One of the most powerful forces on human life is urgency.
Urgency, quite simply put, is importance that requires swift action.
But too often we take swift action on the unimportant things in our lives. Like social media, and the other things dinging and blinging on our phones.
Or we take swift action on other people’s important issues. (If you have kids or an underprepared boss, you know what I’m talk’n bout, Willis.)
However, we fail to take swift action on the things most important to our lives, our success and our most valued projects.
I bet that you have big dreams, goals and ideas that, if completed, would make a massive impact on your life.
Maybe you want to start a business, travel to amazing places, organize a fun event, get together with family or friends you haven’t seen in a long time, or create that art thingie that only you understand. Maybe you have something big you want to take on at work that would change your organization in a major, positive way.
But I am also willing to bet that you took no steps towards making that a reality yesterday. Or in the last week. Or in the last year. Or maybe ever. Like ever, ever.
The problem is that you have ideas, visions and goals, but you don’t have a motivating deadline.
Remember: It is the deadline that creates urgency.
It is the deadline that requires swift action.
But not just any old deadline will do, Buckaroo.
Most self-selected deadlines are far too far off.
Short deadlines drive action.
There is a very simple test for the effectiveness of your deadline.
Your deadline must require you to do something today to stay on pace.
If your deadline doesn’t require anything of you today, your deadline is too long, Duk Dong.
If your deadline doesn’t create a feeling of discomfort for work undone today, it is not effective.
If your deadline doesn’t influence your actions or your schedule today, there is too much slack in it.
Your deadline has to create constraint. It must create a friction that prevents you from letting important activities keep on slippin, slippin, slippin, into the future.
Key Takeaway
To force dreams, goals and great ideas to life, you need shorter deadlines. A loose deadline has no power. Create deadlines that demand action today. Tighten your deadlines to force yourself into action. The tighter the better. Unreasonable deadlines can drive remarkable results. So trade in someday for this year, this week or this afternoon. And you will discover just how much you are capable of accomplishing.
*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.
By now, you have taken a Giannis Antetokounmpo-sized step into 2026. And if you are anything like me (I hope for your sake you are not), you are hoping that this year is your best year ever. But great years don’t just happen on their own. You need to force your year to be great.
That may sound hard.
But it’s not.
The indisputable law of the universe to focus on right now is The 80/20 Rule. This rule dictates that 80 percent of your results will come from 20 percent of your actions. It’s a valuable reminder to focus on the vital few activities that really matter. And to forget about the trivial many that don’t.
I am always inspired by lazy but successful people. They are not the rise and grind types. They are not workaholics. They are more like the Mayor of Lazytown. But they are also intelligent. And they get ahead by doing less. Sometimes much, much less than others. Yet, they keep rising and shining. What’s up with that, pussycat?
The key to their success is that they do the right things. They spend their time focused on the vital few activities that return 80% of the desired results.
The right things are often relationship things. They are about developing and maintaining relationships with the people who can have a major impact on your opportunities. (I leave this broad, because I don’t know what kind of opportunities you are after.) But opportunities of every sort come through connectors, endorsers, gatekeepers, and inviters.
In addition to developing the right relationships (and showering), the other 3 things that tend to have an outsized impact are:
Doing only the things you do best.
Showing up at the right places.
Asking for what you want.
People often spend a lot of time doing hard things that reinforce the value we put on a strong work ethic. But those efforts can divert time and attention from the little things that make the biggest difference. So in 2026, learn a lesson from the lazy successful people. Work smarter. Not harder. And get greater results by doing more of what matters most.
Key Takeaway
Boil down all the things you could be doing in January to the few things that create the greatest impact. Develop and maintain relationships with the people who can support your goals, spend the majority of your time doing the things you do best, show up to the places and events that matter most, and ask for what you want. If you get those things right, you are 80% of the way to an outstanding year.
*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.
As I start each year, I like to take a moment to remind myself what leads to a great year and ultimately a great life. Here are some of the most important rules I live by, in a particular order. I hope you find some value in them, too. If not, I encourage you to create your own list and share it with me. God knows I can use all the help I can get.
26 Rules For How To Have A Great 2026.
Nothing works if you don’t. Success is a result of action.
Your habits are your most important asset. You form your habits and then your habits form you.
Add value before you try to extract value. Never forget the order of operations. Your value is directly related to your contribution.
Your best energy is early in the day. Do the big stuff in the morning. But not the Double Stuf. Save that for dessert.
In the end, the only thing that matters is the impact we have on each other. Put people first, and be a positive force in their lives. This is how you get people to show up at your funeral. (This and the all-you-can-eat ham sandwiches.)
