Order of Man - 7 Books Every Man Should Read ｜ FRIDAY FIELD NOTES

00:00:00.000 You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest, embrace your fears, and boldly chart

00:00:05.000 your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time, every time.

00:00:10.440 You are not easily deterred or defeated, rugged, resilient, strong. This is your life. This is who

00:00:17.240 you are. This is who you will become. At the end of the day, and after all is said and done,

00:00:22.800 you can call yourself a man. Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan Michler,

00:00:27.580 and I am the host and the founder of the movement, Order of Man. I want to welcome you here today.

00:00:32.760 I've got an interesting one lined up for you today. I get a lot of questions about the books

00:00:36.340 that I read, and so I thought I'd share with you a few of them. I think I have, let's see here,

00:00:42.100 seven, seven books that I believe every man should read. Of course, this won't be an exhaustive list,

00:00:46.880 but it will give you some things to read maybe during the holidays as you have some downtime.

00:00:52.540 Before I get into that, I just want to tell you a little bit about what this movement is all about.

00:00:56.180 My goal is to help reclaim and restore masculinity. I say this every week, but we are living in times

00:01:03.900 where a lot of people seem to be confused about what it means to be a man. And, you know, there's

00:01:08.700 a lot of guys who are wandering around and they have no purpose, no direction, no clarity, no focus,

00:01:14.320 no discipline in their lives. I used to be that way. And that's part of the reason I started this

00:01:20.600 movement is because I needed to figure some things out in my life. And as I've gone on this path,

00:01:26.180 to explore what it means to be a man, and of course, make myself more capable as one,

00:01:31.220 it's really started to take off. So I'm honored that you're here. I'm glad that you're here tuned

00:01:35.120 in. This is your Friday field notes where you get to hear some thoughts from me, but we have other

00:01:39.240 shows. We have an interview show where I'm interviewing guys like Jocko Willink and Grant Cardone

00:01:45.320 and Andy Frisella and Tim Kennedy, Dakota Meyer, Pete Roberts. The men who have joined us are

00:01:52.400 absolutely incredible. And then we've got our Wednesday show, which is an ask me anything.

00:01:56.140 And we're fielding questions from you guys regarding anything that has to do with us being

00:02:00.920 more capable as men. So that's it. That's all I've got as far as introducing to what you're all about

00:02:05.900 or what we're all about here. Like a lot of you have been here for a long period of time,

00:02:09.700 and we're glad that you are. So what I'd like to do today, as I shared earlier, is I want to talk

00:02:16.680 with you about some books that I've read, and I've got a stack of books here. If you're listening this,

00:02:20.720 you can't see these books, obviously, but if you want to see these books and watch the video of this

00:02:26.700 podcast, then you can do so at youtube.com slash order of man. And that way you can subscribe and

00:02:33.280 watch the video as well. Uh, we've all heard the term that leaders are readers. Uh, we've heard

00:02:39.540 the adage that the man who cannot read, or excuse me, the man who does not read has no advantage over

00:02:45.780 the man who cannot read. Uh, and that's why I believe it's so important that we gain new information. 1.00

00:02:51.720 We access new information. Uh, and a lot of that is going to be done through the process of reading.

00:02:57.020 I spend some time every single morning and also every single evening reading a book, reading some

00:03:02.400 words and some thoughts and works from other men who have gone before and people who know

00:03:07.000 significantly more about certain subjects than I do. And I really feel like this expanded knowledge

00:03:12.740 has helped me become a more capable man. Now, as you can see behind me, I've got up on the shelves,

00:03:17.860 some, some of my books, uh, when I moved here to Maine, I gave away, I want to say it was close to

00:03:24.120 200 books that I gave away. And so I'm in the process right now of rebuilding my library. And what I

00:03:30.100 thought I'd do with you today is share, uh, seven books. These are seven books that, uh, I believe

00:03:35.560 again, that every man should read, uh, that you do well to read and might access or give you some

