Why identity rebuilding for men matters when life still works, but meaning has dropped out

What is identity mentoring for men?

Identity mentoring for men is practical, structured support for men who feel disconnected from who they are after grief, loss, divorce, faith change, work strain, ageing, sexuality, fatherhood, or major life change. It helps a man review old roles, rebuild meaning, recover self-trust, and take practical steps that fit the life he is now living.

What does functioning well and feeling nothing mean?

Functioning well while feeling nothing describes a man who continues to meet his responsibilities yet feels flat, distant, or disconnected inside. His life may still look stable from the outside, but internally, he may feel that the role he has been living in no longer fits who he is or his current life.

TL;DR

Some men feel empty because they keep operating from a previous identity that served them before their lives changed. That identity may once have helped them gain approval, earn respect, avoid shame, and secure their place. Over time, the role stopped feeling like a role and became how they knew themselves.

The problem begins when grief, age, divorce, loss of faith, sexuality, fatherhood, disappointment, or inner change alters the man beneath the role. He keeps responding to life as he did before, even though what worked before no longer works.

This article shows how identity mentoring for men supports identity rebuilding through clearer meaning, practical action, and self-trust.

Identity mentoring for men starts with the difficult fact that the identity that once helped a man earn respect, trust, and a sense of belonging can become too rigid for the life he now leads.

Many men treat identity as fixed because their earliest roles were repeated, rewarded, and confirmed by others. A boy learns that being useful wins approval. A young man learns that being responsible increases his chance of earning respect.

At first, roles provide structure and dignity. They help a man belong, gain status, prove his worth, and avoid rejection. Over time, as a man continues in these roles, they feel less like chosen responses and more like his identity. What began as a way to be accepted gradually becomes the identity he makes for himself.

The difficulty arises when life changes, and a man’s identity doesn’t. His needs may change. His values may shift. Grief, age, divorce, loss of faith, work strain, sexuality, fatherhood, or disappointment may shift the ground beneath him. Yet he keeps responding from a version of himself that others recognise and trust.

A man may still know how to perform the role, yet underneath, he no longer feels the same meaning, direction, or sense of value. This is where the flatness begins: the strain of living from an old identity map that no longer fits his current reality.

Identity mentoring helps him examine this old map without shaming him. It helps him separate his identity from the roles he learned to perform. Then it helps him build a self that can meet the stage of life he is in.

Question: Why can a man feel empty when his life still looks successful?

Answer: A man can feel empty when the identity that once helped him gain respect, belonging, safety, or approval no longer fits his current life. From the outside, he may still look successful, capable, and responsible. Internally, he may be living from an older role that was built for a different season. This is why men can feel empty even when life looks good. The problem is not failure. The problem is that the man has changed, but the identity he keeps performing has not.

Reflection question: Where are you still answering life from an older version of yourself?

Why Men Feel Empty When Life Still Works

This kind of emptiness often comes from a slow erosion of purpose, joy and a sense of meaning.

A man keeps trying to live by an identity that once gave him direction and purpose, even as the world around him changes. His values may have shifted, and his former sources of meaning may no longer satisfy him. Yet adapting to his current life can feel risky, because his old identity still offers approval, respect, predictability, and safety.

These qualities may embody real courage, discipline, love, and sacrifice. The problem arises when they stop being flexible responses and become the only permitted version of the man. He no longer asks what is relevant and appropriate for the current moment. Instead, he asks what his old identity allows.

Dan McAdams’ work on narrative identity helps explain this pattern. People do not simply pass through events. They build a life story that tells them who they are, what matters, and why the weight is worth carrying. For example, a man can carry heavy responsibility when it still feels connected to love, purpose, duty, or contribution. When that connection weakens, he may still do what is required, but it no longer gives him the same sense of direction or inner agreement.

The sense of flatness and greyness often begins when a man keeps living by old rules that no longer fit his life. He may still know how to be useful, responsible, and dependable, but those roles no longer give him the same purpose, satisfaction, or sense of being himself. He is trying to live a changed life with an old identity.

Question: What does it mean when life works, but meaning has dropped out?

Answer: When life works but meaning has dropped out, the man may still be doing what others expect while no longer feeling connected to why it matters. He can keep the role going, but the role no longer gives him purpose, satisfaction, pride, or inner agreement. This often happens when the old identity remains in charge after grief, ageing, divorce, fatherhood, faith loss, work strain, or disappointment have changed the man underneath it. Function continues, but meaning weakens. That is why life can look stable while the man feels flat inside it.

