Why Ant Middleton, Ex-Royal Marine and SBS Veteran, Is a Welcome Force For Change
A little over a year ago, Ant Middleton appeared on the front cover of this magazine for the first time. It was on the newsstands during the period when Liverpool overturned Tottenham in the Champion’s League final and Stormzy closed Glastonbury with a blistering set on the Pyramid Stage. England won the Cricket World Cup with the first Super Over that the competition had ever seen. Theresa May exited stage left and Boris Johnson came bumbling in. In short, there was a lot going on.
Interviewing Middleton back then, it was impossible not to be struck by the unrelenting, percussive impact of his positivity. More than his service as an elite operative in the Royal Navy’s Special Boat Service, or his star turn fronting Channel 4’s phenomenally successful SAS: Who Dares Wins, this mindset has since become his most valuable commodity. “Mind over muscle” – his trademarked mantra – has proven resonant at a time when mental strength is king.
Clearly, it was an ethos with which Men’s Health closely identified. Flipping negative thoughts into positive action is crucial, whether you want to lose 5kg, run your first marathon or simply strive to become a better, happier version of yourself. We wanted to hear more from this force for change. Our research suggested that you did, too.
So, this year we upped the ante. We asked Middleton if he would join the team as the guest editor of this issue. Over the course of February, he spent time working at the Men’s Health offices, providing input and direction during editorial meetings; he was shot for a cover feature (not typically the job of an editor, but still); he helped to produce a series of humorous and instructive videos; and he travelled up to Leicester in the role of roving reporter to conduct an interview with Premier League top scorer Jamie Vardy.
Between then and now, of course, everything has changed. The rampant spread of the novel coronavirus across the world has resulted in widespread panic, economic turmoil, unprecedented restrictions placed on social movement and, not least, the significant loss of life. In the couple of months between bear-hugging Middleton goodbye after his last day at MH HQ and now – as I sit at my laptop in the spare room, listening to my young family downstairs, trying to get the hang of social distancing, self-isolation and home schooling combined – cases of COVID-19 have spiked more than threefold.
But before all that, before the Olympics and Euros were cancelled, before the government put homes and businesses in lockdown, before protecting NHS workers became a patriotic cri de coeur, Middleton jetted off to New Zealand for three weeks on a secret project. He was palpably excited about it, albeit tight-lipped about the details. And that’s when the power of positivity began to momentarily unravel.
While on the other side of the world, some time during mid-March, Middleton posts a video on Instagram. He speaks to his phone against a lush, mountain backdrop, apparently while out for a casual stroll.“Am I still out travelling the world? Yes,” he says emphatically. “Am I still shaking hands? Yes. Am I still cuddling fans at the airport? Yes. Am I still washing my hands and keeping my hygiene to a high standard – as always? Yes. Has my life changed? No. Am I going to let some disease, COVID-19, dictate my life? Absolutely not. Get out there, don’t change. Fuck COVID-19!”
"I’ve made many mistakes up to now in my life, and I’m sure that I’m going to make many more,” was Middleton’s response when we asked about his post at the time of writing. “Mistakes happen, and we all make them. What’s important, though, is that you own your mistakes – acknowledge them, instead of running away from them. You need to learn from the mistakes you make in your life. By doing that, you can emerge from the situation and harness it to make yourself a better version of you for the future.”
In 2018, during one of the many phases of the Brexit negotiations (remember those heady days?), he tweeted: “A ‘no deal’ for our country would actually be a blessing in disguise. It would force us into hardship and suffering, which would unite and bring us together, bringing back British values of loyalty and a sense of community! Extreme change is needed!”
But to perceive such comments as merely inflammatory is to miss the point. Everything that Middleton says is born of his positive mindset. He has zero tolerance for negativity; he chooses to see only good in his path. Crucially, he believes with a fierce intensity that to dwell on the adverse isn’t just a waste of time, but a cancer that should be fought at the earliest opportunity.
“When an unfavourable situation comes along, you can’t counter negativity with negativity,” he told me during one of our many working conversations. “It’s a double negative. It’s simple science. You’ll end up one way very quickly, and that’s down. You have to tackle negativity with positivity, whether that’s a situation or a person. And if you can’t deal with it, you need to cut it out of your life. Because, otherwise, it’s just going to engulf you.”
Through his books, motivational day camps, speaking tours and media work, Middleton urges his audience to harness that same assuredness. He demands it, in fact. During editorial meetings to plan out this issue, he displayed a startling ability to click effortlessly between easy conversation and an unflinching desire to share his way of thinking. When asked about his thoughts on our annual 50 Greatest Adventures franchise, he didn’t just lean into the theme of freedom, he stuck his shoulder right in and shoved.
