Today’s menu
🍽️ In this week’s issue:
Mindset action: The 5 Harsh Realities Men Over 50 Refuse to Accept and How to Banish Them
Health action: Heart Attacks, Dick Pills and Testosterone Patches are the Tip of the Iceberg for Men’s Health - What’s Underneath?
Real Life Inspiration: How Denzel, Hugh, and Mick have Mastered Manopause and How You Can Too 🫵🏻
5-Days to Radical Change: Are you signed up yet?
Mindset Action
🙉 The 5 Harsh Realities Men Over 50 Refuse to Accept
When I was in my early 40s, a client told me ‘Liam, once you hit 50, everything changes. You gonna know all about it.’
She’s Italian, and we were in her lavishly decorated house with a cinema-sized TV bolted to her living room wall with life-sized Serie A players scooting and diving around the pitch.
Her husband, family, and friends were all around us drinking coffee at 10.30 pm. They all nodded solemnly to make sure that I, a naive young 43-year-old, would take the message seriously.
Her husband was especially emphatic.
“You gonna know all about it,” he repeated.
In the interim, I researched what it was I was gonna know all about, and 5 key issues came up relentlessly.
Here’s what they are, and how you can clobber every one of them.
You worked loyally for a company that you now realize will forget you before you’ve left the building after your replacement with AI/retirement/dismissal.
How to make it right:
Start right now. Map out your plan. Break it down into easy steps and take the first one. If that means brainstorming what you really want to do, then set aside the time and do it.
You’ll feel that gnawing anxiety lift right away.
You took the path of least resistance, then watched Alex Honnold climb Taipei 1010, and now you regret it. You think it’s too late to do the big thing. You’ve forgotten what the big thing is.
How to make it good:
See the answer to problem one. Solve one and two will take care of itself. Two birds, one savage stone.
You realize how little time you have each day and wish you had squeezed more quality time out of life. The best is behind you, and you don’t have the energy to start over.
The answer:
The quality of life is only as good as your last peak or genuine QT experience. A moment of true peace and happiness, by definition, erases all lost time that precedes it. Start planning the memories you want to have and do the first one as soon as you can. Today, if possible.
You feel more urgently than ever that the most important thing in the true hierarchy of needs is time with the people you love, not food, power, or any other reality show crap. Your gut clenches every time you realize you’ve wasted time doing empty ‘busy work’, doom-scrolling, or whatever your poison is.
The easy fix:
Stop the doomscrolling. Stop the busy work. Embrace the boredom, silence, and peace that replace them. You’ll see the flowers grow once you take the time and lift your eyes up from the computer screen.
You’ve let yourself go more than you thought, and you believe you can never catch up or be healthy again.
The reality:
It matters not if you’ve been glued to the chair for the last 20 years. You will still get worse if you stay there! Every moment you get up and do sh!t is taking you forward and up; every moment you're slouching through life is taking you down.
There’s a clear, easy decision to be made in every moment of your life. Make the right ones and begin small. Your body and mind will notice.
‘Hey Liam, that’s a lot to do, and I just don’t have the bandwidth right now. Is there any way to start working on all 5 of these at once?’
Yes, there is. Start with 5 minutes of silent meditation a day.
Right after coffee (or your beverage of choice) in the morning is the best way. Take the first step, have a mindful moment over your brew, and watch things start to change from there.
Get the free 5 Days to Radical Change 50X Kickstarter Plan
Quote of the day.
“If you live to be 100, you’ve got it made. Very few people die past that age.”
Health Action
⛅💊 Yes, There is More to Male Health Than Heart Attacks, Dick Pills, and Testosterone Patches
First things first…
Go to your doc once a year and get your heart, blood pressure, prostate, insulin resistance, and testosterone levels checked.
Any medical types reading, let me know if I’ve left anything out.
Now that the tip is taken care of, let’s have a look at the underbelly and see what’s there.
In 1014, Irish High King Brian Boru, age 73, led his men into battle against the Vikings of Dublin and battered them once and for all.
He did it without TRT, Viagra, or HIIT.
My dad, who worked into his late 70s and was 91 when he died, never gave a crap about hormones, pecker pills, or most anything any doctor ever had to say.
So when did we all start worrying and talking about these things?
TRT became a thing in the 2000s.
Viagra was launched, as you may remember, to much hilarity in 1998.
I’m not saying don’t use them. By all means, knock yourself out if you need them.
But please remember, these are recent interventions in male health with everything this implies.
There are other ways to stay fit, healthy, and happy into extreme old age, both with and without them.
