What a Way to Spend a Thursday
Today was simply a phenomenal day.
I knew it would be good. I just didn’t realise how good.
My coach Jordan Stinson is a huge part of why I am currently in the best shape of my life. My latest InBody scan gave me an overall score of 91, which places me in the top 0.4% of people aged 50–59 and in the top 1% across all age groups.
That’s not really what this newsletter is about, except to say this gives you some idea of the quality of work Jordan does.
Today he hosted one of his Executive Athlete Club days for clients and guests and to say it was brilliant would be an understatement.
Very early in the planning process Jordan invited me to speak to the room on whatever topic I wanted. Music to my ears.
As we filled places over the last couple of months, we made an agreement between us that this was going to be the best EAC event we had ever done.
It was going to have to be good because the standard was already very high.
Jordan went all out and brought in the incredible chef Stevie Beaddie and the equally brilliant yoga teacher Laura Campbell .
At 11am today, fifteen men gathered at EAC HQ in Dungannon.
Only Jordan and I had attended one of these before.
Some of the other men arrived excited. Some openly apprehensive. A couple looked like they were still trying to work out why they had said yes in the first place.
A few claimed they were mainly there for the food.
To be fair to Stevie… that was probably reason enough.
From the very start, the energy in the room was high. Coffee. Conversation. New connections. Old acquaintances renewed.
The room was full of business owners and leaders with a shared interest in health and fitness.
Jordan paired us up and took us through a detailed warm-up before leading us through a brilliantly programmed session built around seven stations, each designed to challenge different movement patterns and energy systems while still being accessible for everyone in the room.
Then came the finisher.
Two teams. Three cardio machines. Ten minutes. Maximum metres.
The room erupted.
A brilliant end to a great training session.
Lunch followed and Stevie absolutely delivered.
Healthy food that looked incredible and tasted even better. The man is obsessed with his craft in the best possible way.
I shared parts of my own journey. Burnout. My years as a therapist. Coaching. Creating my document and the impact that has had on my life over the last three years.
Lunch followed and Stevie absolutely delivered.
Mostly, I spoke about possibility.
About how differently life starts to look when the limitations you once believed in begin to loosen.
We finished with around thirty minutes of Q&A before Laura led a sixty-minute Yin Yoga session to close the day.
I hadn’t been at one of Laura’s sessions in a while and Stevie summed it up perfectly afterwards when he said, “I’d forgotten how good you are.”
Then Jordan gathered us into a circle and asked each person to share what they were taking away from the day.
That was where it got interesting.
Because I suspect it’s not often that the men in that room spend a Thursday like this.
Probably never.
Training together.
Eating great food.
Having deep conversations about life, possibility and transformation.
Doing Yin Yoga in the middle of a working day.
It’s just not what most men do.
And yet… they loved it.
Some spoke about connection and camaraderie.
Some about clarity around their health and fitness.
Some about conversations they knew they needed to have.
Some about insights from the discussion around transformation and possibility.
Some were simply grateful they had come.
As we went around the circle, you could feel the impact the day had made.
The conversations.
The honesty.
The challenge.
The encouragement.
The sense of connection.
All of it mattered.
It struck me again how easy it is for men to drift into lives that are all output and no nourishment.
Work.
Pressure.
Responsibility.
Repeat.
And somewhere along the way, many stop properly looking after themselves.
Not because they don’t care.
But because they forget they matter too.
Today felt like a reminder.
A reminder that the possibility of transformation is real for every one of us.
Not just physically, but mentally, emotionally and relationally too.
A reminder that we have far more freedom than we think in how we create ourselves and our lives.
And a reminder that one of the most powerful things we can do sometimes… is simply stop for a day and reconnect.
With ourselves.
With other people.
With what really matters.
We get one life.
It’s not that long.
How we choose to live it matters.
And so do we.
Much love
Peter