A man in midlife sits down on my couch as we begin Logotherapy. He then tells me how he’s succeeding in business and at the top of his game. He’s achieved everything he set out to do, accumulated wealth, hit all his goals, and is known throughout his industry as a success.
Mastery.
That is what he describes. The only problem is that he has achieved mastery in one area of his life. He’s not so masterful in the other areas, which explains why he doesn’t feel successful. Rather, he feels like a failure.
He’s spent so much time at the office that when he comes home, he doesn’t know where he fits into his family. He feels like a second-class citizen who is disrespected and appreciated only for the money he makes.
His relationship with his wife has grown tense, even antagonistic, and it’s been months since they’ve had anything approximating intimacy. Frankly, all he knows is that she resents him, constantly telling him that he can’t do anything right. No wonder he avoids her and his home every chance he gets.
Or maybe his struggle is with his aging parents, a community that no longer aligns with his values, or old friendships that seem to be running on fumes of the past. The more he’s with any of them, the lonelier he feels.
True mastery can not be limited to one aspect of a man’s life while the other areas merely limp along. True mastery is only possible when he stops compartmentalizing his life, one identity in his profession, another at home, another out in the world, or another still when he’s alone, behind closed doors, and no one else is looking.
That man on my couch, every man I guide, know, and love, wants to live a life of true mastery, holistic mastery, the kind of mastery that isn’t compartmentalized, can’t be divided, and is lived out each and every day in every aspect of his life.
Mastery is possible, but only when we stop living a divided life, in the words of Parker Plamer.
“Afraid that our inner light will be extinguished or our inner darkness exposed,” writes Palmer, “we hide our true identities from each other. In the process, we become separated from our own souls. We end up living divided lives, so far removed from the truth we hold within that we cannot know the “integrity that comes from being what you are.”
This is why we’ve created Man UPrising: a community of men rising up in the second half of life. It is a place for men to bring down the walls, a space for men to stop hiding who they are in the world, and a community of men who support one another in getting rid of everything that divides us on the outside but above all else, everything that divides us on the inside; everything and anything that separates us from our own souls.
If you are a man facing or in the second half of life…
If you are a man ready to live, divide no more…
If you are a man seeking to rise and live your true self, true purpose, and the true you…
If so, you are one of us. We want you to join us and be a part of Man UPrising.
Man UPrising is a community of men who live divided no more.
