I got this in my inbox from Bryan at Authentic Man Program.
These guys do good work, and I thought this was pretty funny, more than a little familiar, and on-target.
Can you relate?
Bryan says:
Bryan here. In grade school, I was a geeky DORK.
When my sister saw the movie Napoleon Dynamite, she said I HAD to watch it, because it was a movie about ME as a kid. And it was true.
I used to cut out pictures of fighter jets, missiles, dinosaurs, swords, jaguars, cobras, and bald-faced hornets – pretty much any dangerous animal or weapon, I was fascinated with.
I’d even combine them – I’d draw detailed pictures of dinosaurs equipped with machine guns, rocket launchers, stingers and laser weapons…even making my own medieval weapons…and…
Ironically, at school, I was getting bullied and pushed around without ever fighting back.
I was terrified of getting my ass kicked. Inside, I’d be fuming…but on the outside, I would just stand there and take it.
Later in the day, I’d discharge that pent-up aggression by taking one of the makeshift medieval weapons I’d created, and hack away at the plants and vines in the field outside my house…or else, lay in bed that night, replaying the incident, and kicking the living crap out of those guys (F**k YOU, Ricky Scarfino!).
But I was powerless to fight back in the moment. And they knew it.
So they kept picking on me.
At that early age, I had already begun suppressing my power.
Instead of showing up in real life, my power would be expressed in my dreams at night – I was always at war, swinging axes and swords, shooting people and flying jet fighters …
And, unlike most dreams, this was obviously not just a processing of the leftovers of my day…
It was a CLASSIC case of Freudian repression. I had stuffed down my power, and my primal, kill-or-be-killed instinct – the ferocious part of me that WOULD have had me stand up to the bullies (and would have ensured that I wasn’t picked on in the first place!) – was coming out in my dreams, instead.
NO POWER, NO POONANI
Not surprisingly, I wasn’t a very big hit with the ladies back then.
Women can instinctually tell who’s cut off from their power and who’s not, immediately, because it’s a matter of survival and propagation of the species for them.
It’s pretty primal – no guy who’s getting picked on by other men of the tribe is going to be considered a prime mating partner by the ladies, right?
They want a man with strong ties to other men, which maximizes his chances of sticking around to protect his offspring.
Even worse, if a man’s cut off from his ability to fight, then how’s he ever gonna defend his family if they’re getting attacked?
THE TURNAROUND FOR ME
It was only after doing intensive “men’s work”-exercises that challenged and confronted me, and FORCED me to access that part of me – that I began to access my true Power as a man.
For the first time, I felt solid and confident in my ability to stand up for myself, and for the people in my life who I loved. And it rippled out EVERYWHERE in my life – an immediate shift in how people related to me.
Men (including my boss at the time) began treating me with more respect.
And the biggest difference was in my relating with women. As I felt more access to that primal, powerful part of me, women felt safer around me…and MUCH more attracted.
WHAT IS **YOUR** RELATIONSHIP TO POWER?
By now, it should be clear, the connection between your access-to-power and your relating with women.
Take a moment and seriously consider:
- What is your relationship to your own power? Do you feel full access to it?
- Do you feel capable of unhesitatingly putting your life at stake to protect the people you love?
- Do you feel connected to your ability to kill another human being (if it came to that point), to protect the people you love (including *yourself*)?
- Or do you feel that your power is suppressed, blocked, or crimped in one way or another?
- What do you see is the impact of this way of being in your life? How does it specifically affect your career? Your friendships? Your relationship with women?
- And if this is a challenge for you, what steps are you taking to address it?
One step you can take is the AMP Intensive 3-day course.
At the AMP Intensive, for those who don’t yet have FULL access to that primal side, we have specific exercises designed to call out a man’s authentic power (even if it’s been dormant for decades).
They’re intense and confronting exercises, for sure – I was absolutely TERRIFIED when it was MY turn many years ago…but for many men, the AMP Intensive is like a “rite of passage” into manhood…where you face the places that have been holding you back from stepping into being the ruthlessly loving, powerful man inside that’s waiting to be unleashed.
We’ve put together some info here:
http://www.authenticmanprogram.com
If it speaks to you…grab your balls and step into taking the Intensive for yourself.
And whether you choose to take the AMP intensive or not, continue to explore your relationship to your own power as a man. It’s HUGE in terms of the impact to your relating not just with women, but with ALL aspects of your life!
In brotherhood,
Bryan
