Are you a sport's guy (or girl)? Or do you not understand why they are so popular? In this episode, the guys discuss if sports are good for us, bad for us, or what role they should play in our culture. Regardless of how you feel about sports, this episode will be enlightening.

A Few Quotes from the Episode:

-Sports make men feel unified. –BR

- What do people learn from sports? Trust: being on a team. BR

-What do men love about sports?

    -Ties you to history, or where you are from. BR

    -Crowds of people all championing for the same goal. BR

    -It gives them a sense of family. JS

-Men don’t generally connect for the sake of connecting. We need an activity. Sports is are our best excuse. –BR

-Healthy coaches should be calling out your best. –BR

-The Dark Side of sports is vicarious living or self-identifying your value with it. –BR

-I am not identifying with my team; I am rooting for my team. –BR

-It’s a commonality that goes past sports, that people are identifying or placing their

value in their child’s performance. –JS

-Sports give me a purpose and discipline that I never would’ve had in life. –BR

-Some men only know how to give love and connect by coaching their sports team.

It’s a great opportunity for men to learn to father. –BR

-Sports are the ability to sow into people’s life, have purpose, and connect. –BR

-Can I get that need met without sports? –JS

The Invitation:

-For the people who haven’t connected to sports, is there a wound there? BR

-For men who do connect to sports, can you get your need met outside of it? JS

Are you ready for more adventure in your life? Do you need more risk? If your a man in our culture, your answer is probably a resounding YES! In today's episode, Justin and Blair discuss the reasons that risk is so crucial to a man's fulfillment and happiness. 

A few quotes from this episode:

-There is a natural longing in men’s hearts for adventure. When we disengage with risk, we begin dying inside. BR

-Insert adventure in your life, or it will come out sideways somewhere else. BR

-If you are in survival mode, what will cause you to risk and get out of your comfort zone?  JS

-What is your threshold for risk, what is wisdom when determining how to risk, and how can you insert it into your life? BR

 All of us go through pain and difficulty. We get to choose, however, how we go through that pain. In this episode, Blair and Justin discuss how circumstances should not dictate our happiness, peace, and confidence. 

-It doesn’t matter your circumstance, you can come alive where you planted.  BR

-Coming alive where you are planted is determined by you being powerful over your inward heart. JS

-Negative emotions choke your ability to think. BR

-You need to see your emotions as a person and address the lies they are selling you.  JS

-We use negative emotions because we think they are helping us. BR

-Can love, peace and joy protect you? JS

-We get to decide how to we want to experience this life. JS

-The only way to heal bitterness is to learn to hope.  JS

-We have to quit judging the world around us because of our fear.  JS

-We become what we surround ourselves with.  JS

In this episode, Blair Reynolds and Justin Stumvoll discuss the concept of being a "self made man." They discuss why it is so popular, and what it really says about people that use the term. 

If you are wanting to make an impact, and you want to do something noteworthy, this is the podcast for you. You'll learn how important it is to not do something on your own...or by yourself.

A Few Highlights from the Episode:

-The concept of the self made man is an isolating one. It’s not a healthy concept. It is a concept that perpetuates the idea that we are alone. BR

-Self made people have a concept of war.  JS

-If I’m a self-made man that means what matters is what I have created outside of me.  JS

-If you don’t have personal value that is separate from your circumstances, then you can’t have value for the people around you.  BR

-You end up drawing people into their environment that are fighting to have value. JS

-You get more done in team when you actually trust the person next to you.  BR

-If you build something from a place of war, you have to maintain from a place of war.  JS

-A king will bring enormous gifts to give away to other kings.  JS

How Do you know if you are operating out of an orphan mentality?

Jealousy is the greatest indicator that you function in an orphan mentality.

•Do you feel like you have to do everything on your own?

•Do I measure what I have by what other people have?

•Do you feel like you have to prove yourself?

In this episode, Justin Stumvoll and Blair Reynolds discuss the most important aspects of being a "real man." They'll share some good ideas, and some really bad ideas, to build confidence in your masculinity. 