Don’t be a jerk. We have enough of them. People need allies and compassion. Not jerkitude.
Get good sleep. Know your ideal amount of sleep and get it as often as you can. Sleep is nature’s power-up.
This too shall pass. Even the really tough stuff will soon be in the rear-view mirror. Just keep swimming.
Exercise is the best medicine. It’s better than an apple at keeping the doctor away. (But speaking of doctors…)
See your doctor and dentist every year. Your scans, blood tests, ograms, and oscopies help find things when they are small and treatable. This can add years or even decades to your life. Do it for your loved ones.
Do hard things. Nothing is better for building confidence and a repertoire of great stories.
Always do what you know is right. This rule has never failed me. Listen to your inner voice. It knows what to do.
When you are right, don’t act in a way that makes you have to apologize.
Invest as much and as early as you can. Let compound interest work its magic, Johnson.
Don’t put your hands in your pockets as you walk up or down stairs. If you trip, you’re going to need those hands to protect your face from the floor.
Travel as much as you can. It provides knowledge, experience, understanding, stories and ideas that last a lifetime. When you are old and can no longer travel, you can always go back in your mind.
Put a case and a screen protector on your phone. It will save you a lot of money.
Burn more calories every day than you take in. That’s the simple formula to maintain a healthy weight.
Don’t worry about how much milk you spill as long as you don’t lose your cow. There will be unfortunate things that cost you money. It’s ok. Just make sure to hold onto the thing that helps you make more money, honey.
A happy marriage is the best thing in the world. I expect the opposite is also true. Prioritize your spouse. Even above your kids. It sets a great example for them.
Reading books is like weight lifting for your brain. Read as much as you can. If you need to you can always buy a bigger hat.
Don’t stick your tongue out when you are in a moving car. Because if you are in an accident, you will bite your tongue off.
Think long term. Don’t try to make or save money today that will cost you money over the years to come.
Take the red eye home from the West Coast. It’s like stealing time.
Spend time with your people in real life. People are better in person. It’s one of the best things you can do for your happiness and well-being.
Capacity is a state of mind. You will do more when you believe you can do more.
(Bonus) Yesterday is the most important day. What you did yesterday enables everything you can do today.
Key Takeaway
The best way to have a great year is to put your accumulated experiences and resulting wisdom to work for you. You’re wiser than you were a year ago. Take advantage of it. Let’s have a great 2026! I hope we get to see each other in real life!
*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.
One of your greatest responsibilities is making good choices. (Just like your Mom and Dad used to say.)
Your choices are always based on your decision-making criteria, which are based on one of two drivers.
Reaching a goal.
Avoiding a negative.
Ever since I was in high school, I have been making decisions based on my most ambitious goals.
Breaking a state record
Going to a great college
Having a noteworthy career in advertising
Being a good husband and father
Starting a business
Creating a blog
Writing a book
Keeping my teeth in my mouth.
My goals have informed my decisions about what to eat, where I live, which flight I take home from business trips, what time I get up, how I invest my money and a thousand other things.
To live a great life, to enjoy a great career, and to craft an enviable story, make sure that you are making goal-oriented decisions.
Always choose the options that advance you towards your goals.
Pick things that propel you.
Opt for the path to fulfill your dreams.
It’s valuable to take on risks that take you towards the life, the results and the rewards you want.
Always pick the door that leads to growth and expansion.
Be wary of your decisions to avoid.
Avoiding the work.
Or the pain.
Or the sacrifice.
Or the awkward. (I always find awkward is an awkward word to spell. Wouldn’t ockword be less awkward?)
It’s far better to set your north star of purpose, goal achievement, and nonnegotiables.
Those propel, compel, expand and improve your life. They energize and enhance. They help you make your dreams a reality. And that is the hallmark of a life well lived.
Key Takeaway
A great life is built on great decisions. Once you decide what you want your life to be like, your vision should drive all your decisions. And the only things to avoid will be those things that hinder your progress towards your goals.
*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.
The writing and publishing marathons are finite. You complete them and move on. (You should also shower and rehydrate.)
But the promotional marathon only ends when you stop. And when you stop promoting your book your book stops selling.
It’s a good reminder that when you have products or services to sell, you should never stop promoting them. Otherwise, they lose awareness and, in turn, lose value. Because they only have value when people see them, think about them, and value them.
Which means that more exposure leads to greater appreciation. Which leads to preference, desire and demand.
This is how you generate value for your organization.
It’s also how you generate more value for your personal brand.
People have to know you to know your value.
They have to desire what you have in order to give you their money, honey.
If you are unknown, you are also uncompensated.
If your offerings are invisible, they are inconsequential.
