A Man’s Life

Manly Honor VII: How and Why to Revive Manly Honor in the Twenty-First Century

by Brett

Over the last few months, we’ve defined traditional honor, and then taken a look at the different ways that definition has been interpreted and lived by men over the centuries. Traditional honor consists of having a reputation judged worthy of respect and admiration by a group of equal peers who share the same code of [...]

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NUTS! Why Remembering Christmas 1944 Can Change Your Life

by Marcus Brotherton

Last Monday I crapped in a plastic bag. There is no nice way to say that. No genteel or sanitized way to describe the experience. I’d just started taking a new medicine to combat a spastic colon, which I’ve battled on and off for ten years. The medicine promised to do remarkable things. Instead, it [...]

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Manvotional: Do It Now

by Brett & Kate McKay

Editor’s note: This week’s article on giving more compliments reminded me of this poem. It’s a simple poem, but I like it very much, I suppose because I’m a simple man. Do It Now By Berton Braley If with pleasure you are viewing any work a man is doing, If you like him or you [...]

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Manly Honor VI: The Decline of Traditional Honor in the West in the 20th Century

by Brett & Kate McKay

Our last three posts – on Victorian, Northern, and Southern honor respectively, detailed the final manifestations of traditional honor cultures in the West, while also hinting at the cultural forces that were emerging even then that would eventually erode them almost entirely. Today we will cover how those forces were amplified, manifested themselves, and led [...]

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Gaining Mastery: The Three Vital Steps of the Apprenticeship Phase

by A Manly Guest Contributor

Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt from Robert Greene’s new book Mastery that he’s kindly allowed us to republish here on AoM. We’ve talked about mastery on the site before, and the one aspect of gaining mastery in any skill that gets overlooked by young men is what Greene calls the “Apprenticeship Phase.” It’s the time [...]

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The George Bailey Technique: Mentally Erase Your Blessings for Greater Joy and Optimism

by Brett & Kate McKay

Lately, I’ve been looking at ways to be less cynical. Not that there’s anything wrong with a bit of healthy cynicism, I just have a tendency to go overboard with it so that it devolves into bitterness, pessimism, and passivity. I’m sort of morose by nature, so I’m constantly battling my inner Oscar the Grouch/Eeyore. One thing I’ve [...]

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How to Be Happy With the Car You Drive

by Marcus Brotherton

Every man dreams of driving a Lamborghini, Lotus, or Land Rover. Sometimes we think a new ride will make us more of a man. If the urge for a different set of wheels is a constant in your life, a change of perspective might be all that’s needed to see your car in a new [...]

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Manly Honor Part V: Honor in the American South

by Brett & Kate McKay

Welcome back to our series on manly honor. Today we tackle Southern honor in the 19th century. Now, be prepared: this is and will be the longest post in the series by far. The complexity of traditional honor and its various cultural manifestations cannot possibly be underestimated, nor can the difficulty in distilling these complexities [...]

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How to Fly Like a Gentleman

by Brett & Kate McKay

You stretch out your legs, take a look out the window to check the view at 31,000 feet, and then place the book you were reading on the empty seat next to you. An attractive, smiling stewardess leans over, lays down a cloth napkin and silverware, and asks which of the three available hot entrees [...]

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Unlocking the Science of Habits: How to Hack the Habit Loop & Become the Man You Want to Be

by Brett & Kate McKay

For better or for worse, our habits shape us. A good habit is a strong ally in our journey to becoming the men we want to be, while a bad habit acts like a millstone around our necks. (Want to know why? Read this Manvotional.) To achieve our goals, whatever they may be, it’s necessary [...]

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Manvotional: The Courage to Face Ingratitude

by Brett & Kate McKay

With Thanksgiving this week, many minds will be turning to the things they are grateful for. But here’s a twist on the subject not often explored: what do you do when others do not share your attitude of gratitude and your good turns go unappreciated? Our good friend William George Jordan offers up a veritable [...]

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Manly Honor Part IV — The Gentlemen and the Roughs: The Collision of Two Honor Codes in the American North

by Brett & Kate McKay

Welcome back to our series on manly honor. In our last post, I said that Northern and Southern honor would be covered in one article, and that future posts would be shorter. Neither turned out to be true. Well, this one is a little shorter, but we’re giving Northern and Southern honor their own posts [...]

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Advice From a 92-Year-Old Veteran of WWII on Getting Out of a Dark Place

by A Manly Guest Contributor

Editor’s note: This is guest post from Marcus Brotherton. It originally ran on Men Who Lead Well (www.marcusbrotherton.com). I recently interviewed T.I. Miller, a 92-year-old WWII vet who fought on Guadalcanal and New Britain. When it came to war, Mr. Miller had seen it all. Charging banzai attacks. Severed heads. Bloody arms, legs, and torsos. The [...]

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Manly Honor: Part III — The Victorian Era and the Development of the Stoic-Christian Code of Honor

by Brett & Kate McKay

Welcome back to our series on manly honor. Now, I originally planned for the history of honor to be one post, and then decided I could cover it in two, and now I’m thinking it’s going to take five posts, counting the one two weeks ago and today’s. Who was I kidding? The topic of [...]

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Memento Mori: Art to Help You Meditate on Death and Become a Better Man

by Brett & Kate McKay

In case you’ve forgotten, Halloween is this Wednesday. With all the ghosts and goblins decorating homes these days, I figured it’s a great time to talk about one of my favorite genres of art: memento mori. Memento mori is Latin for “Remember death.” The phrase is believed to originate from an ancient Roman tradition in [...]

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Be the CEO of Your Life: Using Resource Allocation To Become the Man You Want to Be

by Brett & Kate McKay

In the business world, managers spend a lot of time juggling resource allocation. Every company has a finite amount of resources — whether it be financial capital or human capital — to use and spend in order to achieve the company’s strategic goals. Effective allocation generates growth and success, while ineffective allocation results in loss [...]

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Manly Honor: Part II — The Decline of Traditonal Honor in the West, Ancient Greece to the Romantic Period

by Brett

Welcome back to our series on manly honor. In my last post, I explained the classic definition of honor: having a reputation worthy of respect and admiration in a group of equal peers. This reputation consists of both horizontal honor (your acceptance as a full member of the group), and vertical honor (the praise you [...]

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Manvotional: Theodore Roosevelt on Integrity in Private and Public Life

by Brett & Kate McKay

From the speech, Citizenship in a Republic, 1910 By Theodore Roosevelt The very last thing that an intelligent and self-respecting member of a democratic community should do is to reward any public man because that public man says he will get the private citizen something to which this private citizen is not entitled, or will [...]

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Hold Fast: How Forgetfulness Torpedos Your Journey to Becoming the Man You Want to Be, and Remembrance Is the Antidote

by Brett & Kate McKay

Around 4:30am early one August morning in 2005, five 20-somethings decided to go explore a cave nestled in the side of a Provo mountain. When they arrived at the largely unknown and hidden spot, one member of the group, having a bad feeling about the idea, decided to wait outside and wished his friends well [...]

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