![\"Winston](\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Churchill_Header.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
When Neville Chamberlain brought Churchill into his cabinet in 1939 to serve as First Lord of the Admiralty (meaning he ran the British navy), Winston hit the ground running. He took charge of every element of the war at sea, and began strategizing about how to improve things at all levels. The heart of his control center was his black dispatch box; Manchester describes<\/a> its contents:<\/p>\n \u201cInside were numbered folders containing papers approximately 16\u2033 x 13.\u2033 The first one, the \u2018top of the box,\u2019 as it was called, dealt with matters considered \u2018really urgent\u2019\u2026Below the top were folders containing military and foreign office telegrams, reports from the Chiefs of Staff\u2026answers to questions he had raised concerning every aspect of British life\u2014food supplies, crop yields, railroad capacity, coal production. Nothing escaped his attention<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Each morning Churchill would go through his dispatch box and issue a seemingly never-ending stream of memos to his fellow ministers and military commanders. If he signed a dispatch in red ink, it meant he wanted action taken on it; an attached slip labeled \u201cAction This Day\u201d constituted \u201cthe prime ministerial equivalent of a five-alarm fire.\u201d<\/p>\n Churchill\u2019s colleagues sometimes found the sheer number of memos he disbursed onerous; they did not, Manchester writes, \u201cappreciate Churchill\u2019s grasp of all the issues, not only those issues apparent to everybody but also those apparent only to himself.\u201d Churchill\u2019s single-minded goal was defeat of the Nazis, and he made sure he was on top of every detail of how the effort towards victory was progressing.<\/p>\n Yet even though Churchill could be hard-nosed, grounded, and highly detail-oriented, he was also, Manchester says, \u201can unrepentant romantic.\u201d And it was this quality, more than any other, that allowed him to win the war. And, we would add, to have an awesome adulthood.<\/p>\n “Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog” by Caspar David Friedrich. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and even if you don’t know much about Romanticism, all you need to understand about it can be found in contemplating this painting.<\/p><\/div>\n While we commonly use \u201cromantic\u201d these days to describe the ardor of relationships, today we\u2019re talking about Romanticism with a big R: a life philosophy that prizes the rejection of pure rationalism in favor of intuition, imagination, and emotion; the embrace of nonconformity and sincerity; a tendency towards nostalgia; and the celebration of curiosity, spontaneity, and wonder. Churchill had all these qualities in spades, and they fed the inexhaustible wellspring that refreshed his buoyancy and enthusiasm until the end of his days.<\/p>\n Even as he matured into one of the 20th<\/sup> century\u2019s greatest statesman, Churchill never lost his earnestness and boyish wonder about the world. His friend Violet Bonham Carter attributed this quality to his lack of formal education (he attended a military academy instead of a liberal arts college). Churchill, she observed, lacked the jaded cynicism that one often picks up at a university along with a sheepskin, and was invigorated by simple truths that others found clich\u00e9. \u201cTo Winston Churchill,\u201d Carter wrote, \u201ceverything under the sun was new\u2014seen and appraised as on the first day of Creation. His approach to life was full of ardor and surprise. Even the eternal verities appeared to him to be an exciting personal discovery.\u201d<\/p>\n Wonder is innervated by a sense of curiosity, and Churchill kept his continually nourished with a steady diet of contemplation, travel, adventure, and the lifelong study of history (more on those latter three pursuits in future installments). Whether in a book or a foreign land, he was always experiencing the delight of discovery.<\/p>\n Romantic artists sought to create original works that sprang from their unfettered imagination. While Churchill was an avid painter in his spare time, the greatest canvas for his imagination was truly life itself. He refused to see the world as dull and constrained, but rather viewed it as a magnificent, wide-open landscape of possibilities, where the forces of good and the forces of evil did battle. Any man, who had the courage and will, could make himself a hero and join the fight.<\/p>\n Through the power of words, Churchill brought to life his romantic, heroic vision of the world — both for himself and for his countrymen. Many of the original products of man\u2019s imagination are initially greeted with scorn, and Churchill\u2019s rhetorical style was no different. Before the war, his critics felt him to be overly naive and found his oratory hyperbolic and overwrought. Even Churchill\u2019s \u201cblood, toil, tears, and sweat\u201d speech<\/a> \u2013 now remembered so reverently \u2013 was dismissed by many at the time as just another dose of his exaggerated schmaltz.