So, I know I said that I was doing this blog as a way to stay occupied and perhaps make a dollar or two from telling you all about the things I use in my daily life to make it a little more awesome. This post is not intended to make a dime, but instead to point you to an organization that truly changed, maybe even saved, my life…F3 https://f3nation.com/.
F3 is a men’s group that focuses on 3 main areas that are the foundation of any happy man’s life…Fitness, Fellowship, and Faith. The mission of F3 is to plant, serve, and grow small workout groups for the invigoration of male community leadership. They operate under 5 core principles: Always free, Always outside, Peer led in a rotating fashion, Open to all men, and workouts end in CoT (Circle of Trust).
There’s no magic to this formula if you look at it from the outside. It’s just a bunch of dudes exercising in a parking lot at 0-dark-thirty. What’s so cool about that?
The real magic comes when you get on the inside.
Before I get into that, though, let me tell you about how I was introduced to F3 and why it was so transformative. Towards the end of 2022 and into 2023, my life was in a total tailspin. I was not happy at work, I was drinking too much, using gummies too much, I was a total crank at home, and my marriage was stressed to the max. It was a mess. I was miserable, and so was everyone around me. I was chasing a feeling and a tribe and I kept failing to find either over and over. I put on a good show for the world, but behind the scenes, it was a total shit show.
Right as the new year was turning, a friend of mine came up to me at a party and just started spilling his guts about this new group he had fallen into. He was excitedly talking about the 5:30 AM workouts, getting together with the guys for coffee or beers, poker nights and Bible studies…”These guys…they’re awesome. They like, love God and stuff, but they drink and cuss! They’re cool!” …it was a lot to absorb. Finally, he asked me, “Sooo…wanna come?” I was like, “Nah, bro…I like sleep. I’m happy you’re happy, though.” and went on with my night, rang in the New Year, and went to bed unhappy…as usual.
But then, two days later, he asked me again. I was feeling way low and just thought, “Well Dave, you’ve tried everything else. Why not this?” so I accepted. I went to my first workout January 4th, 2023 at a workout called Lion’s Den in the parking lot of a local church. The workout was hard, but in retrospect not really that hard. I was just out of shape! During the workout, I noticed everyone was addressing one another by nicknames. Weird ones…Sour Mash, Zero Drop, Floppy Crust…it was hilarious. I couldn’t wait to get mine. At the end, they call you into the middle of the CoT, ask you about yourself, and then start throwing out names. The Q (the guy who runs the workout), listens to all the inputs and then chooses your name. Mine…”Go Fasters”. I was in the Marines and Go Fasters are what drill instructors call gym shoes.
I went 3 more times that week and was absolutely hooked. I found myself going to workouts 4, 5, 6 days a week. I was craving the atmosphere, the good-natured ribbing and talk during the workouts (or “mumblechatter”), and just the way everyone seemed to genuinely care about one another. If someone asked how you were doing, they meant it. During the workout, at coffee after…life was on the table. It was amazing. I had never experienced anything like it in any of my friend groups before. Maybe in the Marines…but even then it was like, “I’ll lay down in front of a bus for you, but don’t tell me about your feelings.” The level of joy in my life started to creep up, my t-shirt stack all of a sudden had all these shirts with “F3” on the front, I put a sticker on my car for the first time ever, and I was all in on things like “Thirsty Thursday”, Q’ing workouts, and getting into leadership. We have camping trips, friend groups that go on vacation together, people do races like the BRR, help you move furniture, do community service. It’s the most complete, service-minded, and joy-filled group of men I’ve ever seen.
In short, the magic of F3 is the culture and single-minded pursuit of getting just a little bit better each day. Life is a journey and nothing happens overnight, but so much more happens when you have a whole swarm of positive influences that are totally invested in your success and genuinely care about the man behind the façade.
We always talk about how we have to share this with as many men of all ages as we can. If you identify with anything I’ve said in here, or if you have your own struggles and want to lighten the load, please go to https://f3nation.com/ and find a workout near you. They’re all over the States and branching out internationally. You will love F3 and F3 will definitely love you.