Top 18 Ways to Avoid Being a Crappy Man in 2025 (Ep. 699)

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1:18 This is Undaunted Life, a Man's Podcast.

1:22 I'm your host Kyle Thompson.

1:23 Let's get into it.

1:25 Listen to advice and accept instruction that you may gain wisdom in the future.

1:28 That is Proverbs 1920, guys.

1:30 This is normally the first podcast of the year, but we had a special podcast yesterday

1:35 because we were announcing a brand new podcast where I guess we already announced it.

1:38 The Daily Blade, if you don't know what I'm talking about, go back to yesterday's episode.

1:41 Jobe Martin and I have launched a brand new show called The Daily Blade.

1:45 You should definitely subscribe to that on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

1:48 It is an audio-only podcast, but guys, just a quick commercial for that.

1:51 It's just a daily podcast, Monday through Friday, and it's devotional content,

1:56 but not like your typical devotional content.

1:58 A lot of that stuff is overproduced.

1:59 You can tell it's transcribed and the guys are just reading it.

2:02 A lot of them don't even write it, but this is going to be Jobe and I and some friends of ours.

2:05 We'll get to that later on with that podcast, but basically he's going to take a week

2:10 of doing these short three to six minutes, maybe around five-minute devotional things,

2:15 and it's mainly for guys.

2:17 We know gals are going to listen to it, but it's mainly for Christian men.

2:19 So if you're sitting there like, man, I just need something quick when I'm on my way to work.

2:23 I just need a way to get scripture into my brains that I can be meditating on and praying

2:27 through it throughout the day.

2:28 That is what the Daily Blade is.

2:29 Guys, go and subscribe.

2:31 The Daily Blade on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

2:34 But I always want to start out with being thankful.

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2:45 And that's how we've slowly but surely become the number one podcast for Christian men on

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2:55 In this episode today, I'm telling you guys, every single year, this is usually one of, if not,

2:59 the top episode in terms of shared episodes and episodes in terms of total listens and downloads,

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3:14 And so we want this to get to as many people as possible.

3:17 We want our show to jump up in the ranking.

3:18 So if you want that to happen, you got to make sure you leave a review of five stars

3:22 and also share this with a friend.

3:24 So on this episode, we're going to continue my beginning of the year tradition

3:28 of ways to avoid being a crappy man.

3:30 That is a series that we've done.

3:31 I don't know how many years in a row that we've done that.

3:33 But there's been different amounts in different years.

3:35 I know last year was 17 because I was planning to do 17 again this year,

3:39 but I literally added one like yesterday.

3:41 So it's the top 18 ways to avoid being a crappy man in 2025.

3:45 So guys use this podcast in a myriad of different ways.

3:48 I know guys that will listen to this periodically throughout the year as a reminder.

3:52 I've known guys that have taken this list of things I'm going to put in here

3:56 and they type it up and they put it like on their mirror when they're getting ready.

4:00 They'll put a little, you know, no card on their truck or something like that.

4:03 And they'll just think through these things to be reminded of them.

4:06 You don't want to year in, year out basis or day in, day out basis.

4:10 However, they decide to use it.

4:11 Now, as always with this list, there are going to be some that if you've listened to my show

4:15 for any length of time that are going to be familiar because there's some that are just

4:18 going to be on this list until I stop doing this episode series.

4:21 But then there are some that are new for this year.

4:24 So you're going to see some that are on every year, some that I pulled over from 2024 and

4:28 some new ones for 2025.

4:30 So guys, let's go ahead and get into the top 18 ways to avoid being a crappy man in 2025.

4:36 Let's start out the first one.

4:37 And that's start a gratitude list.

4:39 And so this is something that I got from Joby Martin, the lead pastor of Church 1122,

4:44 but he's got a gratitude list on his phone.

4:46 And here are the rules, okay?

4:48 You can do it digitally.

4:49 You can do it written.

4:50 You could, you know, I don't know, carve it into the side of a cave.

4:53 It doesn't really matter.

4:54 But it's at least one thing that you're grateful for for every year that you've been alive.

4:59 Okay.

4:59 And not all of them have to be equal in terms of their importance and they don't have to

5:03 be a rank order.

5:04 So you're constantly moving the rankings around.

5:06 But starting a gratitude list is one of the best things that you can do because whenever

5:09 you're starting to be in your feelings a little bit, when you're starting to feel sorry for yourself,

5:13 or maybe you got passed over for a promotion, or maybe your girlfriend broke up with you,

5:17 or maybe you just, you're down on your luck or something like that.

5:19 You can always go back to this list and realize, man, I got a lot to be grateful for.

5:23 So I actually want to quickly read my list that I've kept on my phone.

5:26 So I am 38 years old, but I have 41 things on my list.

5:28 So here we go.

5:29 My salvation, Kelsey, my wife, James, my firstborn son, Eli, my secondborn son,

5:34 my father, the Bible, and how it got to us in modernity, the United States of America,

5:40 the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights, Joby Martin's mentorship and friendship,

5:44 Faith Bible Church, which is the church I attend in Edmond, Oklahoma,

5:47 my boys going to the school that they go to, Roman, my dog, he has since passed away,

5:51 but I'm still very thankful that I got to have him, my foxhole.

5:54 Those are those are my dudes, right?

5:56 Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in general and specifically my gym, the forge in Edmond, Oklahoma,

6:00 my truck, all of the international travel I've been fortunate enough to do,

6:04 my home gym, hunting on my buddy, Adams land, hunting on my buddy, Heath land,

6:09 my podcast audience, Undaunted Life in general, the Undaunted Life donors, the forging table,

6:14 my book collection, my physical health and athleticism at my age,

6:18 UFC fight nights, good whiskey, good cigars, whiskey and cigar nights, preferably on my back porch,

6:25 the podcast that I listened to, my flexible work schedule, my partnership with all the brands

6:30 that I partnered with. So that's Origin, Jocko fuel, Primal beef, Sorenex and some more interesting

6:35 ones that we got coming for this year. Meat, yes, one of the things I'm thankful for is just meat

6:39 in general, taste buds, my favorite music, mountains, my voice recovery up to this point,

6:45 for those of you that I don't know back in 2024, I had not one but two vocal court surgeries.

6:49 And at one point, we thought I was never going to be able to talk above a whisper,

6:52 much less be able to be a professional podcaster. So I'm very thankful for that.

6:55 That I graduated with no student loan debt from my undergraduate or graduate work,

7:00 baseball, opening day, the World Series. So all that is one. My relationship with the Robertson

7:05 clan down there in West Monroe, Louisiana, and then Dominion. So for those of you that are not

7:09 aware, we launched a brand new kind of coaching mentorship group program called Dominion. You

7:13 can get more information at undaunted.life/dominion. We've allowed the wait list to be

7:18 joined now. So applications were back in December of last year, but we have a wait list going

7:24 for our next rounds of teams that will be opening up in June. But the successful loss

7:28 of a launch of Dominion, sorry, here we go, the successful launch of Dominion. There was,

7:34 I'm just very, very thankful for that. So that's my gratitude list, guys.

7:36 And so it took me way longer to read that out loud than it would be just for me to skim it.

7:41 And so for you, if you want something to kick your year off, if you want to avoid being a crappy

7:45 man and being like, Oh, woe is me and things are terrible. And why are bad things always happen to

7:49 me? All that kind of stuff. One way to get rid of that is to start a gratitude list.

7:53 Our next one here, and this is a new one for this year. It's don't celebrate people that take

7:59 shortcuts. So I want to talk specifically about as it pertains to their body, because there are a

8:06 couple of things that have become very, very popular in the last couple of years. And it's

8:10 leading to some very weird celebrations. So one of those is people that are getting muscle development

8:16 and physical performance with steroids or other harmful drugs. No, I'm not talking about peptides.

8:21 No, I'm not talking about creatine and whey protein or stuff like that. I'm talking about guys

8:26 that are using steroids and different things that are very harmful to the body. They're buying it

8:30 from like swole rhino.com or whatever. And they're just like having some Jim Bro tell them how much

8:35 to buy and how much to inject into their bodies. And then those people are obviously getting

8:39 a physical development. And then a lot of people will give them compliments on that physical

8:43 development. But they're taking a shortcut, right? They're not just eating me getting a lot of

8:48 sleep and lifting hard. They're, you know, cheating. They're they're taking a shortcut. But then also

8:52 you have weight loss. That's via lap band surgery or GLP one agonists. That's like Ozempic,

8:58 manjaro, and then things like that. And so you'll see these people that are very overweight,

9:03 very out of shape. And as opposed to changing their lifestyle, as opposed to doing the thing

9:08 that is most beneficial for them overall, not just bodily, they just want to inject something

9:13 into their leg or have a surgeon take care of their bad habits for them. And so here's the thing.

