Memorial Day is coming up. For most folks that means a day off, grilling in the backyard, and getting 30% off at their favorite online retailer.

Nothing wrong with that. I’m looking forward to eating a burger this weekend myself.

But Memorial Day was established for a graver and loftier purpose — one that’s worth putting yourself in touch with each time it comes around.

Memorial Day started in 1868 as Decoration Day. After the Civil War (which killed more Americans than any war before or since), people in towns across the country walked to local cemeteries in late May to lay flowers on the graves of the men who didn’t come home.

That’s what the day is supposed to be about. Remembering the men who answered the call and didn’t make it back, honoring those who paid the ultimate price for our freedoms and the life we enjoy today.

If you desire to put the memorial back in Memorial Day, here are four ways to do so:

Read a War Memoir

One way to turn your thoughts to the sacrifices made by those who fought for our country is to immerse yourself in their world by reading a war memoir. They’ll give you the perspective of the man on the frontlines. You get the story of those who survived — and, inevitably, of the comrades who didn’t.

You could just start a war memoir over the long weekend, but if you really want to challenge yourself, try to finish it within those three days. If you read one that’s around 300 pages long, that means reading around 2.5 hours a day.

Here are a few to consider picking up this weekend:

• With the Old Breed by Eugene Sledge. Visceral, honest, and morally serious, Sledge captures not just the brutality of WWII’s Pacific campaign, but what prolonged combat does to the human soul. For some inside details on the book, listen to our podcast with Eugene’s son.
• Helmet for My Pillow by Robert Leckie. More literary and philosophical than Sledge, but equally memorable. Leckie has a novelist’s eye for character and atmosphere while still conveying the exhaustion, terror, and absurdity of the Pacific War.
• Company Commander by Charles B. MacDonald. A compelling account from WWII’s European theater. MacDonald was a 21-year-old infantry officer during the Battle of the Bulge and offers his experience with humility, clarity, and emotional honesty.
• Chickenhawk by Robert Mason. One of the best American Vietnam memoirs ever written. Mason was a Huey helicopter pilot, and the book captures both the adrenaline and the psychological attrition of the war with an unsentimental, deeply human, immersive immediacy that makes you feel like you’re there.

Do the Murph

Working out is one of the only ways modern citizens experience even a tiny bit of the pains and exertions experienced by soldiers in combat. One way to pay tribute to them, then, is ramping up the strenuosity and performing a workout with a specifically in memoriam purpose.

Enter the Murph Challenge. Named after Lt. Michael Murphy, a Navy SEAL killed in Afghanistan during Operation Red Wings (the mission Lone Survivor is based on), the workout is based on his favorite personal training session while deployed and at home. The workout consists of:

• 1-mile run
• 100 pull-ups
• 200 push-ups
• 300 air squats
• 1-mile run

The exercises are all done while wearing a 20-pound vest or body armor.

The workout is intentionally difficult, as suffering is part of the point. The grind becomes a small symbolic act of remembrance: voluntarily embracing discomfort, exhaustion, and discipline in recognition of those who endured far more.

Watch Band of Brothers or The Pacific

Back when we had cable, I’d usually end up landing on Band of Brothers or The Pacific during my Memorial Day weekend channel surfing. AMC and The History Channel ran marathons of these WWII miniseries all weekend long.

Despite having seen them multiple times, I’d sit there and watch for hours every time I landed on one. When the marathon ended, I always felt the same three things: sad, grateful, and inspired to be a better man.

We don’t have cable anymore, so I haven’t stumbled into one of these marathons in several years. But I’ve missed them. This Memorial Day weekend, I’ve decided to queue one of them up to watch.

What I love about both miniseries is that they follow real units of regular guys through the worst combat of World War II. The cameras don’t dwell on the generals. They stay with the guys on the front lines who, before being thrown into the brutalities of war, worked at the hardware store or attended a state college.

You can’t watch these shows and not think about what was paid for the freedoms you take for granted while you’re eating a burger and drinking a beer.