00:03:42.260 new found knowledge and perspective on subjects of what it means to be a man and how to build

00:03:47.380 fortitude and think correctly and expand your mind and all these other things. So I'll go, I'll get

00:03:53.100 through it. I'll get through them. And, uh, you guys can decide what you want to read. I know as we

00:03:57.080 come upon the holiday season, uh, a lot of you are probably wondering, uh, what books you should

00:04:02.640 read. Maybe there's some gift ideas in here, um, but you might have some downtime and this is a good

00:04:07.280 way to spend that downtime. So these are in no particular order. Uh, I just pulled off seven

00:04:11.780 out of my bookshelf, the seven of my favorite I've got, I don't know, maybe a hundred books back

00:04:16.280 there, maybe, maybe slightly less. Uh, and I pulled out seven of my favorite. This by no means is an

00:04:21.400 exhaustive list. So if you have other thoughts and suggestions and ideas, what I would encourage you to do

00:04:27.060 is to leave your book suggestions in the comments below. If you're on YouTube or connect with me on

00:04:33.640 Instagram or Twitter, both at Ryan Mickler, my last name is spelled M I C H L E R. And you can access

00:04:41.560 the, uh, the books there that I went through and also make your own suggestions and comments.

00:04:47.260 All right, let's get into it. Uh, the first book is as a man thinketh. I don't know if you can see the

00:04:52.380 title with the glare or not, but the book is as a man thinketh. There's a lot of iterations and copies

00:04:57.040 of this book. And if you were to go through my copy of this book, you can see just about every

00:05:02.060 page looks like it's tabbed and highlighted and everything else, which is how I go through books.

00:05:06.880 Maybe I'll talk with you about that here in a minute as well. Uh, this is a great book. Um,

00:05:10.980 I'm not entirely sure when it was written, but it is not a new book. Uh, yeah, I don't think it has

00:05:19.160 the date on here. It's not a new book. Um, but it's a powerful book and in it, James Allen goes through

00:05:25.300 the, the, the reason that we need to have positive attitudes, the reason that we need to think

00:05:32.160 correctly, the reason that we need to put positive and constructive inputs into our mind, because the

00:05:37.240 way that we think about life and our performance and show and the way that we show up, uh, is going

00:05:42.920 to naturally spill over into the way that we perform. So this is one of my most recommended books.

00:05:49.500 I gift this book quite a bit. Uh, and it is, I believe the foundation of growth and success in

00:05:55.060 your life. Yeah. You're going to have to take action. Yeah. You're going to have to move forward

00:05:58.560 and do some things differently in your life. But if you don't begin to think differently about your

00:06:02.520 life first, it's going to be very difficult for you to create anything new in your life. Very short

00:06:08.580 read. You could probably read this, uh, in an evening if you wanted to, I, I, I would recommend

00:06:15.660 maybe going through it a couple of times. I read this a couple of times per year because it is such

00:06:20.320 a quick read and so instrumental in helping me develop the right mindset and thinking correctly

00:06:25.420 about my life and growth and my job and objective as a man. So again, first one as a man thinketh by

00:06:32.600 James Allen, the second book. And again, these aren't in any order, uh, is the war of art, not to be

00:06:40.000 confused with the art of war, but the war of art by Steven Pressfield. And the subtitle is

00:06:45.340 break through the blocks and win your inner creative battles. Now, all of us are creatives,

00:06:51.020 all of us. Yes. There's artists who are probably more creative than a lot of us, but if you're out

00:06:56.520 into the world and you're putting a product, whether it's a project or a podcast like this,

00:07:01.140 or some sort of art or music or a job at work, we are all creators. And in the book, the war of art,

00:07:10.340 Steven Pressfield goes through and explains how challenging it can be to be a creator at times.

