Cowboy Up!

To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go and why you want to get there.
Kofi Annan

We’ve all heard it. Hell, we’ve all probably said it at some time or another. “Cowboy Up!” or maybe “Man Up!” they are basically the same thing. So, why do we feel the need to expressly ask someone to “Cowboy Up!”?

First, let’s break it down and agree on what it means to “Cowboy Up!” we will have to come up with this one completely on our own. Damn Webster won’t have ANYTHING on this one. :-) I would submit that “Cowboy Up!” is just a great way to tell someone to stand up for what they believe in, to “put up or shut up”, to do the right thing regardless of what may happen. We have this image of the cowboy as the ultimate manly man. He does the right thing and kicks ass and then rides off into the sunset.

Now, I grew up in Montana and I have ALWAYS known that that particular image wasn’t exactly dead on. But it gives us a common reference. A cowboy will stand solid for what he believes in and no one will ever convince him otherwise or beat him down. He’s never afraid to put in a backbreaking days work. He is everything that most men and women today are not.

We live in a time where the right thing is often set aside for the easy thing. Where the less risky and safer choice is made instead of the right choice. We have given away the solid foundational basis for making the right choices. And we’ve done so, not with a great battle that we lost but rather, with a smile on our faces.

We can watch on our TV shows and movies all the people that readily capitulate and bumble along making only the easy choices. Sometimes, I think that it’s become the fad of the day for the movies to glorify the inept that never stand for their beliefs. The only heroes that make the stand are those in the action flicks that are blowing up the bad guys. And those movies, while inspiring for the moment, tend to fall apart when you come back to reality.


It may not always be easy, convenient, or politically correct to stand for truth and right, but it is the right thing to do. Always.
M. Russell Ballard


So what do we do, we seekers of better ways? How can we start to live in accordance with the “Cowboy Way”?

The first thing you need to know is exactly WHAT you believe in and WHERE you stand. Can you say firmly, what it is that you believe in? “I believe I’ll have another beer!” Nononononono! That’s not what I’m talking about. Do you know your heart well enough to be able to decide in any situation what YOU will stand for, regardless of what anyone else is saying? If you don’t, then you’ve got some work to do first.

When you do know what you believe in, then you have to get to the point where you can stand up for it, even in the face of someone screaming at you because of it. That’s really a difficult thing for most people. No one likes confrontation. It’s hard to deal with someone that is loudly vocal about an opposing belief. What you need to be able to remember is that just because someone is loudly vocal about an opposing belief, it doesn’t make you wrong, or a bad person for disagreeing with them.

However, if you do back down and let them run over you with what THEY believe instead of standing up for what YOU believe, then you’ve given in to that easy choice idea. It’s easier to back down and not have any confrontation over it. BUT…you will teach them, and yourself, that you WILL back down when push comes to shove.

I KNOW this is a hard thing to do…but the next time someone is offering an opinion that is different from one that you hold, stand firm and, politely and gently, offer YOUR opinion. Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs. Even if they are not the same as your own.

Start small and build on it. Soon, you will teach yourself that you CAN stand firm and other will see that and respect you for it.

I KNOW that you can do it. That’s what I believe. :-)


Stand straight, walk proud, have a little faith.
Garth Brooks