THE MAGIC OF WORDS… Today I want to talk about something you don’t hear every day, but I think about it a lot. That is…the power, or like the title of this episode says; the Magic, of words. Among all the creatures on the earth, humans are the ones who invented words. All animals communicate in some fashion…but we do it with words. What is a word but a specific sound made that has a specific meaning that can be remembered and repeated to convey that meaning? Words are quite simple, but they are ...
Oct 17, 2016•8 min
EMOTIONAL RESPONSIBILITY… Hey before I get into the topic today, I want to thank everyone for listening. Last Wednesday was the biggest day we have ever had here at Being A Better Man; over 1130 of you listened to the show that day. The previous record was set back in March with 1102. Actually listenership has been up every day the last couple weeks and it’s all because of you guys out there listening, so thank you from the bottom of my heart. You might be wondering what I get out of it, why the...
Oct 14, 2016•12 min
BEST FRIENDS… Story Time with Alf is here! Every Wednesday I regal you with a story from somewhere in my unusual and interesting life. It could be funny, sad, serious or disturbing, the important thing is that every story has a lesson. The name of today’s story is Best Friends, it’s kind of a sad one…but it has a good ending, and a great lesson. Even though these are my stories, you can apply these lessons to your own life, or perhaps they will remind you of your own similar story and the lesson...
Oct 12, 2016•14 min
DEALING WITH DEATH… Thank you for sharing my journey, thank you for joining me on my personal path of being a better man today than I was yesterday. I’m just like you; I’m a guy who wants to improve, to be a little better man each day. I’ve been on this path of improvement for awhile, and this podcast gives me an opportunity to share my experiences and insights with you. It allows me to pass along the things I have learned and the observations I have made. It is not required that you agree with ...
Oct 10, 2016•12 min
DON’T SETTLE FOR MEDIOCRITY… Today I would like to talk about mediocrity. Mediocrity has kind of become an institution in human society. It is a mentality that permeates all walks of life; our schools, our work places, our relationships, everything. Anywhere that people are, the spirit of mediocrity is alive and well. Mediocrity is that thing that informs our subconscious that we don’t need to try harder, that we have done enough. It informs us that it’s OK if we aren’t the best at something…as ...
Oct 07, 2016•12 min
ANGUS NELSON…PART 2 This episode features a guest, Angus Nelson. He is a dynamic, authentic, insightful individual who was kind enough to share some wisdom with us. The interview went about an hour, so I broke it up into two parts. This is Part 2, if you have not heard PART ! yet, I suggest you STOP RIGHT NOW and go listen to Part 1, episode 109. Here is A little bit about Angus: Angus Nelson works with executives of the world’s largest companies as a speaker, coach, and facilitator. As a speake...
Oct 05, 2016•30 min
GUEST: ANGUS NELSON… This episode features a guest, Angus Nelson. He is a dynamic, authentic, insightful individual who was kind enough to share some wisdom with us. The interview went about an hour, so I broke it up into two parts. This is Part 1, and Part 2 will play on Wednesday. Here is A little bit about Angus: Angus Nelson works with executives of the world’s largest companies as a speaker, coach, and facilitator. As a speaker, he has spoken at corporate headquarters for Walmart, Whole Foo...
Oct 03, 2016•28 min
EXAMPLES OF MANHOOD… Today’s podcast is another listener inspired episode. A listener named Rich went through the trouble of going to the website at beingabettermanpodcast.com , and he wrote to me. Now I’m going to talk about what he asked me about. Don’t forget, that you too can be like Rich and send me your questions and ideas also. So…Rich said this: “I had a thought the other day about how, while the listeners of your podcast are obviously interested and motivated in becoming better men, how...
Sep 30, 2016•10 min
BROKEN TRUST… Story Time with Alf is here! Every Wednesday I regal you with a story from somewhere in my unusual and interesting life. It could be funny, sad, serious or disturbing, the important thing is that every story has a lesson. The name of today’s story is Broken Trust, its sort of a follow up to the one I did last Wednesday, episode 104 . In that story I talked about when I first got my drivers license…today’s story is about when I ultimately lost those driving privileges. Even though t...
Sep 28, 2016•14 min
INSTINCT vs INTELLECT… I hope everyone had a great weekend, mine was pretty good. On Saturday I sheared 9 sheep…and today every muscle in my legs and back are sore because of it, but its a good kind of sore. If you read all the way to the end of this I have some news to share with you, I hope you hang around for that, but right now I want to dive into the topic for today. Everybody knows what instincts are, right? They are innate, fixed patterns of behavior and responses to certain stimuli. Ther...
