.
And so, every 90 days, I'mgoing to ask you to block four
to eight hours for solarreflection no meetings, no
family obligations and noelectronics.
(26:48):
It's opportunity for you tojournal.
If you practice here with us inthe Awakened man and our Band
of Brothers group, you'll havean annual goal that you're
striving for.
It's a perfect opportunity foryou to reflect on your progress,
where you're at and what needsto be done in the next quarter.
Men who do this focus onsetting the intention for
(27:09):
steering life with much moreposition than others.
It offers you an opportunity tobuild some momentum, while
others are just going to driftaimlessly into mediocrity.
Here's the fifth piece I offerfor you to consider as a tip and
a strategy, and that'sreframing slowing down as a
tactical warfare, when Iconsider that the greatest
(27:30):
warriors are never reckless, youknow, like the samurais, they
were measured, they weredeliberate and strategically
slow until the moment of thestrike.
And so in our lives, slownessisn't about surrender, and we
talked about that in a previousepisode.
It's sharpening our blade whileothers are swinging wildly.
Then they lead to burnout.
And so when we start to equatethat slowness or stillness with
(27:55):
softness, I think we'reforgetting that patience under
pressure is a greater strengththan blind aggression.
And think about some of theelite athletes in our era that
truly were able to slow down atthe peak of pressure.
And so next time you're feelinganxious to act, pause, just
(28:15):
take a moment, breathe andreframe that stillness as a
strategic positioningopportunity, and then only move
when it's time to strike withpower and precision, instead of
flailing like with panic.
And so this summary and I thinkabout these strategies that
were provided for years thatslowing down is really about
(28:36):
developing our masculinediscipline.
It's not a retreat fromstrength, it's actually building
it, and it's a path that leadsus to power, to precision and to
permanent leadership, and sothe men with the long game
aren't going to be the ones whomove the fastest, they're going
to be the ones who move thefastest, they're going to be the
ones that move mostintentionally, and so I was
(28:56):
preparing for this episode.
There are a few books and a PDFthat I have for you today as
resources, and so let's talkabout our first book, and the
book is called Essentialism.
It is by Greg McCowan.
He talks about being addictedto doing more, and I think, as
high-performing men, we do getinto that mindset, but it's
(29:17):
going to redefine what successlooks like by focusing truly on
what is essential, and theyreally challenge us to
ruthlessly eliminating all ofthe thing that isn't essential
in our life, and so essentialismisn't about laziness's gonna be
(29:37):
about a disciplined pursuit,and so take an opportunity in
this book to teach us how to sayno to distractions and yes to
the mission that truly mattersin our lives.
Second book I'd offer for youto consider is the ruthless and
elimination of hurry, and that'swhy John Mark Cormer, and so
this book is really going toexpose how hurry is the enemy of
spiritual depth and emotionalconnection and, of course,
(29:59):
lasting impact, and so it offerslots of practical tools to help
us build stillness in our lives, to slow intentionally without
actually losing our leadershipedge.
And the last book is calledResilience the Hard-Won Wisdom
for Living a Better Life, andthat's by Eric Greitens, and
he's a former Navy SEAL, and hewrote the book to teach the
difference between hollowtoughness and true resilience,
(30:23):
and so it's rooted in reflection, discipline and internal
alignment.
This slow strength, not franticspeed, is really the core of
what it means for us to havemasculine resilience.
As we look to wrap up theepisode today.
Slowing down is not aboutweakness.
It's going to be about wisdom.
It's not surrender, it'sstrategy, and the men who leave
(30:44):
legacies are those who leadtheir families and their
businesses and their lives withstrength.
They're not the men who sprintblindly toward the burnout.
These are the ones who slowdown with purpose, recalibrate
with position, and move forwardwith unstoppable momentum.
And so I have a challenge foryou today, and it's simple Stop
(31:04):
worshiping speed, start honoringstrategy.
Build a life that you're proudof, not the one that you simply
survive in, and so if today'sepisode resonated with you and
if you're proud of, not the onethat you simply survive in, and
so if today's episode resonatedwith you and if you're tired of
living a reactive and exhaustedand disconnected life, then it's
time to act like the leaderyou're called to be.
And so, right now, go tomembersthewakenmannet and take
(31:27):
our free integrity challenge.