9:18 You'll have someone that'll be overweight. And then they'll get on one of these things like Ozempic

9:22 or something like that. And they'll lose all the weight. And then it's like, Oh my gosh, girl,

9:25 you look so good. Or a guy was a little bit flabby, a little bit out of shape, starts taking these

9:30 crazy supplements, not really supplements, these crazy drugs that are basically deleting years off

9:34 the end of his life and making his heart, you know, on the verge of exploding, it's like, Oh man,

9:38 you're so ripped and you're so jacked. We need to stop celebrating people that take shortcuts.

9:42 Because that's exactly what this is. Now, if people specifically that are very overweight,

9:48 if they are never going to have discipline when it comes to exercise and diet, would it be better

9:53 that they be smaller? Yes. I mean, just the fact by virtue of their size, that that is going to

9:59 lead them to a whole lot of negative outcomes as it be as it comes to all calls mortality,

10:04 right? They're going to have way more health problems in general as compared to a healthier

10:08 population. And they're going to die earlier. So yeah, of course, I would want them to be smaller,

10:12 but there's no such thing as a free lunch, no pun intended here, because they're already

10:16 finding tons of problems with people that are using Ozempic, manjaro and other GLP one agonist

10:21 to lose weight, right? And we've known for decades that guys that take steroids and other crazy

10:26 performance enhancers that that there is a cost to that, right? You look good in the short term,

10:31 you can perform well in the short term, but you're doing things bad for you in the long term.

10:35 So the question I have for you guys is why do we continue to keep celebrating those people?

10:39 Because a lot of times you have to go out of your way to celebrate somebody because very few people

10:44 will walk up to you. They've lost 75 pounds because of Ozempic and they're not going to walk up to

10:48 you in church and be like, how do I look? What do I look like? You have to go out of your way to

10:53 celebrate those people, to comment on their page, to tell them in public that you think they look

10:59 great and all those types of things. Let's just stop doing that. I think we need to stop incentivizing

11:04 people doing things that are overall net negatives for their health. And so that's a way to avoid

11:10 being a crappy man at 2025 is stop celebrating people that take shortcuts. All right, next one

11:15 here, I think this is a new one. Yeah, this is a new one. This is the one that I added yesterday,

11:19 okay, because this came up a lot in the last two weeks and especially with the Dominion interviews

11:23 that I just got through doing. So I would hear people say this and I would also read it in their

11:27 applications. And then I realized, oh my gosh, I've heard people say and use this phraseology,

11:32 a bunch. So I decided to address it. So that's why there's 18 ways this year, as opposed to 17.

11:36 So here it is. No more I struggle with blank crap. Okay, no more I struggle with blank. No more of

11:45 that language. Because here's what I read. And here's what I heard a lot of people say.

11:49 Ah, man, I really struggle with being in shape. Man, I really struggle with, you know, being

11:56 patient with my family. Man, I really struggle with pornography. And it was always struggle.

12:01 I really struggle with this. But here's the reality guys, you need to change your ideology,

12:06 you need to change the framing of how you're using particular words. Because if indeed you

12:11 had struggled in those areas, you would have overcome them. So follow me here. Let's go back

12:18 to the physical example. If you had really struggled with getting in shape, then you would be in shape.

12:26 Because what does being in shape require for most people that aren't just like naturally

12:31 gifted Adonis is it requires struggle? Because you struggle to get out of bed early in the morning,

12:38 earlier than you want to, you struggle to get out of that warm bed, you struggle to get ready to

12:43 go to the gym, whether that's a global gym you drive to or the gym in your garage or something

12:46 like that, that is a struggle that when you're going through the workout and you're doing things

12:50 that you hate like squatting and deadlifting and burpees and sprints and air dine and all those

12:55 stuff that I hate, you have to struggle to get through those things. When you don't feel quite

13:01 right or when you've you pull a little something and you just don't really feel like yourself,

13:04 you struggle your way through those workouts. And guess what? 60, 90, 120 minutes later,

13:10 you're done, you're done with your workout. You've struggled through, you've been resilient,

13:14 and now you're on the other side. And the rest of your day is going to probably be easier than that

13:17 workout was. That's how I structure my life. I've told people this and they don't really believe me.

13:22 If I never had to work out again, and I would get the benefits of exercise, like the health

13:26 benefits and you know, how I look and body composition and all that, I would never exercise it. I hate

13:30 it. I hate it so much. People like, no, Kyle, you clearly love you. Do it all times like, no,

13:33 it's just what's required of me. If I'm going to be physically resilient, I have to exercise. If

13:38 I'm going to be mentally resilient, I have to exercise. It's all about the struggle. So if you

13:45 are currently dealing with something right, like being out of shape or having a pornography or

13:50 masturbation problem or any of the things that might be the thing in your life, enough with the

13:54 I struggle with language. But if you're going to use the I struggle with language, that means

13:58 you better be on the pathway to fixing whatever the problem is. You better be on the pathway to

14:03 being healthy. You better be on the pathway to fixing your marriage. You better be on the pathway

14:07 to getting masturbation and pornography out of your life if you're going to use that language.

14:11 So if you want to avoid being a crappy man in 2025, no more I struggle with blank language.

14:17 All right, next one here. Do really hard things that constantly challenges your ego and teach you

14:23 something. So here's the thing about a lot of guys. A lot of guys just want to do the thing that

14:28 comes naturally to them. And so this is an all category. So if you're naturally an athlete,

14:32 you are drawn more to the athletic pursuits. If you're naturally more intellectual, you like

14:37 to read and ponder, you're going to be drawn to those pursuits. The problem is, is you silo

14:42 yourself into the things that you're already good at. And the other problem with that is that

14:46 doesn't guarantee that you will always be good at those things. So obviously, father time is

14:50 undefeated as you age, you will not be as athletically gifted or explosive as you were perhaps when

14:55 you were in your teenage years or your twenties or your early thirties. That's just the reality.

14:59 You're never going to be as good of an athlete at an elevated age as you are at a younger age.

15:04 And so if you are constantly putting yourself into situations where you're just doing things

15:07 that you're good at, that's not that's not a good positive thing. One of the things that I talk

15:12 about a lot and I'll probably mention several times throughout this episode is jujitsu. If you've

15:17 got an ego problem, I promise you jujitsu is going to fix that. It may take a short while,

15:21 it may take a long while. I was somewhere in the middle, maybe medium to long term thing,

15:25 but jujitsu will fix it because you are constantly going to be the nail and you're going to be

15:30 surrounded by hammers. That's just how it's going to be. Even when you get good, I'm a brown belt

15:33 in jujitsu, so I'm not completely worthless. But I still have practices where I'm like,

15:37 have I trained before? I swear I've trained jujitsu before because if a jury had to

15:44 deliberate to convict me of being a jujitsu fighter, I'm not sure they would have been able to have

15:48 enough evidence to convict me if they had just watched that practice. But that's part of the point,

15:53 guys, is it's really, really hard. And it's really challenging mentally and physically.

16:00 And so I have to continue going that direction because I constantly learn about myself. I learn

16:07 about my limitations and I learn about other people because of things like jujitsu. But for you,

16:11 it might be doing long endurance races. For you, it might be studying books that are somewhat beyond

16:17 you intellectually. So you're normally reading these novels that are easy to follow and maybe

16:23 you're reading something that's a little bit more complicated, more characters, more storylines,

16:26 a lot more to the narrative, a lot more to the plot. Maybe it's going into parts of the Bible

16:31 that you've always kind of left alone because they were really hard to grapple with. You didn't

16:35 really understand what was going on. Maybe that's it. But guys, that is the key to unlock a myriad

16:40 of the things for you that are all going to be positive. So guys, if you want to avoid being a

16:44 crappy man in 2025, do really hard things that constantly challenges your ego and teach you something.

16:50 All right, we've got another new one for this year. Practice pre decision, practice pre decision,

16:56 I don't mean practice like, all right, do it, you know, 10 times, then you'll do better later.

16:59 I mean, just this is something you do you practice pre decision. And so again, a lot of these things

17:03 are going to have things that are related to one another. And I'm going to say it a bunch of

17:06 different ways, hoping to land with you guys. But a lot of guys wait to decide. So let's go back

17:12 to the early morning workout example. Alarm goes off the five o'clock. And in that moment,

17:17 you're trying to decide whether or not you're going to get up and work out. Boy, that's probably

17:25 that's way too late, right? Because you're still tired. You just got jolt to the wake.

17:31 You're in your warm bed. And the thought of getting out of that environment and going and doing

17:36 something really, really difficult physically is probably not a good thing. And so for how many of

17:40 you this used to be the way that I would do it is, oh, you know what, I just, oh, my neck kind of

17:46 hurts a little bit or all you know, I've kind of had a rough week. I think I need a mental health

17:49 day. I think I need to just kind of take it easy. Man, another 45 minutes to an hour of sleep would

17:54 really do me well, I really need some more recovery. And then you just go back over new fall sleep.

