059: Why Men Are Lonelier Than Ever & How to Change That // A Man’s Guide to Real Connection

If you want to connect email me at nextthirdbestthird@gmail.com

In today’s episode I’m tackling one of the most searched topics for men: loneliness. Drawing on alarming statistics—like only 20% of men today have six close friends, versus 55% just thirty years ago—I’ll explore not just why isolation is skyrocketing for men in mid‑life and beyond, but also how it’s deeply tied to physical decline, depression, and anxiety. I’ll get honest about my own experience and the real reasons men fall into isolation, and how that spiral looks in our lives.

Then, I’ll share the steps that have made a difference for me and the guys I work with—like the power of vulnerability, reaching out to old friends, volunteering, and investing in existing friendships. I’ll break down strategies like joining hobby groups, starting clubs, and being proactively present in conversations. Whether you’re approaching retirement or in the thick of your career, there’s practical, life‑affirming habits you can adopt right now to rebuild meaningful connection.

Finally, I tie it all to the five pillars of Next Third Best Third: thought life, physical condition, emotional well‑being, relationships, and identity. It’s about more than surviving loneliness—it’s about leaving a legacy of relationships and impact that matters. If you’re ready to make your “next third” your best third, this episode is for you. Don’t forget to subscribe, comment, and join the community—your connection matters.

Timestamps:
00:00 – Welcome & Today’s Focus on Men’s Loneliness  
00:30 – Why I Care: My Experience & Men I Work With  
01:54 – Stark Stats: How Friendships Have Declined  
03:12 – The Loneliness Spiral: Emptiness & Isolation  
04:47 – Career Plateau & Loss of Network Value  
06:09 – When No One Reaches Out: A Self‑Challenge  
09:23 – Health Risks: Physical Decline & Mental Illness  
12:05 – Generational Barriers to Vulnerability  
15:36 – Action Steps: Reach Out, Volunteer, Join Groups  
24:03 – Be Present, Communicate Better, Self‑Care Pillars  

Welcome to Next Third Best Third! Join us for the inaugural episode of the Next Third Best Third podcast! Host David Fenwick, founder, author, and life coach, introduces the mission to inspire men over 40 to thrive in the next stage of life. Discover how to conquer life's challenges across physical, mental, relational, spiritual, and emotional dimensions. In this episode, David shares insights on:

- Physical Health: Strategies for maintaining fitness and vitality as you age.
- Mental Resilience: Techniques to stay mentally sharp and manage stress.
- Relational Growth: Building and nurturing meaningful relationships.
- Spiritual Fulfillment: Finding purpose and deeper spiritual connections.
- Emotional Well-being: Managing emotions and fostering a positive outlook.

Don't miss out on this journey towards making the next third of your life the best third!

Website: (https://www.nextthirdbestthird.com/)

Transcript

0:03
Hey, welcome back to Next Third Best Third. I'm David Fenwick, founder and the host. And today we're going to talk
0:10
about one of the most searched um topics for men on the internet, and it's
0:15
loneliness. And we're going to talk about combating loneliness. We're going to talk about the connection between
0:21
loneliness and and health issues, loneliness and mental disease. Um and
0:26
and then we're also going to kind of dig into and excavate a little bit how you can combat loneliness. Right? But before
0:34
we do that, I just want to ask you that if if you've been enjoying this, if this has been resonating with you, and I know
0:40
it has, if if you haven't subscribed already, click subscribe, right? Click like. Um send me emails. Uh you can
0:48
email me at next third best@gmail.com or you can comment below. Uh, all this
0:54
is going to help us, but we really want to help you. And communicating back and forth is extremely important. Plus, what
1:00
I would love to do is I our goal is to get to a thousand subscribers by the end
1:05
of August. And uh we're at like 760 already. Uh it's been an amazing year.