Reflection question: Which old rule still guides your decisions, even though your life has changed?

How Competence Can Narrow Identity for Men

Competence can become the primary way a man proves his worth. He begins to trust himself only when he feels useful, capable, needed, or in control. Over time, this narrows his identity and teaches a man to distrust the parts of himself that do not serve a role. Desire becomes suspicious. Rest feels indulgent. Doubt feels dangerous. Honest need feels like a threat to status or respect.

Self-determination theory offers useful language here. Deci and Ryan identified autonomy, competence, and relatedness as core psychological needs. A man may have high competence while losing autonomy and genuine connection. He can perform well while feeling trapped by what his identity demands.

The problem is not a man’s capacity. Capacity helps him work, protect, provide, lead, repair, and keep promises. The problem begins when capacity becomes the main test for every decision. If he can carry it, he carries it. If he can fix it, he fixes it. If he can endure it, he endures it.

But capacity only tells him what he can manage. It does not tell him what is still important to him. Identity asks a different question: Does this responsibility still fit my values, my season of life, and the man I am becoming? When capacity replaces that question, a capable man keeps saying yes long after his deeper self has started saying no.

This is how competence narrows identity. The man does not simply become busy. He becomes loyal to the version of himself who never causes others difficulty. This loyalty can cost him grief, honesty, intimacy, rest, and the right to change.

Question: How does competence narrow a man’s identity?

Answer: Competence narrows a man’s identity when usefulness, control, endurance, and problem-solving become the main ways he proves his worth. Capacity matters, but capacity only tells a man what he can manage. It does not tell him what still fits his values, his stage of life, or the man he is becoming. When competence becomes the only measure, a man may keep saying yes because he can carry the load, not because the responsibility still belongs to him. Over time, this can cost him rest, honesty, connection, grief, and the right to change.

Reflection question: What are you carrying because you can, rather than because it still belongs to you?

Career Identity vs Core Identity in Identity Mentoring for Men

A useful distinction underpins identity mentoring for men. Career identity answers one question: What do I do? In this article, career identity encompasses more than paid work. It includes every functional identity built around role, output, responsibility, usefulness, and being needed.

The same pattern can form around being the provider, husband, father, rescuer, strong one, or the man who copes. These identities matter because they can embody service, love, duty, and contribution. Yet they remain vulnerable when life changes or meaning shifts.

Core personal identity asks a deeper question: who am I when the task is finished? It encompasses values, character, conscience, desire, boundaries, grief, memory, and the kind of man someone chooses to become. This layer gives a man a foundation beneath his roles.

Many men who feel flat have allowed their functional and core identities to merge. Who they are has become almost identical to what they carry. That collapse may have been rewarded for years. It becomes costly when the role weakens, the season changes, or the old story no longer gives enough in return.

Identity mentoring begins by distinguishing these layers without dishonouring either. The aim is not to despise responsibility or dismiss achievement. The aim is to build a stronger internal foundation so a man can carry responsibility without becoming identical to it.

Question: What is the difference between role identity and core identity?

Answer: Role identity is built around what a man does and how others rely on him. It may include being the provider, father, husband, leader, rescuer, strong one, or man who copes. Core identity sits beneath those roles. It includes values, character, conscience, boundaries, grief, desire, and the kind of man he is becoming. Identity mentoring for men helps separate these layers so a man can honour responsibility without making it his whole self. The question is not only what he carries but whether what he carries still reflects who he is now.

Reflection question: Who are you when no one is asking you to perform a role?

What Identity Mentoring for Men Actually Means

The term ‘identity mentoring’ needs careful definition. This article uses identity mentoring to describe structured work focused on a man’s lived sense of self.

Identity is not a fixed object. It is shaped by repeated choices, relationships, stories, loyalties, and rewards. That means it can also be reviewed, tested, and rebuilt. This premise matters because many men treat roles as permanent facts.

Identity mentoring helps a man examine the story he has been living. It asks where that story still holds and where it has become too small or no longer applies. It helps him name inherited roles, chosen roles, and roles now followed automatically.

This work differs from therapy while respecting its importance. Therapy addresses psychological and emotional health, including trauma, symptoms, clinical presentation, and relational patterns. Some men need therapy first, while others need it alongside mentoring. Identity mentoring focuses on the meaning layer, where a man asks how to live with integrity when the old identity no longer fits.

