Be your OWN man...or WOman.

What are you conforming to?  Someone else's standard?  Society's standard?  When you wake up in the morning, what is the first thing you think of?  What outfit you are going to wear?  How your make-up looks?  How you are going to do your hair?  If your car is clean enough? 

Whose standards do YOU live by?  Yours?  Your bosses?  Your customers (if you own your own business?) 

My father has taught me many things over his 78 years on this planet, and one thing he always told me is to be ME.  Don't conform to any one's standard and BE MY OWN MAN. 

That is one reason I never got into running my own business.  I never tried to market products.  I never tried to make money off my knowledge.  I can't conform to YOUR standards as a customer.  I can't try to make everyone happy.  I am opinionated (thanks to my mom!) and when I see a spade I call it a spade.  There is a reason I have a HANDFUL of close friends.  And by close, I mean dudes that I would allow into my house, around my family, around my SANCTUARY.  That reason is because I just don't give a FUCK what people think about me.  That offends some people, and for that I am NOT sorry.

My best friends vary in jobs from SERT Sniper to elementary school teacher to Walmart manager to salesman.

So what makes us friends?  We are all our own men, and we don't conform to shit.  We don't live up to any one's standards but our own.

My father, at 78, can look at himself in the mirror and know that he lived the life he wanted to live.  He didnt sell his soul for a promotion, he didn't grab onto a trend, need the fastest car or the biggest house.  He taught us life lessons and he was HIS OWN MAN.  He earned his commercial pilots license just because he wanted to.  He served in the US Army just because he wanted to.  He earned 2 master's degrees just because he wanted to.  He taught HIMSELF to build houses from the ground up, including plumbing and electric, then built my grandmother her first house she ever truly owned.  He didn't conform, he did what he wanted.

When I started working my current job 8 years ago I got a lot of backlash.  I heard things like, "why did you tattoo your arms?"  "Why do you have a beard?"  "Why aren't you more sociable and friendly?"  "Why dont you make friends at work?"  I heard it all, and I kept my nose to the grindstone.

4 months ago I was handed an opportunity because I did my time in the trenches.  It was more of a test then an opportunity.  It was a sink or swim, and I was literally told, "this job is YOURS to loose."  I was given the opportunity because I asked for it, year after year, and was told no.  I was too rough around the edges.  I have a long beard.  I dont dress the right way.  I have tattoos.  I talk gruff.  I ignore people and do my own thing.  They finally gave in and gave me the chance, part of me thinking to see if I would sink like a stone and they could say, "We TOLD you so!"

But something happened.  What they didnt know about me is my character as a MAN.  I do my job to the best of my ability EVERY single day.  And I am smart.  Perception is reality they say...well I guess they perceived me as tattooed white trash.  Who, by the way, graduated with a 3.6 GPA in college and was asked by his anatomy professor to be a student assistant.  I digress.

So I got it.  I was told, it will take a YEAR to get good at it.  It took 3 months.  A month later, I was pulled from that spot and put somewhere else because the place was going to shit.  A week into the new place and I am smoking it to.  I do in 1 week what most of my co-workers do in a month.  I get shit the fuck done.

So now I am being treated differently.  People are really hating on me, people are whispering, and my boss is calling me "The Gun".  I am now being groomed to take over an entire unit in the coming years. 

The whole point of my post?  I didnt conform to do it.  I am my own man.  I wear my ink proud, I grow my beard long as hell, and I dont give 2 shits what anyone things.  I dont small talk, I get to my office, shut the door, and hammer out my work.  You have something you need to say to me that isnt work related, might as well just walk past more door.  Have something that needs done ASAP, hand it to me, it will be done in 30 minutes.

I can look in the mirror and smile because I am living the life I want to live.  I dress how I want to dress.  I rock my beard.  I say what I want to say without worrying about pissing people off.

BE YOUR OWN MAN.  Dont live on the world's terms, live on your OWN.  Fuck em.  If you believe in yourself, you will achieve your every wish.

We did the DDP Yoga Double Black Diamond workout tonight.  65 minutes of hell and it destroyed me.  Get some.

Big football game tomorrow for my son and for Penn State. 

Bring on the weekend!