Be the man. Be the calm in the storm.

Be the man in an emergency.

Every single one of us has bad days. No matter how stoic we are, we all have to deal with bills, traffic, flat tires, leaky pipes and a whole list of miscellaneous things that pop up and make you want to pull your hair out. It’s called life.

I clench my teeth and drop my head back against my headrest more times than I can count throughout the week. But my role at work does not allow me to lose my cool and scream at the top of my lungs to blow off steam. It’s the sign of a mature man to keep his cool and handle the situation. Nothing gets fixed when you lose it. The coolest most in control men stop, breath, and work the problem.

But being a man brings on even more responsibility. You’ll find yourself surrounded by friends, girlfriends, wives, kids and everyone else who is stressing because of the situation at hand. And it’s easy to see that screaming, crying, and worrying about every “what if” isn’t going to help anything. This is when you really have to “man up”. I’ve found that in stressful situations, the mob mentality spreads fast. So, take the leadership role and stay calm and start to work with what you have. The tires flat – punching your steering wheel won’t fix it. Your son didn’t get to play as much in his sports league as you wanted – making a scene and cussing out the coach won’t make you the father of the year. Be a man and stay calm.

I’ll be the first to admit, when I’m solo and something like a flat tire happens unexpectedly… I allow myself a moment to grab the steering wheel and grrrrrrrr!!! But then you have to breath and analyze your options and work through the problem at hand. But that’s when I’m alone. When you’re a guy, and your loved ones are around, or anyone who is counting on you to be the leader in the situation, the grrrrrr goes out the window.

No matter what the outcome, whether you can rectify the whole situation or not, you become the lead guy by keeping your cool and not losing your head. And if you do fix the issue, you become the coolest most level headed hero on everyone’s eyes.

So aim at being the hero instead of a screaming hot-headed lunatic. Your man-factor will grow by leaps and bounds.