Volunteer to Put Flags on Soldiers’ Gravestones

The original Decoration Day was about walking to local cemeteries and laying flowers on the graves of fallen soldiers. The tradition continues today, mostly in the form of small American flags placed in front of veterans’ headstones in the lead-up to Memorial Day.

Local American Legion and VFW posts, along with Boy Scout troops and community groups, organize flag-placing details at veterans’ cemeteries every year. They’re almost always looking for volunteers.

To find a detail near you, call your local American Legion or VFW post, or contact the nearest national or state veterans cemetery.

And don’t forget to put out your flag at home.

This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

Last year, we launched our Substack newsletter, Dying Breed. Thanks to everyone who’s already joined us there.

If you haven’t subscribed yet, now’s a great time. This summer, I’m inviting Dying Breed readers to join me in reading my all-time favorite novel: Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove.

If you’ve been following the site or podcast for a while now, you guys know I love this book. It’s the American Odyssey: sprawling, heartbreaking, and hilarious. When you’re done reading it, you feel like the characters are your friends.

If you’ve always wanted to read Lonesome Dove but needed a little push to do it — this is it. If you’ve already read it and want to experience it again with fresh insights and the chance to discuss it with me and other readers, this is the perfect excuse to dive back in. 

This summer book club is open to paying subscribers of Dying Breed and includes:

• A simple 8-week reading schedule (just 20-30 minutes a day)
• Weekly posts from me and Jeremy Anderberg with reflections and discussion prompts
• Occasional Lonesome Dove-themed prizes for participants who make the best comments
• A Q&A with Larry McMurtry scholar Steven Frye

The first reading assignment drops Saturday, May 30th.

After subscribing, you’ll receive an email with easy instructions on how to access the Lonesome Dove summer book club on Dying Breed.

By becoming a paying subscriber of Dying Breed, you’ll not only have access to the read-along, you’ll also get all the regular perks of being a DB subscriber as well: 

• Deep Dives: Every week, we publish a longer-form article exploring forgotten virtues, cultural phenomena, and timeless wisdom.
• Sunday Firesides: Each Sunday, you’ll receive a short, thoughtful reflection to help you start your week. All the archives of previously published Firesides are available exclusively on Dying Breed as well.
• Community Discussion: Drop a line in the comment section to interact with Brett, Kate, and other Dying Breed readers.
• A Focused, Ad-Free Reading Experience: No distractions, no sponsored content, no algorithms — just thoughtful writing crafted to help you think deeper and live better.

For $5/month or $50/year, you’ll receive two quality pieces weekly, plus access to our growing library of archived content, our community of like-minded readers, and this summer book club. 

This is your chance to finally read one of America’s greatest novels alongside me and a community of thoughtful readers.

This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

With the Old Breed is widely considered one of the greatest war memoirs ever written. Penned by Eugene Sledge, a Marine who fought with the 1st Division — the old breed — in the Pacific campaigns of Peleliu and Okinawa, the book is unflinching, deeply human, and so vividly written that you can practically feel the heat, mud, exhaustion, and terror coming off the page.

But Sledge wasn’t a professional writer. He was a biology professor who started jotting notes on scraps of paper tucked inside the New Testament he carried in his breast pocket. He wrote the book decades later, partly to process his own trauma, partly to leave a record for his sons.

One of those sons is my guest today. Henry Sledge has spent years carrying his father’s legacy forward, and he’s written his own book — The Old Breed: The Complete Story Revealed — that pairs his father’s combat experience with previously unpublished material and his own perspective as Eugene’s son. Today on the show, Henry and I talk about why his dad wrote With the Old Breed, what made fighting in the Pacific uniquely hellish, and how Eugene managed to come home and live a full, honorable life despite carrying the war with him for the rest of his days.

Resources Related to the Podcast

• China Marine: An Infantryman’s Life After World War II by E.B. Sledge
• HBO series The Pacific
• Ken Burns’ The War
• AoM Article: Eugene B. Sledge Puts Your Problems Into Perspective
• AoM Article: Are You Missing the Forbidden City?

