Welcome to Stand In The Arena!

Welcome to Stand In The Arena!

Welcome to Stand In The Arena, the "blog arm" of our larger Family In The Arena efforts, a movement to bring best practices from thought leaders coupled with our experiences and lessons learned to help you live and lead (your family) to the best life possible.  Our family has spent years (and much trial-and-error, with intentional course correction) to land in a place where we are very blessed in so many ways...ways that you can create for your family.  

Choose to be a creator.  Period.

This movement has been years in the making, through studying, practicing, and refining a lot of the content creation out there into a focused effort that has benefited our family.  They say that perhaps the best form of mastery comes in teaching others and to that end, we're taking a shot at not just consuming content from others, but adding to the conversation by becoming creators.  We've sat on the sideline for years with an itch to jump in but haven't for various reasons.  As our kids have gotten a bit older it has seemed hypocritical that we give language to become "creators vs consumers" in a consumption world but not live out those values.  

We've had some fairly organized activities around getting content ready over the years but actually putting pen-to-paper (or fingers to keyboard as it were), has been an ominous next step.  As we have had many conversations leading up to this point, our family has tried to utilize some of what we preach (intentionality, the power of planning, creating systems/habits, etc) to help build the foundation of our content creation.  

Knowing what we want to share and being able to name the common denominator across the movement were two different and surprisingly difficult things.  We've talked (and we'll share with you through coming posts) about what our carefully constructed intentional life is (Raising Adventure), why we do life the way we do (Plan Family), and how we enable this lifestyle (FIRE for Adventure).  In trying to label that intersection of the Venn diagram, while tucking kids in the other night, it hit us...Family In The Arena.  We've always been Teddy Roosevelt fans in many ways and that poem/speech excerpt (Man In The Arena) has been a go-to in our home.  Our movement and associated website (www.FamilyInTheArena.com) help compile some of the tools, best practices, and content into one handy spot.  This blog, then became, in part, the call to action for your family to "Stand In The Arena."  

Sometimes you just have 
to put a helmet on and
rappel off your bunk bed. 

When we say "Stand In The Arena," it's not an accidental or casual command.  Years ago, I had the fortune to attend a military jump school where after a week or so of ground school, your first jump out of the aircraft was a solo, freefall (meaning no tandem instructor on your back or tethered static line that opens the chute when you jump).  The command of the jump master, "STAND IN THE DOOR" over the rush of the wind in the airplane makes staring at the Matchbox-sized cars below very real at that moment.  We want you to feel that same adrenaline-fueled gut punch when you say "Stand In The Arena."  

Through the coming posts, we'll try to help you shape your very own "arena" to stand within.  Our world is increasingly distracted, hectic, and for many of us, haphazard coasting where the currents of life carry us.  The premise, here at Family In The Arena, is that you can (and should) do better than that.  You create the life that you want to live.  Much like David's Michaelangelo statute where he started with a block of marble and began cutting away everything that wasn't David, you too can do the same thing with your life.  You can build your own arena that you're going to stand in.  

As you build your intentional life, it will involve planning, patience, and sacrifice.  It will require you to "have your face marred with dust and sweat and blood."  As you begin to slowly reinvent yourself (and your family) in the image you have dreamed of, you'll cast off some of the old baggage and the tethers that hold you down.  Our hope is to be able to help you organize those dreams, create those next steps, and become the best self/family you can be.  Before we (you) get started, I want to put out the disclaimer that this isn't some feel-good-Pollyanna platitude.  Frankly, Standing In The Arena isn't for everyone, if it was, we paradoxically wouldn't need something like this reminder to Stand In The Arena as a reminder and scaffold.  

Make your arena
a big one.

All of that said if you'll recall, "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."  Teddy Roosevelt

There will be no guarantees in life, nor in your efforts to live your best life.  But, in coasting through on the proverbial couch of life, nose buried in an electronic screen, you're as much as certain to have life pass you by.  So...dare to dream...dare to live your best life...dare to lead your family how they deserve to be led...dare to join us in this continued conversation...dare to Stand In The Arena.  

With you in the arena, from ours to yours...Happy Trails!

Call to Action: 

• Define your arena - your very best life in spite of what anyone else may think.  
• What are three ways that you're standing in the arena?  
• 1 - ___________________ 
• 2 - ___________________
• 3 - ___________________
• What are some ways that you and your family can stand in your own arena? 
• Discussion: Consider what you/your family could/would/should (level of commitment) and start/stop/sustain (action)

Further Reading, Motivation, and References:

- Man In The Arena - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A311CnTjfos

- Brene Brown, Man In The Arena - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s6DQrqVHxM