F3 You can prepare for a test you know is coming. You cannot prepare, in the moment, for the thing that blindsides you. So how does a man handle the hard things he never saw coming? F3’s field manual has an answer, and it is the reason F3 asks every man to see himself as a leader.
What kinds of challenges does a man face?
Two kinds, F3 says. Some you can see coming, so you get ready for them. Others land suddenly, out of nowhere, and there is no time to get ready in the moment. For those you have to already be ready. F3 calls that readiness for the unexpected Preparedness, and it belongs to the man who takes responsibility for how things turn out, which F3 says should be every man. So the real question is how a man builds that readiness before he ever needs it.
How does a man get ready for the unexpected?
Not by bracing for one specific disaster, but by steadily becoming a stronger, more solid man across the parts of life that matter. F3 lays this out as four stages that build in order: get your own life right, live right with the people around you, lead the people you are responsible for, and leave something behind that lasts. The order is not random. You cannot live right with others until you have gotten yourself right, and you cannot leave a legacy if you never learned to lead. It goes down to the details, too. F3 says a man’s work relationships will stay broken if his marriage is not right first, and that very little in his life works if he is not taking care of his body, which is why physical training is one of the very first steps. And that whole structure gets built the way anything solid does, from the ground up.
Why does it start with the small, daily things?
Because readiness is built the way a wall is, one brick at a time. A man does not become ready for a crisis by thinking about the crisis. He becomes ready by getting a little stronger, a little more disciplined, and a little more present with his family, every ordinary day. Do that long enough and you are not braced for one bad moment. You are simply the kind of man who is ready for whatever comes.
F3 calls this Preparedness, its fifth Foundation in the F3 Nation Q-Source, the field manual for virtuous leadership that F3 is built on. Read the full teaching: f3nation.com/preparedness. F3 Denver is where men practice it. Find a workout.