A blog about self improvement, creativity, entrepreneurship, and advertising.
Author: Adam Albrecht
Adam Albrecht is the Founder and CEO of the advertising and idea agency, The Weaponry. He believes the most powerful weapon on Earth is the human mind. He is the author of the book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? He also authors two blogs: the Adam Albrecht Blog and Dad Says. Daughter Says., a Daddy-Daughter blog he co-writes with his 16-year old daughter Ava. Adam can be reached at adam@theweaponry.com.
In all areas of life, there are gatekeepers. They are the deciders. The ones who offer permission. They are the ones who give you the thumbs up or thumbs down on all of the things you want to do. People line up in front of the gatekeepers like Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan in A Night At The Roxbury hoping that someday they will be granted permission to slip inside where they will hear What Is Love. And baby won’t hurt them no more.
The Gate-Kept Secret
But there is always a way around the gatekeeper. There is an unguarded entrance that is always available to you. And you should take it any time you don’t feel like waiting in line. Or anytime you won’t take no for an answer.
Your Private Gate
When other people are blocking your path, remember that you always have your own private gate. No one can stop you from using it. Your private gate is often the better, faster and more rewarding way in. And it is always playing Fleetwood Mac’s Go Your Own Way.
Entrepreneurship
If you want a job and no one will offer you one, make your own. Start your own business. Become a freelancer, contractor or consultant. Then show everyone who didn’t hire you what a mistake they made. (Huge!) Then steal business from them. And laugh all the way to the bank. (Or credit union, where they are nicer and always treat you like a member.)
Entertainment
If you want to be an entertainer and no one will give you air time, or stage time, go to YouTube. That is quite literally what YouTube is for. Your big self-made break is waiting for you there between the cute cat videos, videos of people getting hit in the tenders and tutorials on how to replace the flux capacitor on your Delorean.
Writing
If no one wants to publish the book you wrote, then self-publish that bad boy. If the newspaper, magazine or website won’t hire you to write for them start your own blog. I publish 3 blog posts every week. And I don’t need permission from anyone. Heck, I kan evan spel thyngs rong aynd knot git fihred. Buuwm!
Social Groups
If no one invites you to join their meet-up, club, group, or society simply create your own. They are all made up anyway. I should know. I have made up several of my own. And they are my favorite groups of all.
Key Takeaway
To live the great life you imagined for yourself fire the gatekeepers who are trying to hold you back. Become your own insider. Don’t wait for an invitation. Don’t ask for permission. Just go. You always have access through your private gate. And no one can stop you but you.
*If you know someone who could benefit from this message please share it with them.
I am a huge fan of the thinking of Abraham Maslow. Not just because he was a University of Wisconsin psychology student like me. But because he did so much to help us all understand our pursuit of happiness. The pursuit of happiness is amongst the 3 greatest pursuits in life. (Along with Trivial Pursuit and Roscoe P. Coltrane’s Hot Pursuit! from The Dukes of Hazzard.)
Here’s a new Maslow quote I heard recently. To be clear, it is new to me. Not something he said recently. He hasn’t produced any new material since June 8th of 1970.
“If you deliberately plan to be less than you are capable of being, then I warn you that you’ll be deeply unhappy for the rest of your life.
-Abraham H. Maslow:
Key Takeaway
Plan to become all that you are capable of. The pursuit is more important than the achievement. Think big. Working to become a fully realized, best-possible version of yourself is the most rewarding life-long project. And it is the best way to finish with no regrets at the end of your days.
*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.
Yesterday I grabbed lunch at a Willy’s Mexicana Grill in Atlanta. After I ordered my go-to lunch, The Frito Burrito, I headed for the beverage area to determine how I was going to liquidate my meal.
The beverage area included a Coca-Cola Freestyle beverage mix-master. There was an iced tea section with several suitably southern options. And there was a lemonade department with both lemon-flavored (go figure) and raspberry-flavored lemonade.
I love such liquidation stations. Not just for the variety. But for the opportunity to play mixologist and create my own signature concoction.
But you know who else loves that kind of liquidation station? Little kids.
As I was prepping to Frankenstein my cup I heard a kid tell his Dad about his fun new drink concoction. His Dad wrinkled his nose and furrowed his brow at the thought of the boy’s non-intuitive flavor collision.
Then the boy said something important.
“It sounds bad. But it tastes great!”
