Vision is crucial to knowing where you’re going and being able to move in the right direction. At Manning Up we understand the importance of clear vision and know how crucial it is to have that expressed in our vision statement. “Our vision is to see a worldwide revolution of men stepping up to answer the call of true manhood and to cause a massive change in the societal expectations of what a man should be.”
The first thing to note is that this vision is large (far larger than seems possible as noted in my article Embrace the Challenge). This vision is global. It is not limited to a local geographic area, but I believe this is something necessary everywhere and the beauty of the internet and how connected the world is, is that this become logistically possible. My vision is to see men stepping up to their true purpose and calling all throughout the world, and inspiring those around them to do the same, which brings up the next point.
This vision is not for a small, incremental change, but a full-scale revolution. I believe that this issue of men living far below their potential is wide-spread and while the change may happen gradually, a revolution is what is needed. This means growing from our current footprint of a small blog to much larger scale events and opportunities as the resources (both financial and time) become available. Currently this is something I do when I have a spare moment on top of my actual full-time job and being a full-time father and husband, but part of this vision involves this obviously growing into a full-time role for myself, as well as growing to the point it requires additional people to support and grow with this vision.
Answering the call of true manhood has been the focus of most of my previous posts, but this one sums it up best. The most important thing to note is that true manhood is not defined by any external characteristics. It is not defined by any body parts you may or may not have, by physical strength, amount of facial hair, financial success, career achievements, sexual conquests or anything else that might meet societies assessment of what a man should be. True manhood is defined by internal character traits such as honesty, duty, generosity, treating others with respect, and tenacity.
Finally, I believe we need to change the societal expectation of what a man can be, which will happen as a result of this worldwide revolution. Part of what holds men back currently is that we live down to what is expected of us. As an illustration of the difference in expectations between men and women, when my wife is out with our kids and they are acting up she receives largely judgmental glances and comments, but when I’m out with the kids in the same situation I get noting but supportive comments and encouragement since by just being out with my kids on my own I’m already exceeding the expectation of what a dad should be doing. Speak to almost any woman in leadership and they’ll tell you how their actions and decisions are regularly judged completely differently from men making the same actions or decisions. To be clear, I am not blaming society for the problems we see with many men today since I believe that those expectations are there because it’s the standard that many men have set. We are all responsible for our decisions and actions and the expectation of what a man can be will only change when we as men begin to demonstrate what is possible, which will then set the standard for future generations.
There it is, the vision for Manning Up. If this is something that challenges you, resonates with you, inspires you or makes you want to know more, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. If you want to find ways to financially support this vision, check out my page on Patreon. Thanks for checking this out, and I’d encourage you to share it with your friends who you think could benefit from it.
