Marty Threeshoe discusses men’s health, success and coronation chicken.

🕒 10 min read🕒

How can you utilise getting outdoors to feel better instantly when you’re feeling low? Is there a magic elixir for when that brain fog creeps in and you can’t seem to focus? How do you reset before the family comes home when you’ve been working from home during the day? Or when you’ve had a tough day on the road or in meetings?

Is it even possible to feel good as a self-employed father, under the cosh, working from home, tryna make ends meet? My answer is – YES. But you need to get outdoors. 

I’m Marty Threeshoe. I’ve got two shoes but I always keep a spare. Which is the spare one? Is it left or right? My answer is always the same – it doesn’t matter, I make that shoe fit. And that is the level of determination you need if you want to succeed in life. Do you want to succeed AND learn some tools for beating low mood and keeping your head in the game? Of course you do. So say a big YES for me and read on.  

I’m a self-employed father of two. I have been self-employed for over 15 years. I have experienced burnout, first-hand. This arose from working too hard and trying to juggle too many plates. Thinking I could do it all. I learned that lesson, thankfully before my first child was born. I have learned many other lessons too. Never mistakes, always lessons. I have tools and tricks and now I’m passing them on to you. You, the fellow self-employed or freelance-father who has just survived the pandemic to end all pandemics. YEAH?

Positive effects of getting outdoors 

All of this is really important to me because fellow fathers, fans are humbling me all the time. They say things to me. They’ll approach me saying that I’m smart and handsome. That I’ve done well for myself. And I agree that yes I am successful, a lifestyle speaker, a public guru and an ultrapreneur. But it took years of hard work and learning about what not to do as much as what to do, too. 

Sure, I won speaker of the year 2012, 2013 – not 2014 cos I went to Bali and learned to meditate, became a yogi (10,000 hours) and went vegan. I caught a bug and lost my voice which meant I couldn’t speak that year. But in 2015 I received a Merthyr Business Club award – runner-up – for my mobile sandwich business, particularly the coronation chicken. 

I lost my father suddenly and tragically to a pizza oven collapse, which is why I feel so strongly nowadays about delivering all this to fellow fathers under pressure. Following that event, I have beaten and am beating low mood and anxiety. Maybe it was that one event that shed a bit more light on the situation. Generally, I’ve found the ups and downs to be a game of cat and mouse as I’m sure most men over 30 will identify with. Sometimes we are up, sometimes we are down.

But I now have a toolset to keep me mainly on the up, and one of these tools is getting outside as often as possible. Getting out with friends or family can be great but mainly alone is just fine. 

I am now succeeding at being a good father too. I have achieved all this and now am happier AND healthier than ever before. Than ever before! At 41 years young. People comment that I’ve done all of this and yet remain humble and modest. They are right. These are my secrets. And it all begins with long walks, being out-of-doors, exposed to the elements. Fresh air. Nature. Birds, bees, cows and trees.  

Health benefits of being outdoors

It’s worth repeating – beating low mood, anxiety and executive burnout for me, it all started with fresh air and getting outdoors. I can track it backwards in retrospect. I went for long walks along the coast or up the mountains and down the trails. Walks and jogs and runs. And I wholeheartedly, emphatically and integrally encourage you to do the same. 

We spend too long inside looking, staring, aimlessly, at our devices and get too wrapped up in our work. Whether it’s the job at hand or behind the scenes stuff that nobody considers. I’m talking the finance, the bookkeeping, then there’s the household bills and family life to juggle. That’s before social media. Whatsapp group chats. Netflix. Endless apps to check and interact with.

Just get out. Get away from all that stuff. And when you are outdoors, breathe deeply. Unless you’re by the side of the road in which case that’s not recommended. Until we go fully electric on the vehicles and then it’ll be fine breathing deeply wherever you are. Talk to others. Interact with community. 

You want more tips? Sure. I’ll recommend these boots for a hike, and these shoes for a run, I swear by them. So now you have no excuse not to get up the mountains, tracks and trails or just out into the woods, wherever you may reside.

Forest bathing outdoors – what is it?

Japan is an extremely densely populated country. There are on average a whopping 347 inhabitants per square kilometre dwelling in mainly urban or built-up towns and cities. The Japanese also take very few days off from work, though that trend is changing in recent years.