It also differs from goal-focused coaching. Coaching works well when a man knows what he wants and needs a plan. Identity mentoring often begins earlier, when the man cannot name what he wants because performance has shaped his answer for too long.

Question: What is identity mentoring for men?

Answer: Identity mentoring for men is structured support for men who feel disconnected from who they are, especially after grief, divorce, faith loss, burnout, fatherhood, ageing, sexuality, or major life change. It helps a man examine the identity he has been living from, recognise where old roles no longer fit, recover parts of himself that have been pushed aside, and test practical choices that reflect his current values. It is not therapy or goal-focused coaching. It focuses on identity rebuilding, meaning, self-trust, and grounded action.

Reflection question: Which part of yourself has been pushed aside because it did not fit the role?

Why Usual Advice Does Not Rebuild Identity for Men

When a man admits he is feeling flat or grey, advice often frames the issue as depletion, low motivation, or poor balance. Rest more. Talk to someone. Exercise. Take leave. Find a hobby. Some of those steps may help when the body has carried too much load.

The limitation is that those answers can leave the issue of identity untouched. They allow the man to treat the problem as a workload rather than an identity issue. Workload can be managed without questioning who he has become. Identity cannot be rebuilt through relief alone.

This is why many capable men gather insight without it leading to any change. They can describe the problem intelligently and still remain stuck. Change often occurs when people begin to experiment with different actions and test their responses, rather than through reflection alone.

Reflection matters because the man needs to recognise the old patterns he has been following. Action matters because identity needs evidence. A man does not learn only through thought. He learns through the felt evidence of acting differently and seeing the consequences.

Question: Why don’t rest, hobbies, or motivation always fix this?

Answer: Rest, hobbies, motivation, or time off can help when a man is depleted, but they do not always address identity disconnection. A man can rest and still return to the same old role. He can take leave and still return to the same pattern of proving his worth through usefulness, control, or endurance. That is why functioning well and feeling nothing often needs more than recovery. Identity rebuilding asks a deeper question: Does the role I keep performing still fit my values, my life stage, and the man I am now becoming?

Reflection question: What have you tried that helped you cope but did not change the deeper pattern?

What Men Lose When Identity Is Built Around Roles

The common story says a man simply needs to move forward and build a better version of himself. That misses something important. Much of the work begins with recovering what was pushed out of sight. Rebuilding identity does not mean inventing a new self from nowhere. It means reclaiming the parts of himself that were disowned, silenced, or driven into the shadow, and learning to live with them in the present.

This makes the work more confronting because a man is not only changing habits. He is confronting parts of himself he learned to push away. Some of those parts were buried because they did not fit the role. Tenderness may have felt too exposed. Grief may have felt too disruptive. Desire may have felt unsafe. Anger may have felt dangerous. Doubt may have felt disloyal. Over time, the man may have called this maturity, responsibility, or strength, even though part of what happened was self-abandonment.

Identity rebuilding begins when the disowned parts are allowed back into view. The work is not to discard the provider, protector, useful man, faithful man, or strong one. Those roles may still hold value. The work is to stop letting those roles decide which parts of the man are allowed to exist. He begins asking what still belongs, what needs revision, and what has been running his life without his full consent.

What he loses when identity becomes too fixed is not only time or energy. He loses access to the living question of who he is becoming. He loses permission to be changed by grief, love, failure, age, sexuality, faith loss, fatherhood, or disappointment. He may continue to treat growth as betrayal because the old identity taught him that change would cost approval, respect, or belonging.

Question: What does a man lose when identity is built only around roles?

Answer: When identity is built only around roles, a man can lose access to parts of himself that do not serve the role. He may push away grief, tenderness, desire, uncertainty, anger, creativity, rest, sexuality, or honest need because those parts feel unsafe or inconvenient. They do not disappear. They often return as flatness, irritation, disconnection, restlessness, or the feeling that life no longer feels like his own. Identity mentoring helps him reclaim those disowned parts, so responsibility no longer decides which parts of him are allowed to exist.

Reflection question: What part of yourself had to stay hidden so the role could keep working?

The Hidden Shame When Men Feel Empty Inside a Working Life

A man often carries shame because his life looks too stable to explain how flat he feels. He may tell himself he has no right to struggle when he has work, family, responsibilities, and people who rely on him. Other men have harder lives. He should be grateful. This shame keeps him quiet because the problem feels selfish, even though it points to something real.

Shame keeps old identities in place because it makes change feel like betrayal. Honest speech may feel selfish. Need may feel disloyal. Rest may feel like weakness. A man may keep protecting the role because questioning it threatens approval, belonging, and status.

