WHAT THEN WILL YOU DO?
HOW WILL YOU SHOW YOURSELF A MAN?

1. Think carefully over your life and list the failures that have been significant to you. Can you see patterns to these failures? Are there character flaws common among them? What do they tell you about yourself and about your weaknesses?

2. Is there anyone you should reconcile with because of your failures? Is there anything you should confess? Is there anything you have taken that you should restore?

3. If you do not think you have completely overcome after your failures, find some wise older men and submit the matter to them. Ask for their help not only in rebuilding your outer life and reputation life, but also in helping you build the character of a genuine man.

4. With the help of your mentors, define what rebuilding or overcoming after your failure would look like. How can you live out a positive history on the very ground where you once failed? Turn this to prayer and remain open to opportunities for victory on the very site of your defeat.

5. Finally, consider how you will respond differently should another season of failure or devastation befall you. In other words, how does a manly man, a genuine man, face loss and devastation?

“FAR BETTER IT IS TO DARE MIGHTY THINGS, TO WIN GLORIOUS TRIUMPHS, EVEN THOUGH CHECKERED BY FAILURE, THAN TO TAKE RANK WITH THOSE POOR SPIRITS WHO NEITHER ENJOY NOR SUFFER TOO MUCH, BECAUSE THEY LIVE IN THE GRAY TWILIGHT THAT KNOWS NOT VICTORY NOR DEFEAT.”

—Theodore Roosevelt, in his speech “The Strenuous Life, A Speech before the Hamilton Club,” Chicago, April 10, 1899