Sep 26, 2016•13 min
FOCUS ON THE JOURNEY… I got a letter from a friend today. He’s a young man, I met him because he reached out to me as a listener of this show and we became friends. In his letter he described his on-going struggle. He has a strong desire to be a better man. He is trying to apply the things I talk about on this show and things I’ve shared with him personally. He feels like the harder he try’s, the harder it becomes. He is wrestling with some things like a video game addiction, some family issues,...
Sep 23, 2016•9 min
TICKET TO FREEDOM… Story Time with Alf is here! Every Wednesday I regal you with a story from somewhere in my unusual and interesting life. It could be funny, sad, serious or disturbing, the important thing is that every story has a lesson. Today’s story id Ticket To Freedom. Even though these are my stories, you can apply these lessons to your own life, or perhaps they will remind you of your own similar story and the lessons you learned from it. Either way, you should be entertained. As you li...
Sep 21, 2016•10 min
A FEMALE PERSPECTIVE OF MANHOOD… I’m going to get right in to today’s topic, this idea came to me from a listener, a young woman in Colorado. Yes…women listen to Being A Better Man too. I’m really glad she sent me this idea, because it’s important to consider the female perspective. Women comprise about half of the world population and their input and contribution is vital to the continuation of our species and our civilization. Also…women provide us with a very important, very real perspective ...
Sep 19, 2016•11 min
OWN YOUR WEEKEND… ::::WARNING:::: THIS TURNED INTO KIND OF A RANT…just an FYI It’s Friday, and everyone is preparing for the weekend. I have some pretty big plans for this weekend myself and I am looking forward to it. I love weekends personally. Not because I don’t have to go to work…I actually don’t mind working, I often do a lot of podcast work on the weekends because I enjoy it. I like weekends because that is when most of the other people I know are not working. Thats my opportunity to inte...
Sep 16, 2016•14 min
KING OF THE CHICKENS… Story Time with Alf is here! Every Wednesday I regal you with a story from somewhere in my unusual and interesting life. It could be funny, sad, serious or disturbing, the important thing is that every story has a lesson. Even though these are my stories, you can apply these lessons to your own life, or perhaps they will remind you of your own similar story and the lessons you learned from it. Either way, you should be entertained. As you listen I really want you to conside...
Sep 14, 2016•15 min
Welcome one and all to the 100th episode of being a better man. Its a very special episode for me…next Wednesday it will be 101 and then we’ll be moving towards 200, it will be back to work as usual…but for now, for today, I am relishing this accomplishment. I’ve been wondering what I was going to talk about for the 100th episode, and when ever I thought about it one particular dominant feeling would wash over me every time. That was the feeling of gratitude. I am very, very grateful. I have sai...
Sep 12, 2016•11 min
BECOME A LEADER… As you know, if you are a regular listener to this show Friday’s are where I kind of talk about whatever is on my mind, but I do try and keep it relevant to the mission of Being a Better Man. In fact, if you ever hear me babbling about something that is not relevant to being a better man I want you to write me immediately and question it, ok? Whats on my mind today is the fact that this is episode 99. My next episode on Monday will be number 100. That’s a big deal for me…it’s a ...
Sep 09, 2016•10 min
Walk In A Blizzard… Story Time with Alf is here! Every Wednesday I regal you with a story from somewhere in my unusual and interesting life. It could be funny, sad, serious or disturbing, the important thing is that every story has a lesson. Even though these are my stories, you can apply these lessons to your own life, or perhaps they will remind you of your own similar story and the lessons you learned from it. Either way, you should be entertained. As you listen I really want you to consider ...
Sep 07, 2016•19 min
Today I want to talk about integrity. It is a huge topic, and I doubt I’ll cover all the facets of it today, but it will be a start. So integrity…what is it exactly? I always like to look up the definitions of words and then I tweak them a little to make them more accurate, but I found one particular definition of the word integrity that I really love. It is; “The state of being whole, and undivided.” Wow, if you say that over and over a few times and really think about what it means…its pretty ...
Sep 05, 2016•10 min
THE BURNING MAN BLUES… So…as you know on Friday’s I kind of talk about whatever happens to be on my mind…as it relates to being a better man of course. Right now what’s on my mind is the fact that I am going to be a bachelor until next week, because my wife went to work at Burning Man. For those that don’t know what burning man is, its a huge art and music festival out in the middle of a dessert in Nevada. It’s huge…there are like 80,000 people out there. For the past 12 or 13 years my wife has ...