The country is also very green, with two-thirds of the country covered by wooded land. In the 1980s the Japanese coined the term Forest Bathing or Shinrin-yoku. The activity was intended as an antidote to executive burnout. It has caught on over there and is now also growing in popularity here in the West. For the Japanese, life is all about balance and Shinrin-yoku seems to help with that. Why shouldn’t it be the same elsewhere? We too are surrounded by green spaces in the West. No excuses.  

Whereas I once thought life was ALL about work with a little bit of exercise and outdoor time, now I realise it is MORE about downtime and getting in the open air. That outdoor time even makes me more productive when I get back to work. Ideas flow. Nature was and still is my reset.

If anything I now try to work less hard and instead find time every day to get outdoors. Into the street, into the park, into the woods or up a mountain. Or just in the garden. Wherever you can, reset for an hour. 

Shinrin-yoku has now been practised for many moons in Japan. The rules are simple – switch off all tech, immerse yourself in nature and physically spend time by taking a nice deep, forest bath. Keep your clothes on, unless you own the woodland. Or, if you must, get naked quickly when you’re 100% sure no one is around. But keep your clothes close by so you can scramble to get them on. 

Unless you have a big house with a forest inside it, like Uncle Jeff Bezos might have, then you have to get outdoors to find a forest or woodland. 

Best outdoor exercise 

There isn’t one. The best exercise outdoors is just to get out there and start moving, man. If I only get around to writing one blog and piece of advice for you gents, getting outside in the great outdoors would be it – hands (and feet) down. Remember that Everybody’s Free to Wear Sunscreen song by Baz Luhrmann? It’s a bit like that, but replace sunscreen with getting outdoors. Matter of fact, I encourage you to use sunscreen too if it’s a sunny day. 

I’ll say it again: The outdoors and fresh air is where it all started for me Marty Threeshoe and my / his journey to health and happiness. That’s why you see this smart, successful, ultrapreneur in front of you today. I want the same for you. 

Exercise or even meditation and breathing while outside provides focus while at the same time allowing a full reset as well as inspiration. What’s not to love? Keeping active releases feel-good en-dolphins and even allows you to listen to a nice uplifting podcast and learn some new things. I must admit, I might head out with a podcast or music in my ears. I then turn this off when in the forest or atop the mountains for some chill time.

You might bump into people to talk to and seeing others outdoors is also incredibly good for our health, something which we will look at in another blog post, so bookmark that page. 

So the message and challenge for you: get outside as often as possible to feel better, starting today. As self-employed or freelance fathers, we are blessed with the freedom to choose what to do with our 24 hours, especially once the kids are in school. But it’s so easy to work too hard during the day (or through the night, yeah?) and not take breaks. To spend too long in front of our devices, either doing the work or then checking social media as our reset.

Remember we were born to be outside, baby, we were born to run – to paraphrase that well-known Killers song.

Just to summarise 

I’m Marty, remember that I’m here for you; we are here for each other. And I want you to contact me at any time for help, advice or support. I also want us to support each other and build a solid community. So leave comments or questions below, help each other out, or join in on our social medias – wherever you prefer to hang loose. Fellow self-employed-work-from-home male fathers, I got news – we got this! 

Not all superheroes wear capes, remember that too. Some superheroes wear shirts, hoodies and even PJs as they work from home. Overalls. Coveralls. Paper suits. Waterproof jackets. Hiking boots. Yeah? You with me? 

Now say YES for me, make your move and know that you ARE going to succeed! You are going to crush at life AND be that good father, partner and human. You can feel better instantly, just get out. And if you can’t or won’t get out, just keep moving until you feel ready. But trust me, fresh air will make you feel instantly better.  

Look, I’m sharing more tips and resources in the coming weeks and months here and on my socials, just click the icons around this site and hit follow. I want ALL fellow fathers who might be struggling to do well, to crush at life. So dig deep, reach out, keep talking. Remember, we are here for each other. 

How do you reset or what would you like to see covered in the future? Let us know in the comments. Check my homepage for more background info on this, our new community and keep checking for future posts. There’ll be at least one new post a month.

Now I’m heading outside to get lost in the woods (my kids love that song, almost as much as me) for a full system reboot. 

Until next time, Namaste or as we say in Wales: Have a nice day. 

Warm regards,  

Marty.