Connect With Henry Sledge

• Henry on IG
• Henry on FB

Thanks to this Episode’s Sponsor!

• Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code MANLINESS at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: https://incogni.com/MANLINESS

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This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

Fortunately, summer prep is generally less intensive than winterizing. You’re not trying to protect your home from freezing temperatures or ice storms — you’re mostly getting things cleaned up, tuned up, and back into use after months of relative neglect. Completing a few small maintenance tasks now can prevent bigger headaches later and ensure that you actually get to enjoy the season to its fullest. 

Here are 10 jobs to tackle before summer is fully in swing:

1. Get yardwork tools and gear ready.

The first real weekend of warm-weather yardwork often leaves me scrambling to find matching work gloves or bemoaning busted yard clippers. This year, be prepared by doing an inventory of your tools, seeing if anything needs to be replaced or repaired, and buying a couple new pairs of yard gloves (you can never have too many, especially as kids get old enough to help). 

2. Test outdoor water lines.   

If it’s been a while since you’ve used your outdoor water lines — like exterior spigots (often called “hose bibs”) and sprinkler lines — make sure to test them before they’re needed. If the water has been turned off all winter, turn it back on and test each hose bib as well as each sprinkler zone. Beyond solving any major problems, you may find you need new rubber gaskets or sprinkler heads. 

3. Repair damaged window screens. 

If you have holes in your window screens (especially the ones you regularly use), now is the time to repair them. DIY kits for smaller patch jobs are readily available online or in hardware stores; I’ve also found that screen repair at places like Ace Hardware is pretty darn cheap and well worth their expertise. 

4. Get your A/C inspected and tuned up. 

Just like your furnace, your air conditioning system should get an annual inspection and tune up. Nearly every local HVAC company offers this service. It’ll almost certainly include a new air filter, a spray down (which you can also do yourself), perhaps checking refrigerant levels — and hopefully nothing major. It’s much better to get your A/C checked out while temps are still relatively cool rather than needing it serviced at the peak of summer’s heat and humidity. Don’t be afraid to tag along and ask questions during that tune up; you should know the basics of your HVAC system. 

5. Prep your mower for the season. 

If your mower has been stored for the winter, there are a couple steps to ensure it runs smoothly and easily once it’s needed. Give it fresh gas and check the oil (if it’s electric, charge up the battery). Make sure the deck/blade area is clean. And you may need to replace the air filter and/or spark plug if it doesn’t start up as easily as it used to. Come spring, I always notice my mower will start a little slowly and crankily at first, but then it’s generally good to go. Be sure to also read our article on mower maintenance. 

6. Change ceiling fan direction. 

You can set ceiling fans to spin in different directions depending on the season. In winter, the fan should spin clockwise (when viewed from below) at a low speed, which gently pulls cool air upward and pushes warm air trapped near the ceiling back down into the room. In summer, the fan should spin counterclockwise, creating a downward breeze that makes you feel cooler. 

If you changed the direction of your ceiling fans for winter, now’s the time to change them back for the warmer months (most fans have a small switch for this on their base).

7. Clean your grill and get propane. 

Even in the colder seasons of northern Minnesota, I never fully quit grilling. But the pace certainly picks up when the weather is consistently nice, making it the perfect time to give your grill a thorough cleaning. Also make sure your propane is topped off and you have an extra tank or two; there’s nothing worse than running out of gas halfway through cooking up dinner. 

8. Get ready for bugs (ant traps, wasp traps, fly catchers, etc.). 

It’s always best to stock up on insect traps and repellents before the season really gets going. Your house and neighborhood will have specific needs and there are different philosophies for dealing with pests on your property. That said, nobody wants ants in their house, wasps stinging their kids, or flies noshing on their snacks. Prepare your various anti-insect tools and strategies (including Brett’s favorite mosquito eradication solution). 

9. Clean out gutters. 

Even if you cleaned out your gutters after the fall leaf season, you’ll want to do it again to clear away any winter muck that accumulated. If you didn’t do it last fall, you’ll really want to now, to ensure your gutters are running smoothly and not overflowing or clogging (which can lead to further problems). 

