Slow down. You're not as young as you once were... This morning, I had the pleasure of celebrating the 50th birthday of a friend, Spencer (aka "Cutting Edge"). There were 17 of us there to celebrate him. Eight of the "party-goers" had already crossed the 50-year old line and we were honoring a new member of our @F3Nation * "@F3RESPECT" (post-50 yo) club. Spencer had been planning his 50th birthday party for weeks. There was not a cake with candles. There were no decorations or gifts. It was not happy hour cocktails. This 50th birthday celebration started before sunrise. Spencer's idea of fun was to wake up at 4 AM, and set up a boot camp workout at a lake where a mountain lion had been spotted in the past few weeks. He set up this workout by himself before anyone had arrived. His workout party began at 5:30 AM, and for 45 minutes he was not our friend. There was a massive serving of burpees, push-ups and running. As you can imagine, Spencer is not entrapped in what John Steinbeck described as "trading fierceness for a small gain in yardage." In his book "Travels with Charley," Steinbeck described a common lecture given to those of us over the age of 50, "The lecture ends, 'Slow down. You're not as young as you once were.'" Steinbeck said, "I had seen so many begin to pack their lives in cotton wool, smother their impulses, hood their passions, and gradually retire from their manhood (or womanhood) into a kind of spiritual and physical semi-invalidism." Three years ago, Spencer joined F3 and stopped listening to the advice Steinbeck describes on aging. Today, he arrives at 50 with a happiness. He is committed to something bigger than himself and found a sense of belonging at an important chapter of his life. For those born in 1973 (or before), it is never too late to trade in decrepitude for durability. We don't get old and out of shape. We get out of shape and we get old. Keep moving Spencer! *See Also FiANation.com @fianation for women's bootcamp workouts.

Know a man who needs @f3nation in their life? Here's a bird's eye view of the @F3Omaha PAX in action. Thanks to the #HIM who made the @F3Omaha 5-year celebration a success and our friends at @Boystown for sharing their beautiful campus with us every Saturday. Huge thank you to @AaronReese5 @siets_tra and @glschardt for this video.

#RESPECT @F3Respect #ModernElder in 1970. ...younger every year.