It's an opportunity to alignyour actions with your deepest
mission.
And while you're doing that, Ialso have, in today's episode,
in the show notes, to downloadan exclusive strategic slowdown
blueprint.
This is a tool designed to helpyou master your energy, sharpen
your presence and buildunstoppable momentum in every
(31:50):
area of your life.
So take the challenge, downloadthe Strategic Slowdown
Blueprint, and I look forward toseeing you next time on the
Revolutionary man Podcast.
Stay well, my friends.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
Thank you for listening to the Revolutionary
man Podcast.
Are you ready to own yourdestiny, to become more the man
you are listening to theRevolutionary man podcast?
Are you ready to own yourdestiny, to become more the man
you are destined to be?
Join the brotherhood that isthe Awakened man at
theawakendmannet and startforging a new destiny today.
Welcome everyone to the Revolutionary man Podcast.
It's where we challenge men tolead with intention, live with
integrity and build a lastinglegacy.
And I'm your host, alan Tommaso.
When was the last time that youtruly slowed down?
It's not because you wereforced to and it's not because
you crashed, but because youmade the decision to slow down.
(00:21):
As men, we're going to be wiredto believe that slowing down is
going to either equal weaknessor failure, maybe even our loss
of drive.
But the truth behind all of thisis that constant speed without
strategy is a surefire way tolead to burnout, to breakdown
and even the loss of the missionthat we're actually chasing.
(00:42):
And so, in today's episode,we're going to dismantle the
myth that faster is better.
We're going to explore howslowing down strategically
actually builds more momentum,more focus and much more impact
in our lives.
And so if you're tired ofrunning hard but feeling stuck,
then stick with me in this,because this episode might just
be the reset that you've beenleading for so long.
(01:03):
Because this episode might justbe the reset that you've been
leading for so long.
And so, listen, if you've everfelt trapped in that relentless
cycle of go, go, go, only torealize you're not getting any
closer to what really matters,then I'd like you to take a
moment now, slow down and hitthat like button, subscribe to
(01:25):
the show and drop me a commentsharing where you're struggling
most.
Slowing down, because whenstrong men actually speak up and
lean into this, we're not justhelping ourselves, but we're
giving permission for other mento do the same.
So let's shift this culture andlet's start working together.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
The average man today is sleepwalking through life,
many never reaching their truepotential, let alone ever
crossing the finish line toliving a purposeful life.
Yet the hunger still exists,albeit buried amidst his
cluttered mind, misguidedbeliefs and values that no
longer serve him.
It's time to align yourself forgreatness.
(02:02):
It's time to become arevolutionary man.
Stay strong, my brother.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
So the first question I have for you is when was the
last time that you chose to slowdown?
And it's not because you had toright, it's because you knew it
was going to make you stronger.
Question number two when inyour life are you confusing
busyness with real momentum andmeaningful progress?
And question three if you couldmaster this art of slowing down
(02:35):
without losing your drive, howwould your leadership, your
marriage and your peace changein a year from now?
We're calling out thisinvisible trap that most of us
are running inside, and I askthese questions to help you
really focus on coming up withan honest answer.
(02:56):
So it's time for us to learn toslow down like a warrior and
build a kind of momentum thatdoesn't crash when life gets
heavy.
And if we're ready to reclaimcontrol, then this is where
we're going to begin, and sowith that, let's get on with
today's episode.
(03:19):
Welcome back everyone, and Iwant to start off our
conversation by this firstdiscussion point in unpacking
the myth that speed equalssuccess.
When we consider, in today'sworld, men are bombarded with
the message that relentlessspeed is going to be the key to
winning, isn't it?
And it's this hustle culturethat glorifies the 4 am wake-ups
(03:40):
, the 18-hour working days andthe jam-packed schedules.
And so if you're not movingfaster than everyone else, guess
what You're losing?
Or so that's what we think,because that's what we're told.
Here's the honest truth Speedwithout strategy leads to
exhaustion.
It's not excellence, and so,without clarity, all that
(04:01):
movement becomes nothing morethan a sophistication,
procrastination.
And so we're feeling busy,right, but we're actually
drifting, we're not trulyleading, and so it's this belief
system that has really thatbecomes deeply ingrained in our
lives, and especially if we'reentrepreneurs and high achieving
(04:22):
men, we're going to tie ourworth to how much we're doing
versus whether or not what we'redoing even matters in life.