1:11
We're growing tremendously. And it's all because of you. And I hope that what we're doing is giving you information,
1:17
challenging you to examine your life, right? um to to be honest and then to uh
1:23
live with intentionality. So, if you do me that favor, I'd appreciate it. As I said, today I wanted to just spend a
1:30
little bit of time. I'm no expert, but I've experienced a lot of loneliness. I work with so many men, men from all
1:37
different ages, but loneliness seems to really affect men who are in their mid4s
1:43
and beyond and definitely into their 60s. And there's lots of reasons for
1:48
that, right? But I just want to give you a couple statistics that are really
1:54
alarming. Only 20% of all men say they have six close friends.
2:01
Six close friends. We're not talking about best friends. We're talking about guys who you consider a close friend. 30
2:08
years ago, that was 55%. It's only 27% now. And 15% of all men
2:17
say they have zero close friends. That just blows my mind. That's a 500%
2:24
increase since 1990. There's an epidemic of loneliness. And it's one of those
2:30
things that we don't talk about with men very much, but men are reaching out because of the internet. Men are are
2:36
searching. They're digging in. But it's like if if you say something like, "Oh, I'm feeling lonely." Traditionally, that
2:43
was something that a man, you know, just just, you know, toughen up, you know, stand up straighter, just push through.
2:50
But men are really, really struggling with this. I have seen through the guys that I work with that if they're if I
2:58
spend a little bit of time with them, they start to open up. And by the way, opening up and being vulnerable is one
3:04
of the strategies to combat loneliness. But once I start to really talk with guys and I listen to their stories, I
3:12
see these men who are like our statistics, they're isolated.
3:18
Um, it hits home especially when your kids have outgrown the house, right?
3:23
You're starting to experience emptiness mess syndrome. Um, you might have a great relationship with your spouse, you
3:28
might not. But it's it's about being lonely about not having connection with
3:34
other men. And there's a lot of reasons why. So, I just want to talk a little bit about what I have found some of
3:40
those some of those reasons why and and what we can do about it. First off, a
3:47
big reason especially with a man who's in his mid50s and beyond or approaching his mid50s is that this guy has spent
3:55
his whole life building a career, right? He's been investing in a career. He's been showing up. maybe he's got his own
4:02
business and all these kind of things and and he's just been, you know, going after it, so to speak,
4:09
right? He's been going after it and then all of a sudden he's reaching this part of his career where he's kind of reached
4:15
the top of his earnings. I've talked about this before. When a man reaches kind of that place where he's really not
4:21
going to go any further in his career, he stops doing something that we all do as we're working, and that's networking.
4:28
So, he's not building anymore. So he stops networking. But the result of not networking, it comes at you from two
4:35
ways. One is you're not building your own business. You're not building your career. You're not advancing yourself.
4:40
But the other part about it is is all of a sudden this guy, he doesn't seem to have any real value anymore to the rest
4:47
of his workforce. The younger guys who are building see this guy as someone who's shutting it down and he's no
4:54
longer really valuable. So they don't integrate with them. And now he's starting to get isolated.
5:00
Then we find where where this guy too is he's he might be at this place because he feels isolated he starts to withdraw
5:07
and when a man starts to withdraw it becomes this um spiraling situation
5:13
right uh I I compare to in Texas we have these things called sand spiders and and
5:18
they they do kind of an upside down funnel in the dirt and they they bury themselves down there and they wait for
5:25
their prey to kind of come in and as they come into this funnel They start to move the move the the soil so it keeps
5:32
slipping down, slipping down until they fi finally give up and then they capture him. That's really what happens with a
5:37
guy who who isolates is he gets into the spiral and there's it doesn't seem like
5:42
there's anywhere or any way for him to get out. These are the men that I
5:48
challenge to to really examine their lives and I work with them. But it it's
5:53
I'm telling you I I know why this is one of the top searched uh topics on the
5:58
internet because I'm seeing it and I've experienced it in my own life. Um
6:04
another thing that happens is that you get these these these guys who this this
6:09
is an interesting thing because men position themselves as they get
6:15
older and they are isolated and they wonder why they start asking themselves this question. Why doesn't anybody reach
6:21
out to me? Right? Have you ever asked yourself that? It's like, what's wrong with me? No one's no one's calling me
6:27
up. No one's reaching out for advice. No one's uh interested in me anymore. That
6:32
is so self-deprecating and it's so dangerous. It's because my my challenge to that guy is how did you get to this
6:39
place where you expect people other guys to reach out to you?