“Society wants you in a box,” he said. “We’re more closed off than ever. We’re not free! But we can be. I wanted to join the special forces because you can do what you want. You can grow your hair, grow your beard. I know what I am and I’m happy. Mental resilience means being happy with who you are.”
In the days following Middleton’s first post, newspapers respond by aggregating tweets and reposts about his stance. Metro leads with: “SAS: Who Dares Wins star Ant Middleton has bizarrely insisted that coronavirus ‘doesn’t affect’ him, as he urges people to ‘calm the f**k down’. Speaking in an Instagram video, he said: ‘To the experts, thank you for your advice, but it’s not needed for me.’ Describing himself as an ‘expert at living life’, he urged people who aren’t ‘affected’ by coronavirus to ‘carry on as normal’.”
In the tattooed flesh, Middleton is certainly a man with magnetic appeal. During his time attending the Men’s Health offices, he made a point of shaking hands with everyone he was introduced to, from the creative director to the cleaner. Meanwhile, the predominantly female team of our publishing stablemate Cosmopolitan proved particularly receptive to his charms.
On the occasion of his cover shoot, he chatted honestly and openly with the crew over mugs of coffee. He smiled openly and laughed often, throwing himself into the challenge of producing content for print, digital and video with boundless energy and genuine good nature.
This is his life now. With his Mind Over Muscle brand expanding fast and the SAS: Who Dares Wins format going international, his is a life lived in the public eye. And while the projects he has on the boil heat up – the new self-help bestseller The Fear Bubble: Harness Fear and Live Without Limits; a range of home gym and bodyweight training equipment; a new fiction series featuring a character based on Middleton, the first of which, Cold Justice, is due to be released in 2021 – Instagram is the shop window for his brand and his mentality.
But Middleton has always tried to be stringent about keeping his work and personal lives separate and rigidly compartmentalised, perhaps in a way that social media doesn’t easily allow. “When I was in the military and on operations, I wouldn’t read any letters from my wife and family,” he told me. “I’d burn them. I didn’t need that in my head. I wanted to be totally focused on the job and to do it to my best ability. And then I could get back to them.
“In many ways, I’m still the same way. When I do my work, I am 100% work. When I’m being a husband, I am 100% a husband. It allows me to be the best me. When I’m away from the family, I see it as a short-term sacrifice. I love doing my challenges and adventures, and they allow me to be me. When I get home, even though they might have me for six months of the year, they’re getting 100%, rather than 50% for 12 months.”
On Saturday 21 March, Middleton posts a video on Instagram. He is seated behind a desk in a hotel room, looking straight into the camera with his hands in his lap. “For those of you that follow me, I’m currently in New Zealand filming a secret project,” he says, his tone unashamedly humble. “However, that secret project has been cancelled, so I am going to be on a flight home this weekend. And now I’ve come out of this bubble, I’ve realised that I’ve probably been a bit insensitive to the magnitude, the scale of the crisis that’s happening in the UK, and the forever changing situation and advice that’s being given.
“So, what I’ve decided to do is to take down my previous posts because some of the advice that I gave now goes against government advice, and I wouldn’t want people to come across those now. I’ve decided to take them down. I’ve decided to admit that I made a mistake. I always talk about integrity… I’ll take that on the chin and come back to the UK and do the best that I possibly can.
“A big shout out, as always, to the emergency services, to the doctors, the nurses, the shelf stackers, the lorry drivers, the teachers – people who are keeping things moving back in the UK. Hopefully, I’m going to come back and jump on board and help out where possible. Guys, I’ll see you soon. Stay positive. We’ve got this.”
Ant Middleton is not afraid of failure. He welcomes it. He has made a success of his life but, despite all of its trappings and his faithful following and the opportunities, he makes mistakes. Most importantly, he owns them, holds his hands up and learns from them.
“Risk is growth,” he explained to the team during one of our first meetings. “Failure is growth. Everyone should keep testing themselves. I’ve tested myself multiple times, to the point of near-death. It’s important to push your fears. But remember, they are individual to you. Do not compare yourself to other people. Don’t let anyone or anything else define who you are.”
Amid one of the most uncertain, unpredictable and unnerving times in recent history, when people are groping for positivity and purpose like a blind man in the dark, Middleton’s mindset remains something worth clinging to, something that we could all use a bit of during the everyday travails of life in lockdown, and when we are out of it, too. The truth is that Ant Middleton believes in personal development, not out of vanity or self-obsession, but for the sake of others.
Moreover, his words resonate most loudly in the current vacuum of social distance and self-isolation: “Everything starts with you. You have to take care of yourself to take care of those you care for. Put yourself first to be the best version of yourself. Only then can you provide that version to everyone else.”
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