And so consider this that speedcan feel productive, but more
often is masking a lack ofclarity for us, and so moving
fast will give us this illusion,won't it, of progress, that
(04:42):
we're actually moving forward.
So our days are packed.
Maybe our calendars are full Iknow mine are.
It looks impressive, doesn't it?
But when you stop to slow downjust long enough to think about
what's going on in your life,you're going to realize that
you're reacting instead ofcreating, and so, without a
clear target, we can truly be100% busy and still be 100% off
(05:06):
course.
Just consider that for a moment.
And so clarity, not velocity,is what's truly going to define
our success.
Imagine that we're grinding awayto grow our own business, or
we're in a business.
We're grinding away, so maybeit's launching products.
It's product after product, andwe're not really stopping to
ask is this aligned with abigger mission, my bigger
(05:28):
mission?
And maybe a few months later,we recognize that not only are
we burned out, but we're alsodisillusioned because none of
this is truly making us feelfulfilled.
And so speed has hid this lackof purpose, has hid this lack of
purpose, and so if we take amoment to slow down, we can
re-center on why we're buildingand what we're building.
(05:49):
It would have truly saved ustime, money and our own sense of
meaning, wouldn't it?
Here's the second thing toconsider.
There's an addiction to busyness, and the addiction keeps us
from facing real emotional work,and so busyness isn't just
going to be about ourachievement, right, it's often
we use it as a shield, and whenwe're constantly in motion, we
(06:11):
don't have to feel thediscontent that's really
creeping underneath everything.
Maybe it's from fears, it's ouremptiness, maybe it's
disconnection.
All of this for many of us, asbusy men are there to help us
avoid this uncomfortable truth,and so we stay busy.
So, when that happens, thereare truths that we may not want
(06:31):
to really discuss and dive into,and that may be with our
marriages, maybe in our faith,or even in our purpose, and so,
again, I ask to ask you toconsider that, if we're just
throwing ourselves into our workconvincing ourselves that I'm
doing this for my family, but ifwe really sit down and ask them
what was truly behind all ofthis, it's a pretty vulnerable
(06:53):
conversation, and it's aconversation that you should be
having with your wife, with ourkids, maybe even with a close
confidant, because remember,remember, being busy isn't noble
, it's a defense mechanism, andso, if we can take that
opportunity to slow down, it'sgoing to force us to confront
where we're being absent andit's going to give us a chance
(07:14):
to rebuild what truly matters inour lives, and so slowing down
is going to allow us torecalibrate, isn't it?
It?
It's not about retreating, it'sabout stepping up, it's about
leaning into our awareness, it'sabout gaining wisdom about
what's going on, and realignment, because true warriors retreat
strategically to sharpen ourweapons, to heal our wounds and
(07:37):
to rethink our strategy beforewe re-enter the battle whatever
that battle looks like.
We re-enter the battle whateverthat battle looks like.
And so, men who choose to notpause the beat-ups, don't burn
out, but we risk losing the verymission that we're striving for
.
And so consider anything thatyou're working on.
Maybe you're the CEO of yourown company, but you're losing
(07:58):
touch with your leadershipbecause you're not taking a
weekend retreat.
You're not doing this for yourfamily, so there's no meetings,
there's no obligations, maybethere's just silence and there's
opportunity for you to journalor to consider, and when you do
that, you're going to have amuch clearer vision, you'll be
able to be much tighter in yourcommunication and you'll be far
(08:20):
more powerful in your leadership.
And so time away isn't aboutjust slowing yourself down, but
it's all about catapulting youforward in your life.
And so speed is going to feelsexy, busyness is going to feel
heroic, but clarity, wisdom andstrategic stillness are where
(08:41):
the real momentum is going to bebuilt.
And so, if we can be men whocan just dare to slow down on
purpose, we're always going tooutperform the man who just
sprints blindly toward nowhere.
And Socrates, I think, said itbest, and he says Beware the
barrenness of a busy life.
Let's move on to the secondpoint I want to bring up about
(09:02):
this why most men burn outwithout even seeing it coming.
Consider this burnout doesn'tannounce itself with a warning
siren, does it?
