Recovering from Vacation Mode | FRIDAY FIELD NOTES

Summer is ending, and for many men, structure and discipline went out the window right along with it. In this episode of Friday Field Notes, Ryan Michler breaks down why waiting for external calendars to rebuild your life is a major mistake. Instead of treating the end of summer like a burden to survive, learn how to systematically reclaim your standards and rebuild your personal routine in three non-negotiable steps: locking in your wake time, adding daily physical movement, and tackling deep work in proper order. As the leader of your household, setting this cadence isn't just about personal discipline—it's about orchestrating stability for your entire family. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS 00:00 - Reclaiming Structure After Summer 01:18 - The Pitfall of Waiting for External Structure 03:46 - Step 1: Lock In Your Wake Time 06:06 - Step 2: Rebuild Your Body with Daily Movement 08:12 - Step 3: Rebuild Your Work Foundation 10:15 - Setting the Household Cadence 13:00 - Raw Masculinity vs. Disciplined Manliness 14:14 - Execute Out of Duty, Not Guilt 15:38 - War Room Announcement & Wrap-Up Battle Planners: Pick yours up today! https://store.orderofman.com/products/order-of-man-annual-battle-planner Order Ryan's new book, The Masculinity Manifesto https://www.amazon.com/Masculinity-Manifesto-Establishes-Influence-Credibility/dp/1684513316/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1665048672&sr=8-1. For more information on the Iron Council brotherhood https://orderofman.link/iron-council. Want maximum health, wealth, relationships, and abundance in your life? Sign up for our free course, 30 Days to Battle Ready https://orderofman.link/battle-ready-0

• 0:00Speaker 00

  So prove to yourself one morning at a time, one day at a time, one task at a time, that when the alarm goes off, you get up, that when the alarm goes off, you move your body, that when the alarm goes off, you start leading your family well. You are the patriarch. You are the leader of your family. So it's important for you to start acting even though the summer have got away from you. It's okay. You enjoyed the, the weekend. It's okay that you had some fun, but now is the time to get back into it.

• 0:31Speaker 00

  Men, as you know, summer is coming to an end and it ends the same way every single year. Uh, the alarm goes off at 6:00 AM and your body has no idea what that sound means anymore. And, uh, you spent the past nine, 10, 11 weeks waking up when, when the sun feels like it. Uh, you eat at and on no particular schedule. Uh, you're working in flip flops as I am right now. In fact, I'm barefoot right now. Uh, you're saying yes to one more drink on a Tuesday afternoon because there was no one to answer to. And, and, and now that

• 1:15Speaker 00

  there's a backpack by the door, maybe it's a bus, uh, out on the street. Uh, maybe it's a schedule taped to the refrigerator and a version of you that has to show up on time again. Uh, most men treat this moment like it's a problem to survive. It's not. It's an opportunity to rebuild and rebuilding is where men are made. And here's the mistake that almost every guy that I know, including myself, makes when the last week of August rolls around, he waits for the calendar to force him to, to get back into shape. Uh,

• 1:55Speaker 00

  school starts, the alarm resets itself and the office fills back up and everything back on schedule, on track. And he assumes, most men do, that the structure will do the work for, but it won't. External structure, all of those support systems and that structure and the guidance and the calendars and everything else. Uh, it, it gets your body in the room, right? Like it gets you there, but it doesn't for your mind or for your discipline or for your standards. That calendar really rebuild the man. He has to do that himself and you

• 2:39Speaker 00

  have to do that yourself on purpose before the obligation of school and PTA meetings and all the other stuff comes along. Cause summer's over. And the way you do that is in order. There's really three steps. It's very simple. Not five, not 10, not a dozen. It's just three steps, one at a time. Okay. So step one is to lock in the wake time. Okay. It's, it's not a new diet. It's not a new workout. It's not a new productivity, productivity system. It's not the, the, the battle planner that I use. It's just the hour that you get

• 3:19Speaker 00

  up. Is it four or five? Is it six? Is it seven? I don't care what it is, as long as it's the same every single day. And by the way, the weekends are the same. So many guys are like, I'm gonna sleep in this weekend. Don't sleep in, get up at the same time. Because if you get up at the same time, then you're going to free your mind to do the, does it actually matter? Instead of wondering when you will get up or how long you're gonna hit the snooze button, just get up. If it's four, if it's five, if it's six, if it's seven, I don't care when it is. It's just the hour that you get up, the same every single day for the next seven days. Week, again, weekends included. Okay. No sleeping in because you earned it. That's what a lot of guys say, I deserve it. I've earned it.