6:44
You know, and I think what I've seen is this is that a lot of times in your
6:50
career or your job or even if you own your own business and you have a service you provide, you get to the place where
6:57
either you're used to people coming to you for your service or your product or if you've got a job where you go in and
7:03
you and you, you know, hit your time clock and they give you your working orders for the day that you're not
7:09
really initiating anything. You're just fulfilling a duty. And these guys can find themselves complacent. And what's
7:16
missing in so many men today is where's the adventurer, right? Where's where's that guy who's a pioneer? Where's that
7:23
guy who is the initiator? Who's who's the risktaker? I think that's a piece of
7:29
masculinity that's missing. You know, I don't think that men are supposed to be
7:34
this lone ranger type or this, you know, stoic. He doesn't need anybody. But but
7:40
men of your let's say the guys who built this nation they they they were taking chances and they they were showing up
7:46
and they were pioneers. That is a part of man of manhood that is really missing. And I see these guys and they I
7:53
have some guys that I work with where um they'll come up to me and say, "I've got
7:59
all this to offer and no younger guy is reaching out to me." And I challenge them. I go, "Why would they?" You know,
8:06
when a when a man's in his 30s and he's got a family and he's busy and everything, he might have a lot of
8:11
questions and he might have a lot of needs and he definitely needs a mentor or someone who has some wisdom to invoke
8:18
into him, but he doesn't have time to reach out to a guy who's, you know, in his 60s or late 50s and or or older and
8:25
and say, "Hey, I need your help." That guy, he's juggling all these balls and
8:31
spinning all these plates, right? It's up to you as a man. And I want to challenge you if you're wondering why
8:38
doesn't anyone reach out to me. I want to challenge you. It's up to you as a man to be the initiator.
8:46
Go up to him and and and start speaking in their lives. Start building relationship. Be intentional.
8:52
Let them know you're there for them, right? Because other men need you. You
8:57
know, I I've I've needed men in my life for advice for forever. You know, I've
9:02
needed guys to come alongside of me forever, and I still do. But I can't be the one who's always initiating, right?
9:09
I just can't do that. So, you've got this situation where you've got men who are struggling with
9:16
being lonely, men who are wondering why they don't have friends. And this loneliness,
9:23
this loneliness is so dangerous. Loneliness is tied to physical
9:28
deterioration. You know, when you get lonely, a man's growing older and he's getting lonely,
9:34
he doesn't even have to be all that old. Um, he he gets complacent, he pulls back
9:40
and you're and starts putting on weight, you know, he's not he's not engaging. He's not out out there in the world
9:46
really, you know, getting involved. physical deterioration sets in but especially mental health issues,
9:54
depression and anxiety. Depression, anxiety is at an epidemic in this
9:59
country, right? It says that 6 million men, estimated 6 million men live with
10:06
clinical depression in the United States.
