The Season I Didn’t Expect
On April 13th, 2026, I turned 50 years old.
Honestly, that number hit me harder than I expected.
How did it happen so fast?
I can still remember high school like it was yesterday. College. Marriage. Divorce. Raising kids. Building a business. Finding the Love of My Life. Another Kid :). Competing. Coaching. Learning. Failing. Growing. Life moves quickly when you spend most of it focused on the next thing in front of you.
For a long time, I believed I had a pretty good handle on pressure. Work harder. Stay disciplined. Push through. Compete. Show up no matter what. That formula had carried me through most of my life.
I entered this year determined to be the strongest, healthiest, most capable version of myself at 50 years old. I wanted to continue competing at a high level while running a successful business, leading my family well, and helping others do the same.
But this season had different plans for me.
I dealt with some health issues earlier this year that knocked me down harder than expected. Once I finally started feeling better, the pressure started building quickly. There was pressure to get back into shape fast. Pressure to perform. Pressure from business responsibilities. Pressure from life in general.
Normally, working out has always been my outlet. Stress, frustration, overwhelm, uncertainty… I could usually work through it with a hard training session and come out feeling reset.
This time was different.
The motivation wasn’t there. The drive wasn’t there. Even training started feeling heavy instead of restorative.
And for the first time in my life, I had to seriously acknowledge something I never thought would happen to me:
Burnout.
Not just physical burnout. Mental burnout. Emotional burnout. Spiritual burnout.
I think a lot of men understand this feeling more than they’re willing to admit.
Many of us were raised believing we had to keep everything together all the time. Be tough. Don’t complain. Don’t show weakness. Keep producing. Keep leading. Keep carrying the weight.
Be the backbone. Be the provider. Be the steady one.
And over time, a lot of us become really good at carrying pressure while pretending we’re fine.
Until one day, the weight catches up.
Over the last year, I also started becoming more aware of some things I had pushed down for a very long time. Old pressures. Old thought patterns. Old wounds. The kind of things you convince yourself you’ve “moved past” because life stays busy enough to avoid dealing with them directly.
Around the same time, my wife and I started attending church again consistently.
That timing was not accidental.
What started as simply “going back to church” slowly became something deeper. I started realizing how disconnected I had become from peace, from stillness, from faith, and honestly… from myself.
What’s interesting is the more conversations I’ve had lately, the more I’ve realized I’m not alone.
A lot of people are struggling right now.
Financial stress. Marriage struggles. Parenting stress. Health concerns. Mental exhaustion. Identity shifts. Fear about the future.
And for men especially, many of us feel like we’re carrying those things silently because we don’t know how to talk about them without feeling weak.
I understand that now more than ever.
Last year, I started building something called The Forged Life.
At the time, I thought it was mostly about discipline, fitness, and becoming better physically and mentally. I still believe in those things deeply. But I’m beginning to realize it may be about something bigger than that.
Maybe being forged isn’t about becoming tougher.
Maybe it’s about becoming more honest. More grounded. More faithful. More purposeful. More aware of who we actually are beneath all the pressure and performance.
I don’t have all the answers right now.
But I do know this:
I believe many people are carrying far more than they let others see. I believe strength and vulnerability can coexist. I believe faith matters. I believe discipline still matters. I believe purpose matters. And I believe none of us are meant to go through difficult seasons completely alone.
If you’re in one of those seasons right now, I want you to know you’re not the only one.
And if this resonated with you, feel free to reach out.
bret@theforgedlife.com
I'd love you to hop on this journey with me.
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