• 4:04Speaker 00

  Okay. This is, this is the, the, I don't know how else to say it. It's, it's the load bearing wall. It's your energy. It's your discipline. It's your mood. It's your ability to parent well before 8:00 AM.

• 4:22Speaker 00

  All of it runs through, I think this one decision. Most men skip this because it feels too small to even matter. It's actually the opposite. It's small enough that you can actually hide behind it. It's small enough that you can actually win every single day by doing this. And winning it every day is what starts rebuilding that process and that trust that you have in yourself. And the trust is the real thing that you lost over the summer potentially. You stopped proving to yourself that you'll do what you say you'll

• 5:04Speaker 00

  do. Um, but step one is proving to yourself again, starting tomorrow morning. Get up, set the alarm, set the notification and then just get up, whatever time it is. Okay. Step number two, guys, as we roll into the new year regarding getting kids back into school is to rebuild your body. Okay. Once the wake time is, is blaring at you, um, add movement to your day, daily, non-negotiable. Even if it's just 20 minutes, get up and do some pushups, do some jumping jacks, do some jump ropes, do some squats, do some lunges, do some, some situps. Even again, if it's 20 minutes, I don't care if it's

• 5:48Speaker 00

  20 minutes, if it's 30 minutes, if it's an hour, this is not the moment for a, a 12 week transformation plan, the battle plan. Uh, that's kind of a summer activity, you know, to a better body, 12 weeks to bulging abs or bulging biceps. That's not what we're talking about here. Okay. What we're talking about is just doing something every single day to move your body. And that varies from the person. For me, it's going to the gym. I work out for about an hour per day and I get after and, uh, it just helps me get on track and helps me do what I need to do.

• 6:32Speaker 00

  It helps me have clarity and focus and drive and ambition for the day. But most men get fired up really briefly and they'll do something as a 90 day segment. What I'm asking you to do isn't necessarily fitness. It's, it's the same goal as step number one is just proof, right? Proof that you can do things. It's small. It's boring. It's repetitive. It's, it's monotonous that you're actually going to do what you say you'll do, that you'll move your body, that you'll exercise your brain, that you'll get up and you won't hit the snooze button. And then you stack that up on top of a locked in wake time, which

• 7:15Speaker 00

  is what I talked about in step number one. And now you've built two walls instead of one. And that's, that's the whole method. You're not overhauling your life in just this next weekend as your kids go back to school. You're adding one thing at a time, systematically, methodically, very simple. And, uh, all of us can get that done. And then there's step number three, and that is to rebuild the work that you've been doing.

• 7:46Speaker 00

  Okay. This is the one that every man wants to start with because it feels like it's most urgent. It's the, the email inbox that's absolutely full. It's the deadlines that are back to back to back. It's the pressure that you're feeling that is real.

• 8:05Speaker 00

  Resist the instinct to deviate from it. A man who tries to force deep focused work before sleep and before exercise and before his body and mind are firing is really building on ground that is not, that is not stable. It's ground that is not, it's not a foundation to build your life on. Yeah. You can get it done, but how long can you get it done? If you don't have the stability of waking up on time, of going to the gym, of working out, you'll grind, you'll feel behind, you'll wonder why, um, even fall as we roll into

• 8:46Speaker 00

  it feels harder than it should be. It's harder than it should be because you skipped the two steps. Do this in order. Get up on time. Okay, guys. Get up on time. Go move your body and then start to slip into your work. Have deadlines, have tasks, have organizations. Um, I use this. It's the 12 week battle planner. If you're checking this out on YouTube, you can go to youtube.com/OrderOfMan and I've got literally 12 weeks of data and information and details and reports and to-do lists. Like have a system. Okay. But you can't do that until you've built the foundation. And so it's very simply is you're trying to get

• 9:31Speaker 00

  back on track. Your kids are going back to school. Your wife is more engaged with work or with, with home activities, whatever it might be. Just engage in three steps. That's it. But there is a piece of this that goes beyond just you individually. And it's the piece that a lot of men miss. You're, you're not just rebuilding your own routine as we get back into this. You're setting the rhythm, the cadence. I like that term better. The cadence for how your whole house runs. Okay. Don't, don't follow that school schedule

• 10:12Speaker 00

  or slip back into default. Okay. They don't, your kids aren't going to follow that schedule because the PTA told you this is the schedule or the, or the administration, the school administration, or the football team told you this is the way it goes. They actually follow the system because someone in the house, you is steady enough to hold it. Okay. Your wife isn't managing this, this.