It just creeps in slowly andit's often going to be disguised
as either normal stress or justbeing in a busy season.
And as driven men, especiallythose who are wired to perform
and achieve, are going to behighly vulnerable.
(09:24):
See, it's not because ofweakness, but because we are
strong and stubborn enough toignore these early warning signs
.
And so most men don't crashbecause we're incapable.
We crash because we've beenconditioned to believe that
needing rest, recalibration orrecovery is going to be weakness
.
And if we live at red linespeeds until our mind and body
(09:47):
and our marriage gives out, youknow very well what's going to
happen, don't you?
So burnout is death by athousand cuts, isn't it?
It's not going to be just thatone single late night that's
going to break you or thatsingle fight that you might have
with your spouse.
Burnout is going to occur froman accumulation of small,
(10:07):
seemingly harmless choices.
Right, it's the skipped workout, it's the lost sleep, it's the
ignored spiritual practice, theemotional shutdowns that we have
.
And so every time that we makea choice to push through
something instead ofrecalibrating, we're just moving
an inch closer to collapsing.
And so consider that in ourlives, when we keep proming
(10:29):
ourselves that we're going totake a weekend off after the
next big project or that nextthing that's in our lives, then,
as time goes by, don't besurprised if it's a year later
that you're going to wake upwith chronic fatigue, a failing
marriage and no one left.
And it wasn't that the oneevent broke you down, it was the
daily refusal to rest.
(10:50):
And so consider that ourmasculine energy thrives on
cycles of push and then pause,and because our masculine power
is all about rhythm and notconstant force even the elite
warriors, athletes or leadersunderstands this Our true
mastery is sustained duringstrategic recovery, and so if
(11:11):
we're always pushing forward andnever pausing, then we're
eroding our own foundation.
So let's think about it.
We're in the midst of theStanley Cup playoffs.
Here in the National HockeyLeague, they train hard, but
they're also prioritizing thingslike deep rest, sleep therapy,
hot and cold therapy for theirbodies to promote active
recovery and nutrition.
(11:31):
All of these things help buildthemselves to be elite athletes.
You can realize that it's trulynot a constant all-out assault
during the game or the game oflife.
So it's measured cycles ofenergy exertion and then
strategic recovery, and withoutthese truly happening, then the
(11:51):
performance would plummet,wouldn't it?
Nobody can sustain that.
So consider this.
If elite athletes can buildthat, so consider this.
If elite athletes can buildintentional rest into their
preparation, what makes us thinkthat we're above that?
Because rest isn't retreat,it's about reinforcement, and so
let's not ignore the warningsigns that leads to our collapse
(12:12):
, right.
And so these early warningsigns of burnout, irritability,
emotional numbness, chronicfatigue, declining libido,
strained relationships thesearen't just stress.
They're signals that our souland our mind and our bodies are
calling for a realignment.
So ignore them long enough andguess what's gonna happen?
(12:32):
Our collapse won't be optional,it's going to be catastrophic.
And so consider things likesnapping out our kids for just
minor mistakes, or stopping toconnect with our wives or
hobbies that maybe brought usjoy at one point and no longer
give us any more joy If we'reconstantly feeling tired and we
can't sleep.
(12:52):
Well, these aren't random.
They're signs that our engineis overheating, and slowing down
could prevent a total breakdowncoming down the road, couldn't
it?
And so consider, as we thinkabout this second point, that
burnout doesn't really respectbusyness, it doesn't reward
loyalty to the hustle and itsure punishes us who refuse to
(13:13):
listen to the internal warningsystems.
And so if we can learn to slowdown, it's the path to a
sustainable, unbreakableleadership.
So we need to truly take careof ourselves first.
So that leads me to this thirdpoint that I want to bring up
today the power of strategicslowdowns.
So we've been talking about howwe can have more strategy so
(13:35):
far in this episode with beingable to slow down, and about how
can we find real, sustainedvictory in our lives.
And so in ancient times,seasoned fighters didn't fight
all day.
Every day they trained, theysharpened their weapons, they
studied their enemies, theyrested because the battle
required them to be precise.
It wasn't just about raw effort.
(13:57):
And so today, as modern men, weforget this.
