When it comes to a man wanting to know how you behave as a man there is no better poem than Rudyard Kipling’s poem called IF. This writing is one that each man needs to read on a regular basis.
IF helps men to see that they need to keep calm when the world loses their minds. Maintaining reasonable control of your emotions is essential for men. To Fall into an emotional state when the pressure mounts are where many of today’s modern men crumble. Many who don’t understand masculinity will want to tell you that this is a sign of that dreaded Toxic Masculinity because we aren’t tapping into our emotions. No, Men know that they have emotions but there is a time and a place for feeling an emotion, and when someone has a gun to your kid’s head that isn’t the time to lose your senses. So as the world loses its head keep yours planted firmly on your shoulders.
Rudyard then talks about how having self-confidence but not to the point of being pompous or prideful. Maintain your humility that they have a reason to doubt you. You also want to have the patients with other people because they will Lie about you and there will be haters. This is a part of life. People will complain about your success because they see their shortcomings in your actions. You have to be able to accept that there are people who will not try and complain that life ain’t fair.
From here the advice keeps going and going. The truths that Rudyard keeps spouting are fantastic and needed in a society that is trying to remove the need for masculinity. So read the poem and see where you fall short and where you succeed, and know that we men are all on this journey.
If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise: If you can dream—and not make dreams your master; If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools: If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’ If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!Rudyard Kipling – IF
