Journeyman is a transformative learning journey that guides you through deep, practical, and precise process to improve your life as a man in the modern world. The process is designed for men who want to improve the quality of their life and relationships, develop oneself professionally, or accelerate meaningful change through the struggles of day-to-day life.
This is an important time for men to pursue this journey work. Our families, communities, societies, religions, nations, and our earth are struggling. Ego, power, abusive behaviors, greed, war, money, and short-sighted quick fixes prevail in decision-making, strategy, and values. Emerging is the effectiveness, compassion, and balanced perspective of the feminine mindset.
One of the longest-running longitudinal studies in history conducted by Harvard psychologists and researchers has revealed that 70% of the adult male population is operating from an active-ego driven mindset that has yielded ineffective life leadership, family parenting, relationship health, and leadership in our communities, organizations, businesses, and government.
Harvard Grant Study
A blend of the modern masculine model and feminine perspective is needed. We need a new map to traverse the masculine psyche. Journeyman is such a map! As the notable biologist, Joseph Campbell, referred to it, this map is “the inner reaches of outer space.”
The time is now for you to immerse yourself in learning and self-discovery to ensure your movement towards a “life well lived.” The path is imperfect, rugged, and without clear markers. I believe that Journeyman will not only provide the cairns to guide you but also the beacon to light your vision and way.
I embarked on this 20-year journey to provide discipline and structure to my own pursuit of a life well-lived, and to share the learnings and wisdom gained along the way as a part of my legacy for my family. As my profession as an organizational psychologist brought me into close contact with the life struggles of great leaders, men and women, the tools, language, constructs, and mental models became clear and were field-tested.
That experience has created a basic philosophy and process that I have distilled into a practical workbook that will be the basis for a small group guided men’s’ forum that I am inviting you to join. The workbook and its journey can be guided by 7 cairns or sections along the way.
Section 1: The Journey Begins
It is said that wisdom begins with the definition of terms. We will begin our journey with an exploration of the concept of “The Journeyman”, “The Not So Perfect Path”, and “The Life Well-Lived”. We will explore your, and other men’s, answers to the key Grounded Theory research that underpins this work. We will learn about “the Iceberg Model” of human behavior to better understand both where our behavior comes from and how to change behaviors and tendencies that are less effective. Lastly, we will discuss, and you will map, your approach to this work for yourself. Your journey will be with yourself, partners, and a group of men as wise counsel to your mission.
Section 2: The Journey Into Your Reality
This section of the process takes an in-depth look at your own view of how you stack up to the restart on a Life Well-Lived and the Not So Perfect Path. Key elements of this section include;
- The Grounded Theory research for a Life Well-Lived and the Not So Perfect Path.
- An in-depth look inside the male psyche, the mindsets, behavior patterns, and the activation process.
- The Life Well-Lived Looks Like Instead assessment instrument and reviews the goal-setting process.
Section 3: The Journey to the Inner Reaches of Your Outer Self
This section of The Journeyman process identifies the things that get in the way (the GITWs) for us in living a well-lived life. Three psychological constructs have emerged from the past ten years of Grounded Theory research on this topic. These constructs are designed to keep the male ego intact and are often driven from a “reactive mindset” vs. a “creative mindset”. They play a major role in driving less effective or limiting behavioral tendencies. They are;
- Protecting: Closed-minded, small, insular world and world view, self-focused
- Controlling: Winning at all cost, alpha-male mindset, domination
- Complying: Numbing to feelings
These ego fabricated motives become all powerful in creating beliefs, mindsets, and patterns of behavior. In order to grow and change our behavior, we need to elevate our self-awareness and learn to choose different behaviors that create better results.
Section 4: The Antidote to the GITWs
The journey of transforming your awareness, skills, and decisions in the “Moments of Truth” in your life. Once we have heightened awareness of our behavior and choices and their impact, we can shift our attention to our behavior, actions, and skills in the “Moments of Truth”. This section will provide a roadmap for you to uncover less effective “GITWs” and incorporate more effective throughs and skills.
Examples include;
| From | To |
| Numbing emotions | Leaning into feelings and emotional fluency |
| Fixing the problem | Empathizing with the person |
| Tough guy facade | Vulnerability |
| Addiction | Adoption of values |
Section 5: The Journey Beyond
Building long-term transformational resiliency to your journey and the Life Well-Lived. While it is true that the antidotes in Section 4 are the “straightest” line to behavior change for the Journeyman, behaviors are “fickle” unless they are underpinned by the true values, beliefs, and the movement to truly transform deeper set ineffective tendencies. In this section, I outline five transformational practices that will build your resiliency muscles and help you sustain your targeted behavior changes.