If potential customers and clients don’t see you, they won’t see value in you. Unless you sell Invisibility Cloaks. In which case, the opposite is true.
This is why advertising is so valuable.
It’s why trade shows are valuable.
And public relations.
And talking about your offering on social media.
And promotions of all sorts. Even the wacky stuff.
We created The Weaponry to help our clients with all of these activities.
Because the more people who know you, the more they help grow you.
Key Takeaway
Create products worthy of promotion. Offer services that people want. Then talk about them as much as you can. There are always more people who should know about you, your products and your services. You will reap the rewards until the talking stops. Which is why advertising is a never-ending discipline.
*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.
We all know people who do more than everyone else.
They do the family things and the home things.
They do the friends things, the travel things, the work things, and the wild things.
And miraculously, they seem to be enjoying it all.
Like cyborgs. Or Stepford Wives.
They are creating things that interest them.
They are volunteering for causes they care about.
They are having success in their career, running their own business or leading their family.
They do the networking activities you would like to do.
They exercise.
And they get to worship, too, God bless them.
Plus, they coach or chaperone or team parent for the activities their kids do.
You wonder How do they do it all?
How are they involved in so many things? How do they fit it all in? And how do they not Chernobyl like it’s 1986?
The answer is simple.
Capacity is a state of mind.
You decide how much you can handle, how much you can take on, how much you can fit in.
You decide how much you can do with your hours, days and weeks.
When you decide you are full and overwhelmed, you stop. (Presumably in the name of love.)
People who do more believe they have a capacity to do more.
They see spaces to add things.
They find time in their schedule to make things happen.
They see opportunities that are worth their time and their energy.
And they recognize that at some point, they will run out of time, energy and opportunity.
So they go now.
The scarcity of time is precisely what drives them to see more capacity in their everyday.
Now is the time.
Now is the opportunity.
Now is the alternative to never.
Key Takeaway
If you want to fill your life with meaning, action and contribution, adjust your mindset to create capacity. Because when you want to find the time for more, you will find it. Or you will optimize, prioritize, reduce or eliminate things to make room. There is more space and time in your continuum for the things you really want to do. Find it. Enjoy it. Do more with it. And make others wonder how you do it all.
*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.
Because the foolproof cure for boredom is to have big goals.
And I am the fool with the proof.
Big goals, and many of them, help fill your days with purpose.
I have so many goals that they govern my days. (In a non-political governing kind of way.)
From the moment I wake up, my routine is constructed to help me achieve my goals.
Because when you have a strong vision for your future, it shapes your now.
And you see time as a tool for you to use to achieve your goals.
Fitness goals inspire you to exercise. Even when you would rather TexMexercise.
Travel goals squash boredom with planning, adventure, reflection and memories.
Career goals inspire you to work harder, more focused, and with more zeal. (Or a more contemporary word for zeal.)
Financial goals drive you to save and invest. Even when you have the urge to splurge, Virg.
And your financial goals will inspire you to explore and discover smarter things to do with your money, honey.
Entrepreneurial goals mean you are never bored. Ever. Like ever, ever.
Reading goals mean that you always have a good reason to log off of electronics and fill your time with something that adds value to your life. (And increases your vocabularium.)
Writing goals drive you to sit down and write every day. And it is hard to be bored when you are creating. Just ask God. Or Tyler Perry.
Domestic goals around improving your home, and yard keep you busy and productive. Not bored.
Relationship goals influence the way you invest your time, the way you treat the important people in your life, and the hashtags you use on social media.
Your goals help you make decisions all day long about the things you should and shouldn’t do with your time. Which means that goals enhance productivity, decision making, time management, and relationships. Not to mention the positive impact they have on your happiness, adventurousness, and good old-fashioned usefulness. (Basically all the nesses.)
Key Takeaway
The next time you find yourself bored, think about the goals that you could be working towards. If you find that you don’t have any, set new ones that you can work towards right now. Boredom is a signal that you need more meaningful activity in your life. And goals are the greatest way to make that happen.
*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.
On a recent Saturday morning, I was really lazy. Like, pro-level lazy. I was lazy like a boy in an overstuffed recliner.
I got up early, as usual. I made my son Johann breakfast and made sure he had everything he needed to take the ACT’s that morning. Basically number 2 pencils. But hey…
After Johann left, my wife and I had an empty nest. Our daughter Ava was off at college. Johann was testing at school, and then would be off to practice music with his bandmates. And our youngest son, Magnus, was at a water park for the weekend with his friend Phineas and his family. I assume Ferb was there, too.
