When you hear self-reliance, what do you think of? Living off the grid in a cabin somewhere? Doing everything yourself, and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps?
Do these images get at what it really means to be self-reliant, or is there a deeper and even more profound meaning to be grasped?
Indeed there is, and my guest today is here to help us unpack it. His name is Kyle Eschenroeder. He’s a regular contributor at AoM and we’ve just published a little pocket guide filled with his meditations on what it truly means to be self-reliant called The Pocket Guide to Self-Reliance. Today on the show, Kyle and I discuss what most people get wrong about self-reliance and how he defines it. We then get into specific tactics you can use to trust yourself more like spending time in solitude, developing an inner scorecard, not seeking advice when you’re first starting a big project, and using intentional introspection. Kyle and I then discuss how to jive self-reliance with belonging to a community and how to know if you’re becoming a self-reliant man. Developing a self-reliant mindset is more difficult than ever in our modern world, and yet vital to living a satisfying life on your own terms; you don’t want to miss this show.
Show Highlights
- What do most people get wrong about the idea of self-reliance?
- Why self-reliance has more to do with your inner self than how you live externally
- That attributes that really capture the spirit of what self-reliance means
- The thinkers who have helped Kyle flesh out this idea
- Why developing this type of self-reliance is incredibly difficult
- What role does solitude play in self-reliance?
- Why digital solitude is especially important
- Why airplane mode is your friend
- Why you should partake in an “input deprivation week”
- What is an “inner scorecard,” and how do you develop it?
- How “the score takes care of itself” as long as you’re doing your part
- Why self-reliant people should ignore probabilities
- The merits of listening to advice versus relying on your own ideas
- What is “intentional introspection”?
- What does it mean to set your own law? How do you do it?
- The importance of embracing tradition
- How do you know if you’re becoming more self-reliant?
Resources/People/Articles Mentioned in Podcast
- The Pocket Guide to Self-Reliance
- My first podcast with Kyle on taking action
- My second podcast with Kyle on why action is the answer
- “Self-Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “Manners” by Emerson
- Thoreau on Media and Information Consumption
- How to REALLY Avoid Living a Life of Quiet Desperation
- Emerson’s Advice on How to Read for Greater Self-Reliance
- Letters from a Stoic by Seneca
- Nicholas Nassim Taleb
- On Caring by Milton Mayeroff
- The Spiritual Disciplines: Solitude
- Lessons on Solitude From an Antarctic Explorer
- Solitude and Leadership
- Declutter Your Digital Life
- Input Deprivation Week
- Everyone Takes the Same Instagram Travel Photos
- The Score Takes Care of Itself by Bill Walsh
- 5 Tools for Thriving in Uncertainty
- The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
- The Pocket Guide to Action
- Jiddu Krishnamurti
- Stop Hacking Your Life
- My podcast with Jordan Peterson about his 12 rules for life
- My podcast with with Matthew Crawford about becoming an individual in an age of distraction
Connect With Kyle
Buy the Pocket Guide to Self-Reliance
Listen to the Podcast! (And don’t forget to leave us a review!)
Listen to the episode on a separate page.
Subscribe to the podcast in the media player of your choice.
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Read the Transcript
Coming soon!
The post Podcast #384: What It Really Means to Be Self-Reliant appeared first on The Art of Manliness.
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