And our goal to become stronger, more valuable men, to pursue the truth and to define for ourselves why we believe what we believe, what we what it is we even believe in the 1st place we often find ourselves. In the crosshairs of other people and their views of the world, because a lot of people, myself included in the past. I didn't know what I wanted. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the sheep Get Sheared podcast. I'm your host, Austin Creed. My friends you know, today I want to shift away from just relationships and I think we need to discuss something a little more. Broad and I think a little more personal. And so today what we're going to discuss. Is. The courage to be disliked. Now you might be asking yourself also, what is? What does that even mean? The courage to be disliked? What are you talking about? Well, I think a lot of us, my friends, and I hope I'm not rejecting. I doubt it. I think a lot of us can relate on this issue. I think a lot of us, we have a natural desire to be liked, to be loved. By whether it's the people around us, the people that we like, whether it's romantically platonically, etc. For a. Or we just have a natural desire to want to assimilate, to find our group of people and make our lives easier. And if you will pardon me, I'm going to take a drink. I've. Had a long day. That was a good God. It's so good anyways. You know, it's actually really good. You know, I I don't usually, you know, I don't separate no guys, I don't usually. Drink. Very much. But you know, yeah, this is good stuff, bro. I'm not sponsored that. I thought it was. I thought it was good stuff, you know, long day it's way decompressed. Honestly, you know, and it's not the most healthiest way. And it's not the only way, but. You know why it works for me every once in a while. Anyways, the end of the day it all goes back to the courage having the courage. To to be disliked. I think a lot of us, we spend a lot of our time trying to get people to like us. We want to impress them. We want to all. Of them, we. Want to say wow? That guy's got something special that guys different. I like him. That guy I respect, he's done this. She's done that. I like that. Like a lot of us, we have a nostril desire to appeal to other people, whether it be because we want their respect, we want to, whether it's in the case of women, we want to have sex with them, or whether it's in the case of other dudes, we want their respect. We want their admiration. We want to feel like we belong somewhere. And I think that's part of the human condition. I think a lot of us, we have a natural desire to. To want these things. But you know, I want to take a little bit of A twist on it. I think a lot of us, if we take a step. And we really ask ourselves. Do we even care about these people who are trying to impress? Umm, I mean, a lot of us if we ask that question, we'll find ourselves in a very different crossroads. I think a lot of us, we don't even understand why we appeal to people or why we want them so desperately to like. Us. Other people in your life right now who? You want them to think you're cool. You want them to admire you. But you know what? You don't really know why, you know you want them in your life. You know you want to impress them, but you don't really know why. Or maybe you're insecure that you're not good enough, or you say the wrong thing that they'll judge you. Or if you say or do the wrong thing at the wrong time, then they'll be repercussions. My friends, I'll tell you a little personal story that actually happened today, by the way. Part of the reason, hence why I'm having a little bit of a drink right now. And if you don't like that, I'm taking sips on air. Well, too damn bad. It's my show. You know, I was having a conversation with my sister and with her best friend. I don't typically go out of my way to talk about the complexities of the universe with people because, number one, they don't ask and #2 because they end up not being able to handle it. You know, I had a little bit of a disagreement a little while ago. It might have been with reclaim. Actually, he's a great member of the show. I appreciate him very much. He's a strong member of the community. I really respect him. I hope. I hope it was. I think it was him. I could be wrong, but I think it was. That I don't always go out of my way to tell if you see him or why is I forget who. But you know I I have a lot going on. I thought that I don't care. It's that I get a lot. Of stuff going. On anyways, regardless of my excuses, we had a little bit of a disagreement that I don't go out of my way to tell people what I think about the. World, because let's be honest. Now say why that you wouldn't want somebody to go up to you and explain to you why that you should subscribe to their religion, their worldview, their, their monthly magazine. Whatever people don't like to be solicited like that. Right. So why in the world would I do the same thing? I mean, a lot of ways. The truth is in and of itself, a kind of religion or cult or whatever you want to call it, because it's not just one Ave. The truth is probably the most ****** thing you could ever encounter. It's better. It's it's more ****** than most triple X *********** you can find out there. Because it's so hard to find, and when you hear it or when you see it, you're captivated by it. You can't stand not seeing it. After that. You want it more. It's the strongest addiction on the planet. And what I realized is I the more I interacted with people and the more I gave them my honest opinions and the more I gave it to them the way that a good doctor gives a patient the medicine he needs, whether it tastes good or not, that's what I do with people. And a lot of people, they don't like that. And you know what? That's OK why I don't go out of my way to talk about the complexities of the universe. The truths and and that between the truth and ideals arguments. But for some reason they solicited my. Onion. I forewarned them that I was going to be honest, or if they wanted to have this sugar coated version. I offered it out of just pure. Ohh, I'll be nice and considerate and then it turns out that people will still ask you for the truth and they will still be upset when you give them the truth and they'll be like, oh, you know what? I didn't like the way you said that. That, that. That's no good made me feel bad. Anybody else ever been in that position before? 

