And here's the hard truth. Nobody is coming to initiate you. Nobody's going to step up and do this for you.

Not your dad, not your coach, not the government, not society at large, not your wife.

If you missed the boat and many of us did, I did, then you have to initiate yourself.

So what does that actually look like? Well, it looks like stepping into voluntary hardship.

It looks like working out. It looks like pursuing things. It looks like

taking risk. It looks like taking on challenge. It looks like discipline when nobody around you

is watching. What time do you get up? It looks like choosing responsibility before you feel ready.

Man, there was a time when a boy knew when he became a man.

It really wasn't ambiguous.

It wasn't self-declared like Michael Scott screaming.

I declare bankruptcy.

It wasn't based on his age alone.

It was earned.

And across all cultures, whether it was the Spartan warriors or native American tribes or African tribes or even the early American frontier, boys were tested before they became quote unquote men.

They were taken to the wilderness.

They endured hardship. They faced fear.

They carried responsibility. And when they came back, they were changed. They were welcomed

to the seat at the table of men. They weren't boys anymore. They were initiated. But today, we don't have any of men. They weren't boys anymore. They were initiated. But today we don't have any of that.

Outside of military or sports, all of that has gone away. There's no clear line between boyhood and

manhood. There's no trial. There's no rights of passages, no older men calling

younger men forward. And instead, we have extended adolescence. And that's the best way to describe it.

We have taken our youthful years of boys and we have just extended it perpetually. And this is why you have 30, 35, 40, 50 year old

...