17:58 And for the rest of the day, you haven't worked out because here's the thing with exercise the

18:01 bill comes do every morning, right? I can't work out today for tomorrow. I can't work out this week

18:07 for the rest of the year. Like I have to work out today for today. And then tomorrow the bill

18:11 comes do again. And if I'm going to be physically resilient and be in shape, I got to do the stuff

18:15 that that requires tomorrow. But so many people don't practice pre decision. Let me use a different

18:19 example because I really leaned on the physical so far. I've talked to a lot of men here recently

18:24 of all ages, but several young men as well that are like, Hey, you know, they'll use the struggle

18:28 language, you know, I struggle with porn. And so, you know, I explained to them the whole idea of

18:32 like, Hey, you don't really struggle with it. If you struggle with it, you would have gotten

18:34 past it by now. But after we get past that, it's like, look, part of your problem is not that you

18:39 have a porn problem. Say you have a masturbation problem. Okay, because obviously no one just sits

18:43 around watching porn. They're always using it as our masturbatory aid so they can climax, right?

18:48 But if you pre decide and you make a blanket pre decision that I don't masturbate,

18:55 well, you don't need to look at porn, right? You're getting upstream of the problem, right?

19:00 So that'd be like you having, you have headaches and you go get, you know, your brain scan and

19:04 Oh, you got a brain tumor. And the doctor gives you Tylenol for your headache. It's like, dude,

19:08 what are you talking about? Like you're not like, I got a tumor growing in my head that's going to

19:11 kill me. He's like, Oh, but this will help you with your headaches. No, you have to really get to the

19:13 source of the problem. But if the problem, like in this case, masturbation is the issue, you

19:18 pre decide that you're not going to do that. Which people are like, well, it can't be that easy.

19:22 No, it is that easy. And the same goes for alcohol. The same goes for a lot of prescription drugs

19:29 and different things. Because here's the deal. Here's the thing that a lot of people don't want

19:32 to talk to you about. People like to treat everything like it's an addiction and not a proclivity or

19:36 a choice. So that's expanded into the world of sex. So people have a pornography addiction,

19:43 right? People have a sex addiction. But most people don't have that because an addiction means

19:47 you literally can't not do it, right? You're addicted. And or it means that your body can't

19:53 function without having whatever that is. Okay. So there are people that like to drink and they

19:58 drink too much, but they're not alcoholics and not addicted to alcohol. So in all of these cases,

20:03 and there's a myriad of others, and I'm sure some of you thought of practice pre decision.

20:07 Oh boy, when I drink whiskey, I make bad decisions because I can't just have one or two

20:12 whiskies over several hours. I have 10. And then I've driven home before I've woken up in other

20:17 people's beds that I didn't know. I've gotten in fights. I've ended up in handcuffs. So I'm just

20:21 going to pre decide that I'm not going to drink whiskey. Okay, boom, pre decision. And then guess

20:25 what guys, there's no stress when you go out with your friends and form your friends. And if they're

20:29 not [inaudible], they'll help you with the decision that you have pre made, right? Pre decide today

20:35 that you're going to be patient with your wife. All right. So I got like a little thing on my

20:39 phone that helps me with pre decision with my wife, you know, pursue her, win her, give her a

20:44 reason to choose me. Think the best of her, right? Patience like being patient in those moments when

20:49 I don't want to be patient. I'm practicing pre decision so that when the thing happens that I

20:54 would normally be tempted to go the wrong way, I've already pre decided that I'm not going to do

20:59 those things, right? Or it works in the positive as well. You pre decide that you're going to do

21:04 the healthy thing. So before we get to the restaurant and got you just love this restaurants, fried

21:09 chicken and gosh, you really love the seasoning and putting on french fries and all that. But

21:12 you're trying to lose weight, you're trying to be in better shape and all that. So you're

21:15 pre deciding, okay, I'm going to get some some natural food, I'm going to get some some steak

21:19 with some eggs, and you know, some some Brussels sprouts or something like that. I don't know,

21:22 that's kind of a weird meal. But you guys, you guys get what I'm saying, you're pre deciding to

21:26 do the thing before you get to the place where you're going to be tempted to do the wrong thing.

21:30 Does that make sense? So practice pre decision. If you want to avoid being a crappy man in 2025,

21:35 practice pre decision. All right, another one. This is one from every single year. And I will

21:39 always continue to do this. And it's don't be late for the love of God. Don't be late. I use the same

21:46 example every year, but there was a dentist who had a good friend that would come and you know,

21:51 he would, you know, get his dental work done for his good friend. But because the dentist

21:55 was a good friend of this guy, the dentist felt like, oh, I, you know, I don't have to like,

21:59 go, you know, go over the top and really be there for this guy and all those types of things. So

22:02 we had always pushed his appointments a little bit and he would always be late. And so one year,

22:07 he gets there and he's like, they're on time for his appointment because he's a very astute guy.

22:11 And he was being pushed back again and goes, you know what, just give me all my files. I'm going to

22:16 go to a different dentist. And you know, the, his buddy, his dentist in the back was kind of,

22:20 he heard the kerfuffle going on outside. And he kind of comes up, he's like, Hey, what's the problem?

22:23 He's like, dude, you just keep doing this. You keep, you know, not valuing my time. You keep pushing

22:28 me and pushing me. And that's just not, that's just not right. Like I've got places to be as well.

22:32 And I also had a guy that a guy I really loved, but it's a former manager of mine,

22:35 he would be his places on time. And so like people would come to meet with him, had his office,

22:41 and he would purposefully start the meeting 10 or 15 minutes late to make himself seem more

22:46 important. Okay, so he would waste other people's time so that he could feed his own narcissism.

22:53 Okay, this is bad news. Like that's a terrible thing to do because what you do when you were late

22:58 is you're communicating to someone that my time is more valuable than your time.

23:03 And I think we can all agree that the only commodity that we can't regenerate or get back

23:07 is time. So when you are late, you are wasting people's time. And so you have to think of this

23:12 clearly. So if there's a committee meeting and you're one of the people on this committee or in

23:17 this, you know, work group or something like that, and there's 10 of y'all in that show up to this

23:21 meeting, and you show up 10 minutes late to this meeting, you think, Oh, I'm just 10 minutes late.

23:26 No, actually, you're 90 minutes late because you were the 10th person. The other nine people

23:30 got there on time. So you wasted 10 minutes of all their time. You are an hour and a half late,

23:35 but we don't think of things that way. Like seriously, if I ran a large organization,

23:39 we would never start anything late because part of the reason why people continue to show up late

23:44 is because we don't hold to specific times. So if you say the meetings at 9 a.m. and Bob hasn't

23:49 shown up yet, you'll be like, all right, well, let's wait for Bob to get here. So you've

23:52 communicated to everybody in the room that Bob is more important. Also Bob, the loser, Bob,

23:58 the guy that can't show up on time, Bob, the guy that can't be conscientious enough to get his

24:01 crap taken care of to where he can show up on time, he is more important. And we need to wait for Bob

24:07 so that the rest of us can get going as opposed to starting the meeting. And when Bob walks in

24:12 five minutes late, you don't even acknowledge that he's like, guess what? You're five minutes

24:15 behind. You better mentally catch up because we're not going to stop and we're not going to repeat

24:19 ourselves. Now, obviously things come up. You're on your way, you're going to be on time,

24:24 kid throws up in the car. Yep, you get a flat tire. Something happens at the house, like all the

24:29 electricity goes off. And you know, you got to take get that taken care of before the babysitter

24:34 shows up. And like guys, I know things like that happen. That's not what I'm talking about. That's

24:38 clearly not what I'm talking about. But even in those circumstances, you know, you're going to be

24:42 late before you're late, right? So let's say you have one of those circumstances, kid throws up in

24:47 the car, you got to turn around, double back, get them cleaned up, and then turn around. Guess what?

24:52 You already know you're going to be late for your first thing. So you let the person on the other

24:56 end of that appointment or the person in the meeting or your boss or the person waiting on you,

25:00 you let them know, I am going to be late. My GPS shows I am 30 minutes away. And I know

25:06 our meeting is supposed to start in 10 minutes. The worst thing that you can do is you're late,

25:11 you know, you're late because, you know, of course, you're aware enough to know that you're late.

25:15 And then the person has to text you, the person waiting on you has to text you or call you to be

25:20 like, Hey, where are you at? Are you dead? Are you dying in a ditch? Literally at this exact moment,

25:25 which would be the only acceptable excuse for you being late. Right? Why does that person have to

25:30 reach out to you? And then you're like, Oh, yeah, this thing happened. And oh my gosh, and I'm only

25:34 like five minutes away and all this kind of stuff. It's like, great, you have completely

25:39 inconvenienced me and everybody in this room. And also you didn't give me a heads up. You can

25:44 literally talk to your phone without it being in your hand and tell it to text somebody for you.

25:49 And you couldn't figure out a way to make that happen. Guys, it's a crappy thing to do to show

25:54 up late. So if you want to avoid being a crappy man in 2025, don't be late. Hey guys, real quick.

26:00 As you've heard me describe before, I am incredibly conservative about the supplements that I take.