10:11
That number blows me away. And what's interesting about that is that number is
10:17
very low from actual numbers because so many men won't admit that they need
10:23
help. So many men don't go, you know, to get some sort of therapy or some sort of help. So that's an estimated 6 million
10:29
and that estimation is probably very low. So what's the cause of this? Right? They
10:36
say that this this tying loneliness to to mental health and depression and
10:42
anxiety, one of the biggest things is the lack of close relationships. And I alluded to that at the start, the
10:48
percentage of people who say they don't have any close friends, 15%. The lack of
10:54
close relationships. Um, also societal expectations, right? Again, we kind of
11:00
touched on that. this whole idea that a man is supposed to be strong and independent. You know, I'm not saying
11:05
there's anything wrong with a strong man. I mean, manhood is about strength. Man is about being brave and courageous,
11:12
right? Manhood is about being, you know, taking risks and being a leader. But that strong and independent
11:20
combination, that's where it gets dangerous, right? I want to be a leader. I want to be brave. I want to be
11:27
courageous. I want to I want to take chances, but I want to do it as I'm walking alongside other men. Because
11:33
what happens when you're walking alongside other men, they see your blind spots. They come to know you. You get to
11:40
know them. There's a trust, a bond that's gets developed. You feel like, "Hey, I can do this because I'm not going it alone." A man who's strong but
11:48
independent. He can be on a path that's leading him into a dangerous situation
11:53
emotionally and there's no one there to help. there's no one there to say, "Hey,
11:58
are you okay?" You know, so it's very important that we we we we we walk with
12:05
other people. But what keeps us from doing that as men so often is not being able or willing to be intentional about
12:12
opening up. This goes back to generational things. You know, I think
12:18
younger men today uh are much more willing to be vulnerable, which I
12:23
applaud. I think younger men today are much more open to have um deep and hard
12:29
conversations and I'm encouraged by that. But guys who were born in the you
12:36
know 70s and beyond uh before that they grew up in a society where there wasn't
12:42
anything modeled right guys whose dads were World War II vets they were they
12:48
never saw it modeled what it's like for a man to be vulnerable. As a matter of fact, a lot of these guys grew up
12:53
saying, "Hey, don't cry." You know, men don't cry, men don't show emotions, you
12:58
know, just just suck it up kind of mentality. And so there was no skill
13:03
set, you know. I remember uh growing up, my father was a World War II vet and uh uh he never had a serious
13:12
conversation with me. You know, my my dad loved me. I knew he loved me because
13:18
he he worked hard for the family, but we he never sat down and taught me anything. He never sat down and had a
13:24
serious conversation or explained anything at all about being a man. Now, some guys were fortunate and their dads
13:31
did. So then go fast forward as a father, I didn't really teach my kids, I was
13:38
much more of a lover, much more affectionate. I was always a super affectionate dad. You know, there's one
13:44
thing my kids knew is they knew that I loved them. They were the apple of my eye. But I didn't have any skill set to
13:51
talk to them about about um conflict, to talk to them about how to deal with
13:56
emotions, about some of these big issues about isolation and dialogue and relationships. I I just I didn't do it.
14:04
I just let them know I loved them. It's very important for guys to take
14:10
honest appraisal of where they're at and say, you know, am I being willing? Am I
14:16
willing to open up and be vulnerable? Because if you can't do that, guys, I'm telling you, if you can't be willing to
14:22
open up and be vulnerable, you are on a path of loneliness that's going to be awfully hard to get off of, right? It's
14:29
going to be super difficult to get off of. Uh, another thing that causes u um a
14:34
challenge for lack of relationships is is uh career paths, right? The pressures
14:40
and the stresses of careers. I talked a little bit about networking. Well, networking is fine, but networking is
14:47
really not building relationships. It's just having guys in your life. But so much of that is, you know, it's a it's a
14:53
ladder, a step ladder. It's a dog eat dog kind of thing. You know, in a lot of careers, you're networking, but you're
14:59
really stepping over or stepping on top of that person. You're using that person. So, there's a distrust there.
15:05
So, you've got guys who are working hard. They've got financial stresses. They've got all these pressures in their
15:10
life. Their relationships around them are super flust. their their their um
15:15
relationships that are being used to to to advance their careers or someone else advancing their career. And again, these
15:23
guys come home and if they're not intentional, they find themselves saying, you know, I don't have hardly
15:30
any really close friends. So, what are some of the things that you can do to
15:36
actually build uh connections and nurture connections?
