Hey, I’m Mike.
An ordinary bloke from the UK who’s committed to helping middle-aged men get healthier and happier.
But before I tell you how I can help you, here’s where you can find out a few things about me. Let’s start with a few facts:
- 1975: Born in the UK
- 1991: Suffered two detached retinas, almost went blind
- 2004: Graduated as a graphic designer
- 2009: Spent 12-months backpacking the world
- 2011: Married my girlfriend after proposing on a beach in New Zealand
- 2012: Quit my job and spent 3.5 years travelling the world working online as a digital nomad
- 2015: Made my home in Barcelona, Spain
- 2015: Turned 40 years old and discovered I was well and truly lost
- 2016: Became a father
- 2017: Discovered personal development & fitness
- 2019: Started this website, and quit drinking alcohol
And in case you’re wondering “But how old is middle-aged?”
You can find out where middle-age begins and ends here.
Turning 40 years old
A lot happened in 2015, the year that I turned 40.
The biggest change of all was the end of our epic 3.5-year journey around the world. We emptied our backpacks one final time and moved into a small apartment in Barcelona, Spain.
Life on the road had been bliss. A real dream.
But after spending so long travelling, we were happy to finally have a base and look forward to the next chapter in our lives… starting a family.
But it was during that year that I finally started to take notice of where I was in life, and looked toward the next big milestone.
Turning fifty!
All of a sudden, life began to look short, and the responsibility of becoming a father loomed heavily above me.
To be honest, those next 10 years and beyond scared the shit out of me.
Stress, anxiety and back pain
I also damaged my back that year (an SIJ injury) and although I can’t tell you how it happened, 9 months later my son appeared.
At one point the pain made me walk with a stoop like a 90-year-old.
It was a nightmare.
At the same time, I also realised that I was utterly lost.
After living like a backpacker for so long, I was a financial wreck. No assets, no savings, and a child on the way.
I was disillusioned with my job, had no vision, and began to worry about what kind of security and life I could build for my family.
The stress was crippling.
In my twenties, I’d experienced a period of anxiety and depression, and I could feel the darkness of it start to consume me once again.
Back then I had found my way out of the hole through the support of my wife and most effectively, travel.
This time I had nowhere to hide.
I knew I had to do something. But what?
The physio
Through a friend, I found a physio who could help me with my back pain.
She did some tests and told me in no uncertain terms that my posture and the strength in my hamstrings and lower back were atrocious.
I needed to start running.
I needed to get fit.
It was a good start and I started jogging, but it didn’t last long.
When my son arrived, I couldn’t find the time or the energy to train and I would grimace through the pain whenever I carried him around, his weight aggravating the discomfort.
A big lesson. Hope won't help
In a feeble attempt to fix everything, I started buying lottery tickets in the hope that I’d win big and everything would be okay.
I won €19.
It was a big lesson, yet one that took some time to sink in.
Hoping to win the lottery or that some one or some thing was going to magically swoop down and make everything okay wasn’t going to happen.
It was time to do something I’d been avoiding for most of my life, and start taking responsibility for myself and my actions.
In my desperation, I turned to personal development.
Discovering personal development
I still remember typing the words into Google, wondering what I was going to find.
What I discovered was epic.
I soon became obsessed with what I could do for myself and started consuming as much information as possible.
I attended conferences, took courses, and read books.
I learned that I was in control.
I didn’t need to buy lottery tickets to build the life I wanted.
I just needed to believe in myself and learn some key tools and techniques to start making progress.
In case you’re curious, here’s my quick-starter guide to personal development.
Training for my first 10k race
Feeling motivated, I took a massive leap of faith and put my name down for my first-ever 10k race.
I discovered that my back pain was getting better the stronger I became, and I completed the famous ‘La Merce’ in Barcelona a few weeks before I turned 42 in just under one hour.
I was ecstatic.
Right there, I’d proved to myself what I could achieve with focus, hard work, and belief.
Then… nothing.
I had taken a few days off training after the race, which turned into a few weeks, then a few months, and before I knew it, my back pain was creeping back in.
But something had changed
What I had experienced during that 10k run had shown me what I was capable of and I started to get an idea of what I could do with my life if only I knew what to do and I put the effort in.
Then in 2018, my mum died suddenly.
It was the worst.
But, as quite often happens, the penny dropped.
A new mission
For some reason, I got it into my head that I had to speak at my mum’s funeral.
I had to make sure that told the congregation just how amazing she was, although they already knew.
Despite the fear of speaking in front of so many people, I knew I had to make that speech, and it was at that moment that I discovered what I had to do.
I had to carry on her passion. Her purpose of helping others.
Smashing Fifty is born
A year later and Smashing Fifty was born with the purpose of helping other middle-aged men to get healthier, happier and live their best lives.
Smashing Fifty is, in fact, one big challenge.
A challenge to myself (and to you) to reach that huge milestone in the best shape of my life, physically, emotionally, mentally, financially so that I can look forward, without fear, to a long and strong future for as many wonderful years as I may have left.
If my story resonates with you, and if you’d like to join the ride, the best thing you can do right now is sign up to the newsletter, below so you can stay in the know when new courses and material comes out.
Keep smashing it!
Mike