00:07:16.840 And the premise of the book is overcoming the resistance. And the resistance is anything that

00:07:23.700 would get in the way of you doing the work that you love you doing the work that you know,

00:07:28.680 you should be doing that you want to be doing. And by giving this force, if you will, uh, a name

00:07:35.360 and recognizing it by the resistance, uh, you adequately prepare yourself and arm yourself

00:07:40.720 to battle that resistance. Uh, procrastination is a way that resistance manifests itself hurdles

00:07:47.120 and obstacles and objections and excuses are all different ways that the resistance manifests itself.

00:07:52.840 And when you start to realize and understand that the existence is, excuse me, the resistance is

00:07:57.240 there. Uh, then you will, uh, be better equipped to deal with it and drive on in the face of such

00:08:05.740 resistance. Great book. Another short one. It seems like I like short books or something here,

00:08:11.240 but, uh, I've got some longer ones here. I'll go through anyways, quick read. Uh, and again,

00:08:15.900 talks about the resistance and how you can go to battle, uh, with being a creative, which again,

00:08:21.740 all of us are. So the war of art by Steven Pressfield, next book, different kind of book.

00:08:27.340 I know I talk a lot about self-help and, uh, this might fall into that category, but it's a little

00:08:34.380 bit differently. The book is called endurance. Sorry. I lost my train of thought there for a second.

00:08:40.200 The book is called endurance by Alfred Lansing. Uh, and in this book, he chronicles and documents

00:08:47.020 the, uh, the exploration of earnest Shackleton, um, across Antarctica and how that trip went

00:08:55.600 horribly, horribly wrong. Uh, and how these men had to endure some of the most physically demanding

00:09:03.900 and rigorous times that anyone could possibly experience this book again, endurance by Alfred

00:09:10.540 Lansing was recommended to me, uh, prior to doing the Spartan gogi. The Spartan gogi is a 60

00:09:16.680 hour endurance event that I did two or three years ago, probably closer to three years ago

00:09:21.780 now. And this was one of the books they suggested that I read prior to embarking upon that. And

00:09:28.840 I'm really glad that I did because as that a gogi got difficult and it did, there was many 1.00

00:09:33.260 times where I felt like maybe I wanted to throw in the towel. Uh, I was able to go back to the

00:09:38.560 story of Ernest Shackleton and his men and that exploration they went on and how horribly wrong

00:09:45.180 it went and what they endured and thought, if those men could endure what they did, then I can

00:09:51.000 certainly endure, uh, 60 hours of, of suffering. So it's as simple as that. Uh, I continue to think

00:09:59.620 about what those men went through. Uh, I continue to think about how tough they were and strong and

00:10:04.940 gritty and resilient and all of the crazy stories that are inside of this book. So if you want something

00:10:11.080 a little bit different that isn't necessarily self-help, although can be, you know, kind of

00:10:16.780 down that path, then I would definitely, definitely recommend endurance, Alfred Lansing, again,

00:10:22.540 Ernest Shackleton's, uh, adventures across Antarctica. Really, really good book. Very powerful. We'll

00:10:29.380 reframe the way you think about, uh, difficulty. All right, next book. This one's a classic. A lot of

00:10:35.200 you guys are definitely aware of it. And I'm sure many of you have read this book, including some of

00:10:39.020 these others. Uh, the book is called meditations by Marcus Aurelius. You probably heard a lot about

00:10:46.240 stoicism. Uh, in fact, inside of our exclusive brotherhood, the iron council, uh, we're covering

00:10:51.220 the topic of stoicism, uh, this, this month. And, uh, you know, there's Ryan holiday's books, uh,

00:10:57.540 obstacle is the enemy, or excuse me, obstacle is the way ego is the enemy and stillness is the key

00:11:02.320 along with the daily stoic. Those are great books. And I highly recommend that you read those,

00:11:06.360 but if you want to go to the source, the source of stoicism and really get down to the root of what

00:11:11.980 it means to be a stoic and what the stoic philosophy is all about and how to incorporate it in your life

00:11:16.480 to produce results, then this is what you need to read. Again, Marcus Aurelius is meditations.