<\/p>\n But as the crisis deepened, it was Winston\u2019s singular vision that fueled his indomitable fire and fight. The war was merely a vivid, large-scale manifestation of the epic way he had always seen the world, and with the forces of evil advancing, defeat was simply not an option.<\/p>\n So too, Churchill was able to paint such a rich, romantic picture of the war in his speeches, that his countrymen could actually step into it and partake in his confidence and hope. When Churchill spoke of the war, Manchester writes, \u201cit wasn\u2019t squalid or demeaning; it wasn\u2019t, in fact, like modern war at all. Destroying the Nazis and their f\u00fchrer became a noble mission, and by investing it with the aura of heroes like Nelson, men Englishmen had honored since childhood, he made the Union Jack ripple and St. George\u2019s sword gleam.\u201d Isaiah Berlin described the way Churchill was able to invite others into his world and get them to embrace his vision:<\/p>\n \u201cThe Prime Minister was able to impose his imagination\u2026upon his countrymen\u2026precisely because he appeared to them larger than life and lifted them to an abnormal height in a moment of crisis\u2026it [turned] a large number of inhabitants of the British Isles out of their normal selves and, by dramatizing their lives and making them seem to themselves and to each other clad in the fabulous garments appropriate to a great historic moment, transformed cowards into brave men, and so fulfilled the purpose of shining armor.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Churchill imagined himself a hero\u2019s journey<\/a> so luminous and compelling, that others willingly sought a place in the story.<\/p>\n Some of the works Churchill most enjoyed reading came from the romantic transcendentalists<\/a>, such as Emerson and Thoreau. And he took up the latter\u2019s charge that \u201cWhoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.\u201d In his own distinctly Churchillian way, of course.<\/p>\n Churchill loved history, and he loved tradition. His \u201cveneration and enjoyment of ceremony, color, gaiety, pageantry, and formality,\u201d Manchester writes, began \u201cin youth and early manhood, especially in the company of the officers of the 4th Hussars.\u201d As a cavalryman, his military days had been full of long, decorous banquet dinners in which he donned his ornate blue and gold uniform and practiced his best table manners. He continued the tradition of having such formal meals after he left the military; both lunch and dinner at Chartwell were drawn out affairs, and though they were hosted in the comfort of his own home, he dressed up for them to the nines. Such rituals, Churchill felt, were essential for a rich, satisfying life.<\/p>\n But, Churchill also broke from the status quo wherever he saw fit. As Pug Ismay, his chief military assistant, put it, Winston \u201cvenerated tradition, but ridiculed convention.\u201d From his love of being in the nude to his unique daily routine<\/a>, when Churchill thought there was a better way of doing things, he followed that impulse. This extended to his personal style; though Churchill, if anything, overdressed for formal affairs \u2013 he never attended Parliament in anything other than an old-fashioned frock coat and top hat \u2013 he donned far less conventional garb in situations where upholding decorum wasn\u2019t as important. At home, when he wasn\u2019t naked, he padded around in a green and gold silk dressing gown, emblazoned with dragons. During air raids he slipped into what became an emblematic get-up: his siren suit. Churchill designed these mauve, one-piece, zippered rompers himself, and had them custom-made by the tailors on Savile Row. He delighted in his siren suit\u2019s utility \u2013 as soon as the air raid alarms sounded, he could hop right into it and prepare for the imminent shelling.<\/p>\n He had other amusing quirks: he talked to his cats, waltzed around to records late at night, supporting an imaginary partner and composing his speeches as he whirled around the room, and played around so much during his daily baths \u2013 even doing somersaults — that he had a special drain built to catch the overflow.<\/p>\n Churchill perhaps bucked societal norms most, however, simply in how genuine he was. The man that people heard on the radio, who they saw in Parliament, was exactly the same man at home. He truly was without guile. He never put on a front, took positions he did not believe in, or evinced to be other than what he was. He refused to even sign his letters \u201cSincerely\u201d unless he was really, truly sincere about the missive\u2019s message.<\/p>\n \u201c<\/strong>His mind had many tracks, and if one was blocked, he left it and turned to another, the very existence of which was unknown until he chose to reveal it.\u201d \u2013William Manchester<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In his leadership, Churchill was fundamentally guided by intuition. As we discussed in regards to Churchill\u2019s moral code<\/a>, he had decided in his youth not \u201cto discard the reasons of the heart for those of the head.