We think slowing down meanslosing momentum, but in reality,
slowing down is the intentionof what creates the momentum, of
what truly matters most for us.
So having deep focus, emotionalresilience and spiritual
grounding this we can puttogether and use it as a
(14:17):
tactical advantage inaccomplishing our mission.
So the man who knows when andhow to slow down doesn't fall
behind, but we're actually goingto rise above, won't we?
And so how do we do that?
We start with some reflection.
That's going to help us createmore precision in our lives.
So, without reflection, ouraction is going to be blind,
(14:38):
isn't it?
And when we move fast withoutpausing to assess, you can waste
time, years, trying to climbthe wrong ladder.
I know that is something thathas occurred for me many times
in my career, and so when westart chasing someone else's
definition of success orbuilding things that we secretly
resent, then we're going toneed to slow down to have some
(15:02):
honest reflection that bring usback into alignment with our
mission, and that precision willhelp us beat anything that's
standing in our way.
If you were to take just anhour every Sunday and reflect on
where did I lead well this weekand where did I drift, and what
needs to be changed for theupcoming week, I think you find
(15:25):
that practice over time reallyhelp focus on exactly what we
need to do, so our actions willbecome much more aligned with
our deepest values.
And so the next thing toconsider is that strategic
slowdowns help us reconnect toourselves and to our purpose,
and so when life's moving alittle too fast, it's easy for
us to forget why we even startedthis and why we're doing what
(15:47):
it is that we're doing, and sowe can get caught up in
deadlines and metrics and thenoise and we can lose that fire
that really made us dangerous inthe first place.
And so having strategicslowdowns, whether it's a daily
meditation, quarterly retreatsor just simply deep prayers and
solitude, is really going tohelp us reignite the why in our
(16:08):
life Again.
Consider, in our busy lives, ifwe could take a two-day silent
retreat no phones, no laptops,no agenda, just stillness, maybe
some journaling.
It's just quietness becauseit's going to be in that space
where we can reconnect with theoriginal vision behind all the
work that we're doing, thefreedom, the impact and the
legacy that we've been strivingto attain.
(16:30):
It's really an opportunity forus to have clarity in our
mission and then to get back ontrack to the things that truly
matter in our lives.
And so intentional slowing downis actually going to accelerate
our true growth, isn't it?
And so it does sound a littlebit paradoxical, doesn't it?
But slowing down to build asystem, our habits, our
(16:52):
spiritual practice, maybe evenour emotional capacity, is going
to lead to exponential growthover time.
Without these intentionalslowdowns, growth becomes
chaotic, it becomes erratic andeasily destroyed by crisis,
isn't it?
And so making time for astrategic slowdown is going to
help us build ourselves tobecome unshakable.
(17:16):
So look at how often you'resaying yes to things, because
being yes to every opportunityisn't always the best thing for
us to do.
If we focus on building coreskills and deepening our key
relationships, sharpening ourleadership, instead of this
constant idea of always beingthe new thing, we're going to
(17:38):
find that grow much more when wecan strategically learn to say
no to things in our lives.
And so slowing down isn'treally an art.
It's really about discipline,isn't it?
And so those of us that canslow down with strategy,
reflection and purpose, we canbuild an internal engine that
doesn't break even, andespecially when life does get
(18:00):
hard for us.
And so we're not going to loseany momentum.
We're going to actuallyredefine what momentum looks
like, and I always appreciatethe thoughts of Henry David
Thoreau, and he says it is notenough to be industrious.
So are the ants not enough tobe industrious?
So are the ants?
(18:20):
What are you industrious about?
I think that's very key forthis particular point.
So I'd like to talk about agentleman by the name of Kevin.
He's a 41-year-old entrepreneur, a man known for his relentless
drive and up before sunrise,emails firing before breakfast,
client meetings stacked frommorning till night, and to
everyone else he looked like hewas winning, building and
growing.
But inside, kevin felt agrowing emptiness that he just
(18:44):
couldn't shake, and so every daybecame a blur Meetings,
deadlines, deals.
He was moving fast, but hecouldn't remember the last time
he actually felt something otherthan exhaustion.
His marriage was on autopilotand his friendships were distant
memories.
And that night, after the noisehad died down, he would be in
(19:04):
bed staring at the ceiling,wondering why he felt like he
was losing a race he wassupposed to be winning.
