“In order to find peace, we must seek chaos.”
Few can understand the need for hardship and struggle in a Man’s life. Hell, everything we do is for the purpose of creating a more stable and safe lifestyle for ourselves. The problem comes from achieving it. You may remember the story of Sisyphus. The king of Ephrya was punished by the Gods for his deceitfulness and was forced to push an enormous stone up the side of a mountain, only to have it roll back to the bottom once he neared the summit for all eternity. But what would have happened if he had made it to the top? What then? The entire point wasn’t to get to the top. The purpose was to push the rock.
Fast forward from Sisyphus to the modern Man. We live lives of ease and comfort. Survival is no longer a challenge. We live in fortified homes where the climate can be controlled with the turn of a dial. Food is merely a short drive away in yet another climate controlled space and because of this, the souls of Men are in peril. Our world has become automatic and convenient with little occasion for discomfort or struggle.
“But that’s a good thing, right? Right?”
Men are driven only by purpose. We are hardwired to conquer civilizations, foes, and ultimately ourselves. We must destroy. We must build. We must fight. If those things are taken away from us, we begin to deteriorate from the inside out. Born with such great fire in our bellies only to have nothing to burn, nothing to fight, that fire begins to die. Unlike women, we do not find solace in safety, we are at our best when we have to prove ourselves, only when our mettle is being tested do we truly become alive.
Look at your life right now. What discomforts are you forced to endure? What in your life right this moment requires that you dig deep into your soul to find that last ounce of fight in order to carry on? When was the last time you had that? Did you not feel alive when you had been put to the test with only yourself to rely on? Of course you did. It’s a part of who we are as Men. We need a battle to fight.
A Man with a battle to fight is a different kind of animal. Just like the Firefighters will charge bravely into hell to save a total stranger, a Man with a purpose is a part of something much bigger than himself. That knowledge carries him through the moments of self doubt and weakness. With the sweat pouring from his body, the aching in his bones, and the blood blurring his vision, he will get back up every single time, wipe his face and say, “Is that all you got?”.
So how are we supposed to find that purpose? One word. Passion. Living a passionate life, finding the things that we feel deep in our bones the need to strive for and making each moment count for getting us closer to it. It can be your family, a career you love, an adventure you’ve always wanted to take, a body you’ve always wanted to build. Everyone has a passion. Your purpose is to feed that fire within your soul with the pursuit of that passion. It should be difficult. It should be challenging. The harder you have to fight for something the more whole you feel when you get it. The thrill of the fight is knowing that with every blow you take and every hit you give brings you closure to that passion, the fight becomes your passion.
You will know no greater peace than that born of chaos, a chaos that you threw yourself into to create order. Deep down in your most primal DNA you know that this is why you were put here.
Find your passion, find your fight, and only then will you truly find yourself at peace.
A Man, battle born.