• 10:39Speaker 00

  This reentry into the school year alone. And if she does, then that's not going to be favorable for you. Okay, but your kids are watching how you handle the return back to structure. Whether or not you drag your feet, whether or not you treat it like a burden that you have to carry, or something that ultimately you choose to do because you're the kind of man that wants to lead his family, his wife and his kids well. The house that you're leading and you are the leader of the home, I hope you know that, doesn't find its rhythm on its own. I mean, imagine getting, getting a hundred kids, let alone a dozen or three kids together

• 11:23Speaker 00

  and saying, all of them have a different instrument and saying, hey, let's, let's put together something that harmonizes well. It's very, very likely that that's not going to happen. But if you have somebody to orchestrate the music, somebody to direct, somebody to guide, somebody to say, you play this and you play that and you do this and you do that, then you're going to find a lot more harmonizing in the system. Okay, that's you. You're the man. You set the tone. Okay, you're the one that's locked in. You're the one who's dialed in. You're the one who's getting up at a set time. You're the one who's working hard.

• 12:03Speaker 00

  You're the one who is moving in a positive direction. It's where, where the old language, I guess you might say, earns its place. Instead of just sounding on a podcast, you know, masculinity, I've talked about this a lot, masculinity is just the raw material. It's drive, it's energy, it's the capacity, it's a propensity for risk-taking, aggressiveness. But you still have that sitting out there, right? Unused, coming off of a, of a loose and enjoyable summer. I'm not saying you shouldn't have enjoyed the summer.

• 12:46Speaker 00

  You should have, but manliness, and that's what we talk often about, is what happens when you take that raw energy, the drive, the motivation, the ambition, the desire, and then you forge it and you point it towards something on purpose, with discipline, with commitment, with a standard that you hold yourself to. And that's the most important thing I want you guys to take away from this. It's not about getting your kids back on the bus on time. It's not about your wife getting the kids out the door on time. It's about what you as a man will do in order to, the standard, in order to lead your family well.

• 13:31Speaker 00

  So those are the three steps. It's very simple, so simple, you might overlook. You might say, this is stupid. It's not stupid, guys. It's not a mood, it's not a mindset. It's not like how you feel, it's just a sequence that you execute. And, and one last thing, because it matters more than the steps themselves. Don't run this sequence out of, out of guilt or shame, or I have an obligation, but run it out of duty, responsibility, being a man. I don't want you to treat it as like, oh, I messed up and I gotta get back on track or I gotta get back on the path. We do that all the time, especially when it comes to our bodies.

• 14:15Speaker 00

  But do this as a result of who you are as a man. You didn't, you didn't fail the summer. Hopefully you lived a really good summer. The one that was meant to be lived, and now you're choosing to move into the next one, the next season on purpose. If you build this on, ah, I should do this, I should do that, I should do this, I should treat this this way, I should show up this way, you're going to fizzle out. And I don't want to fizzle out. So prove yourself one morning at a time, one day at a time, one task at a time, that when the alarm goes off, you get up. That when the alarm goes off, you move your body. That when the alarm goes off, you start leading your family well. You are the patriarch, you are the leader of your family.

• 14:59Speaker 00

  And so it's important for you to start acting, even though the summer might have got away from you. It's like going on a summer cruise, you know? It's like, I, how many times have I talked with men who think, well, I'm going to go on a cruise, but I'm still going to maintain my, my fitness and my health? And then they go to the all you can eat buffets on the, on the, on the cruise and everything goes out the window. It's okay, you slipped. It's okay, you enjoyed the, the weekend. It's okay that you had some fun, but now is the time to get back into it. And I want you to get into it for yourself because you feel better about who you are. But I also want you to feel better about leading your family well. And that's what we do as men.

• 15:43Speaker 00

  We lead our families well. So guys, get back after it, get on top of it, lead your families well, lead yourself well, incorporate those three steps. And I think you'll have a better, better time transitioning back into the work of being a man. All right, guys, if you have any questions, thoughts, considerations, insight, please leave a comment in, in the podcast on YouTube at youtube.com/OrderOfMan or me on the gram, at Ryan Mickler. And also, guys, just so you know, we have a war room coming up, August 19th at 8:00

• 16:23Speaker 00

  PM Eastern, and you can check it out at OrderOfMan.com/warroom. We're going to be talking about the five frameworks to restore order. So it's going to be very in alignment with what we talked about today. And if you guys are curious about that, want to know more about that, go to OrderOfMan.com/warroom. All right, guys, that's all I've got for you today. I will be back next week. Until then, go out there, take action and become a man. You.

• 16:53Speaker 01

  Thank you for listening to the Order of Man Podcast. You ready to take charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be? We invite you to join the order at OrderOfMan.com.