But it came one day his bodygave out.
He had chest pains,shortnessness of breath and an
emergency room visit that reallyshook kevin to his core.
It tested the rules and ruledout a heart attack for him, so
(19:24):
thank goodness for that.
But the doctor's words hit himharder than any diagnosis could
have.
The doctor told him your bodyisn't broken, it's just
exhausted.
And if you don't slow down,something will break, and next
time you might not walk out ofhere driving home from the
hospital in silence, kevin sawthat it was clear that he was
(19:46):
sprinting towards a cliff, andthe worst part is that he just
wasn't burning himself out.
It was that he couldn't evenremember why he was running so
hard in the first place, and so,somewhere along that way, he
had traded meaning for motion,impact for image.
Success he was chasing wascosting him just about
(20:08):
everything in his life.
And so it was that night, thatmoment, that epiphany moment for
Kevin, that he made a decisionthat he would slow down, not as
a retreat, but as a revolution.
He created boundaries that henever dared set before.
He blocked sacred time for hiswife, his kids and especially
for himself.
He built morning routines ofstillness, prayer, meditation,
(20:30):
journaling, and, before theworld demanded any of his
attention, he set his intention,and then he took quarterly solo
retreats to review his life'strajectory, not just his
financials.
So soon Kevin was realizingthat just this, how much power
there was to slowing down itreally wasn't costing him any
(20:50):
momentum, it was actuallycompounding it, and so he wasn't
reacting anymore.
He was choosing, he wasmarching with precision, and it
was for the first time in hiscareer that he wasn't surviving
success, he was actually livingit with strength, with clarity
and with gratitude.
Fast forward six months, andKevin's business wasn't just
(21:12):
surviving, it was thriving, butnot at the cost of his health or
his family, his marriage,vibrant again.
His kids no longer saw a ghostat the dinner table, his
mornings were filled withpurpose, not panic, and his
energy, once fragile and frantic, now felt forged in steel.
Kevin learned that there's asecret.
Very few men discover that theman who masters himself, his
(21:36):
pace, his presence, hispriorities, masters everything
else.
Slowing down didn't weaken him,it weaponized him, and now he
led his life like a warrior, notwith constant struggle, but
with calibrated, unstoppablestrength.
And so I think it's importantthat we look at Kevin's story,
and there are a few tips andstrategies that we can start to
(21:59):
implement in our lives, and soone of the first things I want
to talk about here isestablishing a non-negotiable
morning power hour, and it's away to start our day that really
dictates the energy that we'regoing to carry into every room,
isn't it?
A chaotic morning creates areactive mind.
If we can make a powerfulmorning routine, it's going to
create us as centered leaders,and we can't lead our family and
(22:21):
our business if we're not firstleading ourselves and our minds
.
So the most common mistake thatwe're going to make as men is
that we're going to wake up andinstantly react to things.
Try not to pick up that phoneright away and answer, to do
texts and emails or start to putout fires.
Instead, just take a moment topause, so, before you're
touching that phone, takeanywhere between half an hour to
(22:43):
an hour of structured stillness, and however that looks for you
maybe prayer, meditation isn'tfor you but just taking a moment
to contemplate what is about tocome up for you in this day.
If you become, like most of us,shallow breathers, it's a
perfect opportunity to re-engagehow we breathe, and so those of
(23:04):
us that can build this into ourdaily practice are going to
find that our days will start tobecome much more strategic.
What's the next thing for us tomaster?
The next tip I'd like to offeryou is the 90-30 focus rhythm.
This is something that brainscience has shown us that we can
operate at elite levels forabout 90 minutes before our
(23:28):
attention, our willpower andcreativity drops off.
And I've heard varying degreeson that 20, 45, it's 90 minutes.
It's all relative and whatyou're doing, but the point is
that there's a time limit ofwhen we're going to truly be at
our most focused self, and soonce we pass that point, then
our productivity is going totank.
And so trying to do this, livein this, grinding non-stop for
(23:52):
hours without a break, it's notgoing to make us a warrior.
It's not going to make us awarrior.
It's actually going to make ussloppy and reactive.
And I think of those days whereI'm sitting working on the
computer and pounding awaytrying to get all this work done
.