00:11:22.500 I've got all kinds of notes and everything else here. Um, of course I've, I've got a little bookmark

00:11:27.820 in there as I'm going through it currently. Uh, but a very powerful, uh, synopsis of what it means

00:11:33.500 to be a stoic and breaking down the stoic principles and again, how to, uh, apply them

00:11:39.260 in your life. I think there's a lot of misconception about what it means to be a stoic.

00:11:44.540 And, uh, I think in a lot of ways it has maybe even sometimes a negative connotation,

00:11:49.960 which it certainly shouldn't anybody who really embraces and harnesses the philosophy of stoicism

00:11:55.720 is a better man for it. And frankly, is able to produce better results. So yes, read Ryan

00:12:00.640 Holiday's works, read the other stoics. Uh, Epictetus is another great, uh, stoic, but again,

00:12:06.440 if you want to get to the root of it and you want to get down to what this is really about,

00:12:09.920 then read Marcus Aurelius's meditations. Some of the greatest men throughout history have had this

00:12:15.820 included in their personal libraries. And if you want to be a great man, then you should too,

00:12:21.080 and you should read it, not just have it in your library. All right, next one. This one's a little,

00:12:25.080 a little deep. I'm going to be honest. It's a little bit deep. Uh, there's a, uh, a lot to it,

00:12:30.640 um, and it's not a real easy read, but I think it's a valuable one. It's called manhood in the

00:12:38.060 making and it's by David Gilmore. And in the book, he documents his research and his studies,

00:12:46.140 uh, throughout cultures, throughout history and, and all of time. It's really fascinating because

00:12:52.620 what he's trying to understand is how different cultures have understood masculinity and what they

00:12:58.740 believe it to be. And what's fascinating to me about this book, again, manhood in the making by

00:13:03.440 David Gilmore is that there are striking similarities between most, if not all cultures and the way they

00:13:10.460 view masculinity. Again, we hear a lot about society believing that, uh, masculinity is a social

00:13:16.820 construct. Uh, this debunks that yes, it is societally reinforced masculinity, but when you have

00:13:24.460 cultures that aren't introduced to each other, that aren't familiar with each other, and again,

00:13:28.760 most of them throughout all of history believe very similarly about what it means to be a man,

00:13:35.420 then it kind of debunks the thought that masculinity is simply a social construct and really supports

00:13:43.620 the idea that it's biological, that it's innate and hardwired into us. Uh, he also goes through what

00:13:49.140 he dubbed the three P's of masculinity, which is inspiration for my three P's of masculinity, which

00:13:54.780 are slightly different, but he talks about the three P's being protect, provide, which we address

00:14:00.280 as well. And the third as procreate. So most of societies have believed that a man's job is to

00:14:06.620 protect, provide, and procreate. Now I don't include procreate because I know plenty of males who I

00:14:12.220 would, I would say that they are men who for whatever reason don't or can't, uh, procreate. And I

00:14:18.700 don't think that disqualifies them from being a man, but, uh, I substituted that with preside,

00:14:23.980 which is leadership. So great book, very detailed, very in depth, um, well-researched and,

00:14:31.440 uh, fascinating, although maybe a little bit more difficult to get through. So you're going to have

00:14:36.840 to determine if that's a book that you want to read. I think this is also a one that's a little

00:14:40.440 harder to find again, manhood in the making by David Gilmore, cultural concepts of masculinity.

