Finding Our Way to The Authentic
Welcome to the first issue in this series on the book: Seek. Adapt. Endure, Following the Way of The World's Most Authentic Man by Michael S. Sanders.
I'm a member of a Christian men's group in Kearney, NE. We're reading this book and going over it together as a group.
Reading is a chore for me. It's funny I run a newsletter in that context. Hopefully, reading and discussing with you will get me through. 😂
Like some, I read to learn things that will help me in life and business. Some would say this topic is the most important to discuss, so let's dive in.
I plan to share my take on the lessons learned from the book instead of a summary of the book itself. Feel free to grab the book yourself if you want to follow along.
Chapter 1 - Finding Our Way to the Authentic
First, Michael isn't calling himself the world's most authentic man in the book's title. Maybe that's clear for everyone else, but it threw me for a loop.
He's referring to Jesus as the world's most authentic man.
The idea is in the Christian story of creation, Adam acted passively compared to Jesus. Some have called Jesus the second Adam.
The second Adam, Hebrew for man, came to earth to set things right the first Adam couldn't do. Namely dealing with sin and creating a path for a relationship with God.
When dealing with humans, Jesus never took the easy way out. He could have used his God powers and skated through life. Instead, he chose to live the hard way.
Michael is inviting us to live the hard way too.
Summary
Living the hard way and pushing into challenges creates resilience, and to increase performance, we must master ourselves.
The world is full of easy ways out and half-rights. I touch on this in Will doing the Right Things cause Imposter Syndrome? The difference between the right thing and making things right.
Identity is a choice. What you identify yourself as has implications for your life. Michael encourages us to identify as Christians after Jesus' example.
Jesus, the man that never sinned, identifying as that means sin has no place in our lives. What do we do with sin that inevitably comes up? Face it.
Jesus didn't shy away from sin because he knew he was sin's master. He was sin's master because he was the master of himself.
He faced challenges, kept his eyes on the prize, and ran the race. I get the title now. Seek, adapt, endure. Seek out challenges, adapt by growing, and run the race.
Final Thoughts
Interesting topics for me. I'm leary of cliche-sounding Christian ideals because it's easy to seem cheap if you tweak the motivation slightly.
Being a good man or even a Godly man can quickly go from improving yourself to condemning the world full of the same people.
The world is full of things that seem wrong, and it never seems right to see things from other perspectives. But watering yourself down isn't the answer.
It's time to face things head-on and master ourselves, one step at a time.
I'll post any thoughts that stick out after our group's discussion. Be sure to share your thoughts as well.