How To Become A Dangerous Man

I had an awesome conversation with my latest podcast guest, Jonny Collins, about how so many men are not living optimally. Are you 'dangerous' was the underlying theme to our conversation and what that means to the modern, western man. Being dangerous isn't about kicking the shit out of the first, random dude you see that looks at you crooked, it's about knowing how powerful you are but more importantly, you need to develop that power and capacity for controlled violence and aggression first. To do this, you need to start sorting out your hormones and this means addressing your testosterone levels, first and foremost.

Here is a quote from Canadian psychologist, Jordan Peterson that sums up what it is to be a dangerous man;

A harmless man is not a good man. A good man is a very dangerous man who has that under voluntary control

So, how do you start living dangerously? It begins under the sheets...

Most men would agree that they could always have more sex, train more and shed at least ten pounds of fat that's been holding on since the early 2000's. With Jonny's insight, we uncovered some deep rooted insecurities and physiological issues that are at the heart of these problems. Namely, feelings of inadequacy and a lack of control in our lives that is compounded by low testosterone levels.

Now for the sciency bit that I like to nerd out on from time to time on what testosterone is, how it affects men and what can you go do, right now, to fix it. Sit tight kids, here is a revisit of your middle school science lesson you were probably not paying attention to since you were staring at your girlfriend's rack due to massive amounts of testosterone coursing through your veins.

Testosterone is a cholesterol based, anabolic, steroid hormone that is the primary sex hormone for males. It's responsible for our sex drive, increasing our muscle and bone density, decision making, level of competitiveness and overall vigor. It is secreted in the testicles but it receives the production signal from the hypothalamus/pituitary gland axis in the brain which first produces gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) and then luteinizing hormone (LH).

Follow?

Since testosterone is a cholesterol based hormone, you require fat in your diet to make it, eggs are a great source of it and also contain a ton of protein and B vitamins that make them the perfect testosterone boosting food.

Imagine your testosterone levels are starting to sag, your hypothalamus in your brain senses this and starts producing more GnRH to produce more LH in the pituitary which then sends the signal to the testes to start pumping out testosterone. This is what we call a negative feedback loop and any interruptions in the the signals will result in lower testosterone levels.

What interferes with the brain activity that sends the signal to produce testosterone???

Glad you asked.

I was once a high school science teacher, at an all boys high school and I would inevitably get the same questions about how to get "huge", "cut", "ripped".

My simple answer was, "Go to sleep, dude."

This isn't an oversimplification either, the average Canadian isn't getting enough sleep according to a 2017 Stats Can study. It states that 43 per cent of men and 55 per cent of women in the 18 to 64 age group reported trouble going to sleep or staying asleep "sometimes/most of the time/all of the time."

Sleep factors into your testosterone equation because of the hypothalamus' and pituitary's sensitivity to lack of sleep. In an awesome, 2019 study in the in the Journal of Sex Medicine, researchers found that mild sleep deprivation in rats had the effect of reducing LH levels and a corresponding decrease in testosterone levels, an increase in hypogonadism (smaller balls) and increased erectile dysfunction. Ouch, all this from staying up for one extra episode of, The Office, reruns.

There are plenty of other strategies available on becoming dangerous but I'll let you discover the rest by downloading Episode 10 of the HRD2KILL Podcast, it's a doozy and definitely NSFW.

Download Episode 10. Click the pic.

Train Hard, Fight Easy

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Dave is a retired infantry officer and Afghanistan war veteran. He's the creator of the HRD2KILL training program that was built on the principles that got him from not being able to get out of bed to competing in the Crossfit Open, Spartan Races and the Montreal Gaelic Athletics Association. You can find more mobility based exercises in his new book, "The Nimble Warrior", now available on Apple Books and Amazon or tune into his new HRD2KILL Podcast

All You Need To Lead Is a Clipboard

Get a clipboard and start leading

Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.” Colin Powell

Powerful words and 100% true. This quote has been the guiding principle in my leadership journey and was part of a talk that I gave last week at the annual Dominos Pizza Canada Rally in beautiful Niagara Falls.

