Life changes. We change. And depending on the season we're in, the place where we need to become stronger can change too. Sometimes it's physical. Sometimes it's our mindset. Sometimes it's our relationships, our emotions, or simply finding our sense of purpose again. So here's my question: What are you working on becoming stronger in right now? Mind? Body? Heart? Spirit? Or maybe it's something completely different. It doesn't have to be a long answer. Share what's on your mind in the comments below. Let's see where we can encourage and help one another. Live Strong. Help others do the same.

Welcome to Living Strong. I'm glad you're here. One of the best ways to make a community feel like a community is to know who we're sharing the room with. So introduce yourself in the comments below. Tell us: • Your name and where you're from • A little about yourself • What brought you to Living Strong • What you're working on becoming stronger in right now—mind, body, heart, or spirit Don't worry about writing anything perfect. A few sentences is plenty. And after you introduce yourself, take a moment to read someone else's introduction and say hello. Live Strong. Help others do the same.

Living Strong family… it is done. It is 9:00 tonight, and I have been at this since 4:00 this morning. But this really didn’t begin at 4:00 this morning. It began a long time ago. Today was the final push. The book has been proofed. It has gone through my publisher. All the technical checks have been completed. The files have been approved. Living Strong Through Martial Arts: A Lifetime Journey of Martial Virtue is officially going to print. I ordered the first copy today. It will probably be another couple of weeks before the book begins appearing on Amazon and through the other distribution channels. But I can now order copies directly from the publisher, and that means we’re at the point where I can begin putting this book into people’s hands. And I wanted my Living Strong family to hear about it first. Many of you have watched pieces of this book come together. You’ve seen me writing early in the morning. You’ve heard me talk about the lessons, the stories, the people, the martial arts, the mistakes, the victories, getting older, and what all of it has taught me about living. At 65 years old, I can finally say: I wrote the book. I finished it. And it’s going to print. 🥋📖 I also want to make something very clear for those of you who are part of my Founding 100 and pre-ordered the special hardcover edition. You are still getting your full-size, autographed Special Edition hardcover when it is produced and published in January 2027. That edition is being created specifically for the Founding 100. It is not being replaced by this paperback. And I’m adding something for you. If you already purchased the Founding 100 Special Edition, you will also receive a copy of this new paperback edition as soon as I have the books available. You do not need to purchase the paperback. It’s included for you. Of course, if you’d like additional copies for family or friends, you’ll be able to order those separately. There are also still a few Founding 100 spots available.

Good morning, Living Strong family. ☕️ One of the unexpected things that happened while writing Living Strong Through Martial Arts was that I began seeing my own life differently. I thought I was writing about what martial arts and life had taught me. I didn't realize that writing the book would also teach me something about the value of the life I had already lived. Writing took me back through people I've known, choices I've made, things I've accomplished, mistakes I've made, people I've lost, and experiences I hadn't thought about in years. Some of those moments seemed very important when they were happening. Others seemed ordinary. Looking back at them now, I can see that all of them became part of the human being sitting here writing this morning. There's a line in the book where I write, “It took the whole journey to get me here.” I couldn't have written this book at 20 or 30. Even at 50, I would have written a different book. Not because those younger versions of me mattered less, but because there were things they simply hadn't lived yet. At 65, I understand some of my mistakes differently. I appreciate certain people more. I can see opportunities that I didn't fully recognize when they were happening. There are also things that once seemed incredibly important to me that don't seem nearly as important today. That's part of living. Time doesn't automatically make us wiser, but it does give us more life to learn from if we're willing to look at it. I think we sometimes become so focused on where we're going that we fail to recognize the value of where we've already been. We look at what we haven't accomplished yet, what we still need to fix, or who we still hope to become, and we overlook the person who has already traveled all those miles. Living Strong has always been about helping people feel seen, heard, valued, and appreciated. Writing this book reminded me that there are times when we need to offer that same attention to ourselves. Not because everything we've done was right or everything that happened to us was good, but because our lives are worth examining. There are lessons there. There are people worth remembering. There are mistakes worth learning from and moments worth appreciating.

At 65, I find myself beginning again. But the more I think about that phrase, the more I realize that “beginning again” or “starting over” doesn't completely describe what I'm experiencing. I'm not going back to the beginning. I'm adding to what is already there. Life has a way of saying, “Ready or not, here we go. Here's the next challenge.” When that happens today, I don't meet that challenge as the nine-year-old Peter, the 17-year-old Peter, or the Peter I was at 26, 36, 46, or 56. I meet it as Peter at 65. That means I meet this moment with 65 years of experience behind me—what I've learned, what I've gotten right and wrong, my martial arts, the books I've read, the tools available to me today, and the people I trust. My family, close friends, teachers, and others in my life give me places to listen, ask questions, seek guidance, and sometimes simply say, “Here's what's happening. What am I missing?” Those are some pretty powerful superpowers to bring into the next part of my story. Yesterday, I was having one of those deeper conversations with my 22-year-old son about what happens when life presents us with something we weren't expecting. We talked about how life doesn't always ask whether we're ready. Sometimes it simply says, “Ready or not, here we go.” Later, after training, I had a similar conversation with my jiu-jitsu instructor. He's 42 and I'm 65, and we talked about how each of us meets the challenges in front of us as the human beings we are today, bringing with us everything we've experienced and learned along the way. That's where my A-Game comes in: Awareness, Assessment, and Appropriate Action. What can I do to make this better? What can I do to not make this worse? What am I missing? I wrote something in Living Strong Through Martial Arts that I find myself living right now: “I am not starting over. I am starting again with information I did not have before.” Today, I would add something to that thought. I'm not only starting again with more information. I'm adding this experience to the human being I'm becoming.