I realized that after a whilethe work is not as tight, it's
not as succinct and it isn't asimpactful as it could be.
(24:14):
Devise a plan and your strategyin your workday to block, do
time blocking of 60 to 90minutes to focus on a key task
and then create some space afterthat.
Maybe that needs to be blockedin the calendar as well to
prevent you from being booked ontop of that, so you do have
some time and then get up and gooutside and move the body.
It's an opportunity for us torefocus our lives, and so if we
(24:38):
can respect this energy cyclethat we have, I think you're
going to find we'll be much moreproductive.
And so let's look at the thirdoption or tip to help slow down
in our lives, and that is todesign some sacred tech-free
zones.
Consider that our phones arereally a portal of endless noise
(24:59):
, and if we can't disconnectfrom it, then how can we
reconnect to our mission, ourfaith or our families?
And so stillness is truly goingto be impossible in a constant
digital chaos that we live, andso keeping our phone within
arm's reach at all times isgoing to train our brain for
distraction, isn't it?
And it's going to weaken ourmasculine presence, because it's
(25:21):
always right there within ourreach.
And so choose at least oneblock per day Ideally maybe
around the dinner table or oneweekend morning or something to
that effect where the phone isgoing to be off, it's out of
sight and maybe even forgotten.
Give us an opportunity toreclaim the attention, like a
king reclaims his throne.
(25:42):
Here's a fourth option for us toconsider, and that's taking a
quarterly solo reflectionretreat, and that might sound
like a big thing, but I'll haveyou consider that if we evaluate
our life trajectory at 70 milesan hour all the time, it will
require us to really slow down,and so to do that, some deep
reflection demands us to havestillness in our lives, doesn't
(26:04):
it?
Silence and, obviously,solitude, and so if we can
become men who regularly stepback and see patterns that
others are too busy to notice,then we're going to course
correct far before we hit thatdisaster point.
And so most men are going towait for life to force us to
into some deep reflection, andit's going to be through that
(26:26):
crisis and collapse or evenchaos, and we're going to
finally look at making changesin our life or on the worst side
of it, maybe it's total chaosfor us.
And so, every 90 days, I'mgoing to ask you to block four
to eight hours for solarreflection no meetings, no
family obligations and noelectronics.
(26:48):
It's opportunity for you tojournal.
If you practice here with us inthe Awakened man and our Band
of Brothers group, you'll havean annual goal that you're
striving for.
It's a perfect opportunity foryou to reflect on your progress,
where you're at and what needsto be done in the next quarter.
Men who do this focus onsetting the intention for
(27:09):
steering life with much moreposition than others.
It offers you an opportunity tobuild some momentum, while
others are just going to driftaimlessly into mediocrity.
Here's the fifth piece I offerfor you to consider as a tip and
a strategy, and that'sreframing slowing down as a
tactical warfare, when Iconsider that the greatest
(27:30):
warriors are never reckless, youknow, like the samurais, they
were measured, they weredeliberate and strategically
slow until the moment of thestrike.
And so in our lives, slownessisn't about surrender, and we
talked about that in a previousepisode.
It's sharpening our blade whileothers are swinging wildly.
Then they lead to burnout.
And so when we start to equatethat slowness or stillness with
(27:55):
softness, I think we'reforgetting that patience under
pressure is a greater strengththan blind aggression.
And think about some of theelite athletes in our era that
truly were able to slow down atthe peak of pressure.
And so next time you're feelinganxious to act, pause, just
(28:15):
take a moment, breathe andreframe that stillness as a
strategic positioningopportunity, and then only move
when it's time to strike withpower and precision, instead of
flailing like with panic.
And so this summary and I thinkabout these strategies that
were provided for years thatslowing down is really about
(28:36):
developing our masculinediscipline.
It's not a retreat fromstrength, it's actually building
it, and it's a path that leadsus to power, to precision and to
permanent leadership, and sothe men with the long game
aren't going to be the ones whomove the fastest, they're going
to be the ones who move thefastest, they're going to be the
ones that move mostintentionally, and so I was
(28:56):
preparing for this episode.
There are a few books and a PDFthat I have for you today as
resources, and so let's talkabout our first book, and the
book is called Essentialism.
It is by Greg McCowan.