26:04 I spent years being terrified of putting different products in my body because I didn't know what

26:09 they were made with or if it was going to be kind of fly by night companies using all kinds of

26:13 crazy ingredients. So I've always wanted to partner with an American company that only uses the highest

26:19 quality ingredients. And that's why I want to remind you that we are partnered with Jocko Fuel.

26:24 Jocko Fuel is Jocko willing supplement company that is based here in the United States. So what

26:29 are some of my favorite products that they make? So they make whey protein powder and guys,

26:32 they just released a cookies and cream flavor not that long ago. And it is ridiculously good.

26:37 Make sure you use it with milk and makes it even better. They also make clean energy drinks.

26:40 I finally decided what my favorite was and that's pink lemonade. That is my favorite of all their

26:44 flavors. But they also have the best tasting greens powder on the market. I prefer the peach flavor

26:49 myself. They also make pre-workout and ready to drink protein. So I actually mix the ready-to-drink

26:54 protein in my boy's milk and they love it. They're constantly like dada banana milk banana milk. So

27:00 we got to hook that up in the Thompson household. But I also use their krill oil, fish oil, creatine,

27:05 vitamin D and their sleep aids. And guys, they've got new stuff coming out all the time and a bunch

27:09 of stuff. I didn't even have time to mention. Guys, if you take your health and wellness seriously,

27:13 then you simply can't afford to put cheap and inconsistent supplements inside of your body.

27:18 Try origin out today by going to www.jockofield.com. That's jockofield.com. Use the promo code

27:25 undaunted to get 10% off your order. Again, that's jockofield.com promo code undaunted to get 10%

27:32 off your order. All right. The next way to avoid being a crappy man in 2025, learn to fight

27:37 or become a weapon. I've described it both ways over the years. So here's the thing. There are

27:42 two things that guys really, really overestimate in terms of their ability. Number one, just their

27:49 general ability to fight. And number two, their willingness to act immediately if a kinetic situation

27:55 happens. Okay. So with the first one, there are guys, maybe it's because they were a good athlete

27:59 or maybe it's because they're tall. This is like a thing with big guys, big guys, fat guys.

28:02 They just think, because I am this size, I'm going to be okay in a fight. Now, if your Bob

28:07 sat from back in, you know, the pride fighting days where you're 400 pounds with abs. Okay.

28:12 Even though you're not really that good of a fighter, it's probably going to go okay with you

28:15 in most street situations. But for the rest of us, for all of us normies, right? People that are

28:19 normal size people, guys just overestimate their ability to fight. I've literally heard multiple

28:24 people say, you know what, man, I'm just going to see red and the bodies are just going to drop.

28:29 It's like, well, no, the odds are way more likely that you will see red and then you'll see nothing

28:34 because you're going to get taken out of the fight against your will. You're going to get knocked out,

28:38 you're going to get choked out, you're going to get shot stabbed, something like that.

28:41 That's more likely than you just dropping bodies like you're Steven Seagal in the 1980s or something

28:45 like that. Like that's not real. There's a reason why you can't go back and watch those movies

28:49 and not see how dumb they look is because we have been marinated in 30 years of the Ultimate

28:54 Fighting Championship and just MMA, Valle Tudo in general. And so we know all these round kicks

28:59 and all this super fancy stuff. Guys aren't going flying. That's not how this works, right? If you

29:03 watch enough street fights, if you've seen enough street fights in person, if you've seen enough of

29:06 that kinetic action, you realize that it takes a trained person, for the most part, to be able to

29:11 do well in those situations for the, you know, over the long haul. But also most guys don't really

29:17 understand the hesitation that's going to come to where you might know how to fight or you might

29:23 not know how to fight. But if you hesitate, what is it? He who hesitates is lost. I think that

29:29 applies here as well. So there are kinetic situations I've seen. I've seen tons of videos of this

29:33 where if the guy would have just acted sooner, they would have been safe. Their family would

29:39 have been safe. The people around them they were trying to protect or could have protected would

29:43 have been saved, but they hesitated. You know, I've seen also in like mass shooter or mass casualty

29:48 situations where there are people that immediately run, there are people that immediately look to

29:52 fight and then there are people that absolutely freeze. That just absolutely and completely freeze.

29:57 So a lot of this is about mindset. So when you say learn to fight, am I talking about training a

30:01 legitimate fighting style like jujitsu or wrestling or Western boxing or kickboxing or moi Tai? Yes.

30:06 I am talking about them. I'm not talking about karate. I'm not talking about wing chung or kung fu

30:10 or any of these made up. I'm going to use your chi to like move your energy away from me and I'm

30:14 going to absorb your punches with my woo wah or whatever. Yeah, I'm not talking about any of that.

30:17 Yes, I'm saying that's what you need to learn how to fight. You need to actually learn these

30:21 modalities, learning to use your body in order to fight. Do I mean training with firearms and knives

30:26 and different things like that? Great. Yes. Like concealed carry. I am for all those things,

30:30 but it's also about mindset because let's just take an extreme scenario. Let's say you conceal

30:36 carry and you don't just conceal carry. You shoot quite a bit and you shoot when you make

30:40 sure your heart rate's elevated and you're ready for those situations. Great. You've done that training.

30:43 You've also figured out, you know, how to use, you know, blades on your on your body and different

30:49 things. You've also trained you jitsu for a few years and you know some western boxing and some

30:53 different things like that. So you're so you're comfortable in all those scenarios. But if you've

30:57 not pre decided that you would take a life to save a life, you will hesitate. Again, all these,

31:04 a lot of these are weaving together. You if you haven't pre decided that you would hurt another

31:09 human being to protect an innocent human being, you will hesitate. I saw a video years ago where

31:14 it was all these moms that were, would you do anything to protect your kids and blah, blah and

31:18 all that. And these moms just given this generic general situation, like, yeah, of course I would

31:22 do that. But then the person got specific and was like, would you kill someone in order to save your

31:26 baby? And mom after mom after mom said, Oh, no, I don't, I don't think I could ever do that. It's like,

31:32 like five seconds ago, you were pretending you were a mama bear. And now you're given a specific

31:37 scenario where you would have to take a guilty life, a non innocent life to protect not just

31:43 some innocent life, but the innocent life of your baby. And you couldn't get there. So for a lot of

31:48 you guys, when I say learn to fight, when I say become a weapon, I mean physically, but I also mean

31:53 mentally, you have to get yourself there. So if you want to avoid being a crappy man at 2025,

31:57 learn to fight become a weapon. So this next one here, it's it's kind of a combo one. It's kind of new

32:03 and old. So I'll just get to it, be extra nice to support staff and service providers and make

32:09 sure to say thank you. Okay. So I have been in this habit for a very, very long time. I saw a model

32:16 with my parents. This is, this isn't even like chivalry. This is just basic manners, right? So call

32:21 it Southern hospitality or whatever. But when support staff, so someone checking me in at a hotel,

32:25 any of the staff that's helping me get onto or off of a flight, anyone that's serving me my food

32:30 or my drinks or anything like that, I'm always extra nice and extra thankful to these people.

32:35 And I always make sure to say thank you because there is something very interesting going on

32:41 when it comes to, I guess, the help class in the United States. And I don't mean that in

32:45 the slightest bit demeaning way, but people that are in sort of the helping side of support staff.

32:50 A lot of these people have lost their ability to really communicate and apply way. I've seen

32:56 that just across the board. People don't know how to say thank you. They don't know how to say

33:00 yes, sir, no, sir, yes, ma'am, no ma'am. And a lot of these people, part of it is because they

33:04 weren't taught it growing up. So they haven't seen it, but it's also not reciprocated, right?

33:08 Or it's not being shown to them. They're not having people be polite to them.

33:12 I brought up this story several times about being at a gas station and I go up to the phone,

33:15 Hey, how you doing today? And they just, they didn't even say words. They just meh.

33:19 They never looked me in the eye. They never looked up. They had like their their phone out and they

33:23 were like watching some anime thing or whatever. So they are like bebooping my stuff. And then

33:27 I'm like, all right, this is weird. So I pay and then it's all right. Have a good day. And they

33:30 just, they just mumbled, right? No, thank you or yes, sir. You have a good day. And guys,

33:35 it's so rare now that when someone is over the top polite, and I don't, I guess not,

33:40 let me back up a little bit. I'll buy that back a little bit. When someone is just

33:43 generically polite, when they say yes, sir, no, sir, hey, is there anything else I can do for you?

33:48 Hey, how can I make this situation better for you? I'm like, can I see your manager? I just want to

33:53 give you a hug in front of them so they know how good of a job that you just did when this is just

33:57 the way that it used to be. And maybe I'm rose colored glasses a little bit because I grew up

34:01 in Oklahoma and I was just surrounded by people that would literally give you the shirt off your

34:05 back. They didn't see as a microaggression to hold the door open for you if you're a woman or any

34:09 of those types of things. But in the world that I live in, in the world that you live in, especially

34:13 if you're a Christian, you should be like giving to people that you may never see again. The least

34:19 that you can give them is your attention and your politeness. Make eye contact with them.