I refer you to last week’s study of muscle gain in men over 90.
For centuries, Tai Chi, Yoga, and Meditation have been creating health outliers in practitioners. They’ve also been making them deeply content with their lives, in addition to the health benefits.
If I skip my Yoga practice, breathwork, or meditation for more than a few days, trust me, I feel it.
Here’s a smattering of what Yoga can do for men over 50 with zero side effects, for free and at home:
counter age-related muscle loss
help prevent back pain
lower heart disease risk
improve cardiovascular fitness
boost testosterone
reduce cortisol and stress 😌
enhance pelvic blood flow 🚀
boost sexual function 🤵🏻
support ejaculation control 😏
Tai Chi and regular meditation have similar profiles.
Best thing is, you can start today. For nothing. And without leaving the house.
Meditation and breathwork are the easiest.
After that, Pilates, if you want core strength and back health
Then Yoga, for strength and flexibility.
Happy to help with some pointers if you need them.
Inspiration
🫵🏻 How Denzel, Hugh, and Mick have Mastered Manopause and What it Means for You
Let’s jump right in.
Mick Jagger was out partying on New Year’s of 2026 at age 82, looking as wiry, rock and roll as ever.
Here’s what he does to stay vibrant: ballet with his ballerina girlfriend, yoga, avoids sugar, munches on Goji berries, avocados, salmon, leafy greens, and adheres strictly to the conditions of his contract with the Dark Lord.
Personally, I think it’s mostly the Yoga.
Hugh Jackman recently (Feb 2026) attained elite-level rowing status at age 57. He placed in the top 2% of competitors in his age category and in the top 20% overall.
Here’s what he does: HIIT, rowing, cycling, cold plunges, intermittent fasting, coffee ‘rituals’ with ‘mindful savouring’, breathwork, meditation.
I’d say it’s mostly the meditation that keeps him spritely. In fact, if he meditated more, he might be able to give up some of that gruelling routine he follows.
Denzel Washington’s sword play and stunt work in Gladiator II at age 70 (he is 71 as I write) defies logic. But when you look at his daily routine, you might think again.
What he gets up to: water fasts, high altitude training, boxing, weight circuits, and a low-inflammation diet.
If Mick has a pact with the man downstairs, Denzel has gone the other route. Part of his contract is to pray out loud into his dressing room mirror for 30 minutes before a performance.
He doesn’t meditate, but he does practice ‘ faith-based stillness’ first thing every morning, which is a very similar practice.
So what will you do to be at your best into your 80s and 90s?
Train with your ballerina girlfriend every day? Practice your coffee ritual with mindful savouring like your age depends on it?
Let me know, and we can feature it in the newsletter soon 👍🏻
Seriously though, you can see that most of what these rich dudes do is free and accessible to everyone: eat well, exercise, do some form of meditaiton and live a meaningful life.
Other famous men who might rely more on pharma and medical interventions don’t, without naming names, to my mind, do any better.
If anything, I’d say the exercise and mindfulness men come out ahead.
The Year of Radical Change
🤔 Have you signed up for the free email course yet?
If you’ve been reading these newsletters and thinking, ‘hell, I could do with a little change, but I don’t know where to start,’ I’ve got you 100% coevered.
I’ve been putting together a free 5-day email course for anyone who wants to get started with the basics of making yourself happier, healthier, stronger, more flexible, and less worried about sh!t in general.
It involves zero face-time or contact with other humans, no gym-sweating or sitting in cold rented meeting rooms, wondering what to do while the instructor says ‘focus now on your heart center’.
I’d be grateful if you could sign up, pass it on to friends, family, vicitms etc, and let me know your thoughts, good, bad, and constructive.
Get the free 5 Days to Radical Change 50X Kickstarter Plan.
Meanwhile, I hope you’re still keeping up with The Year of Small Changes, BTW.
I hit my hardest challenge this week with social media. Couldn’t manage three a day, but still did more than I normally would.
This week is more career/business stuff, so I hope I can keep up.
All else goes well:
early nights - still mostly good ✅
breathwork - still great ✅
meditation - pretty good ✅
daily walk - great, considering the weather ✅
social media posts - struggled, but not all bad ❎
Keep me posted if you want, I’d love to hear where you’re at.
🙏🏻 That’s it for this week.
Remember,
If you liked any of this and found it useful, please pass it on.
The newsletter is growing organically quite well on LinkedIn, but it could really use a boost here on Beehiiv, and every little push is appreciated.
Liam.
PS I’ve been posting. If you have time, take a look 👀