- Becoming a “black belt” in the practice of self-awareness, specifically in recognizing “Moments of Truth” (MOTs). This allows you to “break the habit of being yourself” and begin to choose actions more proactively based on your values and the vision of your Life Well-Lived. MOTs are the hundreds of thoughts, feelings, decisions, and interactions that we experience each day.
- The Power of Intention: This success principle entails envisioning the success you desire in all aspects of your life and tapping into your creative mind to access the Quantum Field and the possibility of creating a future result based on a clear and passionate vision and goals.
- Quieting the emotional and physical aspects of your life and accessing the spiritual mind. Cultivating a meditative practice that allows you to separate from the ego world, slow the mind down to generate more awareness and choice, and focus on values. This orientation builds resilience and perspective in life.
- The transformational principle of Heart Opening emanates from the cultivation of gratitude, compassion, love, empathy, and balance in life. It is the movement away from the hard-driving, analytical, independent focus to sensing, trusting, and operating from an open-hearted space.
- Creating a Powering Up Abundance Mindset offsetting the dominant paradigm in the male-model based on a dominant ego, winning at all costs, and using force and will to win. This transformational strategy is characterized by win-win thinking, an abundance mentality, extending grace to another, truly listening, and empathizing with the other, even in the face of difficult discussions. Lastly, this mindset at its most developed and mature form allows us to hold two opposing mindsets to weigh in achieving a third alternative solution. It is the polar opposite to the black and white, yin-yang, right and wrong mentality that is driving our society, culture, politics, and relationships to be ineffective in achieving long-term solutions.
Section 6: Your Future Journey
“Remember the Future!”
Shifting mindsets, becoming more self-aware and understanding the transformation strategies are critical for the man on this journey. However, real change comes with action, behavior change, and skill development. This section of Journeyman is about charting the course of that journey for yourself.
“Remembering the Future” allows you to navigate the learnings and small and big wins either on your own with the workbook as your guide, with a peer coach partner, or with a Journeyman Mens’ Group support system to help facilitate your success. To sustain change in your life by doing things differently and more in alignment with your values requires not only knowing how and when to alter your usual habits, but also becoming, or being, a different person.
The transition from knowledge and awareness to mindset shifts and consistent behavior transformation and ultimately becoming, or being, truly aligned with your values and vision is the path to your Life Well-Lived. Human beings are social animals and we learn and sustain each other. Opening up to having partners and support on the journey might be half the program to our success as men!
Section 7: A Call to Action for Your Journey
As you reflect on this presentation, the website information and yourself, if you believe that a change in your life trajectory is needed and you are searching for a pathway to take you on a journey to a life more in line with your vision and values, the Journeyman process might be of interest to you. Following are several aspirational specific access points to engage with this body of work;
- Access and work through the Journeyman Workbook and its process on your own or with another person.
- Do the same with the help and support of a Journeyman coach and guide. We will hook you up with a certified, awesome coach.
- Join a virtual Journeyman Exchange peer to peer learning community facilitated by the Journeyman founder, Dr. Tony C. Daloisio.
- Become an owner/leader in the Journeyman community moving through one or more of the four-level certification process.
- Journeyman Peer Coach – mentor other’s in process
- Journeyman Coach – certified coach
- Journeyman Master Facilitator – Lead Journeyman Exchange peer to peer communities
- Journeyman Guide – Start your own Journeyman Exchange groups
Summary & Concluding Thoughts
You are ready and fully prepared to take this important and exciting step toward the vision of your well-lived life. If it is true that 70% of adult men are living life in a reactive life stance, this is your opportunity to lean into your unique gifts and raise your game to a new level of functioning. The masculine model of the past 100 years is no longer serving our families, relationships, communities, nation, world, nor ourselves. The Journeyman Life process and peer to peer learning groups afford to you a vision and a plan to facilitate your “stepping in” to this envisioned future. All one needs is a growth mindset, a willingness to look at and inside ourselves, and the discipline to engage in and with the path to your future success and a Life Well-Lived.
Come along this journey with your fellow Journeymen!
