It’s been a while since I wrote to this list.
A recent bout of illness gave me just enough pause to step back from the grind, look around, and reflect on the journey so far — and where it’s going. It reminded me how vulnerable things can feel when you’re the sole provider, with no extended family or wider support system to lean on. That’s the state of modern community in this country — thin, fragmented, often absent when it’s most needed.
Fortunately, the way my family and I have chosen to structure our life — with clear priorities, a simpler pace, and a strong inner compass — softened the blow. With regards to this mailing list, I haven’t been silent because I’ve had nothing to say. I’ve been focused on stabilising life where it matters most.
Over the past 18 months, I’ve been doubling down on the basics: paying off debt, extending our home, supporting my wife and children, and refining the deeper body of work I’ve been building for years. I'm in the trenches with you!
Some of you have been here since 2015. Back then, I’d just come through a powerful awakening experience — which launched me into a flurry of activity: martial arts, social enterprise, music, therapy, business training, relationships. Eventually it collapsed. I burned out, my father had a stroke, and I moved to Portugal to support my family.
Then came the wandering years: disillusionment, travel, IKEA night shifts in Bristol. I encountered land-based communities and saw that they don’t work when they’re full of people who haven’t grown up. I saw spiritual bypassing, aimless freedom posing as wisdom, and a refusal to lead. That’s when I got serious.
I started offering freelance work. Then coaching. Purpose In Action was born. I mapped, studied, modelled — and overcomplicated. I became obsessed with frameworks. Eventually, I saw what I needed to see: theory only gets you so far.
Now, I don’t chase models. I don’t care about being right. I build with what I know. I lead from lived clarity. And I help other men do the same.
That’s what The Noble’s Path is. It’s not self-help. It’s not coaching. It’s the backbone of a long-term vision: a culture where men lead with strength and clarity, households are whole, and communities are formed not by ideology, but by shared standards and embodied wisdom.
It’s also a survival structure — because whether through creeping decline or sudden collapse, the world as we know it is already breaking. Civil unrest, fractured institutions, spiritual decay — the signs are everywhere. The solution isn’t complex. It’s the same as it’s always been: men sorting themselves out, and learning to work together in honest, durable, high-trust community. That’s what we’re practicing in The Noble’s Path.
That means getting your finances in order. Cleaning your house. Feeding your kids. Holding your line. Cutting off what weakens you. Reconnecting with your values. Planning your week. Speaking directly. Living simply. And doing it again, and again, and again.
None of it is glamorous. My life isn’t perfect. We’re still paying off debt. Still finishing a house extension. Still raising children in a culture designed to pull them away from us. But we are doing it — and we’re doing it on our terms.
I will not sacrifice my family on the altar of status. I will not outsource the care of my children to systems I don’t trust. I will not compromise what matters. And I don’t believe other men should either.
If you’ve justified outsourcing your children’s upbringing so you can chase comfort — I invite you to reflect on what you’ve traded.
To the men still walking — the ones who’ve carried pressure without applause, who are holding the line at home while everything around them says “give up” — I see you.
I’ll be sharing more soon. Not frequently. Not to build an audience. Just enough to signal the path forward.
If you’re one of the few men ready to do this work — to build structure, reclaim time, and lead without waiting — I trust you’ll find the path when it’s time.
Hold the line.
— David