10. Clean and/or pressure wash decks, sidewalks, and patios. 

Fall, winter, and early spring leave a lot of grime on your outdoor areas. Give them a good clean in preparation for summer entertainment season; heavy duty sweeping and leaf/dirt/grass blowing (and perhaps pressure washing) should be part of every homeowner’s summer prep checklist. Check your outdoor lighting while you’re at it, changing out lightbulbs as needed. 

This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

When you join the military, you’re going to learn some new life skills. How to make a bed. How to shine your shoes. And, how to effectively pack a bag.

We recently asked former and current members of the military who follow AoM for their best packing tips, and we got a ton of responses. Far and away the #1 submission was this: Learn to roll your clothes. 

An effective packing technique whether you’re a soldier headed out for deployment or a civilian headed out for vacation, the Ranger or Army Roll is a method of “folding” your clothes that keeps them both compact and tidy. It makes your clothes look like tight, well-rolled burritos, and minimizes the amount they wrinkle, as well as their footprint in your bag. Ranger-rolled clothes take up less space in your suitcase and keep it better organized. On the latter front, you can also roll up outfits — shirt, socks, underwear — together into a single, action-ready pouch.

The only downside to the Ranger Roll is that it does take longer to do than simpler folds — at least before you’ve practiced it a lot and gotten the technique down pat. You’ve really got to focus on making a nice, tight roll for each piece of clothing in order for this method to work. But the tradeoff in time is worth it, as it allows you to pack more in a single bag, saving you from schlepping around multiple pieces of luggage and paying the attendant fees for those extra bags if you’re flying. 

Below we highlight how to Ranger roll four different pieces of clothing. Follow the instructions with military-esque precision, and you’ll be packing your bag like a seasoned veteran in no time.

And if you’re curious as to what additional packing tips came up in our survey, here are some of the other most popular responses (thanks to everyone who submitted their tips!):

This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

Hondo by Louis L’Amour. We’re fans of Louis L’Amour round these parts. Guy was prolific. Hondo is my favorite Western novel of his. The story had an unusual path: L’Amour first wrote a short story that became the 1953 John Wayne film (a good flick!), then expanded the film’s narrative into the novel Hondo. The book follows Hondo Lane, a former cavalry officer who survived in Apache country by learning Apache ways. He stumbles onto a homestead where Angie Lowe and her young son are living alone, no husband in sight. Then the Apache warrior Vittoro enters the picture, and you get a story about love, war, and honor in the American Southwest. L’Amour’s prose won’t win any Pulitzers, but the man could spin a yarn. Great beach read! Make sure to check out the podcast interview I did with Louis L’Amour’s son, Beau L’Amour. 

How 1990s Special Forces Guys Became Menswear Moodboard Staples. Charles McFarlane (who runs a great Substack called Combat Threads) has a piece in GQ on why photos of 1980s and 90s special operators (slim, mustachioed Delta Force guys in stonewashed jeans, fishing vests, and 1990s dad glasses) keep going viral on military moodboard accounts. He traces how special operators went from looking like your dad to the 21st-century tatted, bearded, jacked tactical guy and muses on the enduring appeal of the operator style from decades back. McFarlane thinks guys in 2026 like how it exemplifies a quieter, less-in-your-face version of masculinity — one capable of killing a bad guy while looking like an ordinary accountant. 

Pxton Walkie-Talkies. I bought a set of these last year for the teenagers I lead at church, so we could play “fugitive” at the Gathering Place, Tulsa’s sprawling, genuinely impressive destination park built by our fair city’s resident billionaire. Playing fugitive is a popular Wednesday night activity for our youth group; we just played it again this week. One group acts as the police and coordinates their patrols over the walkie-talkies, while the other group plays fugitives trying to make it back to the boathouse from somewhere across the park — without getting caught. The Pxtons are cheap, but they worked great over the long distances you need for the game. They’ve also got a less fun, but useful use case: in a grid-down, phone-down scenario, they’ll let you keep in touch with family around the neighborhood. Make sure to check out our article on walkie-talkies. 