\u201d As a consequence, he was often accused of being irrational. Rather than be insulted, he cheerfully admitted to the charge, countering that so was the essence of life itself:<\/p>\n \u201cThe human story does not always unfold like an arithmetical calculation on the principle that two and two make four. Sometimes in life they make five, or minus three, and sometimes the blackboard topples down in the middle of the sum and leaves the class in disorder and the pedagogue with a black eye. The element of the unexpected and the unforeseeable is what gives some of its relish to life, and saves us from falling into the mechanic thraldom of the logicians.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n One of Churchill\u2019s first experiences with the power of intuition occurred during his escape from a POW camp during the Boer War. He had no idea which way to head to reach freedom and felt completely confused and anxious. Just then, an insight hit him: \u201cSuddenly without the slightest reason all my doubts disappeared. It was certainly by no process of logic that they were dispelled. I just felt quite clear\u2026[where] I would go.\u201d Churchill ended up at the one home for hundreds of miles in which the inhabitants were friendly to the British.<\/p>\n Churchill continued to rely on his intuition as he got older. It not only guided his decisions, but also gave him insights and premonitions about the future. He possessed, Manchester posits, \u201cthe painter\u2019s gift for seeing myriad vistas, far and near.\u201d He was one of the first public figures to recognize the danger Hitler posed, and he also conceived of a vision of how the country would have to be united to defeat him. And this was far from his only accurate prediction; Churchill foretold the policy of MAD (mutually assured destruction), the potential and dangers of atomic energy, bioengineering of crops and animals, the invention of the television, and more.<\/p>\n While Churchill was sometimes lampooned for his ideas when he first articulated them, his prescience was frequently borne out in time. As Harold Macmillan, one of Churchill\u2019s wartime ministers observed, \u201cIt is strange how, abroad as well as at home, what Churchill puts forward one year as a daring paradox, becomes an accepted truism a year later.\u201d<\/p>\n Churchill not only unapologetically embraced the power of intuition, he cheerfully admitted to being sentimental and emotional as well. He was capable of experiencing both intense joy and deep gloom, and he once battled outright depression. This has spurred a myth that he was plagued with what he called the \u201cblack dog\u201d his whole life through, but it seems he rather was periodically hit with bouts of melancholy that fall short of clinical depression. Such despair would often arrive on the heels of some terrible news from the war, but Churchill would invariably shake off his despondency and return to a state of confident bullishness.<\/p>\n One thing is for sure: he felt things deeply. \u201cI\u2019m a blubberer,\u201d he gladly confessed to friends, and Manchester says that \u201cno man wept more easily.\u201d Reminiscing with old comrades could make him misty-eyed and he would freely mourn the deaths of his beloved pets. Even composing emotional segments of his speeches could prompt a torrent of tears \u2013 both from him and his secretaries. As one of them recalled, \u201cI would be weeping and he would be weeping, and all the while he was dictating in his marvelous voice and I\u2019d be tap-tapping away, the both of us weeping.\u201d<\/p>\n Churchill\u2019s agnosticism did not diminish his sense of the sacred and the sentimental emotions he experienced during religious ceremonies; he wept at his grandson\u2019s baptism, and while singing \u201cO God, Our Help in Ages Past\u201d with a crew of British sailors. His doubts about the existence of a spiritual realm likewise didn\u2019t negate his ability to experience multiple planes of existence, as is exemplified by his description of what it felt like to be present in the House of Commons on the day Britain declared war on Germany:<\/p>\n \u201cas I sat in my place, listening to the speeches, a very strong sense of calm came over me, after the intense passions and excitements of the last few days. I felt a serenity of mind and was conscious of a kind of uplifted detachment from human and personal affairs. The glory of Old England, peace-loving and ill-prepared as she was, but instant and fearless at the call of honour, thrilled my being and seemed to lift our fate to those spheres far removed from earthly facts and physical sensation.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Churchill enjoyed music, literature, and poetry that stirred his emotions and offered him access to these deeper layers of life. Not only did he love and memorize virile poems like \u201cHoratius<\/a>\u201d and \u201cInvictus<\/a>,\u201d but he knew reams of romantic poetry by heart as well, and was especially fond of Lord Byron\u2019s verse.<\/p>\n To ponder his emotions and receive intuitive insights, Churchill was fond of spending time silently reflecting. Part of his daily routine was to settle into a wicker chair by a pond on his property after lunch, and he especially loved sitting by the fire in his bedroom. All the stoves in his home were heated with coal, except for this fireplace, in which he insisted on using wood. He\u2019d sit in front of the crackling flames for long periods, poking the logs, and contemplating the world and his role in it.