Here are a few great quotes from the episode:

•It takes an incredible amount of confidence to become self-aware. BR

•What is actually going on inside of me? How are people experiencing me? JS

•Self-consciousness is self awareness with insecurity. I am aware of what others think and they feel, and that gives them the power to dictate my value as a person. JS 

•Self-awareness is a healthy person, wanting to extend health. It’s not dictated by, it’s dictated to. BR

•Self-awareness creates the infrastructure for health.  BR

•Selfish people actually aren’t taking care of themselves.  JS

•They don’t believe that they matter or their needs matter.  JS

•People who know how to connect to getting their needs met can give and get. BR

•Taking care of  yourself looks like having time to be connected and having healthy relationships. BR

•A man can confront.  A man is not pushed around and is not hiding.  BR

•Someone who is bold is willing to stand up for what is right regardless of the consequence.  JS

•Healthy confrontation is how I want to preserve intimacy and to continue to make the relationship feel safe. BR

•We think the idea of being bold is aggression, but it actually often looks like vulnerability.  JS

Being Present:

•Authentic sacrifice is the balance of taking care of yourself while still giving to others. 

•I have a value for myself and I am going to choose to sacrifice myself for another person. BR

Integrity: 

•If we water down the value of our word we are devaluing ourselves. 

•We have to have something greater than ourselves to fight for.  BR

In this episode, Blair Reynolds and Justin Stumvoll go for the jugular regarding sex. They talk about our fear of being known, and our desire to escape. They discuss healthy connection, and why it is so difficult for many men (and women). 

If you are ready for a closer connection with your spouse (or significant other) and for better sex...this is an episode that will open your eyes to what may be holding you back.

Here are a few quotes from the episode:

-You are not to seek pain, you are just not supposed to run from it.  BR

-A false version of yourself emerges when life beats you down, and you learn how to self protect and you start to live with a mask.  BR/JS

-Put simply, men are afraid of emotional pain. BR

-The Benefits of the Wall/Shadow Self: "You can’t reject me, you only are rejecting my Shadow Self." JS

-Why would we ever want to come out of hiding? If we do, the world that you’ve created wants to knock you back down, because you had an unspoken pact with mediocrity. BR

-You becoming healthy is putting a spotlight on me, so I have to choose health or get out of your life.  BR

-Most people do not do what they are called to do because then they would be exposing their true self.  And if they get rejected in that place then their true self is rejected. BR

-The courageous thing in this moment is being vulnerable.  BR

-Healthy connection is what is necessary to be happy.  BR

-If we decide we don’t want to feel any of pain, we have to shut down a huge portion of our heart.  JS

-No one taught this generation to deal with pain.  JS

-You aren't broken, you are whole and in process.  BR

-There is a huge difference between entertainment and escaping.  BR

-When your love tank gets filled you will feel the difference between healthy sex and using sex.  BR

In this episode, Justin and Blair discuss our sexuality as men. What are we really looking for in sex? They discuss pornography, connection, and many of the other concepts that accompany sex (both healthily and unhealthily). 

Yours eyes will be opened to a whole new paradigm to sex and what it REALLY means to get our needs met.

A few quotes from the episode:

-Sexuality is wrapped up in our greatest desire and our greatest shame.  BR

-What are the things inside of us that drive us towards sexuality? JS

-What about our emotional journey is also tied into sexuality? JS

-We have been sold a lie that men are nonemotional creatures.  JS

-As men, we are terrified of facing our emotional pain, so we have to come up with an excuse not to face it.  JS

-Our culture says have sex and you'll be connected. What we need to think is, what are the needs that we need to be met, and then have sex.  And if we can correct the way we are doing this, sex becomes healthy.  BR

-Pornography is the cheapest substitute for what we actually need.  BR

-Pornography is a false connection.  BR

-I don’t people have an issue with pornography, I think they have an issue with intimacy.  BR

-We must ask ourselves, are there other things that are driving my sex drive?  JS

In the media, men are portrayed as caricatures of guys in real life. Men are seen as idiots, uber-stylish, or some other extreme.

In this episode, Blair and Justin discuss why our culture characterizes men in this way, and how we should respond.

Our culture is awash with messages about "how to be a man." We're told to make more money, have more power, be an alpha, and have a ton of sex. Is that what really validates a man? Justin and Blair discuss this question, and more, in Episode 2 of The Liberation Project.