00:14:46.480 All right, this next book. So we're on book number six. This next book has quite literally

00:14:51.860 changed my life. Uh, and, and the book I'll just share with you here is John Eldridge wild

00:14:58.740 at heart. Now I'm sure that all of you have read this. And if you have not read this and

00:15:04.000 you're a man and you're listening to this, you're wrong. You need to read this book. This

00:15:08.860 opened my eyes to what it means to be a man, how we operate as men. Um, why it's so

00:15:16.100 important that we step into masculinity. Um, some of the issues that we may have had as young boys

00:15:22.100 growing up without fathers and our view of femininity and masculinity. It's so good. Now

00:15:27.560 it does have a Christian undertone and whether you're a Christian or not, it doesn't really

00:15:31.700 matter. There's still so much valuable information in this book. And again, it will transform

00:15:37.600 the way that you think about yourself, the way that you show up, the way that you view

00:15:42.600 masculinity. And I cannot recommend this book highly enough. If there was a top five list

00:15:48.900 of books that every single man should read, like the top five, this would be in the top

00:15:54.640 three. Again, it's wild at heart, discovering the secret of a man's soul. Another book that

00:16:00.820 I didn't talk about, um, because maybe it's not up there. Maybe it's on my nightstand is man's

00:16:06.060 search for meaning by Viktor Frankl. Uh, he is, uh, a survivor of the Holocaust. I believe

00:16:11.440 he was in Auschwitz and, uh, he goes through finding meaning and finding purpose, uh, in

00:16:18.180 the most tragic and horrific times. So that would also be on that top five list. I think

00:16:23.940 man's search for meaning by Viktor Frankl. So there's a bonus book for you. All right. I have

00:16:29.600 saved this one for last. Of course, I'm a bit biased because I wrote the book, but the book

00:16:35.700 is called sovereignty, the battle for the hearts and minds of men. I wrote this book last year

00:16:41.340 and I'm really proud of what this is. Uh, in it, I talk about that there is a battle for

00:16:47.920 your heart and there is a battle for your mind and how we, as men need to reclaim our sovereignty

00:16:53.960 and stop giving it away to businesses and our spouses and, and jobs and the government. And we

00:17:01.780 need to reclaim, uh, and restore in ourselves what it means to be a man. Um, I break down 13 virtues

00:17:09.500 that we would all do well to adhere to. Um, I also in the back of the book, and this is the thing

00:17:14.760 that I like most about this book is that I give you a battle plan guide, which is an actionable

00:17:20.840 strategy for setting up the next 90 days of your life. So as this year draws to a close and we

00:17:28.080 consider moving into the new year with new goals and ambitions and desires, creating your own personal

00:17:34.080 battle plan for reclaiming your sovereignty, uh, is going to be a very, very powerful strategy. I would

00:17:40.620 say that these two books compliment each other very, very well. Again, wild at heart by John Eldridge,

00:17:48.020 who we've had on the podcast and also sovereignty, the battle for the hearts and minds of men by yours

00:17:53.460 truly. Again, I know I get it. I'm going to get comments. Look, I'm a bit biased, but I wouldn't

00:17:59.740 have written it. And I wouldn't have put it out into the world if I didn't think that it was going

00:18:02.860 to help and serve, uh, the men that we've been working to serve for the past five years. So there

00:18:08.320 you go. Seven books. Now, what I would say about reading is don't just blast through these books.

00:18:13.940 It's going to be very, very tempting to just burn through them as quickly as possible and check

00:18:17.760 them off the list and tell me or anybody else that you read them and feel proud that they're done.

00:18:21.980 And maybe you should feel a little proud that you read those books, but what I've changed in my

00:18:26.020 reading strategy, uh, over the past six, seven months is not to read for speed, but read for

00:18:31.780 comprehension. Reading all of this information is fine and wonderful, but unless you're able to apply

00:18:37.260 this in your life and really improve your own situation, it's not going to do a whole lot of good.

00:18:42.260 So as you're reading, let me give you a couple of tips that have helped me. Uh, I do suggest that

00:18:49.480 you learn to speed read. There's a lot of strategies and techniques that's outside of the scope of this

00:18:54.380 conversation today. Uh, you can Google that. In fact, we have a speed reading guide on our website

00:19:01.060 at order of man.com that you can check out, but speed read that might help you get through these

00:19:06.120 quicker, but again, it's for comprehension. So as you go through it, don't feel like you have to rush

00:19:11.340 through it. I like to ponder. I like to think about and reflect. So although I might read quickly,

00:19:16.580 I'm going to go back and recap and review each chapter and sub chapter as I go through it.