When an old role no longer works, a man may feel more than confusion. He may also feel grief because the role once gave him identity, direction, approval, and a place to stand. Letting that role change can feel like losing the man he knew how to be.

This is why flatness can carry grief within it. The man is not only tired of the role. He may be grieving what the role cost him, what it protected him from, and what it never allowed him to become. If he has no language for that loss, he may feel only distant, restless, irritable, or strangely empty.

Question: Why does shame make identity change harder for men?

Answer: Shame makes identity change harder because it tells a man that questioning the old role is selfish, weak, disloyal, or ungrateful. If his identity was built around being useful, capable, controlled, or needed, then honest change can feel like betrayal. He may fear losing respect, approval, belonging, or status if he stops performing the expected version of himself. Shame keeps the old identity in place by making the cost of change feel too high, even when the old role no longer fits his life.

Reflection question: What would you risk losing if you stopped performing the old role?

Why Identity Mentoring for Men Must Move From Reflection to Action

Identity mentoring cannot remain in the realm of reflection. A man can map his history, explain his grief, name his patterns, and produce thoughtful sentences while little changes. Insight can become another competent output.

This is why the work must move between reflection and action. The action need not be dramatic. Dramatic reinvention can become another performance. The better movement is small, direct, and testable, because identity is rebuilt through evidence.

A man names a boundary rather than letting resentment build. He engages in honest conversations rather than staying silent, even if it is easier. He makes one decision based on his values rather than on his role. The external move may look modest, yet the internal pattern shifts.

These movements give him information that reflection cannot provide. He learns whether his stated values carry real consequences. He discovers which relationships can tolerate greater honesty. He begins to trust his own signal through use, rather than waiting for certainty.

This matters because a fixed identity survives by avoiding tests. It keeps the man safe within familiar responses. Tested action gives him new evidence that he can act from the present self and remain standing.

Question: Why does identity mentoring need action, not only reflection?

Answer: Identity mentoring needs action because a man cannot rebuild identity through insight alone. Reflection helps him see the old pattern, but tested action gives him evidence that he can live differently and remain standing. A small boundary, an honest conversation, or one decision made from current values teaches him something reflection cannot. It shows whether the new identity can survive real consequences. This matters because fixed identities avoid tests. They stay powerful when a man never acts outside the old role.

Reflection question: What is one small choice that would test your present values this week?

The 5R Framework™ for Identity Rebuilding for Men

The 5R Framework™ offers a practical approach to rebuilding identity, rather than a vague promise to “find yourself”. Each stage addresses a distinct problem. First, the man needs enough steadiness to stop reacting to the changes occurring in his life. Then he needs language to describe what has shifted. From there, he can recover the parts of himself he pushed aside, rebuild connection, and shape choices that fit the life he is living now.

The work begins with regulation because a man cannot rebuild his identity when he is constantly stressed and reacting to life through a sense of threat, duty, or a desire to control. Regulation matters because it gives a man enough internal space to notice old patterns without immediately obeying them.

From there, he can begin to reclaim what is true for him. He names the rules of the old identity, the strain they create, and the values they have silenced. This naming is practical because it turns vague flatness into usable information.

Then he begins rediscovering what still holds true. This may include values, friendships, faith, creativity, service, sexuality, fatherhood, solitude, or a physical place. The point is not to replicate an old life. The point is to find what still applies as he explores his new identity.

Reconnection follows because identity is rarely rebuilt in isolation. A man needs relationships in which he can be more himself. He may need to repair old distances, choose different conversations, or stop relying solely on people who benefit from his silence.

Recreation comes later. It is the work of building on what is real, rather than on what was inherited. This may change a boundary, a relationship, a role, or a way of contributing. The deeper change is that the man begins to act from his present self and core values.

Question: How does the 5R Framework™ help men rebuild identity?

Answer: The 5R Framework™ helps men rebuild identity by turning a large and vague problem into a practical sequence. Regulation helps a man settle enough to notice old patterns. Reclaiming helps him name the roles, values, grief, and rules shaping his life. Rediscovery helps him recover what still matters. Reconnection gives identity relational evidence, not private insight alone. Recreation helps him act from current values rather than inherited roles. This framework supports men’s identity rebuilding by linking reflection to practical action.

Reflection question: Which stage feels most immediate for you: regulation, reclaiming, rediscovery, reconnection, or recreation?