Singin’ in the Rain. Last time I saw this flick was in music class at John Ross Elementary. The Cinema Humanities article we featured in O&E a few weeks back nudged me to give it another watch. Glad I did. It’s a funny, sharp critique of celebrity that holds up (“Dignity. Always dignity.”), and the cinematography felt shockingly modern for 1952. But Gene Kelly stole the show. His dancing has an athletic, virile quality I wasn’t expecting from a 1950s musical. I went down a Gene Kelly rabbit hole afterward and learned this was intentional. Kelly thought male dancing in movie musicals was too effeminate and set out to make it more masculine, muscular, and action-packed. He royally pulled it off. Donald O’Connor’s “Make ‘Em Laugh” dance routine was also incredibly physical. Doing backflips off walls and whatnot. It was so physical, in fact, that it put him in the hospital for three days. Talk about suffering for your art!

On our Dying Breed newsletter, we published Sunday Firesides: What You See, Shapes and Making a Living Online: The Affiliate Link Boom and Bust.

Quote of the Week

Luck is the tide, nothing more. The strong man rows with it if it makes toward his port; he rows against it if it flows the other way.

—Orison Swett Marden

This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

Back in 2019, David Epstein joined me to talk about his book Range and why generalists often thrive in a specialized world. Now he’s back with a new book that explores a seemingly opposite idea: the power of constraints. In Inside the Box, David argues that limits — deadlines, boundaries, and even setbacks — are often the very things that spark creativity, sharpen focus, and help us actually get meaningful work done.

Today on the show, David shares how, in a world of endless freedom and options, constraints might actually be the thing you need most. He shares the surprising true story behind the creation of the periodic table, explains how a broken arm changed the course of his own life, and explores why giving people too much leeway can actually kill innovation. We discuss what Pixar did right that doomed companies like General Magic got wrong, why brainstorming sessions are usually ineffective, how to identify the bottlenecks holding back your work and life, and why learning to settle for “good enough” may be the key to getting more great things done.

Resources Related to the Podcast

• David’s previous appearance on the AoM podcast: Episode #512 — Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
• Pixar’s Tin Toy
• AoM Article: Curing Your Restlessness — Limiting Your Choices
• The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt
• David’s This American Life Episode: “Something Only I Can See”
• AoM Article: Via Negativa — Adding to Your Life By Subtracting

Connect With David Epstein

• David’s website

Listen to the Podcast! (And don’t forget to leave us a review!)

Listen to the episode on a separate page

Download this episode

Subscribe to the podcast in the media player of your choice

Transcript Coming Soon

This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

Several weeks ago, I was seized by an inexplicable urge to buy a globe for my home office. Don’t know where it came from. I had been sitting at my desk, ruminating on an article, when I looked around, noticed my lack of a globe, and thought: I need a globe.

On a lark, I posted a note on Substack confessing my inexplicable urge to buy a globe for my home office. I called it the male urge to own a globe. Half-joking, but also very serious. The note went Substack viral. Tons of guys chimed in: Yes. Same. I’ve wanted one for years. My grandfather had one. Globes are cool as hell.

Seeing the universal male desire to own a globe ratcheted up my own. As the founder of the Art of Manliness, I had to live up to this masculine imperative. It was Girardian mimetic globe desire.

On that very same day that I scribbled my memo about men and globes on Substack Notes, I was watching The Firm (also a great 90s Dad Novel) during my Zone 2 cardio session. There’s a scene where Tom Cruise, playing the young hotshot law grad Mitch McDeere, is setting up his office. Next to his desk, amidst shelves of leather-bound legal case books, sits a large, handsome globe.

That cemented it. This was a sign. I needed to get a globe. That day. Immediately. Resistance was futile.

So I went on eBay and bought a globe.

Follow me on Substack Notes; it’s the only kind of “social media” I personally interact with, because it’s fun instead of being soul-destroying and productive of the urge to repeatedly jam a fork in your eye.