34:25 Ask them if there's something that you could do for them, like any of those types of things. So

34:28 if you want to avoid being a crappy man in 2025, be extra nice to support staff and service providers

34:33 and make sure to say thank you. It's always a good idea. All right, here's another one. I'll

34:37 do a couple in a row that are every year ones. And this is one that's always a little hard for me

34:41 to talk about because I have to remember how stupid I used to be. Don't let sports ruin your night.

34:45 Don't let sports ruin your night. So I talk about this every year. Okay. So I used to watch sports

34:54 and I really, really cared about the outcome and specifically the St. Louis Cardinals. I'm a big baseball

34:59 guy. Obviously there's 162 regular season games plus the playoffs. And so if you think about that,

35:04 that is hundreds of pitches per game. And if you are living and dying with every one of those

35:09 pitches, that is a problem. Even if you're just living and dying with each one of those games,

35:13 that's a problem. But the St. Louis Cardinals, you know, when I was in my 20s, if they lost,

35:17 you know, a game in May, right, I would be apoplectic. I would be cussing and screaming and I would,

35:23 I would go to bed mad and I wake up angry or sad and it only got worse the far that they got into,

35:29 you know, a playoff run or even a World Series run. I remember going and seeing a World Series

35:33 game. This would have been the 2011 World Series game to in St. Louis against the Texas Rangers,

35:39 Cardinals had a lead going into the ninth inning and Jason Moth the closer blew the lead. Okay. In

35:44 the ninth inning, they ended up losing the game. We were staying at a friend's house near St. Louis.

35:49 And when I went over to their house, I couldn't even talk. I was so mad, right, that this team

35:55 that I wasn't a part of, that they would dare to lose the game because I wanted them to win.

35:59 How dare they lose this game? And so this family's opening up their home to my wife and I, who's

36:05 sitting there like, Oh my God, what did I marry? And they're opening up their home to me and showing

36:09 me hospitality and I couldn't even return it to them or reciprocate because I was mad. I was mad

36:14 that my team won, right? And I was quiet the whole drive home from St. Louis, to Oklahoma City the

36:18 next day. And I look back on that person, I look back on that time period, like you absolute moron.

36:24 But people just do that. They will let their entire being be disrupted by their chosen team,

36:33 not winning a team that they don't have that they have no connection to other than that.

36:39 They have chosen to be a fan of that team and they've bought some merch and maybe even some game

36:44 tickets. That's it. You got grown men, right? 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, grown men that will have their

36:52 entire week ruined because a group of 18, 19 and 20 year old football players didn't do the things

36:58 required in order for their team with their chosen jersey and colors to win, right? And they

37:03 will scream at the screen. They will scream at the ballgame. They'll scream at the players. They'll

37:09 scream at the referee. They'll scream at the coaches. They'll scream at the other team all because they

37:15 want their team to win. And look, I'm a sports guy, but I've gotten to the point now where if I can

37:19 feel myself really caring about the outcome of the game, I'll just skip it. I'll just skip it.

37:24 Maybe my be like, well, that's really immature of you. It's like, well, no, I mean, it's pretty

37:27 immature that I still feel that way sometimes. But it's the exact opposite that I'm avoiding it.

37:31 Because it's going to make me a worse husband and a worse father. And can I imagine I've got a

37:37 four year old and a two year old, if they see me screaming and hollering at a screen,

37:40 like getting all mad or even getting all crazy happy, like those videos aren't cute online, guys.

37:45 When you see these little kids that are like losing their minds, watching sports, that's

37:48 learned behavior. And they learned it from you, right? That's not a positive thing. It's not cute,

37:54 but by any stretch, the imagination. And so like, again, I kind of feel like whenever I avoid games

38:00 and I really care about the outcome, if there's a big comeback win or a walk off home run or all

38:04 that, am I missing that? Yeah. But that is worth it to me. I will miss stuff like that in order to

38:10 lose all the negatives, because I've ruined a lot of nights for a lot of people by being a self

38:14 historic as it pertains to sports again, that I wasn't actually playing in. And so guys, if you

38:19 want to avoid being a crappy man in 2025, don't let sports ruin your night. All right, next one here,

38:24 straight up, no porn, no jerking off. Okay, again, I've heard the struggle language. I've heard all

38:29 the excuses. I've heard the Oh, well, I tried accountability and I tried this software and tried

38:33 all that. Guess what, guys, decide, pre decide that you're not going to jerk off. That takes care

38:42 of the porn problem. And it also takes care of the masturbation problem. So as I've talked about on

38:48 the show, that used to be a big problem for me watching porn and masturbating and those types

38:52 of things hasn't been a problem for like 16 years, right? That's a problem for a long time go. But

38:58 the thing for me is I know that that is my bend. I don't have a chemical bend. So I can have a

39:02 whiskey or two and have no issues. And I've never had any illicit drugs of any kind whatsoever.

39:06 Because I don't want to even test if I would be like into those things or if I would like them.

39:10 I'm drawn to the aesthetic, right? I'm drawn to the voyeuristic, you know, checking women out or

39:15 watching porn or looking at pictures online. That's who I used to be. So I had to get to the point

39:20 where I just said, I just don't do this anymore. And the thing is, is in this particular world,

39:25 I feel like we complicate this way too much. And again, I'm not anti software, having software

39:31 on your computer. I'm not anti having accountability partners. I'm not anti having accountability groups.

39:36 The problem with all those things is they have massive holes in them. Because guess what, guys,

39:40 you know how to get around your software. You know how you know how to lie to your accountability

39:46 brothers. A lot of you are good at it. You do it all the time. You know how to hide it from

39:49 your wife. She caught you once. She'll never catch you again. You're just too good at it. Now,

39:53 right? But you know, whatever's done in the dark will be brought to the light. So just keep

39:56 that in mind, fellas. But you know how to get around all those things. So why are you playing

40:01 games with this? Why are you flirting with a sin category that biblically speaking is the only

40:08 sin that can be against yourself? We're not taught to hang out near sexual immorality. We're

40:12 taught to flee from sexual immorality, right? We're taught to flee from lust, not even be

40:17 anywhere near it. And so for those of you that are struggling in your parlance, maybe hopefully

40:23 you're going to shift that this year. I need you to do something for me. Okay. I need you

40:28 to memorize 2 Corinthians 10, 5. Okay. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself

40:34 up against the knowledge of God. We take captive every thought and make it accountable to Christ.

40:38 That is not here on my screen. I believe I memorized it in the NIV. I'm pretty sure I just nailed it.

40:42 Guys, I'm telling you this. This is going to be a little bit crass. So for the ladies listening

40:46 this, we love our lady listeners. This is going to sound ridiculous, but I promise you it's going

40:50 to land for some guys. Okay. So just listen, the next time you're bored and you've got a boner

40:56 and you're in normally what you would do is you would turn on porn or you would go into your

40:59 mental rolladex or your highlight reel or something like that and then throw your hand in your pants.

41:03 Instead, I want you to recite 2 Corinthians 10, 5 out loud if it's not weird to do it out loud

41:09 wherever you're at or in your head. I'm serious. And if you've memorized it in the NASB and you're

41:18 still feeling a lot of temptation, then go ahead and memorize it in the NASB, the NIV and the ESV,

41:24 and say them all three back to back. And if you need extra help, memorize it in another language.

41:29 You think I'm kidding. I'm not kidding at all. I want you to get the German or the Italian or

41:35 the Yiddish or whatever. And I want you to learn how to say 2 Corinthians 10, 5 in that language,

41:40 because what you're doing is you're changing the wiring of your brain to whenever I used to do

41:46 this modality, this would be the outcome. And now we're changing the trajectory of the initial

41:51 modality. That's what we're doing. Okay. So if you are really wanting to get over that this year,

41:57 if you're like, gosh, this porn thing's got a hold on me. I need to get rid of it. Don't buy in

42:01 to the addiction language. It's BS. It's garbage. Don't buy into it. Or even if you believe that

42:07 it's not garbage, treat it like it is. I promise you, my way of doing it is better than spending all

42:13 this money on all these other things that you know how to get around that aren't going to work.

42:18 Because here's the thing. I think most of you guys that quote unquote struggle with porn,

42:21 you don't actually struggle with it. You like it. You want to keep watching it, right?

42:25 And also, I think you like being a victim. I think you like walking into your little Sunday

42:29 school or your little, you know, pansy men's group and you sit around in a circle and you're like,

42:33 oh, you know, I made it a week without looking at porn masturbating. Then I fill off the wagon

42:36 and blah, blah, and everyone's just, Oh man. Okay. Well, make it make it 10 days this time and all that.

42:41 All you guys, you like doing it. You like doing it. And why wouldn't you? Right? One of the best

42:47 feelings a person can feel is ejaculation. Of course, you would want to keep doing that.