Hell no. 

Anybody ever been in that position where somebody? Alright, guys, my OS just crashed on me in the middle of a great topic. What was I talking about again? Ohh yeah, that's right. You will literally ask you for advice. They'll ask you for input and then they'll get upset when you give them the truth and you know what? That all kind of came back to me with and her friend was telling me, hey, you should apologize. And I was like. Apologize for what? I didn't do anything wrong, but again, this all comes back to a lot of people in that situation. They don't want other people to feel bad, they don't want other people to feel uncomfortable. So what they'll do is they'll just. Ohh, I'm sorry for how I made you feel. You know my friends, I don't deal with feelings. Don't know why I'm dealing feelings because feel. Things. Is like entering another persons emotional playground. You can't win. You're never gonna be right there. You're never gonna be anything but wrong. And they're always right. So why in the world would I participate in such a stupid idea? In the same way, my friends that a lot of people, they want to be liked by people they don't even care that much about. Think about that for a second. In our goal to become stronger, more valuable men, to pursue the truth and to define for ourselves why we believe, what we believe, what we what it is we even believe in the 1st place we often find ourselves. In the crosshairs of other people and their views of the world, because a lot of people, myself included in the past. I didn't know what I wanted. I didn't know why. I believed what I believed. I just kind of believed it because I thought it was the right thing or if any of you been in that boat. I can guarantee you you have. And yet, for some reason, a lot of people, when you question them. They give you like a it's like talking to an old voice machine where it's like someone doesn't answer the phone and you pick up the phone like, it's like going to somebody's voicemail. You go to their voicemail and it's like, hi, this is Amy Smith. Please leave a message after the tone beep and you hear that every single time you call, like and they don't answer. Like the same thing when you ask people certain questions, they'll give you the same answer and you're like, well, why? And they're like, well, you see? Hey, what's that over there? And I'll change the subject on you. Or they'll pivot and you'll want to go back and they'll be like, what's the point? They don't know. They don't know why they believe certain things. And that's why my friends. You know, if you listen to the show, you're not normal. And I don't mean that in a bad way. I think being abnormal is actually an advantage. And the reason I say that is because you look at the average person, the person that maybe you wanted to be in high school, middle school, elementary school, college, maybe if you went to college, you wanted to be somebody who was. Oh, I didn't stand out too much. And so you realized the popular people, the people who got the respect, the admiration, the actual. It's they all stood out. They had something different. You learned backwards how the world works. You wanted the respect you wanted act lights and you want an admiration. And yet you were told to fit in. You were told to stay with the status quo because that was the safe option. But so many of us, we figured out the hard way. That we should just do what we wanna do. Believe what we wanna believe. And that's the end of the story. That doesn't mean we're ignorant about it. That means we dissect it, we we be who we want to be. And we have receipts for why we don't just accept what people say at face value, even if we like it. We don't just accept it because then we can't make fun of people who do that because then that makes us part of it. I don't like hypocrites and makes me disgusted personally, and so I do my darndest to not do, to not be a hypocrite. You know. I don't blame you if you think, hey, Austin, are you the same way off camera that you are on camera? People who know me and don't know that I am what you see is what you get now. Am I always so straightforward and abrasive? Well, no. But usually it's only because I really like these. Don't these people for a long time, maybe they're married, they invite me over to their house. And I'm like, you know what? This is not the time. It's not the place. It's on me. And I'm gonna hide it. If they ask me. No, but I'm not gonna go on my way to tell people. And so this all stems to the idea of the having the courage to be disliked. If you don't have haters, if you don't have people who want to debate with you if you don't have anybody who disagrees with you in your life, then. You don't really have any convictions. You don't have anything that's worth protecting or anything that's worth believing in, in my opinion anyway. You know how many people in my life ask me why I do this show? They ask me why I write books. They ask me why I have these strong opinions, and the answer is simple. Because the world is full of people who want to be liked, they want to to can't stop and dance and boogie around the the big issues in the world. They wanna pass the buck. They wanna just BS and and party and everything and they don't wanna actually tackle. Learned real issues that affect people's lives every day and in multiple different ways. Most people they don't wanna do that. They don't wanna just give you a a cry baby story or a motivational speech and then go on about their day and think they made the world a better place. Or I don't believe that. I think telling people to actively not just go out of their way to be liked by people who told you that, umm, how many people have told you, hey, hey, you should go out there and unapologetically believe what you believe. And if anybody tells you that, well, you should accept their their view. But you know, because it could be right, they could be wrong. Whatever. How many people have told you to just own who you are, ask hard questions, navigate the complexities of the universe, and if anybody wants to. They're. And question and and tell you not to do it. You tell him to go to hell. How many people have told you that? Probably not very many. Why? Because most people work for the man. They're a corporate person. 