-Experimental Beverage Boy at Willy’s
When I heard the boy’s cheery response I felt immense gratitude for humans like him. I am thankful for curious minds who want to discover new options. People brave enough to try things that sound bad, but that turn out to be amazing. Like Ben & Jerry for putting pretzels in Ice Cream. Like Willy, for putting Fritos in my burritos. And for whoever it was that first decided to try drinking the white liquid that came out of a cow. And the brave soul who thought to eat the egg-shaped thing that popped out of a chicken’s nether regions.
Key Takeaway
It is those willing to experiment that discover the great new ideas. They create new flavors, sounds, styles, designs, and processes. They create new genres and shake up industries. They disrupt categories and reveal new possibilities for growth and expansion. Thank you explorers, creatives, inventors and pioneers. And thank you to the little boy and his beverage experiment that reminded me of all this yesterday at lunch. This week I hope you try something new that sounds bad. May you be well rewarded for your curiosity.
*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.
If you asked me what the best day of my life was I couldn’t tell you. My wedding day was spectacular. So was the day I first met my wife Dawn. And our first date. And the day I asked her to marry me. And the day we moved into our first home.
There were days snowmobiling and riding roller coasters that were thrilling and made me feel as alive as a human can feel.
There was the Father’s Day when my family and I hiked on Mt. Rainier and then watched a purple-sky sunset at Mt. St. Helens that was epic.
I had a day in Iceland that never turned to night. (And I ate like 12 lamb dogs with crispy onions.)
The day I broke the state record in the discus, 8 months after ACL reconstruction surgery was indescribable.
But I don’t have a clear and obvious answer to which day was the best of the best.
But if you asked me what the best moment of my life was I have an easy answer. It was the moment my son Johann was born. But I didn’t choose the moment. The moment chose me.
At the time Dawn and I had a 21-month old daughter named Ava. And right up until we met baby #2 we didn’t know the baby’s gender. In fact, we didn’t find out the gender of any of our 3 children before they were born. That surprise is perhaps the greatest surprise of your life. And Dawn and I are both don’t-eat-the-marshmallow types.
Minutes before the baby arrived the delivering doctor asked us what male and female names we had chosen. We told her Johann and Giselle. (Although I was tempted to say Tina and Uncle Rico.) And then, when the new addition to our team made the grand entrance, the Doctor held the baby up like Simba in “The Lion King” and declared, ‘It’s a Johann!’
When she said those 3 words, and I saw the evidence for myself, and double-checked to make sure I was not looking at the umbilical cord, I was filled with more joy than I could ever imagine feeling.
However, it was not because the baby was a boy. It was because I now had everything I could ever want. Finding a spouse, and then having both a daughter and a son were out of my control. The universe would have to provide those things for me. And I would have been perfectly happy to have 2 daughters. But in that moment when Johann was born, I immediately realized that I had everything I ever wanted. Or ever could want. I checked all the boxes. I had the complete set. I felt like I had won the lottery. And in many ways I had.
Happy 14th Birthday Joh! Thanks for being a Johann. And for making my life full and complete.
Long-term success is hard. Partially because short-term success isn’t that hard. It’s easy to string together a couple of quick improvements when you start anything new. Because you start everything new at your lowest level. Which means the first few steps often offer quick wins, confidence, and rewards. You just follow the yellow brick road, and all the little people cheer you on and give you new shoes.
Things Get Harder
But then you run into a non-improvement event. Or the unthinkable: Deprovement. Then you take a few steps back. This is especially common when you have really great success right out of the gate. Because you set the bar higher than you have the capacity to clear with your early skills and experience. #childactors
It Happens To The Best Of Us
But setbacks also occur when you have loads of experience. Because what used to drive better and better results stops working. Frustration sets in. Your confidence takes a kick in the tenders. And there you are at the crossroads of success.
This is your movie moment. This is when too many people quit or give up. Which is the only way to truly fail. When you face such challenges, and challenges will be faced, here’s a recipe to move beyond the swirly-whirly swamp of stalled progress, and fulfill your personal legend.
8 great ways to overcome your setbacks.
Short-term goals. Set easily achieved short-term goals that get you moving in the right direction again. Make some of them laughably easy. That way you will both meet your goals and laugh. #winwin
Long-term vision. Remember the big picture. Your long-term goals will not be achieved in one straight push. Keeping the long-term perspective reminds you that this is just a chapter in your story. And adversity helps make every story better.
