Art of Manliness Lessons

Whats Your 20 Mile March? (http://www.artofmanliness.com/2013/01/06/whats-your-20-milemarch/)

A good 20 Mile March lies largely within your control to achieve.

Dont set goals where youre not entirely in control of the outcome. So instead of setting a goal of
getting into Harvard, or getting ten new clients goals that depend somewhat on the
behavior/decisions of others set a goal to get straight As your senior year, or to call 100 new
business prospects. Those are the kind of things you have complete control over.

A good 20 Mile March must be achieved with great consistency. Good intentions do
not count.

Willpower Part III: How to Strengthen Your Willpower and 20 Ways to Conserve It
(http://www.artofmanliness.com/2012/01/15/how-to-strengthen-willpower/)

Only work on one goal at a time

Make your goal as clear and specific as possible

Make to-do lists

Be sure to make your list of to-dos as specific as possibleas GTD guru David Allen puts it, you need
to figure out your next action on something. So dont write: Plan trip. Write: Search for best airline
fare. And once you cross that off, your new next action would be Buy tickets. And so on.

Create Routines

Tackle the tough things first

Limit your choices

Dont make important decisions when sick or on an empty stomach

Keep yourself and your surroundings clean

Out of sight, out of mind

Have a higher purpose

Live Lift at the Limits: How to Hack Your Flow (http://www.artofmanliness.com/2014/03/04/livelife-at-the-limits-how-to-hack-your-flow/)

Environmental Triggers
o

High Consequences To reach flow, explains Harvard psychiatrist Ned Hallowell,

one must be willing to take risks. The lover must lay bare his soul and risk rejection
and humiliation to enter this state. The athlete must be willing to risk physical harm,
even loss of life, to enter this state. The artist must be willing to be scorned and
despised by critics and the public and still push on. And the average personyou and
memust be willing to fail, look foolish, and fall flat on our faces should we wish to
enter this state.

Rich Environment Combination of Novelty (Danger and Opportunity),

Unpredictability and Complexity (Lots of salient information coming at once). Seek out
complexity, especially in nature. Stare at the night sky, walk in the woods, contemplate
the small (universes in a dew drop).

Deep Embodiment Total physical awareness. Proprioception (body position in

space) and vestibular awareness (maintain balance). Pay attention to input streams in
environments: Zen walking, balance and agility drills, martial arts, etc.

Psychological Triggers
o

Clear Goals Emphasis on clear. Clarity gives us certainty. We know what to do and
where to focus our attention while doing it. When goals are clear, meta-cognition is
replaced by in-the-moment cognition, and the self stays out of the picture. Applying
this idea in our daily life means breaking tasks into bite-size chunks and settings goals
accordingly. Think challenging, yet manageable just enough stimulation to shortcut
attention into the now, not enough stress to pull you back out again.

Immediate Feedback Clear goals tell us what were doing; immediate feedback
tells us how to do it better. Tighten feedback loops. Put mechanisms in place so
attention doesnt have to wander. Ask for more input.

The Challenge/Skills Ration Attention is most engaged, when theres a very

specific relationship between the difficulty of a task and our ability to perform that
task. In the challenge is too great, fear swamps the system. If the challenge is too
easy, we stop paying attention. Flow appears near the emotional midpoint between
boredom and anxiety, in what scientists call the flow channel the spot where the
task is hard enough to make us stretch; not hard enough to make us snap. Interested
but not riveted. When we dont know whats going to happen next, we pay more
attention to the next. Uncertainty is our rocket ride into the now.

Social Triggers Group Triggers

o

Serious Concentration

Shared, Clear Goals

Good Communication

Equal Participation

Element of Risk

Familiarity Common language, shared knowledge base and communication style

based on unspoken understandings. Momentum is not lost due to the need for lengthy
explanations.

Blending Egos Collective version of humility

Sense of Control Combined autonomy (being free to do what you want) and
competence (being good at what you do). Choose your challenges and have the
necessary skills to surmount them.

Close Listening In the here and now, generation real time, unplanned responses to
the dialogue as it unfolds

Always Say Yes Interactions should be additive more than argumentative. The
goal is momentum, togetherness and innovation that comes from ceaselessly
amplifying each others ideas and actions. Think improve comedy.

Creative Triggers
o

Creativity Under the hood of creativity, what you see is pattern recognition (brains
ability to link new ideas together) and risk-taking (the courage to bring those new
ideas into the world). This means, for those of us who want more flow in our lives, we
have to think different, simple as that. Instead of tackling problems from familiar
angles, go at them backward and sideways and with style. Go out of your way to
stretch your imagination. Massively up the amount of novelty in your life-the research
shows that new environments and experiences are often the jumping off point of new
ideas (more opportunity for patterns recognition). Most importantly, make creativity a
value and a virtue. The greatest athletes arent interested in the greatest
risks. Sometimes theyre taken, sometimes not, but those physical risks are a byproduct of a much deeper desire to take creative risks. Dont be fooled by the
danger. In action and adventure sports, creativity is always the point.

Keep Your Head: 4 Exercises for Building Your Mental Toughness Inspired by War
(http://www.artofmanliness.com/2014/07/17/keep-your-head-4-exercises-for-building-your-mentaltoughness-inspired-by-war/)

Train Yourself to Increase Your Confidence It starts with steady and deliberate practice,
and continually testing yourself to live on the edge of failure. Create a petri dish, a little area
in which youre not succeeding (LaRae Quy). Challenge yourself on a daily basis with a skill
you are not fully mastering.