42:51 But you know, you're destroying yourself. You know, you're destroying,

42:55 destroying your positive and healthy sex drive that was given to you as a gift from God.

43:00 You know, you're destroying your marriage. You know, it is absolutely destroying your wife.

43:03 You know that she knows that you're still doing it. You know that if your kids found out, you would

43:08 be so mortified to that. Or if you found out that they were doing it, you would be mortified.

43:12 But none of that is a big enough deal for you to actually take care of this issue because you

43:16 like doing it because you're a selfish prick. Well, not enough. Enough of that.

43:20 This is the time. This is the time right now that you're going to pre-decide. I don't do that any

43:27 more. If you decide you're not going to masturbate, you're no longer going to look at porn. If you

43:32 decide to inject scripture into the time period, mentally, when you would normally go to a negative

43:37 and sinful, lustful place, it is better for you. Second Corinthians 10 five. If you want to avoid

43:42 being a crappy man in 2025, no porn, no jerking off. All right. This next one, it is a combo,

43:48 kind of a new and old. All right. If you're going to be present, be present. If you're going to be

43:54 present, be present. Okay. So in years past, I've described this as treat your presence as a

44:00 present or get rid of your smartwatch. So let me start with a smartwatch thing and we'll get into

44:04 the other side. So some people are just flat out rude because they're just rude, terrible people.

44:10 And so they will be at a meeting or they'll be hanging out with you and they'll be across from

44:14 you and you'll be talking and they'll be like, uh huh. Uh huh. And they got their phone out. Yeah.

44:18 Yeah. Okay. Oh no, I can, I can message them and listen, you know, I'm listening. Uh huh. Yeah.

44:23 Yep. Okay. So that's like the most rude you can be, right? That's like when someone's talking to

44:27 you and you start talking to somebody else. It's like, okay, you horrible person. Just punch that

44:31 person on the throat. But people have gotten smart. So what they will do is they'll take their phone

44:34 out and they'll make a show of putting their phone face down on the table. So they still feel

44:38 a vibrate, but they're not going to, you know, look at it as much. But then they got a smartwatch

44:43 with all the notifications turned on. So you'll be talking and they'll be like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

44:48 Okay. Yeah. Oh, no, I'm sorry. What was it on? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, no, it's fine. It's just like,

44:54 I've just got a little, well, you know, just one sec, just one sec. Okay. Yeah. Sorry. What was that?

44:58 This is worse. The watch part is worse. I promise you it's worse. Okay. You do not need text messages

45:07 on your wrist. You just don't, you don't need phone calls on your wrist. So I've got a smartwatch

45:11 that I've made dumb. I have all the notifications turned off. I don't want to know when I've gone

45:16 over 10,000 steps. I don't want to know if someone's trying to get a hold of me. I don't need that.

45:19 I've already got my phone, which is like an extension of my body, right? I've already got

45:23 that. So why in the world do I need the smartwatch? Okay. If your smartwatch is keeping you from

45:28 giving attention to the people that are standing right in front of you, stop it. But let's broaden

45:32 this out a little bit more in terms of if you're going to be present, be present. So I've had a

45:36 bad habit with my boys, especially when they were younger, because their little kids, what do they

45:40 know where I'll be with them in the floor while they're playing. But I'm looking at my phone.

45:44 And now I've already got the excuses ready made guys. I'm a content creator, right? How can I

45:50 create content if I'm not absorbing content? How can I know what's going on in the world around me

45:53 if I'm not absorbing stuff from the world around me? I need to absorb news. I need to

45:57 absorb videos and I need to absorb culture and I need to absorb tweets. I need to absorb these,

46:03 these DMS and all these different posts on Instagram so that when the exact right comment needs to

46:07 come up in an interview or in a solo episode that I can just boo spout it out of my wonderfully

46:12 smart and astute mouth and I need all those things, right? Or hey, I'm on my email. Look,

46:16 this is a client. I mean, these people pay me. So I got to be able to respond. This is my business.

46:20 But the reality is, is your kids don't care about any of that. Don't care about any of that.

46:26 They just want you, dad. They want your undivided attention. They want when they're trying to

46:33 tell you a story in there, three years old. And the story is like, I found this thing and, well,

46:40 it's got a cap on it. And I was in the closet and I farted, right? That's a three year old story.

46:46 That's a typical three year old story. And guess what? Did that change your life?

46:49 Did I help you grow dendrites in your brain? Did I help you create new pathways where you can

46:53 lead to more flourishing for humans around the globe? No. But it was the most important thing

46:58 that your kid can think to say to dad in that moment. So why not give him your full attention?

47:03 Right. With your wife, like I was at my wife and I were at dinner the other night and we looked to

47:07 our, I looked to my right to her left. This family was sitting at the table. Every single one of

47:11 them was on their smartphones. All of them, varying ages, none of them were talking to one another.

47:17 And so perhaps the dad has an excuse. Maybe the mom is an influencer online and she needed to

47:23 respond to something because it pertained to something that could add to the bottom line of the family.

47:27 Maybe, but everybody. And every time we looked over there, guys, the same thing was happening.

47:33 Even once the food came out, even once the food came out, they couldn't be bothered to put their

47:38 phones down. And I don't know. I wasn't looking at their phones. Maybe they were texting, maybe they're

47:41 tweeting, maybe they're watching YouTube, maybe they're playing some sort of game, but they were

47:44 just dead in their phones, not connecting with the people that are right there in front of them. And

47:51 so for you guys, I want you to think about those times when you're like, Oh my gosh, I,

47:54 I'm sitting here with my family. I don't remember the last time I looked up. That's a problem.

47:59 Right. And if your phone, which it is for me, if your phone is part of your business and making

48:05 things and creating content and responding to emails, if that's part of your business, that's

48:08 great. But just like everything else in moderation and in due time, when you're sitting there on the

48:13 floor with your four year old and your two year old son, yes, I'm talking to myself, that's not the

48:17 time to be scrolling. That's not the time to be doom scrolling, certainly not. It's not the time

48:22 to be responding to stuff unless it's pertinent to that exact moment. So guys, you want to avoid

48:26 being a crappy man in 2025. If you're going to be present, be present. All right, guys, another one

48:31 here. Study the Bible with other men weekly. Study the Bible with other men weekly. So there's

48:37 three things there. Study the Bible. That's one with other men to and weekly. That's three. Let's

48:42 start from the end and we'll back up to the beginning. Here's the thing where most men's groups fail.

48:47 They don't meet enough. So we expect very little of men. And so we'll do a once a month thing,

48:54 or we'll maybe do a bi weekly thing. But let's say you're doing a once a month thing and I miss

48:58 people are like, Oh, well, he missed a month. No, I've now missed two months because I missed

49:03 the month prior to that meeting and I've missed the month after that meeting. And if I miss another

49:07 one, now I've missed a quarter of the year. What are the odds that I'm going to come back to do

49:12 that thing if I've missed three months worth of it? I mean, most men, if they get behind, they're

49:16 like, I just don't really want to play this game anymore. I get it. I totally get it. So weekly is

49:21 what it has to be. That has to be the cadence. I study the Bible with other men. The value I get

49:28 from the forging table, I'm pointing to it because it's on the other side of the studio here

49:31 has been so tremendous. And it's tremendous because I am limited.

49:36 Almost everyone that sat at that table, except for what Terry Fakes, Matt Chandler and Joby Martin,

49:41 none of them are professional Christians. We're just dudes that can read, right? But we all have

49:45 different backgrounds. We've grown up in slightly different, you know, faith mechanisms and studying

49:51 in different ways. And our brains work differently. And so when I study with other men, yeah, I just

49:57 happen to, you know, turn on the cameras and the microphones and the lights and all that. And it

50:00 works out well for y'all. But I'm learning so much because whenever I read, I only get what I know,

50:06 right? I only get what I'm able to absorb. I only get what the Holy Spirit is telling me in

50:10 that moment when I study with other men, that's a big deal. And then also it's study the Bible

50:15 with other men weekly study the Bible. Guys, the Logos Bible software, I talk about it every

50:21 forging table. So if you skip it, that is the most powerful Bible software on planet Earth.

50:25 So if you want to do devotionals, it's in there. If you want to get into different translations,

50:29 it's in there. If you want to do like word studies, all that's in there. So guys, Logos Bible software,

50:35 go check out the show notes for any forging table episode. Logos Bible software, you can go there,

50:39 you can get it at discount. We've got a special link and all that. So we can put that in there for

50:43 you. But guys, this is a big deal. So many men, I know they don't have a foxhole. They don't understand

50:50 the Bible. They want deeper spiritual depth. And none of these men that are complaining about that

50:54 study the Bible with other men weekly. Start there. Find two other guys, find two other dudes

51:01 that will meet you this Tuesday at 6 a.m. or this Sunday at 7 p.m. or whenever the time works out.