<\/p>\n When you\u2019re a child, the world is filled with promise and possibility, and your sense of wonder is easily kindled. You feel sure that treasure and dinosaur bones are buried in your backyard, you dream of being an astronaut, and when it comes to the excitement of Christmas Eve\u2026fugetaboutit. Life seems like it will proceed as an unending stretch of fun and good fortune.<\/p>\n As the years go by and you mature, you find that the world doesn\u2019t always operate as you had hoped. Santa isn\u2019t real. Your first love dumps you. You don\u2019t get into the college you were aiming for. You don\u2019t land your dream job. You dad dies before you\u2019re thirty. Your wife has a miscarriage<\/a>, and it hurts more than you dared believe.<\/p>\n You learn to be realistic, to manage your expectations. You put up walls. You trust less. You cloak yourself in cynicism to mitigate the sting of future disappointments.<\/p>\n Nothing really excites you the way it did as a boy. \u201cMeh\u201d becomes your watchword; \u201cIt is what it is\u201d becomes your battle cry.<\/p>\n But what if \u201cwhat it is\u201d could be different? What if you had the power to reclaim wonder and optimism, simply by reframing your life with a more romantic point of view?<\/p>\n I know what you may be thinking: \u201cSure, it was easy for someone like Churchill to embrace a romantic view of life — the epic things he experienced were<\/em> romantic. But I\u2019m not battling the Big One, I\u2019m just living a really ordinary existence.\u201d<\/p>\n Churchill certainly had some incomparable adventures, both those he sought intentionally, and those that fate thrust upon him. Yet it is well to remember that Churchill did not become prime minister until he was 65; his romanticism was not birthed during WWII but was something he had cultivated from his youth. And while he had plenty of other adventures in those six decades before the war, again, those adventures didn\u2019t inspire his romanticism; rather, it was the other way around: his romantic mindset inspired him to seek adventure. So too, his whole life didn\u2019t consist of endlessly exciting episodes; in many years his life was much like that of other citizens. And it was his romanticism that made such \u201clulls\u201d more interesting and satisfying than they otherwise would have been. Finally, as we\u2019ve discussed, Churchill\u2019s enduring, lifelong romanticism was in fact what prepared him to be an effective leader once he had finally been thrown onto a monumentally heroic stage.<\/p>\n Whether or not our lives ever intersect with some epic task, living more romantically will make even the most run-of-the-mill day-to-day existence far richer and more luminous than it would have been otherwise. You can choose to see the possibilities of life as one-dimensional: people are just smarter apes; a rainy day is just a weather pattern; that stirring in my gut is just indigestion from eating a ham sandwich. Or, you can choose to pick up on other energies in the world and see different layers in life: people are potential heroes; a rainy day is a chance to reflect and experience the paradoxically exquisite tremor of melancholy; the stirring in my gut is guiding me towards a certain path.<\/p>\n Author David Foster Wallace argued in a 2005 commencement address to Kenyon College<\/a> that this ability to \u201cconstruct meaning from experience\u201d was perhaps the most important skill for newly-minted adults to learn. If you master it, he promised, it will even be \u201cwithin your power to experience a crowded, hot, slow, consumer-hell type situation as not only meaningful, but sacred, on fire with the same force that made the stars: love, fellowship, the mystical oneness of all things deep down.\u201d<\/p>\n Manchester argues that it was a \u201ccollision of logic, intuition, and imagination that made Churchill who he was.\u201d It\u2019s also this very combination of traits that makes for an interesting and fulfilling adulthood. Yet achieving a balance of these energies isn\u2019t easy, as it involves wedding together a bunch of different approaches to life:<\/p>\n Churchill himself spoke on these seeming contradictions and complexities:<\/p>\n Being able to assess reality with completely clear eyes, while simultaneously exercising the capacity to see it romantically, is a rare, but attainable gift. In incorporating these divergent energies into one\u2019s life, the effect is something like a particle collider \u2013 the contact between your different beliefs\/ideas\/interests creates access to new knowledge and planes of existence that wouldn\u2019t have been possible otherwise.<\/p>\n But most adults don\u2019t want to make the effort to harness that level of energy; fitting one\u2019s identity into a far simpler narrative is much easier. Thus, some adults carry the imaginative powers of their childhood into their latter years, but fail to couple such impulses with a sober grasp of responsibility, and end up as perennial flakes. Most adults go the other way \u2013 they neglect their creative and intuitive impulses altogether, and adopt a cynical, starkly realistic view of life. \u201cThe world is what it is; what you see is what you get.