Sep 02, 2016•10 min
DON’T BE A WILDEBEAST…BE THE LION! Story Time with Alf is here! Every Wednesday I regal you with a story from somewhere in my unusual and interesting life. It could be funny, sad, serious or disturbing, the important thing is that every story has a lesson. Today’s story is Don’t Be The Wildebeest. Even though these are my stories, you can apply these lessons to your own life, or perhaps they will remind you of your own similar story and the lessons you learned from it. Either way, you should be ...
Aug 31, 2016•9 min
BEING A BETTER SON… Today’s topic, like the title implies, is about being a better son. Regardless of what age you are, regardless of what your family circumstances are, if you are a guy, then you are also somebodies son. So why am I talking about this? What does being a better son have to do with being a better man? Well…think about it; if you are a rotten, horrible son or even a mediocre son, then it would be difficult to be a better man at the same time wouldn’t it? Being a son is part of the...
Aug 29, 2016•12 min
THE ENEMIES OF MAN… Today is Friday, and we’re all getting ready to head into the weekend. Weekends are awesome, I love the weekends. For many of us the weekend is the time we break out of the mundane cycle of working, sleeping and eating and we get to do other things…like projects around the house, or we socialize with other people, we spend more time with family and friends, or…we just relax and catch up on sleep and watch TV. What we can’t do however, what we must not do, is forget how import...
Aug 26, 2016•7 min
Men Behaving Badly… Story Time with Alf is here! Every Wednesday I regal you with a story from somewhere in my unusual and interesting life. It could be funny, sad, serious or disturbing, the important thing is that every story has a lesson. Today’s story is Men Behaving Badly, I’m not sure what category it falls into. Even though these are my stories, you can apply these lessons to your own life, or perhaps they will remind you of your own similar story and the lessons you learned from it. Eith...
Aug 24, 2016•13 min
TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR LIFE… Today’s episode is inspired by another one of our listeners; This letter comes to us all the way from Australia! I knew we had listeners in Australia but this is the first letter I have received from down under. Luke from Australia is a 28 year old professional fire fighter…but it wasn’t always so. In Luke’s letter he told me that seven years ago he was a huge partier…every weekend and every other weekday that’s all he and his friends did…was party and have fun, drinkin...
Aug 22, 2016•11 min
CELEBRATE THE GOOD THINGS… Happy Friday to you all! I am your host, my name is Alf Herigstad…and today is kind of a special day. Sometimes, when things are going good you just need to talk about it and share it with other people…I’m sharing it with you right now. First of all, today is episode 90! That is pretty amazing to me, because it seems like just yesterday I was putting this thing together and getting ready to launch, and now here I am at 90 episodes…just 10 more and we’ll be at 100. Wow....
Aug 19, 2016•9 min
THE RUNAWAY… Story Time with Alf is here! Every Wednesday I regal you with a story from somewhere in my unusual and interesting life. It could be funny, sad, serious or disturbing, the important thing is that every story has a lesson. Today’s story is “The Runaway”. Even though these are my stories, you can apply these lessons to your own life, or perhaps they will remind you of your own similar story and the lessons you learned from it. Either way, you should be entertained. As you listen I rea...
Aug 17, 2016•12 min
EVOLUTION OF A MAN… Today I’m going to talk about kind of an abstract concept, that is, the way individuals evolve over time…the individual evolution of man. I’m not talking about species or science or anything, I’m talking about you. From my observations there is roughly a 5 year gap between one version of yourself and the next. In other words…what I’m talking about is that 5 years ago, I was a different guy than I am today. I looked basically the same and my personality and sense of humor were...
Aug 15, 2016•12 min
As a new listener you might wonder why we would want to do that…and I would say because if you commit to being a better man today than you were yesterday, and keep doing that every day until you die, then you will have lived a life that is as close to your potential as a man, as you can get. The other benefit, is that with all these men being better men than they were the day before…the world will become a better place. So, we are making the world a better place, one man at a time. So thanks for...
Aug 12, 2016•11 min
SELF INFLICTED… Story Time with Alf is here! Every Wednesday I regal you with a story from somewhere in my unusual and interesting life. It could be funny, sad, serious or disturbing, the important thing is that every story has a lesson. Today’s story is “Self Inflicted”. Even though these are my stories, you can apply these lessons to your own life, or perhaps they will remind you of your own similar story and the lessons you learned from it. Either way, you should be entertained. As you listen...
Aug 10, 2016•12 min