Check out the recording of my talk on the HRD2KILL Podcast

Having received an invite from Steve Karagioules to attend the conference, I had the absolute honour of presenting my leadership experiences and lessons learned from fifteen years in the Canadian Forces. I had big shoes to fill since I was a last minute stand in for a high level executive and seeing as this was my first gig speaking about leadership to a room of 200+ corporate managers and executives, I knew I had to bring my "A" game.

I titled my talk, "Speak Calmly, Look Confident and Always Carry A Clipboard - Leadership Lessons From a Combat Veteran". This, in my usual fashion, is tongue in cheek. Many moons ago I was having a conversation with one of my troops that was making his way up the ranks and he asked me if I had any wise words to becoming a successful leader. My reply was based on a lesson I learned from the great leader of men, George Costanza, of Seinfeld fame. While working for the New York Yankees, George came up with an ingenious way to get out of doing any extra work by always looking upset which subsequently got him noticed by George Steinbrenner for promotion. Now, I've never been one to shirk responsibility but I loosely adopted his method and adapted it to always looking "on the ball" by carrying my clipboard everywhere I went.

Therefore, my advice was always to convey confidence to your troops even if you have no idea what is going on; they don't need to know that. Hence, "speak calmly, look confident and always carry a clipboard," was born. If your team senses you're lost in the sauce or that you're panicky about something, it's going to carry over to them and affect mission success, 100%.

“A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.” Lao Tzu

I learned a few things during my first, large corporate event. Namely, that Dominos has a quite a few similarities within their organization that reminded me of the Canadian Forces. First of all, Dominos is a business all about hustle. It's part of their culture due to their 30 minute or it's free guarantee on their pizzas. This was something remarkable to see when they called up award recipients and they were literally running up to the stage. Kind of like being on your recruit course in the infantry when your section commander calls you over; walking is a deadly sin. Secondly, they promote individuals at a very young age to high level positions and give them loads of responsibility based on merit. I was impressed by the number of twenty-something people I met that had regional or national level responsibilities. Lastly, every corporation has a culture and Dominos' culture seems very centered around the success of their community or "family". It's a tough business with little margin for error and that seems to weed out those that aren't cut out for the grind.

Almost every one of the managers and executives I met had started out either making or delivering pizzas at one point. That's a really strong parallel to the Army. You don't start high on the totem pole, you gotta earn your stripes. It creates a community that has the same shared hardships which is a massively important element to creating strong teams.

Me and Steve K

Overall, I really enjoyed having the opportunity to speak about my leadership experiences in the CF. It made me realize how much training we actually have with respects to leading and that the skill of leadership is not one that comes easy without years of practice. I'm extremely grateful for all the feedback I received and for the connections I made during the conference.

Check out the recording of my talk on the HRD2KILL Podcast

For some weird reason, I've got a real hankering for a slice of pizza!

For a FREE download of 3 really practical tips you can use to help build your teams, head over HERE.

Are You A Champion?

Episode 6 of the the HRD2KILL Podcast is out and I had the pleasure of interviewing Steve Karagioules about his new book, The Heart of a Champion and what he's learned along the way.

Steve was basically raised in the Army. His years spent in the Canadian Grenadier Guard Cadet Corps gave him a skill set that he still uses to this day when practicing leadership and team work. Looking after your troops is his biggest takeaway from his years as a cadet NCO and has served him well in his corporate career.

His book, The Heart of a Champion, describes the 5 Heartbeats that make successful individuals successful. From his extensive research, Steve has been able to distill 5 main traits or habits that drive success and they are:

• Champions have fuel for their fire

• Champions believe in themselves

• Champions grind

• Champions never settle

• Champions are obsessed with being a champion

Take a look at this list and see which you can identify with. Do these traits or habits resonate with you? Do they characterize what you're doing right now in order to achieve the level of success you desire?

I highly recommend you listen to the podcast in its entirety and then get yourself a copy of Steve's book on Amazon and vote for his book at the Author Academy Awards, for best self help book of 2019!

As always, make sure subscribe to the HRD2KILL Podcast on your favourite platform and be sure to leave a rating and comment on the iTunes store.