\u201d And what they get is a flat, one-dimensional existence.<\/p>\n There is unfortunately no roadmap for how to achieve a unique middle path between these all-too-common surrenders to a mediocre adulthood. When it comes to living romantically, one shouldn\u2019t follow a road map either \u2013 it\u2019s something you should discover though contemplation and intuition! With that said, here are a few general suggestions on incorporating more of the spirit of romance into your life:<\/p>\n As we\u2019ll discuss in future installments, Churchill\u2019s romantic passions were most invigorated by studying history and participating in war. But like many romantics, he was also inspired by nature. Personally, I find that nothing stirs the soul quite like being in the great outdoors. Nowhere else do I find a greater renewal of my childlike wonder, sense of awe, and belief in the mystery and depth of life. The effect is best described by Emerson:<\/p>\n \u201cCrossing a bare common, in snow puddles, at twilight, under a clouded sky, without having in my thoughts any occurrence of special good fortune, I have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration. I am glad to the brink of fear. In the woods too, a man casts off his years, as the snake his slough, and at what period soever of life, is always a child. In the woods, is perpetual youth.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Whatever your own muse, every adult needs something that periodically awakens them from the slumber of apathy and cynicism<\/a> and reinvigorates their spirit.<\/p>\n The power and potential of rituals are myriad: they lend a narrative structure to your hero\u2019s journey, foster a sense of wonder and awe, act as a conduit for intuitive insights, facilitate personal transformations, and put you in touch with the rich possibilities, deeper layers, and sacred realms within our ordinary, profane existence.<\/p>\n While traditional rituals may seem antithetical to the creative spontaneity prized by romantics, they paradoxically can be the most inspiring and transportive. For example, few things renew my sense of wonder and mystery like attending Christmas Eve Mass. Even simple rituals like table etiquette<\/a> lend an extra texture to our day-to-day existence. Upholding such traditions not only lends richness to your own life, but creates a shared world with others \u2013 a time out of time that feels extra-ordinary.<\/p>\n But there are times to be a nonconformist, too. Creating your own rituals, such as establishing a unique daily routine, or simply making coffee with a French press each morning<\/a>, can place us in a calm, focused mindset that opens our spirit to receiving the currents of intuition and getting in touch with the energies and rhythms of life.<\/p>\n When the prefrontal cortex \u2013 the disciplined, rational, executive part of the brain \u2013 finishes \u201csettling\u201d in your mid-twenties<\/a>, you begin to experience emotions less intensely. The upside of this is that you\u2019ll feel steadier and experience far less of the jagged emotional highs and lows common to youth. But the downside is a decrease in passion, and more flatness to your feelings. This is why grownups often seem dull and lacking in passion and depth.<\/p>\n To maintain a little more emotional richness in adulthood, without sacrificing the solid footing of maturity that\u2019s essential for making progress, it\u2019s important for adults to intentionally partake in experiences that pique their deeper feelings. So take a tip from the Victorians, who, while they valued keeping a stiff upper lip during life\u2019s unpredictable storms, purposefully engaged their emotions at times of their own choosing. For Churchill, this meant listening to music from his youth and the 19th<\/sup> century in general (a period of history he was nostalgic for), reading romantic poetry, and allowing himself to be sentimental about special events and rituals. For example, Christmas was Churchill\u2019s favorite time of year, and he would absolutely deck out the halls of his house with decorations that evoked the season, and all its nostalgic, heartwarming sentiments.<\/p>\n All of Churchill\u2019s methods are effective, especially listening to music. Turning on a song from the days of your passionate youth can bring back the deep feelings that used to rule your heart, and listening to music you enjoyed during any significant period of your life stirs those old memories and their accompanying emotions. Every once in a while I\u2019ll put an album that got a lot of play during an important time of my life into a metaphorical vault; I won\u2019t listen to it for years, and then will later dust it off occasionally to purposefully transport myself back into the emotional landscape of the past. Churchill had a similar idea:<\/p>\n \u201cI have got tunes in my head for every war I have been to, and indeed for every critical or exciting phase in my life. Some day when my ship comes home, I am going to have them all collected in gramophone records, and then I will sit in a chair and smoke my cigar, while pictures and faces, moods and sensations long-vanished return; and pale but true there gleams the light of other days.