Embrace Your Sense of Duty Write down a job description for all the different hats you
wear in life. Not just for work, but in other roles you fulfill. Tape these descriptions in a place

where you will see them often or keep them in a notebook and review them weekly. No matter
your different responsibilities, treat them like duties. Take the option of shirking them, off the
table entirely. When times get tough, and youre fatigued, annoyed, bored, and stressed,
remember that its your duty to get your job done. You agreed to do it, and a man keeps his
word. People are depending on you and your ability to stay strong when things get shaky.

Do What You Do For Your Team Write down the names of trusted teammates. Under each
name, write down two things you can do to strengthen your bond with that person. Work to
surround yourself with people who you trust and care for, and youll be more likely to endure
during times of challenge.

Find Pride on the Inside Write down a list of all the things you are proud of in your life,
especially things youve never been recognized for by others. Notice the satisfaction you feel
from your accomplishments and worthy traits and realize you dont need the validation of
others for them to be real. Your life should not be any different because you have a ribbon or
an acrylic award you use as a paperweight on your desk. Take pride internally.

Most important aspect of mental toughness is not to worry about failure, but simply
to make sure you always try. You can fail and well figure out how to execute the
next time, but what I cant stand is if you dont try your best. Im not going to be a
winner at everything I do but I can at least find out where I am going to win and get
better at that. Hall

Finding the Opportunity Inside the Obstacle (http://www.artofmanliness.com/2014/05/01/findingthe-opportunity-inside-the-obstacle/)

Change in Perspective

A good person dyes events with his own colorand turns whatever happens to his
own benefit. Seneca

Your Concentration Training Program: 11 Exercises That Will Strengthen Your Attention
(http://www.artofmanliness.com/2014/01/30/your-concentration-training-program-11-exercises-thatwill-strengthen-your-attention/)

Increase the Strength of Your Focus Gradually Slowly build up. Pomodoro Method says
45 minutes straight and then allow 15 minute break. Start out with a pretty easy goal and work
your way up from there. Set a time for 5 minutes and focus completely on your work/reading
and then take a 2 minute break and repeat. Each day add 5 minutes to the focus time and 2
minutes into the breaks.

Create a Distraction ToDo List It takes an average of 25 minutes to return to our original
task. Whenever something you want to check out pops into your head, just write it down on a
piece of paper next to you and promise yourself youll be able to look it up once your focusing
session is over.

Build Your Willpower Voluntary attention and willpower are intimately entwined.

Meditate 10 to 20 minutes a day will do the trick

Practice Mindfulness Throughout the Day Mindfulness is simply focusing completely on

what youre doing, slowing down, and observing all the physical and emotional sensations you
are experiencing in that moment. If youre working on a task and feel that restless itch to go do
something else, think to yourself, Be here now. In that moment, bring your awareness to
your body and your breath.

Exercise (your body)

Memorize Stuf

Read Long Stuf Slowly. Fight the TL;DR Culture

Stay Curious The more curious you are about the world, the greater the stamina of your
concentration will be when it comes to any endeavor.

Practice Attentive Listening

Perform Concentration Exercises

12 Concentration Exercises from 1918

Sitting Still in a Chair Sit in a comfortable chair and see how still you can keep. Center
your attention on sitting still. Watch and see that you are not making any involuntary muscular
movements. Work towards 15 minutes. Never strain yourself to keep still. You must be relaxed
completely.

Fix Gaze on Fingers Sit in a chair with your head up and chin out, shoulders back. Raise
your right arm until it is level with your shoulder, pointing to the right. Look around, with head
only, and fix your gaze on your fingers, and keep the arm perfectly still for one minute. Work
up to 5 minutes with each arm. Focus on the tips of the fingers

Fix Eyes on Outstretched Glass Fill a small glass full of water and grasp it by the fingers;
put the arm directly in front of you. Fix eyes on the glass and try to keep the arm so steady
that no movement will be noticeable. Work up to 5 minutes

Concentrate on Opening and Closing Fists Move your chair up to a table, placing your
hands upon it, clenching the first, keeping the back of the hand on the table, thumb doubled
over the fingers. Fix your gaze upon the first for a while, then gradually extend the thumb,
keep your whole attention fixed upon the act, just as if it was a matter of great importance.
Gradually extend your first finger, second, etc. Then reverse the process. Work from 5 to 10
times per hand

Concentration Increase the Sense of Smell When taking a walk, concentrate on the
odor. See how many different kinds you can detect. Then choose one particular kind and try to
sense only this.

Concentration on the Within Lie down and thoroughly relax your muscles. Concentrate on
the beating of your heart. Pay attention to nothing else. Try to picture the blood leaving and
going to your toes. Picture another going down the arms.

Concentrating on Sleep Put a full glass of clear water on a table in your sleeping room. Sit
in a chair beside the table and gaze into the glass of water and think how calm it is. Then
picture yourself getting into just as calm a state.

Practice Talking Before a Glass Make two marks on your mirror on a level with your eyes
and think of them as two human eyes looking into yours. Do not move your head, stand erect.
Do not let another thought come into your mind. Then, still keeping still, think that you look
like a reliable man or woman should; like a person anyone would have confidence inbreathe
deep. 3 minutes a day

The Eastern Way of Concentrating Sit in a chair with a high back in an upright position.
Press one finger against the right nostril. Now take a long, deep breath, drawing the breath in
gently as you count to ten; then expel the breath through the right nostril as you count to ten.
20 times each sitting, each side.

Controlling Desires

When You Read Read a short article/story and write an abridged statement. Read a book for
20 minutes then write down what you have read. In limited time, read only a short sentence
and then try to write it down, word for word.

Watch Concentration Sit in a chair and place a clock with a second hand on the table.
Follow the second hand with your eyes as it goes around. Keep this up for 5 minutes, thinking
of nothing ese.