John Sonmez
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Life is Tough… And That’s OK
Think of something you really want to have or do in your life: something good, something worthwhile, something you think, that if you have it, will make you feel good, satisfied, or happy. It is something that you don’t have at the moment and critically it is something that cannot be purchased. At least not…
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Dealing with Obstacles – The Proven Method
Before I start, let me quickly state the obvious, in case it is missed: In that, there is no one, single, error-free, ‘100 percent success guaranteed’ method at overcoming obstacles. Simply because there is no single type of obstacle in life, just as no two people are the same. So let us dispel any notions of…
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Signs of a Masculine Man
Today there is no shortage of content on men and masculinity. If you search around subjects related to men and masculinity have for some reason, started to abound. And they happen to come from a variety of sources, even from outlets one would not traditionally associate with the concept (e.g. women’s lifestyle content). Masculinity as…
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Understanding Toxic Masculinity
The title of this post might seem a bit provocative, if not, depending on your political alignment, downright offensive. How can anything that has the word ‘toxic’ in it, be anything but bad? And especially when it is combined with a term like ‘masculinity’, which as things presently stand, is probably a toxic term in…
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Why you Should Never Settle for Comfort
We’ve all heard it from time to time: ‘It is time to take it, easy son’. ‘It is time to go it a bit slow’. But why though? What’s so great about taking things easy? The idea of taking a step back, putting your feet up, and settling down are propositions, you and I have…
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How to be Confident… When you’re Afraid
Fear is one of the most powerful words in the English language. Heck in any language. For it refers to something primal. Something that we feel deep within ourselves. An emotion, that all of us have felt from time to time. That all of us must feel from time to time. But what is fear…
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Why you Must Fail… In Order to Succeed
Failure. Let that word ring in your head. Think of the times you have heard it. Think of the specific contexts in which this term was used? Has it ever been directed at you? How did you feel in those moments when you have felt like a ‘failure’? Not a great one I reckon. Moving…
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Role Models: Why we Need Them
Let’s start with a provocative point. In the United States boys who are raised in single parent households are more likely to fall prey to violent crime, drop out of school, end up in gangs and become delinquent. Studies have shown that being apart of the single-parent family unit is one of the foremost indicators…
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What Makes a Masculine Man?
A masculine man takes responsibility for his life, acts from principles, controls his response under pressure, and accepts the consequences of his choices. That is the short answer. It has very little to do with looking tough. A beard, a loud voice, a big truck, and a collection of opinions about women do not make…
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Masculinity the Lost Ideal
If you happened to be someone living in a Western nation, the Anglo-American world specifically, you would be hard-pressed to come by the word ‘masculinity’, unless it is in association with something negative, problematic, controversial, or toxic. The words ‘toxic’ and ‘masculinity’ have become conceptual bedfellows, in that it has become almost impossible to separate…