15:42
These are steps that you know I hope are real practical and that you can you can apply. But one is this and I love this
15:49
one. Reach out to old friends. Reach out to old friends. If you find
15:55
yourself and you don't know where to begin in being intentional, reach out to
16:01
old friends. I've got a dear friend of mine who found himself he sold his business. Um he he was very successful
16:09
but his identity was tied to his business, you know, and he was struggling. He was struggling with
16:14
isolation. He was struggling with his health was going down. He was just he was just struggling. And um we talked
16:22
and he decided that this was the path he was going to take. It blew me away. I was so excited. He
16:27
called me up and he said, "Man, I I called a guy that I went to college with four years ago and we talked for two
16:32
hours. It it was so great to catch up and to find out where they are at. Pretty soon, this is becoming a norm of
16:39
him. And for months and months and months now, this is part of his identity is that he reaches out and he's
16:45
rekindling these friendships and he's finding out that these guys are struggling, right? These guys are also
16:52
uh uh feeling isolated or these guys have health issues or everything. And he's able to pour into their lives. He's a Christian man. He prays with them. He
16:59
encourages them. and it's become something that's really lifted him up and he's starting to see real
17:05
breakthrough in his life where he was on a path spiraling down by his own admission.
17:10
Another thing is to like say is to make sure that you are vulnerable
17:16
but vulnerability comes with it there there's a cost to it you know
17:23
there's a cost to it but the reward is so great there's a risk in being
17:29
vulnerable you know putting yourself out there especially coming you know out of the workforce this dog eat dog workforce
17:36
you know there there's a hesitation and I understand that but once Once you find out that, hey, I'm again, be courageous,
17:44
be a risk taker. Once you step into this, you'll find that there's there's
17:49
so much reward because all of a sudden, you'll see these guys, they're like going, "Wow, you know, it's okay for me
17:56
to be like this." And I think that's what a real leader does is he models something for someone else to follow,
18:03
right? You give somebody hope, these guys look at you and say, "Man, I've
18:08
I've never been this vulnerable. never opened up like this. Is it safe? You know, I guess it is. Now, sometimes it's
18:14
going to bite you in the butt. Sometimes it comes back at you and that's that's just life. People are going to use things against you. But you can't be
18:21
afraid. You got to be courageous. Remember what is real manhood? Being courageous, being a leader, taking a
18:27
risk, being an adventurer, right? Um, another area that I would encourage
18:33
you is look at your active friends, your existing friends, right? those who you
18:39
do have relationship with. They might be people that you know neighbors, it might be somebody who you know from church, it
18:45
might be a golfing buddy, whatever it may be and invest, really invest and be
18:50
intentional about deepening those connections. You know, if you've got
18:55
guys that you have been playing golf with or, you know, hanging out in the neighborhood or whatever it may be, guys
19:02
that you meet at church or these different clubs that you might belong to, and and it's just been kind of
19:07
friendship. It might be grabbing a couple beers together, whatever it may be.
19:13
Be intentional about about deepening those relationships. You know, again, this is where vulnerability. You have
19:19
equity with this person, right? I like to say that you you've earned somebody's ear. If you've been walking with them
19:26
and you've been building friendship, you've now earned their ear and and and you can take that risk with them. And
19:32
I'm telling you, you will see you will see great rewards. You'll see great fruit um uh in your relationships here
19:40
because again, these guys are going to be like, "Man, this is safe. I can be this." Next thing you know, you're going
19:45
from just being golfing buddies to guys who are who are, you know, holding each other accountable and who are
19:51
encouraging you, right? Who are, you know, really cheering you on in life.
19:58
Uh other areas, um if you're in a position, especially if you're in the
20:03
empty nest position, uh guys who who have young kids at home and they're still working, they don't have as much
20:10
opportunity to volunteer. But volunteering when you when you have time on your hands. And if you're in your
20:16
50s, late 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond, you've got plenty of time. My god, we
20:23
waste so much time in America, right? Our culture, we are time wasters watch
20:29
on the computer, on our phones, just doing meaningless tasks and everything.
20:35
You can find time to volunteer. And volunteering is something that that spurs you on, that stirs you up, right?