Specifically, I tracked down the exact globe I’d had as a kid in the 1980s. A sepia-toned one with topographically raised mountain ranges that you can run your fingers over. The USSR and other Soviet Bloc countries are on there. So is Zaire.

My globe now sits on a table in my office and looks majestic.

My globe. It fits very well with the other handsome furnishings in my home office.

What a rush.

This whole experience left me with the question: What makes a globe so damn appealing? Especially to men?

So I dug into the history of globes. Combining that history with my knowledge of the male psyche based on my own experience as a man and nearly 20 years researching, thinking, and writing about manliness, I’ve developed a few speculative theories about men and globes.

Here is my report.

A Brief History of the Globe

Globes are ancient. The Greeks figured out the Earth was round by the 3rd century B.C., and an ancient Greek dude named Crates of Mallus is credited with making the first terrestrial globe around 150 B.C. When he moved to Rome, he showed the Romans his cool invention, and the Romans started making globes. Sadly, none of those ancient globes survived. There’s a famous 2nd-century Roman sculpture called “Farnese Atlas” that depicts the titan Atlas hoisting a celestial globe (a globe of the stars) on his shoulders. There’s your first masculine-globe combo in the West.

The Middle Ages were a fallow period for European globe-making, but Islamic and Chinese scholars kept the craft alive. The earliest surviving terrestrial globe, the Erdapfel — German for “Earth Apple” — was built in 1492 by Martin Behaim in Nuremberg. (Conspicuously, it has no Americas. Columbus was just then setting sail on the ocean blue.) From that point forward, globe-making exploded in Europe with the Age of Exploration. Globes were useful things to have when you were charting the watery sphere we call home. Every major voyage produced new data, which meant globes needed to be regularly updated and new ones released.

Thanks to their association with exploration and conquest, globes became a symbol of power and wealth among the European hoity-toity. Even rich families who didn’t have anything to do with sea exploration wanted a globe in their homes.

The Netherlands became the epicenter of the globe manufacturing industry, beginning in the late 16th century. Workshops in Amsterdam run by a few artisan families were churning out matched pairs of terrestrial and celestial globes for the libraries of European nobility.

A gentleman’s pocket globe

In the 18th century, the English took the baton in globe making and made them more scientific. Instead of being seen as ornamental pieces that you would keep in your home to signal your wealth and status, the globe was seen as a mathematical instrument. Gentlemen of letters and science would often keep a “pocket globe” in their coat pockets that they could whip out when pondering geography.

Industrialization and mass production in the 19th and 20th centuries allowed the globe to become a staple in middle-class homes and schools in America. Spinning the globe and stopping it with your finger to see where you’d live in the future became a rite of passage for bored children.

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, globes experienced a decline in the West thanks to Google Maps. Why have a physical globe when you can see a high-resolution globe on your screen for free? Also, globes are bulky and expensive to ship, so a lot of cash-strapped schools gave up on buying new globes to save money. Globes moved from being a democratic tool of learning and curiosity back to being sophistication-signaling ornaments in well-to-do homes.

Why Famous Men Posed with Globes

If you look at portraits of powerful men from the past four centuries, you’ll notice that there’s often a globe in the picture. European royalty during the Age of Empires would hold globes to symbolize their global dominion. Democratic leaders like Teddy Roosevelt posed with globes to project their influence on international affairs. Shipping magnates and corporate CEOs would pose with globes to symbolize the worldwide reach of their enterprises.

This globe portraiture descends directly from a type of portraiture in which ancient and medieval royalty would be depicted holding an orb with a cross on top of it. This orb was called a globus cruciger. Monarchs held these during coronation ceremonies. It signified dominion over the temporal world. When painters started swapping the globus cruciger for an actual terrestrial globe sometime in the 16th century, the symbolism stayed the same. I rule the world! Such a power move.

By the mid-20th century, the globe had taken on a slightly different meaning. It conveyed global strategizing. During World War II, the Office of Strategic Services commissioned a pair of enormous 50-inch globes for FDR and Churchill (often called “Churchill Globes”) so the two men could see the war as a single, planet-spanning theater. There are photos of Churchill bent over his globe, calipers in hand, measuring distances between continents. The globe gave him an astronaut’s perspective of World War decades before the first astronaut.

