“I'm
fine.”
21 days for the man who keeps saying it
I said those two words for years while I was quietly coming apart. Firefighter, husband, father, church every Sunday — and a plan to end my life that nobody knew about.
This is 29 pages of what I learned getting out of that. One day at a time, about five minutes a day. It's free, it isn't a sales funnel, and it's the thing I wish somebody had handed me in 2019.
It lands in your inbox in about a minute. No spam. Unsubscribe whenever you want.
Check your email.
It's on the way. If it isn't there in a few minutes, look in promotions or spam — and start with page two.
Three weeks. Twenty‑one days.
It's built in the order it actually happened to me: hiding, being known, rebuilding.
The Mask
You don't tell anybody anything this week. You only stop lying to yourself — an honest inventory of what you're carrying and what it's costing you to carry it alone.
Telling Someone
One person. Not everyone — one. This is the week the workbook asks something of you, and it's the week everything in my own life turned.
The Rebuild
You can't go back, and that's the good news. Who you're becoming instead, plus the tools and people that make it hold.
Five minutes. Four parts.
A piece of my story. Not a lesson — the actual thing that happened and what it cost me.
The sentence I believed at the time. You'll recognise a few of them.
One question. Sit in it for a minute before you answer.
One thing to do. Small on purpose. This is the part that changes anything.
Dan Herring
Retired firefighter, Long Beach Fire Department. Husband. Dad and stepdad to four kids.
I spent years being the guy everyone thought had it together while I was coming apart underneath it, and I've spent the years since learning how to live without the mask. I'm not a therapist. I'm a guy who nearly didn't make it and then did the work — and I still go to therapy every week.
I write and speak about men's mental health, marriage, fatherhood, faith, and rebuilding a life one more day at a time.
If today is a bad one
If you're thinking about ending your life, call or text 988 — the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Free, 24/7, and not an overreaction.
This workbook is not treatment and it isn't a substitute for a professional. It's twenty-one days of a man who's been there telling you the truth and asking you to do one small thing a day. Page two says the rest.
Twenty-one days.
Start with one.
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