So Dawn and I were alone. And we sat in our living room and read. We read for a long time. It was great. And lazy. It felt as if we were finally recovering from our very active trip to Arizona. I hadn’t allowed myself to feel that lazy for a long time.
But then something quite predictable happened. I got itchy to do something. I had sat long enough that I was now compelled to work, to do, to be productive.
So I went outside with a rake and trimming equipment. I cleaned up, cut down and spruced up all of the beds in the back of my house. I then took 3 loads worth of yard waste to the dump.
After that, I came in the house and had a light bulb moment, which sent me on a mission to replace every burned-out light bulb I could find in the home.
Before I knew it, I had 5 hours of productive work done on the laziest Saturday in recent memory. Because for me, laziness serves as a springboard to productivity. I saturate with laziness, and then I have to do something. I lounge until I must labor. Then I labor until I must lounge. It’s a strong and satisfying approach that I recommend everyone have in their playbook.
Key Takeaway
Everyone needs a little downtime to recharge. It provides both a physical and mental reset. As soon as your batteries are fully recharged from rest, get right back to it. Then go until you need a good rest. The cycle will leave you feeling both productive and restored. That’s a win-win.
*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.
Recently, I was asked to speak to my son Magnus’s freshman football team the night before their last game of the season. Preparing for the talk offered an opportunity to go back in time and reflect on the feelings and thoughts I had at the end of my own freshman football season. But this time I had fewer pimples, my voice didn’t crack, and I had a much longer lens with which to view the whole experience. I wrote about the talk and what happened in The Power of Enthusiasm and Teamwork.
The major insight I gained was that my own reflection at the end of my freshman football experience created one of the most valuable experiences of my life. And it still benefits me today. (Or at least it benefitted me yesterday. It’s too early for today’s results to be tabulated.)
That’s me (77) making the tackle during a game my freshman year of high school. Our uniforms used to get dirty, because we played on real grass and dirt.
The Reflection On My Freshman Football Experience.
By the end of my freshman season of football at Hanover High School in Hanover, New Hampshire, I realized a few things.
First, I loved playing football.
I realized I loved the brotherhood of playing a team sport. Going into battle with a group of badass boys creates a bond. A brotherhood. An identity.
I realized we played better when we played as a team.
I realized how much practice helped. (Yes, Allen Iverson, we’re talking about practice.)
I realized that after a bad play, or a lost game, you had to learn from what you did wrong, but then put that behind you and move forward.
I learned that bringing energy to the game made a huge difference. And I run better on positive energy than negative energy.
I recognized that encouraging each other made a significant impact on our play and our relationships.
I learned that I represented my high school and my community when I wore that uniform. And I could either add to it or reduce it through my actions. (It was this 14-year-old’s first lesson in branding.)
And I realized that I needed to get stronger. There were guys who were a lot bigger and stronger than me. And while I was quick and athletic, sometimes big and strong won. And I wanted to be the bigger guy. Or at least stronger.
What Happened Next?
When my freshman football season wrapped, I was 6 feet tall and 150 pounds. The following Monday, I started lifting weights. And that simple decision, and the strong workout habit I created that year, set in motion the self-improvement journey I am still on today. (Or at least I was yesterday.)
I never got any taller. But by the start of football season my sophomore year, I weighed 170 pounds. My junior year, I weighed 190. By football season my senior year, I weighed 210 pounds. And by the time I graduated from high school, I weighed 215 pounds. I got a lot of new clothes in the process.
My first day in the weight room, I bench pressed 95 pounds. And that was really hard. But my senior year, after years of slow and steady improvement, I benched 335 pounds. It was hard to believe I was the same guy. But slow, steady actions compound in ways that are hard to imagine, unless you read the book The Tortoise And The Hare.
That’s me (78), my senior year. The weight lifting had added 60 pounds, and a lot of grip strength.
The Broader Impact.
My love for football and desire to get better didn’t just help me on the football field. The strength and conditioning that I did to get better at football helped me as a track and field athlete. (Which I chose because I was terrible at baseball.)
By my senior year, I broke 2 school records and a conference record, I was a state champion in both the shot put and the discus, I won the New England Championship in the discus twice, and I set a state record in the discus that stood for 12 years.
Discus throwing my senior year of high school.
But perhaps more importantly, I grew my personal relationships with my football teammates. We became a band of brothers. (A band with no instruments or spandex.) We went to battle together. We made it to the state semi-finals together both my junior and senior years. Both years, we came within one score of the state championship game. But that journey, even with an imperfect ending, brought us closer together. And we have great stories to share every time we are together.
Then we stood up in each other’s weddings.
And we helped each other in our careers.