So What’s the Appeal of Globes to Men?

Alright. So globes have been a symbol of power and a tool for exploration and strategizing. These two ideas, I think, can explain the male urge to own a globe. Here are my two speculative theories as to how:

Theory One: Testosterone. Some studies have shown that men, on average, score higher on tests of spatial navigation, mental rotation, and route-learning, and have a higher desire to explore unknown territories than women. And these differences are often attributed to the higher testosterone levels in men. These conclusions are nuanced, and there’s probably more going on than just testosterone that results in these differences, but testosterone does seem to play a role. Even when women receive testosterone supplementation, they often see a rise in their spatial scores and their desire to explore new places.

So maybe the fact that men have more testosterone than women explains the male pull to globes, which fire the imagination for charting a course and journeying somewhere new.

Theory Two: The King Archetype. In his book, King, Warrior, Magician, Lover, the Jungian analyst Robert Moore argued that the mature masculine psyche organizes itself around four archetypes. Of them, the King is the one concerned with order, stewardship, and the blessing of one’s realm. The King doesn’t conquer for the sake of conquest. That’s the Tyrant, the King’s shadow. The mature King surveys his domain so he can tend it. He keeps a wide view so he can act with prudence and justice.

While I’m skeptical of Jungian archetypes (I may need to write an article about this one day), I do think that, when used in moderation, they can be helpful prompts for reflection. Perhaps a globe in a man’s office is a subtle invocation of that Jungian King archetype. It’s a moral reminder to a man to think of the whole, to establish and maintain order, and to use power with justice and mercy.

Theory Three: Globes Just Look Cool. Maybe it’s the T, or maybe it’s the King archetype existing in our Jungian collective consciousness that can explain the male urge to own a globe. Even if those theories don’t explain the urge, I think my final one can: globes just look cool. You get to see the Earth in its totality — as the Blue Marble in space that it is — right in your own home. You can find ones that are a bit more artistic. They’re in sepia tones. They make you feel like you’re Indiana Jones flying a plane with a red line tracing your path as you make your way to archeological adventures around the world. And that feels cool.

So my 1980s globe sits here in my office. I’m looking at it right now. Seems like it has always been there. Every so often, I go and trace my fingers across its bumpy face and look for old Cold War-era countries that no longer exist. I’ll even give it a spin and let my finger stop it on a random spot. Usually, it’s the Pacific Ocean. I hope that doesn’t mean I’m going to end up a castaway like Louis Zamperini.

Why do I love this thing? Maybe it’s the testosterone. Maybe it’s the King archetype. Maybe I just want to feel like Indiana Jones for thirty seconds between emails. Whatever it is, I’m glad I acted on the male urge to own a globe.

Go wander over to eBay and search for “globe.” You’ll find one that will satisfy your own urge.

Impetus virilis globum possidendi.

This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

Discipline is essential to every success in life. It establishes the stable, well-ordered ground that allows an individual to set and achieve goals. It prevents the ensnaring, vice-filled traps that torpedo advancement. It creates the consistent habits that forward progress. And it develops the authority that influences others. 

As behavioral analyst Chase Hughes shared on the podcast, when an individual not only puts on a good face in public, but is truly disciplined in their private life, they project confidence and competence. Whether or not you’re disciplined when the metaphorical cameras are off is something you can’t help but exude and that others instinctively pick up on. People intuitively trust and follow individuals who embody discipline and reflexively take a step back from those who don’t.

Chase defines discipline “as the ability to prioritize the needs of your future self ahead of your own.”

If you’re a college student, and you stay up all night drinking even though you have exams the next day, that’s a failure on the discipline front. As Chase observes, you’ll wake up the next morning thinking, “‘I can’t believe I did that.’ And [you’ll be] mad at your past tense self because you didn’t have concern for your future self.”