51:07 And you just in, I don't care, use the forging table materials, right? Start with Matthew,

51:11 start with Galatians, start with Nehemiah. I don't care. Use those materials. Have everyone study

51:16 and then have them listen to the episode. And then you can all discuss it together. But guys,

51:19 if you want to avoid being a crappy man in 2025, study the Bible with other men weekly.

51:23 All right. Next one here, get involved with a local church. Okay, get involved in a local

51:28 church. So I'm going to be brief on this one because this is the thing that I want to say.

51:30 And my wife or my wife and I were guilty of that, you know, years ago, seven or eight years ago,

51:35 before we started going to Faith Bible Church in Denver, Oklahoma. Most people, when they look

51:39 at church, they look at a church for what the church can do for them. Is this church going to

51:43 serve my needs is the preaching, my style that I like is the music, something that I enjoy listening

51:48 to is it close to my house? Do I like the people that are there? Do I feel like all those types of

51:52 things? And there are varying levels of those being things being appropriate or inappropriate.

51:56 But the thing is, is you have yet to walk into a local body of believers and think to yourself,

52:01 how can I serve this community? And I've also talked to a lot of men that are like, oh, yeah,

52:06 you know, my wife and I, we tried some churches, but you know, our kids are young and it's kind of

52:09 hard to get them to church. And you know, I would go to these churches, but it's kind of hard to my

52:13 job and my this man, we've all got excuses. But being involved in a local body of believers is not

52:18 an option. So you listen to La Crete church, close years ago and you decide, I'm just going to do

52:23 me, I'm just going to do my own thing. I don't need the local body of believers. Well, guess what?

52:27 Champ, you don't get that. You don't get the right to make that decision. Okay, it is a biblical mandate

52:33 that you get involved in a local body of believers. And guess what? It's good for the body. And it's

52:37 good for you, right? You're never going to find a church that checks all your boxes. My church

52:42 doesn't like I've told, I've told you guys so many times, the overwhelming positive thing about my

52:47 church is that it's healthy. We don't got a lot of drama and we got a bunch of kids running around.

52:52 That's what I love about my church. There are things I don't like about it. Okay, I'm not going to

52:56 lose today to hear because I know a lot of people from my church listen to this, but I've talked

52:59 about some of those things before. It doesn't check my boxes. If I could just like poof, like snap my

53:03 fingers and change certain things, I would do it. But the church is healthy. And guess what? I can

53:07 serve there. I can teach Sunday school. I can, you know, get involved in other ministries. I can

53:13 give in a way that is sacrificial so that the bride of Christ can be glorified, right? And all

53:18 those things. But if you're not even involved in a local church, you can't do that. So guys,

53:22 if you want to avoid being a crappy man in 2025, get involved in a local church. All right, we got a

53:26 few more left here. Next one, this is a new one. New one, guys, love new ones. Think in black and

53:32 white terms. Think in black and white terms. So this is what I mean. I don't mean racially by any

53:38 stress imagination. Too many people are comfortable with gray areas. Too many. And they're like, oh,

53:45 well, you know, the situation in their favorite word to use even if they're dumb is well, it's

53:48 nuanced. Well, well, there's nuance here. And then you ask them a question like, okay, well, can you

53:52 explain the nuance or the tension here? And they can't do it. They were just using a word to fill

53:56 in a place because they've never actually thought through their philosophy on this particular issue.

54:00 But so many people are like, oh, but there's just gradations and there's gray areas and different

54:04 things like that. But the truth is, is when it comes to absolute morality and absolute truth,

54:09 there is no gray. So the skinny on this is if you're a Christian, then it follows that you believe

54:15 an absolute truth, okay, capital A, capital T, absolute truth. If you believe an absolute truth,

54:21 then it follows that you should fight against thinking in gradations or nuance.

54:27 Because what nuance is there to killing an unborn baby? So Mr. or Mrs. nuance, what is the nuance

54:36 there? That is an innocent human being inside of their mother's womb. Make the affirmative argument

54:42 for how there should be gray areas for whether or not we should be allowed to kill that innocent

54:47 baby that is currently residing in their mother's womb. Seemed like an extreme example? Exactly.

54:51 I'm using it to make my point because even with subject matters that aren't nearly as important as

54:57 life and unborn human life, we just get sucked into, oh, there's too much gray area. No, sometimes

55:02 there's just black and white. And again, this goes into, is this a truth claim or is this an opinion?

55:07 So you might think strawberry ice cream is the best. I might think vanilla is the best.

55:11 And guess what? We could pull everyone on the planet and more of them could agree with you than me,

55:15 but it doesn't make me wrong. It's just an opinion. It's not a provable thing. But if I were to say

55:20 that strawberry ice cream exists and I'm holding it in my hand currently, that's either true or not

55:26 true. Okay, there is no gray. There's no nuance in that situation, either either is or it's not.

55:33 And so again, we get pulled into all these different directions. And it's usually by people that are

55:39 non-believers and things like that. It's like, oh, let's philosophize on that and let's really think

55:42 through it. No, it either is or it isn't. And now as humanity, we may not know a thing, but that

55:47 doesn't mean that there's a gradation of the thing. So in the forging table here before too

55:51 longer and here is talking about Noah's ark and different things like that. And well, how did they

55:55 get that many animals and what do they mean by kinds and where they were big? Where did they

55:59 put the poop and all that kind of things? We may not know the exact thing, but the exact thing does

56:03 exist. It is a black or white thing. It either happened or it didn't. It either happened in this

56:08 way or it didn't happen in this way. And so guys, I want you to be thinking lesson gradations and

56:13 nuance in 2025 and thinking black and white terms. And if you do that, you will avoid being a crappy

56:18 man this year. All right. Next one here. Don't pretend that you know something that you don't.

56:22 And I've said it this way before relish in the opportunity to look like an idiot.

56:26 So this is something that guys do. Guys will get asked, Oh, hey, have you heard of this band?

56:30 They'll be like, Oh, yeah, I've heard of that band. And they haven't. Oh, hey, you know,

56:33 you know, you know, this car that I'm talking about. No, they'll be like, yeah, yeah, yeah,

56:35 no, they haven't heard that car. Every I used to be that guy as well, where someone would say,

56:40 Oh, have you seen this? Or do you know about this? Or do you know about this person?

56:43 And you just you just respond like you don't want to be left out of the club. You don't want this

56:47 kind of like disjointed FOMO. And so you're like, yeah, yeah, I do. But look for an opportunity

56:53 to be an idiot in a situation. So I've used this example for all use it again.

56:56 Hunting, I did not grow up in a family that hunted. So I basically didn't do anything outdoors that

57:02 didn't involve the ball, right? I was a ball sports kid. And I was a straight A student. And so in

57:06 order to maintain both of those things, I wasn't hunting. I wasn't camping. I wasn't fishing. And

57:11 even if I wanted to do those things, no one in my family did any of those things. Okay. Now,

57:15 as an adult, I am learning how to hunt. Okay. So this year, I think I'm getting a compound bow.

57:21 And last year for the first time I, I bow hunted and I'm learning different things. But here's a deal.

57:25 And my buddies who are teaching me to hunt, I'm basically a blue belt at hunting.

57:28 So I'm not completely worthless, but I'm kind of still terrible. Right? That's essentially what a

57:34 blue belt is in jujitsu. But I've looked like an idiot a lot. I've made mistakes a lot as it

57:41 pertains to hunting. But I'm relishing those opportunities. Yes, they check my ego. And it's

57:45 like, Oh God, I can't believe you made that mistake. What's wrong with you? But guess what?

57:49 I'm learning. It's better than pretending that you know something. Because guess what? Let's say

57:54 you're sitting there with a bonafide expert and in particular subject matter. Just just pick,

57:57 pick it, pick the scenario for yourself. You're sitting there with a bonafide expert,

58:01 and they're asking you a question to see if you know the answer. And you don't know the answer,

58:04 but you flink around it. What you've done is you've robbed them of an opportunity to teach you

58:08 something and you've robbed yourself of an opportunity to learn something. This can go for sports or

58:13 Bible study or tinkering with something or fixing something or any number of things, guys.

58:19 I always am quick to know. Hey, Kyle, do you know how this rifle mechanism works? Nope. I don't.

58:25 Can you show me? Hey, Kyle, do you know how to take this part and put it back together?

58:27 Absolutely not. Can you show me? And the thing is, is like, they love the process of showing me.

58:33 And then I love the process of learning. And the reason why I've grown to love the process of

58:37 learning is because I've got two boys that are sponges. And if they can learn something because

58:41 dad learned something from somebody else, that is a net positive. So if you want to avoid being

58:45 a crappy man of 2025, don't pretend that you know something that you don't. Three more left.

58:50 Next one here. Look for an opportunity to not be offended. Look for an opportunity to not be

58:55 offended. Being offended is currency. In the in the day and age we're in, it's currency.

59:03 Because if you are offended, you are a victim. And if you're a victim, that means that you are

59:06 somehow more right than people that have not been victimized, right? I've elucidated that a lot.