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n A central part of imbuing your life with greater romanticism is being able to, as Wallace put it, \u201cconstruct meaning from experience.\u201d You have to be able to shift the narrative on any experience, no matter how difficult or mundane. Wallace gives the example of considering the guy who cut you off in traffic; rather than just being an a-hole, he may be in a hurry because he\u2019s taking his son to the hospital. This kind of re-framing isn\u2019t about being na\u00efve \u2013 but conceiving of other possibilities for a given situation.<\/p>\n Are you slaving away at a job you don\u2019t like<\/a>, or venturing out each day to protect your family from hunger and want? Are people just callous, or is every man fighting a hard battle hidden from view? Is marriage a hard slog, or an exciting journey? Is a layoff the end of your dreams, or the beginning of a new adventure? Is whatever challenge you\u2019re experiencing a miserable turn of events, or a chance to become a better man?<\/p>\n If you embrace the chance to author your own life, the meaning of such things is never set in stone. Squalid or romantic \u2013 it\u2019s your story, and you decide.<\/p>\n The greatest enemy of romanticism is the busyness inherent to adult life. Emotions, intuitive insights, a sense of wonder \u2013 such currents can only be accessed from a place of stillness. When our lives consist of rushing from one to-do to the next, we are forced to exist on only the most superficial layer of life.<\/p>\n Romanticism is like a faint radio signal we must home in on within a world of static: we can only hear it when we break away to a quiet place, empty our mind of other noise, and focus on finding it. Times of prayer, meditation<\/a>, and overall reflection are therefore essential to keep us in tune. Laying under the Christmas tree to look up at the lights doesn\u2019t hurt either.<\/p>\n William Wordsworth, the quintessential romantic poet, wrote a few lines of verse that sum all of this up splendidly:<\/p>\n \u201cMy heart leaps up when I behold Or as Churchill put it, \u201cIt is quite astonishing to reach the end of life and feel just as you did fifty years before.\u201d<\/p>\n When was the last time your heart leapt up to embrace the wonder and awe and mysteries of life?<\/p>\n The Winston Churchill School of Adulthood will adjourn for winter break, and reconvene in January. See you then!<\/em><\/p>\n The Winston Churchill School of Adulthood Is Now in Session<\/a> _________________________________________<\/p>\nWinston Churchill\u2019s Romanticism<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"Wanderer](\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/\/2014\/12\/fog.jpg\")
A Sense of Wonder<\/h3>\n
![\"Winston](\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/\/2014\/12\/Churchill-51.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAn Imaginative, Epic View of Life<\/h3>\n
![\"Winston](\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/\/2014\/12\/speak.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAn Embrace of Nonconformity<\/h3>\n
![\"Young](\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/\/2014\/12\/hussars.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Winston](\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/\/2014\/12\/siren.jpg\")
<\/p>\nIntuition
\n<\/strong><\/h3>\n![\"Winston](\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/\/2014\/12\/churchill-binoculars.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSentiment and Emotion<\/h3>\n
![\"Winston](\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/\/2014\/12\/Churchill-21.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSolitude and Contemplation<\/h3>\n
Takeaways from Lesson #3<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"Winston](\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/\/2014\/12\/Churchill-31.jpg\")
<\/p>\nBut I\u2019m Just an Ordinary Guy!<\/h3>\n
How to Live More Romantically<\/span><\/h3>\n
\n
\n
Find Your Muse<\/h3>\n
![\"Winston](\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/\/2014\/12\/Churchill-11.jpg\")
<\/p>\nParticipate in Rituals, Both Traditional and of Your Own Making<\/h3>\n
Intentionally Stir Your Emotions<\/h3>\n
Reframe Your Reality<\/h3>\n
![\"Winston](\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/\/2014\/12\/Churchill-41.jpg\")
<\/p>\nMake Time for Reflection<\/h3>\n
\nA rainbow in the sky:
\nSo was it when my life began;
\nSo is it now I am a man;
\nSo be it when I shall grow old,
\nOr let me die!
\nThe Child is father of the Man;
\nAnd I could wish my days to be
\nBound each to each by natural piety.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\nRead the Entire Series<\/h3>\n
\nA Prerequisite Class on Becoming the Author of Your Own Life<\/a>
\nLesson #1: Develop a Mighty Moral Code<\/a>
\nLesson #2: Establish a Daily Routine<\/a>
\nLesson #4: Cultivate a Nostalgic Love for History<\/a>
\nLesson #5: Don’t Give Up Your Sense of Adventure<\/a>
\nLesson #6: Don’t Be Afraid to Start a Family<\/a>
\nLesson #7: Work Like a Slave; Command Like a King; Create Like a God<\/a>
\nTips on Hustling, Leadership, and Hobbies from Winston Churchill<\/a>
\nConclusion: Thought + Action = An Awesome Adulthood<\/a><\/p>\n