What Identity Mentoring Produces for Men

Identity mentoring produces clearer internal authority. A man still has commitments, practical limits, relationships, and people who rely on him. These realities remain. The difference is that he stops treating responsibility as the sole proof of worth.

The goal is a life he can live and enjoy more honestly. He can carry responsibility without being consumed by it. He can disappoint someone without treating that disappointment as proof of failure as a man. He can let work matter without making it the sole measure of his worth.

Small movements build this over time. A man acts from one value. One boundary is enforced, and truth is spoken in one relationship. One inherited role is reviewed. These choices may seem minor from the outside, yet they change the ground beneath the man making them.

That is the central promise of identity mentoring. It does not hand a man a new self. It helps him rebuild enough ground to choose, act, relate, and contribute from a more honest centre. Progress is not constant confidence. It is staying present while choosing what is true.

Question: What changes when identity mentoring works?

Answer: When identity mentoring works, a man does not simply become more confident or more motivated. He becomes more internally honest. He can recognise old roles without automatically obeying them. He can carry responsibility without making it the only proof of his worth. He can make decisions based on values, not only on duty, approval, or fear of disappointing others. The change may look modest from the outside, but internally it is significant: the man begins to live with more self-trust, clearer direction, and greater agreement between who he is and how he acts.

Reflection question: Where would more honesty change the next decision you need to make?

When Functioning Well and Feeling Nothing Can No Longer Be Ignored

There comes a point when the flatness a man feels can no longer be dismissed as tiredness, mood, or a passing phase. A man may still be functioning, but he starts to notice the same question returning: Is this still my life, or am I only maintaining the version of myself others expect? That question matters because identity disconnection often remains quiet for a long time.

The question is not whether your life looks successful enough. It is whether the way you are living still has your consent. Have you confused being needed with being known? Have you kept faith with a role that no longer holds the whole truth?

You do not need a diagnosis to begin naming the distance. You do not need a dramatic life change to take the first honest step. You need enough courage to ask whether an older version of you is still running your life.

The issue may not be that your life has failed. It may be that your identity has become too fixed for the life you now lead. The map does not appear all at once. It forms through attention, action, repair, and return. From there, you can talk it through, regain your footing, and rebuild from what is real.

Question: When can functioning well and feeling nothing be ignored no longer?

Answer: Functioning well and feeling nothing can no longer be ignored when the same inner question keeps returning: Is this still my life, or am I only maintaining a version of myself others expect? The issue may not look like a crisis. It may look like distance, flatness, loss of purpose, or a growing sense that the old identity no longer fits. That question matters because identity disconnection can stay quiet for years. A man may keep coping until coping itself becomes the sign that something deeper needs attention.

Reflection question: What question keeps returning when the room goes quiet?

Key Points

• Functioning well and feeling nothing can happen when a man keeps living from an old identity that no longer fits his current life.
• Many men build identity through roles that bring approval, respect, usefulness, belonging, and safety.
• The problem deepens when those roles become fixed and begin deciding which parts of the man are allowed to exist.
• Competence can become too narrow when a man only trusts himself while being useful, capable, needed, or in control.
• Identity mentoring helps men review old roles, recover disowned parts, rebuild self-trust, and act from current values.
• The work is not about abandoning responsibility. It is about carrying responsibility without making it the whole measure of a man’s worth.

For men in Perth who recognise this pattern in their lives, Mentoring Through the Maze offers identity mentoring to help you review the role you have been living, name what has changed, and rebuild a practical foundation for the next stage of life. The work is structured, grounded, and focused on helping you regain your footing.

FAQs About Identity Mentoring for Men

Why do men feel empty even when life looks successful?

Men can feel empty even when life looks successful because the identity that once gave them structure, respect, and purpose may no longer fit their current life. A man may still work, provide, support others, and meet expectations while feeling disconnected from meaning, joy, values, or his own sense of direction. This often happens after grief, divorce, faith loss, ageing, fatherhood, work strain, sexuality, disappointment, or major life change. The outside life may still function, but the man underneath it has changed. Identity mentoring for men helps him review the old role and rebuild from what is true now.

What does functioning well and feeling nothing mean?

Functioning well and feeling nothing means a man can keep meeting expectations while feeling flat, distant, or absent inside. He may still appear capable, responsible, and useful, but internally, he may be living from an old identity that no longer gives purpose or self-trust. This is not always burnout. Burnout is about depletion; identity disconnection is about meaning, selfhood, and whether the way a man is living still fits who he is becoming. The phrase describes a man whose outer life keeps moving while his inner life no longer feels fully present within it.