20:41
I mean, there's so many avenues to volunteer, so many places that need
20:47
help. It could be in schools. It can be in in nursing homes. It could be in the
20:52
in in parks and recreation, right? It could be my gosh, there's so many different ways
20:58
that I knew I heard of a guy. I didn't know him. I I knew of him. And he was a
21:05
very successful businessman. And when he stopped working his career job, which by
21:12
the way, I'm going to address this. Retirement, and anybody who's followed me knows what I'm about to say,
21:18
retirement is a diabolical construct of America, right? There's nothing wrong
21:25
with with with transitioning out of a job or career that you've been doing for 40, 50 years. Bravo. You deserve it. But
21:33
don't stop. Reinvent yourself, right? guys who retire and they just pull back
21:39
and they start getting complacent and they pull back. Next thing you know, they're on a fast track to being
21:44
isolated. So, this guy was very successful and uh he spent about a year
21:51
in his retirement and of course they traveled some and he played about as much golf as he could and he was talking
21:57
with his wife and and saying, "Man, I've got to do something." And he came up
22:02
with the idea. She had made mention of something that the hospital, local hospital needed some volunteers in the
22:09
um in the uh u for the babies right in the nursery, those those kids who were
22:15
having extended stays. And so he went and he volunteered and he volunteered in
22:21
the um in the little nursery right where where the newborns were, the ones who had health issues and had to stay. And
22:28
all he did for his hour or two hours there, all he did was hold babies.
22:34
Can you imagine this this guy who built this great business, sold it, super successful, he would spend hours a week
22:42
holding babies because the nurses couldn't, you know, the parents when
22:47
they came of course took over, but all those hours of those babies being just laying there by themselves and he took
22:53
it upon himself and and and his he just flourished, you know, and he was investing, man, he was investing in a
23:00
legacy because those those babies were being held. So anyway, get creative. Get
23:06
creative and and and volunteer. Another thing is is, you know, join
23:12
groups and clubs, you know, around your hobbies. Uh I've got a friend of mine
23:17
who's in his early 50s and he's in a running group, right? He uh uh he was struggling and he decided that he was
23:24
going to start getting back in shape and for him it was running and now he's doing triathlons. But he's got a running
23:30
group. He goes and he joins these these men and women all different ages and they they get together and they run and
23:36
it's just so fun for him and it's so engaging and it's it's giving him, you know, a sense of of a of a tribe, so to
23:43
speak. Um there's all sorts of groups that you can join and clubs you can join. Look again around your hobbies.
23:49
What do you love doing? And and I guarantee you there's people who love doing what you love doing. And if
23:55
there's not a club, form it. If there's not a group, you can create it. Uh the other thing is is be present and
24:03
proactive. This kind of ties in everything we're saying, but be present and proactive.
24:10
Um in in I've been taking acting classes and in my acting classes, one of the big
24:16
things that they've taught us and taught me is to be in just be very present in
24:22
my communication with people, right? be be compelled, be proactive in my
24:27
relationships. And because of my acting classes, I've always been a good communicator, but I've become such a
24:33
better listener. I've become such a better father, such a better friend, such a better businessman because I've
24:38
been intentional and paying attention and listening listening to the person who I'm who I'm talking with, who I'm
24:45
interacting with. I used to come and have an agenda, right? So, I would come and I was, you know, I was a great
24:52
communicator, but I'd be thinking, where's this conversation going to go? How am I going to lead it there? Or what are they trying to say here? And and and
24:59
where are they going next with this? And I could I could be in the room talking to somebody looking at them and
25:04
listening to a conversation over here. I was just not present at all. And I I've
25:09
learned since as I've been putting into practice being proactively present,
25:14
right? being proactively present is that I'm I'm I'm having better conversations.