He talks about being addictedto doing more, and I think, as
high-performing men, we do getinto that mindset, but it's
(29:17):
going to redefine what successlooks like by focusing truly on
what is essential, and theyreally challenge us to
ruthlessly eliminating all ofthe thing that isn't essential
in our life, and so essentialismisn't about laziness's gonna be
(29:37):
about a disciplined pursuit,and so take an opportunity in
this book to teach us how to sayno to distractions and yes to
the mission that truly mattersin our lives.
Second book I'd offer for youto consider is the ruthless and
elimination of hurry, and that'swhy John Mark Cormer, and so
this book is really going toexpose how hurry is the enemy of
spiritual depth and emotionalconnection and, of course,
(29:59):
lasting impact, and so it offerslots of practical tools to help
us build stillness in our lives, to slow intentionally without
actually losing our leadershipedge.
And the last book is calledResilience the Hard-Won Wisdom
for Living a Better Life, andthat's by Eric Greitens, and
he's a former Navy SEAL, and hewrote the book to teach the
difference between hollowtoughness and true resilience,
(30:23):
and so it's rooted in reflection, discipline and internal
alignment.
This slow strength, not franticspeed, is really the core of
what it means for us to havemasculine resilience.
As we look to wrap up theepisode today.
Slowing down is not aboutweakness.
It's going to be about wisdom.
It's not surrender, it'sstrategy, and the men who leave
(30:44):
legacies are those who leadtheir families and their
businesses and their lives withstrength.
They're not the men who sprintblindly toward the burnout.
These are the ones who slowdown with purpose, recalibrate
with position, and move forwardwith unstoppable momentum.
And so I have a challenge foryou today, and it's simple Stop
(31:04):
worshiping speed, start honoringstrategy.
Build a life that you're proudof, not the one that you simply
survive in, and so if today'sepisode resonated with you and
if you're proud of, not the onethat you simply survive in, and
so if today's episode resonatedwith you and if you're tired of
living a reactive and exhaustedand disconnected life, then it's
time to act like the leaderyou're called to be.
And so, right now, go tomembersthewakenmannet and take
(31:27):
our free integrity challenge.
It's an opportunity to alignyour actions with your deepest
mission.
And while you're doing that, Ialso have, in today's episode,
in the show notes, to downloadan exclusive strategic slowdown
blueprint.
This is a tool designed to helpyou master your energy, sharpen
your presence and buildunstoppable momentum in every
(31:50):
area of your life.
So take the challenge, downloadthe Strategic Slowdown
Blueprint, and I look forward toseeing you next time on the
Revolutionary man Podcast.
Stay well, my friends.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
Thank you for listening to the Revolutionary
man Podcast.
Are you ready to own yourdestiny, to become more the man
you are listening to theRevolutionary man podcast?
Are you ready to own yourdestiny, to become more the man
you are destined to be?
Join the brotherhood that isthe Awakened man at
theawakendmannet and startforging a new destiny today.
Popular Podcasts
Amy Robach & T.J. Holmes present: Aubrey O’Day, Covering the Diddy Trial
Introducing… Aubrey O’Day Diddy’s former protege, television personality, platinum selling music artist, Danity Kane alum Aubrey O’Day joins veteran journalists Amy Robach and TJ Holmes to provide a unique perspective on the trial that has captivated the attention of the nation. Join them throughout the trial as they discuss, debate, and dissect every detail, every aspect of the proceedings. Aubrey will offer her opinions and expertise, as only she is qualified to do given her first-hand knowledge. From her days on Making the Band, as she emerged as the breakout star, the truth of the situation would be the opposite of the glitz and glamour. Listen throughout every minute of the trial, for this exclusive coverage. Amy Robach and TJ Holmes present Aubrey O’Day, Covering the Diddy Trial, an iHeartRadio podcast.
Betrayal: Season 4
Karoline Borega married a man of honor – a respected Colorado Springs Police officer. She knew there would be sacrifices to accommodate her husband’s career. But she had no idea that he was using his badge to fool everyone. This season, we expose a man who swore two sacred oaths—one to his badge, one to his bride—and broke them both. We follow Karoline as she questions everything she thought she knew about her partner of over 20 years. And make sure to check out Seasons 1-3 of Betrayal, along with Betrayal Weekly Season 1.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.