When I started the advertising and ideas agency, The Weaponry, my very first client was Dan Richards, one of my football teammates from my freshman year in high school, and one of my best friends in the world. (Dan is the other guy making the tackle in the cover photo for this story.) He had also used the lessons he learned through athletics to help build an amazing business called Global Rescue, which does what the name says it does.
The relationship I developed with Dan has had a huge impact on my adult life. And it all started by being a strong, supportive, reliable teammate in football. Which made us trust each other in life and in business.
Dan Richards and I, getting muddy in Puerto Rico.
Key Takeaway
Don’t miss your great opportunities. To improve yourself. To create strong bonds and friendships. To use your drive to become better at sports or other competitions. And at life. Become a winner in your mindset first. And you will be a winner on the field and off. Use the same drive to improve in sports to win in your classwork and in your career. Bring the same relationship-building approach you bring to your team, to your family, to your friendships, coworkers, children, and spouse. And you will live a life you can be proud of, that is full of wins every day.
*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.
If you are not careful, your life will pass by in a flash. Your career will be over in a snap. Your kids will be grown and will have flown in a Blink-182. Because time is a crafty thief that lulls you into someday thinking. Like Sugar Ray. And then it yanks that someday away just like your prankster friend, pulling your chair away just before you’re about to sit on it, Potsy.
Milestones
One of the great ways to create a far more enjoyable and successful life and create memorable experiences is to utilize the power of milestones.
Milestones are those moments on the calendar that humans have made to mark the passage of time. Those days or events offer valuable markers for accomplishments, challenges and traditions. They are there to host rites of passage and other memory-making events. And without milestones, Hallmarkwould have a hard time selling you paper.
You know the big and obvious milestones. At Halloween, you dress up in a costume and do candy things. At Thanksgiving, you gather with family or friends, feast, and get thanky. At Christmas, you exchange gifts, eat, drink and praise Mary. At New Year’s, you celebrate and create lists of how the next 2 weeks will be different.
Deadlines and Opportunities
But milestones also create deadlines for accomplishments and opportunities for memorable experiences.
I sit down to write every morning by 6:10am. But Tuesdays and Thursdays are milestones to publish blog posts. Every 3 weeks, I publish Adam’s Good Newsletter. And every five years, I want to publish a new book. Those are all random and arbitrary deadlines. But they become useful milestones that make my elective activities time-bound. Milestones offer navigational markers on the naked landscape of time. Which ramps up your self-imposed productivity.
I had a major speaking event yesterday, and I used it as an opportunity to get in better shape. I committed to doing 30 minutes of cardio every day for 30 days leading up to the talk, so that I would look and feel more fit on stage in front of 1,000 people. (And I requested to have no cameras in the venue, because the camera adds 10 pounds.)
I always use my birthday as a motivating milestone. I’ve also used class reunions, New Year’s Eve, and the birth of my children as important starting points, end points and exclamation points.
I have used milestones to gain traction towards health and fitness goals, to measure my business success, and to create deadlines for my entrepreneurial launches. (Which are a lot less launchy than Elon Musk, Richard Branson or Jeff Bezos’ entrepreneurial launches.)
I used the end of the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 as a milestone to finish the first draft of my manuscript for my first book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? Then I used Thanksgiving of 2021 as my milestone to publish the book. I made both of those goals happen, thanks to the power of milestones. (Since then, I have learned how to write a manuscript without a worldwide pandemic.)
I use milestones to schedule big travel. For my wife Dawn’s 40th birthday, I surprised her with a trip to Europe. We scheduled a trip to Europe in the summer before my daughter Ava’s senior year of high school. We realized that the milestone provided the last summer opportunity for us to all travel together before college obligations made summer travel problematic. Using milestones is one of the best ways to visit the big places on your life-travel list. (Using airplanes is the other best way.)
I used a milestone to plan a major move. My wife and I wanted to find a place where we could settle to allow our children to finish their schooling without moving by the time my daughter Ava entered middle school. We moved from Atlanta to Mequon, Wisconsin, a large-yarded, low-taxed, great-schooled northern suburb of Milwaukee that sits on the Western shore of Lake Michigan. We called this our 13-year home. Which meant that we would stay in Milwaukee for 13 years, until we hit another major milestone: our son Magnus’s high school graduation. Then Dawn and I are free to hit the road again and take on more adventures.
Key Takeaway
Your greatest ambitions, experiences and traditions are far less likely to happen if you don’t tie them to a milestone. Use those special days to inspire your work, to create deadlines, and to force urgency. Use them to create regular events to bring your people together. Or to reset your ambitions, spark your goal setting and help you accomplish more elective activity than you could without them.
*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.
Adam Albrecht Blog 