M ENTAL H E ALTH SP ON S OR
What Does It Mean To Be A Man? June is Men's Mental Health Awareness Month.
Every year around
Mental Health
this time, we hear
the same messages. "Men need to talk."
"Men need to open up."
"Men need to ask for help." And whilst I understand the intention
behind those messages, I've often found myself wondering if we're asking the wrong question.
Because after spending the last five years interviewing more than 150
people on the Different Hats Podcast, facilitating conversations through You
Alright Mate?, and working with men in businesses, communities and schools, I've come to believe that many men
aren't struggling because they don't know how to talk.
They're struggling because they don't know who they're supposed to be.
18 www.sussexbusinessgroup.co.uk
What does it actually mean to be a man in 2026?
For generations, men were handed a fairly simple script. Provide. Protect.
Stay strong. Don't cry.
Keep going. Somewhere along the way, success became attached to money, status, achievement and recognition. The result?
Many men have spent their lives pursuing goals that they believed would make
them successful, only to arrive there and discover something was missing.
I know because I've been one of them. For years, I chased the idea of success I thought I was supposed to want.
The business. The house.
The milestones.
The external validation. Yet some of the most challenging
moments of my life came when I realised those things alone weren't enough.
That realisation ultimately became the foundation of both the Different Hats Podcast and the You Alright Mate? movement.
Because when you ask enough people how they define success, a fascinating pattern emerges.
Very few people mention money. Very few people mention status.
Instead, they talk about relationships. Purpose. Health.
Connection.