What's up, dudes?! I want to do a personal challenge in December to get off social media for the month, except for this Skool Community, and focus on family, advent, prayer, and personal growth and reflection. I want to invite y'all into this, as well.⚡ I'm still planning out the details, but essentially it would be deleting Instagram, Facebook, X, etc. off your phone for the month, and return here daily for scripture reading, discussion, workouts, and weekly Zoom calls to get together and discuss what we're up to. It also will give plenty of accountability as we look to workout daily with a rest day on Sundays. So if you are looking to: - Slow down during the holidays - Reduce your dopamine addiction - Develop a consistent workout routine - Keep the holiday weight off - Grow deeper in community with like-minded men - Connect with your family during this special season - Develop a sense of reflection on the scriptures and your life - Have accountability in all of it Just comment below if you're in and invite other guys who you think could benefit from this to the Skool.👍 Let's grow in faith, fitness, and family this December while cultivate a contemplative and reflective life of slowing and intention. Hugs and High Fives, Ryan

The week of Thanksgiving is getting blown out of the water in our "I can't wait for anything special" American culture. Christmas is overshadowing Thanksgiving by a mile, and it's not that it shouldn't, but all in good time, yes? We basically go from Halloween to Christmas now, and Thanksgiving is such a good pause to cultivate reflection, we can't allow society to push it aside on the way to a 60% off sales and Instagram worthy Christmas decor. I recently did a teaching cohort on 1 Tim 4:1-5. There's a lot in that passage that we could unpack, but what I want to focus on is verses 4 and 5. "For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer." (ESV) This encouragement Paul makes to Timothy comes after his warning of false teachers leading others away from the faith by turning what God made for our pleasure and his glory into a "not to do list" that leads to destructive legalism. We know God created everything good. He says it in Genesis 1 after each element of our world he created. After he created man, he called is very good. The word “good” is “tov” which means to be in harmony with God. Therefore, what we consume, enjoy, take part in, etc. it's all for our deepening relationship with God through our constant giving of thanks. I told a story on my first blog about how I was eating lunch and was lead by the Spirit into a deep sense of gratitude for the pretty basic meal I was eating. I thought of the farmers who grew the food and raised the cow. The hard work that was put into stewarding the resources to create a delicious meal. The thankfulness that I felt made a seemingly routine lunch turn into an act of worship. How, then, can we cultivate this in our life with everything? I think it's worth practicing. And not in the sense of it becoming "I must do this so I can experience that." That's essentially what Paul was warning about, although he mentioned false teachers' emphasis on abstaining from God's good creation.

I've been thinking lately about courage. What makes us brave? Is courage an internal feeling, like an emotion that arises from a thought? Or is it more external? Something we can access at our choosing; something we can tap into? What got me thinking about this is my continuous engagement with guys on Instagram. It happens weekly, multiple times, where I will see guys act in courage by reaching out to me, responding to an ad with the word "change", or saying "I'd like to learn more about your coaching. I need help." That takes courage, but what happens after that? 9/10 they vanish, or like the cool kids say, they "ghost" me. Now, I attribute the initial reaching out as emotional courage; a ten second feeling of, "just do it." The act of engaging itself gives us this dopamine hit. We engaged. We DID something, right? Not exactly. It's the moments after that burst of courage that matter more. Was there actually a decision to make a change, or just a gut reaction, prompted by my call to action, that made them pull the trigger? The latter is more likely so. To me, this seems like a courage that is fleeting; one that we can't harness ourselves, but is more like a feeling that fades. I don't want that. I want to harness courage. I want it to shape me. I want to BE courageous. That's an intentional way of being that only comes through consistent practice in taking action on things that scare us. A true courageous act in this case would be to move forward with coaching because you want to be in control of your transformation. Otherwise, life will continue doing its thing - beating you down until you hit rock bottom and are forced to make a move. Reactive vs. Taking Action. No thanks. I don't want that. So how do we cultivate a life of courage outside of understand the principle of doing things that scare us? Should you go jump out of a plane, or sign up for a bull fight in Spain? Nah, that's chasing adrenaline. We need things that will shape us. Grow us. Challenge us.

I have a friend, who is also a mentor and a truly gifted pastor (not to mention a master of productivity...literally writing a book on it), and he carries with him a laminated note card, everywhere he goes. At first glance, it's such an old man thing to do (and he's only 40). I mean, in his journal he carries with him, inside the front cover is a pocket, like the ones from the library that hold the checkout card. Yeah, glued there by his own doing. And inside of that pocket is one of the greatest reminders of identity one could carry, written on that note card I mentioned. I want to share what's on it. Check this out: Who God says I am is the most important thing about me. I need to be reminded of these realities each day. 1. I am a creature in the image of God—fully dependent on him and fully accountable to him. 2. I am united to Christ by the miraculous work of God. I am spiritually, vitally, and permanently bonded to Christ—renewed in and represented by Him. 3. I am a new creation given a new heart, new spirit, and new identity. I am purchased by God, delivered from darkness, oriented to light, empowered to resist temptation, and welcomed at the cross when I fail. 4. I am a son—an adopted child of the King and heir to an everlasting inheritance. I relate to God with a posture of expectant hope as a beloved son to an indulgent father. 5. I am a sinner called to wage war against the rebellion still indwelling me. I seek to grow in holiness and grow into my new identity, drawing from wells of grace and mercy that are bottomless because I am in Christ. 6. I am a saint categorically, declared holy by God. I am being reconfigured from the inside out, conformed to the image of Christ, made into my truest self, and called to cooperate in that process. 7. I am shaped by the living God to be a certain sort of person—my life, thought, and habits of mind and heart are caught up in a process of being slain and made alive by the gospel. 8. I am royalty, unfathomably, ingrafted into Christ’s royal line, sharing the King’s table and rule, and summoned to act with honor, valor, and nobility befitting the upward call of God in Christ.

These workouts are 🔥