9:00 to 5:00 or or they have clients and they wanna, per service or an image. My friends, I don't blame those people for doing that. What I think is sad is that they'll agree with you. They'll agree with me, but then they won't voice it because they're scared. They're afraid of the backlash. They're afraid of the haters. They're afraid of what will happen if they tell the truth. Because the truth. Truth is very unsavory and distasteful to people who push a certain narrative for money. Oh yeah? Ohh yeah. How much money do you think there is in line to people? Answer all the money you can imagine, plus more. And so when you get to the nitty. Gritty. Ask yourself, well, how do I navigate this? Austin? What do you mean by being disliked? Does I mean I go out of my way to be a jerk to people? No, no, of course not, because that's that doesn't benefit you. And what capacity does that benefit you? It doesn't. So you don't go out of your way to be a ****** *** or or or a jerk. You just say, hey, you know what, this is what I believe. This is why. And you're not a bad person if you disagree with me. It doesn't necessarily make you wrong per say. I mean, it might, but it's not guaranteed. Just means that you don't agree with me, and that's fine. And we're not going to agree. And let's move on. For some reason, though, people don't like that they don't like. What disagree with me? What? How dare you? How dare you disagree with me? You're not supposed to disagree with me. You're supposed to validate what I say. No, I'm not. Where does it say that? This was about how I feel about my divorce. You're supposed to validate how I feel about women supposed to validate how I feel about my politics. Supposed to validate what I feel about my religion. No, I'm not find my job to make you feel good from my job to to validate what you're saying. No, it's not. It's my job to look into. Why things all the way they are. It's my job to tell you the truth. If you ask me. And it's my job to to thine own self be true and to not be a hypocrite. That's what I that's what I believe. In. And yet, for some reason so many people, they hate that they want. You. To just be another Johnny go, you know. Happy go lucky guy who just grows with the program believes. Excuse me. All the main story, all the mainstream stuff parrot be like the parrot from the Pirates of the Caribbean where it's like like the play. They want you to. Be like that, Democrats are good. Problems are good. Women get mess up like that's what they want you to do. They want you to just be like that. Whatever the the corporate schmucks and the the political pawns tell you that's what you do. The political puzzles and the corporate schmucks, they tell you that? Oh, you should go with the the alphabet army and the rainbow be down for the swirl. OK. I like it. It's great. Why? I don't know. But I didn't get. I didn't get told that. Like I gotta try to lighten it up somehow. I mean, it's a serious stuff we're talking about. This is stuff that people spend their whole lives. Trying to undo because when you're a kid, this is all kind of forced into you because they want to be a productive member of society. They don't want you to be a menace to society and ask questions and try to understand the inner workings of government and and the social dynamics and the economic, social, political complexities. They don't want you to do that because then you become a threat. Then you become a menace to society. They want you to be a contributing member to society. They want you to just be. Another Mr. Rogers. Well, we have enough, Mr. Rogers in this country. We need more men to be out there and ask hard questions to be an intellectual nomad. That's. 

Need. 

And if you listen to the show, you're probably an intellectual nomad. Otherwise you'd hate my guts and stop listening, because if you want the classic Republicans, good Democrats, bad marriage is always bad and all that kind of stuff. Like, look, do I think largely marriage is is not beneficial to men. Yeah, it sucks for dudes, absolutely. But does that mean that all relationships are no good? Not necessarily, no. Does that mean I encourage you to get married? No. But again, relationships are a piece of the pie. Politics are a piece of the pie religion. The piece of the pie. We got to look at the bigger picture. My friends. The bigger picture is your life and how you want to. Play. Out. And if you don't carefully analyze each of these pieces of the pie. Well, then you can't be shocked that instead of getting the apple pie you wanted, you get a blueberry or you get a pumpkin or whatever. Have to be purposeful about the what you produce and what you bring about in your life. Otherwise you have nobody to blame but you. Anyways, my friends, I think I'll stop there for right now. And you let me know what you think. You let me know. Do you have the courage to be disliked or do you depend a lot on what other people think and what their opinions? More of you let me know. In the meantime, take care of yourselves. Think for yourself. Ask me any questions. Leave your comments. I would love to read them and respond to them. Take care. I'm out. Peace.