![\"men](\"https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/influence\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/acvqx1qktae.jpg\")
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To continue in honor of Mens Health Week, here is an article written by my friend and colleague, Marcus Osborne. Marcus is a smart, handsome, 40-something single guy whose mission in life is to help women better understand and appreciate men. If you want to date like a grownup girlfriend, learning about men is a must. And heres my theory: once you do, you cant help but love them! Thanks, Marcus!<\/p>\n
One of the fabrications in our culture that has always driven me bonkers is the myth that \u201creal\u201d men don\u2019t succumb to worry or stress. People think that guys are somehow genetically engineered to shake off the rigors of everyday life: that no guy should crack under pressure, fear or insecurity.<\/p>\n
Never let \u2018em see you sweat.<\/p>\n
We guys wish it were that easy. From an intellectual perspective, we all agree that this belief is silly. Unfortunately, the gut reaction to actually witnessing<\/em> a man\u2019s will being broken is generally something less than empathetic. So once and for all, men DO have their own insecurities \u2013 just as many as women \u2013 and I\u2019ve listed below a few of the most common concerns that men feel.<\/p>\n What Men Worry About<\/p>\n 1.\u00a0 Making enough money<\/em>. This one has mass awareness. But the depth of the anguish men feel when confronted with the possibility of not being an adequate breadwinner can be unimaginable. We\u2019ve all heard the stories about what many have resorted to when money problems become overwhelming. And yet most peoples\u2019 reactions are less than understanding: \u201cIt couldn\u2019t have been that bad.\u201d Apparently, it was.<\/p>\n 2.\u00a0 Age.<\/em> You think men age gracefully. We don\u2019t. Actually, for all the jokes and mythology about women getting older (i.e., never asking them their age, facelifts, mom jeans, soccer mom hair, etc.), women actually seem to handle the transition overall a bit better than men. \u00a0And, of course, they seem to embrace their sexuality as the years tick by. For men, a mid-life crisis is no joke! Men can feel frantic: trying to locate that lost hairline, chasing the younger women, experiencing a dwindling sex drive, and becoming physically vulnerable to younger, stronger guys.<\/p>\n 3.\u00a0 Body Image<\/em>. Seems shallow, and of course, it is. But this is America\u2026we\u2019re ALL about shallowness! Sure, the typical belief is that because of a bombardment of media images and our society\u2019s focus on physical beauty in women, guys are immune to the insecurities that accompany a negative body image.\u00a0 WRONG. We hide it, but we\u2019re just as wrapped up in looking great in beachwear. And it\u2019s not just the ladies who are checking out the competition on the beach and at parties. Guys do it too.<\/p>\n 4.\u00a0 Intelligence. <\/em>The only thing guys respect more than money is intelligence. More to the point, a man would rather be poor as dirt than have the perception engrained in people\u2019s minds that he\u2019s an idiot. The guys who have it the worst? Jocks. Those dudes are fighting a lifelong battle, attempting to prove that the sum of their parts is more than how fast they run or high they jump. (But of course\u2026.some of \u2018em are actually idiots. But I digress.)<\/p>\n Intelligence, in spite of the conclusions you may have drawn from reality television, is a highly valued commodity in our society. Guys want to be highly valued in our society. High value equals respect. Respect equals power. And we love power.<\/p>\n Now in the grand scheme of things, these can all seem like fairly harmless issues. But I promise you that these are things about which men are concerned. I\u2019d suggest you talk to your guy and reassure him that you\u2019ve got his back; you\u2019re there and willing to listen to whatever is on his mind.<\/p>\n Being a guy, he may simply fire back that everything is fine \u2013 even when everything isn\u2019t<\/em> fine. He\u2019s keeping it to himself because he doesn\u2019t want to seem in any way weak in your eyes. That\u2019s yet another concern of his: being strong for his partner. But he\u2019ll certainly appreciate your affirmation of support and may even eventually take you up on your offer of a supportive ear.<\/p>\n (This article was originally published on Galtime.com. If you havent yet visited, I highly recommend it. They have some highly valuable and some highly amusing articles. In fact, Ive contributed many articles to Galtime!)<\/em><\/p>\n Image credit http:\/\/tshirtsuperstar.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 4 Things Single Men Over 40 Worry About To continue in honor of Mens Health Week, here is an article..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[31],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/influence\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/influence\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/influence\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/influence\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/influence\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/influence\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/influence\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/influence\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/influence\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/influence\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/influence\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/vylh2apfdiq.jpg\" "\\"Alice@97.3")
\u00a0Hailing from the San Francisco Bay Area, veteran media professional and author of Your Straight Male Friend..Every Woman Should Have One,\u00a0Marcus Osborne has honed his talent and keen\u00a0ability to convey to women the inner workings of the male mind via\u00a0regular forays into the friendzone.\u00a0Check out more from Marcus at\u00a0StraightMaleFriend.com\u00a0or on Twitter at @SMFMarcus.<\/p>\n