00:19:21.620 The other thing that I do in my books, and I don't think this is tab, but this one might, yes,

00:19:27.420 you can't really see it in the video itself. I don't know. Maybe you can, but I actually just

00:19:32.900 earmark the pages that are relevant and valuable to me. Uh, and then as I go through and I tab those pages,

00:19:40.200 uh, there's certain, I don't know if you can see that in the video. Yeah, you can. It's tabbed.

00:19:45.520 And then there's a little green highlight on the segment that stood out to me on that page.

00:19:49.580 And in this book, wild at heart, uh, the thing that I opened up here is as tabbed is says,

00:19:54.900 where does masculinity come from? And then I highlighted the phrase masculinity is bestowed,

00:19:59.680 meaning that not only is it earned it's given. So this is the way that I go through and I document,

00:20:07.080 I used to not tab or highlight my books or anything like that. And there's of course

00:20:11.780 conflicting ideas. This is my book. This is my work. Uh, not my, my book necessarily, but my,

00:20:19.900 my copy of it, I should say. So I'm going to, I'm going to use it in a, as a tool to improve my life.

00:20:26.700 And if I can tab these and highlight and put little notes in the margin, then what I do when I'm

00:20:31.080 completely done with the book is I actually just go back through the entire book, but I only read

00:20:36.940 the segments that I tabbed and highlighted. That's how I do it. That's how I've been able

00:20:41.840 to read for comprehension. And then of course, apply it into the battle plan, which can be found

00:20:46.620 again. And the last book I suggested sovereignty, the battle for the hearts and minds of men.

00:20:51.580 So there's some pointers for you. There's some books to keep you occupied, to get you some new

00:20:56.180 information. Let me recap. And then we'll, uh, we'll call it a day and go get those on Amazon. And

00:21:01.340 you have some reading to do over the next 30 to 60 days before the new year. So first one,

00:21:07.420 sovereignty, the battle for the hearts and minds of men by yours truly second wild at heart by John

00:21:12.920 Eldridge third manhood in the making by David Gilmore fourth. There we go. Marcus Aurelius

00:21:20.340 meditations fifth endurance by Alfred Lansing about Ernest Shackleton's trip across Antarctica.

00:21:27.020 Uh, sixth Steven Pressfield's the war of art. And then seventh as a man thinketh by James Allen.

00:21:35.300 And then I think I gave you a bonus one. Yes. The bonus one was man's search for meaning by Victor

00:21:40.640 Frankel. So you have eight books that you can check out. All right, guys, I hope that helps again,

00:21:46.340 that quote, see if I can say it without butchering it this time. The man who does not read has no

00:21:52.360 advantage over the man who cannot read, read good books, consume good information, ponder this stuff,

00:21:59.900 think on it, apply it in your life, and you will be a better man for it. If you have any suggestions

00:22:04.500 or other book recommendations, if you're on YouTube, drop those in the comments below. If you're not on

00:22:09.480 YouTube, get on YouTube, youtube.com slash order of man. And then also connect with me on social media

00:22:14.760 and let me know what you're reading. You can connect at Ryan Mickler. My last name is spelled

00:22:19.760 M I C H L E R on both Twitter and Instagram. All right, guys, that's all I've got. We'll be back

00:22:26.060 next week for another exciting interview and ask me anything. And of course your Friday field notes.

00:22:30.900 So as I always do, I want to thank you for being on this path and on this journey with me. Couldn't do

00:22:36.640 it without you. And I'm honored and inspired by you every single day. All right, guys, go out there,

00:22:41.280 take action, become the man you are meant to be. Thank you for listening to the order of man

00:22:46.020 podcast. You're ready to take charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be.

00:22:51.140 We invite you to join the order at order of man.com.

Order of Man - November 22, 2019

7 Books Every Man Should Read ｜ FRIDAY FIELD NOTES

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