How does identity become too fixed for men?

Identity can become too fixed for men when repeated roles are rewarded for many years. A man may become known as the strong one, the useful one, the provider, the rescuer, the leader, or the man who copes. Those roles may bring approval, a sense of belonging, respect, and safety, so he keeps performing them. Over time, the role can stop feeling like a choice and start feeling like his whole self. The problem appears when life changes, but the old identity keeps deciding how he responds. Identity rebuilding begins when he can review the role rather than automatically obey it.

How is identity mentoring different from therapy?

Therapy and identity mentoring can both be useful, but they focus on different layers. Therapy addresses psychological and emotional health, including trauma, symptoms, distress, depression, anxiety, grief responses, and relational patterns. Identity mentoring focuses on the meaning layer: who a man understands himself to be, which roles no longer fit, what values still matter, and how he rebuilds direction after a major life change. Some men need therapy first, and some need therapy alongside mentoring. Identity mentoring is not a replacement for clinical support. It is structured support for identity rebuilding, self-trust, and practical direction.

How is identity mentoring different from life coaching?

Life coaching usually starts with goals, strategy, performance, and forward movement. Identity mentoring often starts earlier, when a man cannot clearly name what he wants because duty, approval, performance, or old roles have shaped his answers for too long. Coaching may ask, ‘What do you want to achieve?’ Identity mentoring first asks, ‘Who is choosing this, and does this direction still fit the man you are now?’ That distinction matters because a man can move efficiently towards a goal that still belongs to an outdated identity. Identity mentoring helps clarify the self before building the plan.

Can identity mentoring help with grief, divorce, faith loss, or life change?

Yes, identity mentoring can help when grief, divorce, faith loss, sexuality, fatherhood, disappointment, ageing, or major life change alters a man’s sense of self. These experiences can change the ground beneath a man’s identity. The old role may still be familiar, but it may no longer carry the same meaning or direction. Identity mentoring helps him name what changed, recover parts of himself that were pushed aside, review the roles he has inherited or performed, and test practical choices that reflect his current values. The focus is not dramatic reinvention. The focus is on rebuilding a life he can inhabit more honestly.

What is the first step in identity rebuilding for men?

The first step in identity rebuilding for men is noticing the old identity without automatically obeying it. A man begins by naming the role he keeps performing, the approval or safety that role once gave him, and the cost of continuing it unchanged. He then asks what values, grief, needs, or parts of himself have been silenced by that role. The first practical move is usually small: one honest sentence, one boundary, one decision from current values, or one action that tests the man he is becoming. Identity rebuilding starts with awareness, but it becomes real through tested action.

Author

David Kernohan is a Perth-based men’s mentor specialising in male grief, father wounds, identity reconstruction, and recovery from high-control religion. He brings clinical foundations from his early training as a Mental Health Nurse, followed by more than 20 years leading community, mental health, and legal organisations supporting men with complex social and emotional issues.

David has served as director of multiple community legal centres and has held senior roles across homelessness, mental health, and crisis services. His work is shaped by lived experience — the death of his son, divorce, and leaving fundamentalism — giving him a grounded understanding of what it takes for a man to rebuild a life from the inside out.

He is the founder of Mentoring Through the Maze™, a non-clinical mentoring practice for men

References

American Psychological Association. (n.d.). Self-determination theory: A quarter century of human motivation research. https://www.apa.org/research-practice/conduct-research/self-determination-theory

Beyond Blue. (n.d.). Men’s mental health. https://www.beyondblue.org.au/mental-health/mens-mental-health

Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The “what” and “why” of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11(4), 227–268.

Ford, P. A., & Keane, C. A. (2024). Australian men’s help-seeking intentions for anxiety symptoms: The impact of masculine norm conformity and gender role conflict. Heliyon, 10, e29114. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11021970/

Frankl, V. E. (2006). Man’s search for meaning. Beacon Press. (Original work published 1946)

Ibarra, H. (2003). Working identity: Unconventional strategies for reinventing your career. Harvard Business School Press.

McAdams, D. P. (1993). The stories we live by: Personal myths and the making of the self. Guilford Press.

McAdams, D. P. (n.d.). Dan P. McAdams. Northwestern University. https://sites.northwestern.edu/danmcadams/

McAdams, D. P., & McLean, K. C. (2013). Narrative identity. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 22(3), 233–238. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0963721413475622