If, on the other hand, you spend the night studying and hit the hay early so you’re well-rested for exams the next day, you’re taking care of your future self, and leveling up in your discipline.

As an encouragement to prioritize your long-term aims over your short-term desires, Chase advises thinking of yourself as your own butler.

While few people can afford a full-time, live-in manservant, your present self can act as a butler to your future self. 

When, in the evening, you do things like pack what you need in your backpack or briefcase and set out your clothes for the next day, you serve as a butler to your future self, who, the next morning, will really appreciate the fact that his past tense self set up his present tense self for success. 

Chase described how this works regarding his own evening routine:

I’m about to go to bed, and I’ll be sticking one of those little Keurig coffee cup pods into the coffee maker and sticking a coffee mug there, ready for the next morning. And out loud, I’ll say, ‘Man, Chase is gonna love this.’ So I will continuously speak about my future self in a way that I am prioritizing his needs, and I will talk about him in the future.

When you develop a relationship between your present self and your future self, where the former serves the latter, you arrive at a point, Chase says, “where you’re looking forward in time with concern and looking backward in time with gratitude.” You develop a more holistic, integrated character.

By prioritizing the needs of your future self by becoming your own butler, you build the discipline that allows you to act, lead, and move forward in the way you desire; you build the discipline that grants you greater freedom, which, at the end of the day, is the ultimate luxury!

For more insights on how getting your stuff together will not only improve your personal life but increase your influence, listen to our podcast with Chase Hughes:

With our archives 4,000 articles deep, we’ve decided to republish a classic piece each Sunday to help our newer readers discover some of the best, evergreen gems from the past. This article was originally published in May 2023.

This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

It’s graduation season, which means you may be looking for a good gift for a young man heading into a new stage of life.

Books are usually a safe bet for a graduation gift, especially the kind a young man will actually find useful. Over the years, Kate and I have written four Art of Manliness books that would make especially good gifts for a recent high school or college grad.

The Illustrated Art of Manliness

This is the most recent of our books and the most fun to flip through. It’s a collection of the famous illustrations we’ve done with Ted Slampyak over the years, covering everything from how to throw a punch to how to run an office meeting.

It’s a great toilet book. You skim a few pages while you’re taking care of business, bone up on how to escape a bear or shake hands properly, and then get on with your day. 

The Art of Manliness: Classic Skills and Manners for the Modern Man

This is the book that started it all. It was published back in 2009, which makes it 17 years old. There might be a high schooler who was born when this book came out to whom you could now gift it. Some of the stuff in there is admittedly dated, like there’s a mention of Facebook pokes, which I don’t think have existed since the Obama administration.

But most of the content is still relevant because most of what a young man needs to know remains evergreen. How to change a tire. How to tie a tie. How to give a speech. The classics never go out of style!

Heading Out on Your Own: 31 Basic Life Skills in 31 Days

We self-published this book back in 2014, so it’s a little over a decade old. A few details have shifted (rental markets, for one, look pretty different now than they did then), but I’d say 95% of it is still solid. The book covers 31 skills a young adult needs to know when they’re heading out on their own: doing laundry without ruining your clothes, cooking a few basic meals, managing your finances, making small talk, shopping for groceries on a budget, living with roommates, maintaining your car, acing a job interview, and much more!

If you know a recent grad who’s about to be on their own for the first time, give them this one.

The Art of Manliness: Manvotionals

If you want to gift a young man a book that’s less focused on practical skills and more centered on the character of mature manliness, this is it. Manvotionals is an anthology of speeches, poems, and passages from books that speak to the classic manly virtues. You’ll find edifying excerpts from famous figures like Theodore Roosevelt and Marcus Aurelius, as well as lesser-known authors from the past who offered potent wisdom on how to be a man of strength and integrity. The reader can read a reflection-prompting passage a day, sort of like a daily devotional.

For a graduate stepping into a world that doesn’t always reinforce timeless virtues, having a book like this around can be a steady source of grounding.

Any of these books make a great gift for a young man graduating. You can find all of them — as well as other books we’ve written — on Amazon.

This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.