59:10 A lot of conservative commentators have done the exact same thing. But there are times in your life

59:14 where you could get offended, where you literally were wronged, you were slided, somebody was rude

59:21 to you. And imagine how different things would look in that situation. And even just for you

59:25 mentally, if you just took the opportunity to not be offended. So somebody bumps into you,

59:30 or somebody says something to you that's a little bit off color, or things didn't go as you expected,

59:35 or any of those situations. Don't be offended. There are times to be offended. But for the most

59:40 part, it is not going to serve you well to sit there and be the victim. So quick one there. But

59:44 if you want to avoid being a crappy man of 2025, look for an opportunity to not be offended.

59:48 All right. Next one here. Get involved locally. Okay. So I've said this a lot of times.

59:52 This was especially true last year, because last year, as you saw, especially for my wrap up

59:56 episodes, the entire news cycle circled around the 2024 election. Oh boy. Right. Especially on this

1:00:03 show on any shows on anything that you talk to, like if your water cooler discussions, everything

1:00:08 revolved around that. But then you would ask somebody like, Hey, who'd you vote for for mayor?

1:00:13 They couldn't tell you who was even going for it. Hey, who'd you vote for for sheriff?

1:00:18 Shoot. I forgot to even do that. Hey, your kids are in public school, right? Yeah. Yeah. Who's on

1:00:24 the school board? No clue. But you know, you're voting for Trump. You know, you're voting for

1:00:30 Kamala or whatever your situation is. You know more about what's going on in Ukraine than you do

1:00:36 about what's going on in your neighborhood, right? How is that a positive thing? Because politics

1:00:41 used to be local and we've been convinced that it's now a national phenomenon. Okay. So for everybody

1:00:47 listening to this, I promise you, you will be able to get more done on a local level than you will

1:00:51 ever get to do on a national level. The odds of me speaking out of local political rally versus a

1:00:57 national political rally are way higher on the local side than the national side. The odds of me

1:01:02 being able to sway an election here in my local town air are way better than a national election,

1:01:07 just because math guys, like there are local elections that are decided by a few dozen votes,

1:01:13 right? We're never going to have a presidential election decided by a few dozen votes. And yet

1:01:17 you've spent hundreds of hours con consuming content about a race where you've already

1:01:22 decided who you're going to vote for. So there are ways to get involved locally. There are local

1:01:26 papers. I know what year is it? But yes, you can, you can get the local paper. You can go to let

1:01:31 local chamber or commerce. There's Kiwanis clubs, rotary clubs, different things. You can get

1:01:36 an idea about what's happening in your city, your town, anywhere you live. Guys, if you want to avoid

1:01:41 being a crappy man in 2025, get involved locally. And we are going to wrap up the 18 ways to avoid

1:01:46 being a crappy man in 2025 with a new one. Okay, a new one. Don't only consume content from sources

1:01:53 that you agree with. Okay. So for some of you, if you've gotten all the way to the end of this

1:01:59 episode, at some point on those last 17, I probably made you feel not so good on the inside. Okay,

1:02:04 I can be fairly blunt and fairly straightforward on the things that I talk about. And so some of

1:02:09 those probably bristled up against you and you didn't really appreciate it that much. I get it,

1:02:12 I understand it. But if you're only consuming content from sources where people agree with you

1:02:17 can constantly, you're not growing. You're deepening your level of understanding in your

1:02:22 own point of view, but you're not understanding someone else's point of view. Okay. So if I want

1:02:27 to understand atheism, okay, so somebody that is convinced that we are all a cosmic accident,

1:02:33 right? So they don't believe in miracles. And yet they believe that time, space and matter

1:02:37 entered via a timeless faceless and immaterial beginning. But aside from that, but I can't

1:02:43 understand what's going on in the brain of an atheist if I only listen to William Linkregg.

1:02:47 Okay, or only listen to John MacArthur or only read books from or sermons from Charles Spurgeon.

1:02:55 I'm not going to get a full fledged idea because those guys aren't thinking in that way. They're

1:03:00 thinking how they can speak to an atheist, but they're not thinking in that way. Same thing

1:03:05 politically. If you're sitting there as a Republican, because I know most people that listen to this

1:03:09 politically are more on the right than they are on the left. If you're thinking to yourself,

1:03:13 how in the world could somebody be supporting Kamala Harris? Like, how could someone live in

1:03:18 California and think that Gavin Newsom is a good person for them? Wait, how is it that Justin Trudeau

1:03:24 has been in charge of a major Western nation for as long as he's been? Well, have you tried

1:03:28 consuming content from people that actually support those individuals? I'm not saying they're

1:03:33 going to sway you, right? Because the thing is with most of those people is they don't have

1:03:37 morality on their side. They don't have correct data on their side. It's all just conjecture,

1:03:43 right? It's all just philosophizing. It's definitely not black and white thinking unless it's racial

1:03:47 thinking so that they can get one over on somebody on the conservative side of the ledger. But,

1:03:51 you know, I'll digress a little bit. But if you listen to news sources that aren't the ones you

1:03:55 normally consume, you will get a better understanding of how those people think and why they think the

1:03:59 way that they do. That will be of value to you in a myriad of circumstances, but even especially

1:04:04 in a gospel circumstance. Because if I'm sharing the gospel with somebody that is unchurched and

1:04:10 vehemently atheist, if all you've ever done is listen to, you know, Nana teach Sunday school and you've

1:04:16 listened just to your local passer, you may not be ready for a situation like that. I'm not saying

1:04:21 the Holy Spirit can't do what the Holy Spirit's going to do, but you're going to be kind of taken

1:04:24 for a loop there. But if you've kind of gotten an idea of how these people think, if you've

1:04:29 consumed the arguments of people that are on the other side, it's a net positive for you.

1:04:33 So I'm not saying if you're a conservative that, hey, don't listen to Glenn Beck this

1:04:37 year and don't listen to Matt Wallis this year and don't listen to Ben Shapiro, don't listen to

1:04:40 Tucker Carlson, only listen to people that are popular on the left. But I am saying sneak it in

1:04:44 a little bit here and not just when you hear it on one of those other guys's shows because

1:04:48 that's selectively edited. It's helping them make their point. But listen to these other people,

1:04:53 give them the opportunity to sway you even though the truth of it is that they are not going to be

1:05:00 on the correct side of the ledger as it pertains to that issue. So guys, the last one here of the

1:05:05 top 18 ways to avoid being a crappy man in 2025 don't only consume content from sources that you

1:05:10 agree agree with. So that is the list. Let me see if I can get it all in here. So start a grad two

1:05:14 lists, don't celebrate people that take shortcuts, do really hard things that constantly challenges

1:05:19 your ego and teaches you something. Oh, and I left one out earlier because I snuck it in there,

1:05:22 but what was it the here? Sorry, we're doing it live. No more. I struggle with blank language.

1:05:27 All right, no more. I struggle with blank language. Let's get back into the list here.

1:05:31 Don't be late. Practice pre decision. Learn to fight, be extra nice to support staff and service

1:05:36 providers and make sure you say thank you. Don't let sports ruin your night. No porn,

1:05:40 no jerking off. If you're going to be present, be present, study the Bible with other men weekly,

1:05:45 get involved in local church, think in black and white terms. Don't pretend that you know

1:05:49 something you don't look for an opportunity to not be offended. Get involved locally and don't

1:05:54 only consume content from sources that you agree with. That's the list, guys. I hope it's helpful to

1:05:59 you. But before I let you go, we're not going to do a quick resilience boost add and don't

1:06:01 allow for missions, equipment, men to push back darkness with content that forges spiritual mental

1:06:05 and physical resilience. I've got three links for you today. One is to our donation page. Again,

1:06:08 guys, we are donation based ministry. If you want to see this content getting out to more guys

1:06:12 around the globe, we need your help hop on board be a monthly donor. Also, I've got a link to where

1:06:16 you can join the waitlist for dominion. If you don't know what that is, undaunted.life/dominion,

1:06:20 that link is here as well. And also link to the logos Bible software. It's our link to where you

1:06:24 can get that at a discount. Guys, if you're going to study the Bible this year, make sure you can go

1:06:27 as deep into that subject matter if you want to. We really appreciate it. Thank you for listening

1:06:31 to this podcast. Wherever you're listening to this, please subscribe, rate, and leave us a positive

1:06:35 five star review. If you want me to come speak live at your event or on your podcast, just shoot me

1:06:39 an email to info@undonton.life. That's i-n-f-o @undonton.life. Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook,

1:06:46 and check out our website for everything else, including how to donate to keep more content like

1:06:49 this coming your way. Just go to www.undonton.life. And as always, we want to thank the band Holy Name

1:06:55 for allowing us to use their music for our content. The music on this podcast is our song Perpetua,

1:06:59 which is off their self-titled debut album on Face Down Records. The links are in the description.

1:07:04 I'm your host, Kyle Thompson. Remember, keep pushing back darkness, keep forging spiritual,

1:07:10 mental, and physical resilience. Keep seeking the lion of Judah.

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