25:22
My relationships are getting deeper because people know I care. People know I'm paying attention to them. So, that's
25:28
a big one about for you to break out of uh loneliness is to is to learn to be
25:33
present in all situations. One of the challenges that we have and one of the blessings we have is
25:40
technology. See, on one end, as far as relationships, technology offers a
25:46
counterfeit, and we all know what that is. It's all these social media platforms, these Instagrams and the
25:52
Facebooks and all these kind of things where where you think you're involved with somebody's life, right? You think
25:58
you're involved. You're putting on the pretense how many friends you have, who likes you, you know, who likes what you post, you know, putting out something to
26:06
see if you can get a reaction. You think you're connecting with somebody because you scrolled for an hour and saw what
26:13
everybody posted. That's a counterfeit. But don't throw out technology because you can leverage it, right? You can
26:20
leverage it by embracing platforms and that that that you can go to for I mean
26:26
you could do you can do therapy online right now, right? You can you can do groups online where you actually are
26:32
having discussions. I've I've seen where there's like book clubs and they they meet on Zooms and they meet on teams and
26:39
things like that. Technology can be leveraged for real connection. You might
26:44
not there be there physically, but just think about what it does. You can have interaction and connection with people
26:50
all over the globe because of technology, but it's not scrolling, liking, commenting. It's actually having
26:58
communication. And finally, this goes to how the five
27:03
pillars of next third best third tie together, right? There's there's thought life, there's physical uh condition,
27:09
there's emotional well-being, there's relationships, and then there's the identity issues. But a big part of
27:16
breaking through emotionally, breaking through in relationships is self-care.
27:22
And I will go to this every episode if I have to, but learning not just to love
27:28
yourself, but to really like yourself and to value yourself. You know,
27:35
being intentional about how you're taking care of yourself, what's your sleep patterns like? Are you getting
27:41
enough sleep? If not, figure out why. Change your diet. Change when you're eating something. You know, look at the
27:47
reasons you're not sleeping. Well, making sure you're hydrated. Very simple things like that, removing the junk out
27:53
of your diet, being active, movement, right? Motion is lotion. It's one of the best things you can do for yourselves,
28:00
being intentional about being in shape. Because the more the better you feel physically, you know, I found this
28:07
myself. The better I feel physically, the more apt I am
28:12
to invest myself in other relationships, the the the more equipped I am to have
28:19
be able to deal with emotions on a healthy way and to be emotionally stable. And also I'm I'm prepared more
28:25
to to really kind of fight those lies that I used to believe. Right? So
28:31
self-care is huge, being intentional, but more than anything, I I just want to
28:36
encourage you because this is a hot topic. It's a reality. Men
28:42
are lonelier than they've ever been. We know it statistically. We see it in the culture. I see it in my own work. The
28:50
conversations of loneliness, the need for relationship is
28:56
overwhelming. My producer and I, Taylor, my producer and I were talking earlier about how
29:03
podcasts, men's podcasts are exploding all over the place. I think it's great. I think it's great, but it's showing a
29:09
need. People are saying, I I know this. I have been connected with so many guys
29:15
who have their own platforms of all different types. And we're like collaborating right now. And it's
29:20
because there's such a need and such a hunger for men first off to to truly
29:26
understand what manhood is. But for men also to um break out of the stereotypes
29:33
and to realize that they're they they matter, you know, that we need one
29:39
another and that we can make our next third our best third by being
29:45
intentional by examining our lives, taking honest appraisal, and then taking the steps that we need to push back and
29:52
make our, you know, make our lives matter to invest in other people. I'm writing a book called Legacy on Legacy.
29:58
I haven't titled it yet. And I'm just going to tell you hopefully it will come out by the end of the year. But legacy
30:05
is not inheritance. It's not things you leave behind. It's not tangible assets.
30:12
Legacy are lives you've impacted. Legacy are relationships. Legacy are the things
30:18
that you've vised in, the volunteering that you've done, the things you've built that have
30:24
eternal values. That's true legacy. And I'm telling you right now, if you want to break out of loneliness, look for
30:30
ways to leave a legacy. I guarantee you, your next third will be your best third. So, thanks for joining me again. Don't
30:37
forget to like, subscribe, comment, and we'll see you next time.