Focus on the most impactful area of improvement. Find your one thing to focus on that will have the greatest impact. There are almost always small actions that have huge consequences. Find those actions and take them.
Forget your failures. Don’t dwell on your failures. Move past them as quickly as possible. Nike Founder and CEO Phil Knight said, “The art of competing, I’d learned from track, was the art of forgetting. You must forget your limits. You must forget your doubts, your pain, your past.”
Identify with your successes. Remember that the successful you is the real you. The setbacks and stumbles are temporary and will soon be purged. Like Chris Gaines or Sasha Fierce.
Take responsibility for your failures. Take complete ownership of your failures and shortcomings. By taking ownership of them, instead of blaming others or making excuses, you are taking full ownership of the solution too.
Look at other areas of your life. Humans are complex machines. Often a disruption in one area of your life has an impact on other areas. Examine your sleep, your nutrition, your relationships, your other stresses, and your time commitments. Chances are that the challenges you are experiencing in one area of your life are having an impact on other areas of your life as well. Because the hip bone’s connected to the thigh bone.
Believe in yourself. Have faith in your ability to identify the problem and make the necessary adjustments. Lead your own fan club. Because the person who thinks they can and the person who thinks they can’t are both right.
Key Takeaway
Setbacks are a key part of any great story. They force you to improve. Which ultimately makes you stronger, smarter, and more capable to face the next challenge. So embrace your challenges. Then go write your next great chapter.
*If you know someone who could benefit from this message please share it with them.
Today, May 25th, is my birthday. I have a handful of birthday traditions that I look forward to every year. None of them cost more than a dollar or two. And I can enjoy them even during a global pandemic. (And if you can’t pandemic globally why bother pandemic-ing at all?)
My Traditions
First, I always eat a whole can of black olives. I started doing this when I was a senior in high school. It seemed super-indulgent back then. It still does today. Only now I have to get a larger can because my kids get in on the act too. Which is something they don’t talk about at Planned Parenthood.
A second birthday tradition that I love is calling my older sister Heather. Heather and I share a birthday, although we are not twins. Which is super weird right? And awesome! (Side note: my 2 younger sisters Alison and Donielle also share a birthday (May 22nd) but aren’t twins either.) When I was young I thought that my birthday situation made me special and unique. I still do. Happy Birthday, Heather! (And good job enjoying your August vacations Mom and Dad!)
Third, I always try to fish, bike, canoe, hike, and go to the gym. These are some of my favorite activities. And birthdays should be full of your favorite things. Not just brown paper packages tied up with string.
A 4th birthday tradition is that I always give myself a performance evaluation. It’s kinda like my annual checkup, but there are no doctors involved, and I don’t have to show anyone my birthday suit.
During my annual evaluation, I review what I am doing well, what I want to do better, what I have accomplished so far, and what I still have left to do.
Here’s a peek at my 2021 self-evaluation.
Doing Well
I’m happy.
I smile a lot
I laugh a lot
I am a good friend (typically)
I help gather people
I keep in touch with people
I am a supportive and involved father
I am a devoted husband who is crazy about his wife
I didn’t get or give anyone COVID
I make time for adventures.
I write a blog regularly
I exercise regularly
I keep meeting more people
I am volunteering my time to benefit others
I guest speak to classes, teams and professional groups regularly
I read a lot
I see my dentist regularly
I’m not living in a van down by the river
I seek out a lot of knowledge and self-improvement
I still don’t drink, smoke, or do drugs. (But I’m starting to understand why people do. #parenthood)
I believe in myself
I am hungry for more (and for pancakes)
Want To Do Better
Take on more family responsibility
Follow through on all the things I say I will do
Put more focus on my most important initiatives to move them forward faster
Get better at giving gifts
I want to drop below my snoring weight. (I’m about 5 pounds over my snore-free weight now.)
Get in better shape (But I still want to be human-shaped.)
I want to be slower to anger
Think bigger
Do bigger things
Get good sleep every night
Donate more money to great causes
Spend less time on or distracted by electronic devices
Created a blog that occasionally makes people giggle
I’ve visited 49 states (No Hawaii)
I have visited 12 Countries
I got stuck in a Murphy bed in Germany
I have pet a hummingbird in the wild twice
I have ridden a snowmobile 113 mph
I have worked really hard to achieve a lofty goal
I have bounced back from failure
I am still within 5 pounds of my high school graduation weight
I have volunteered for hard jobs when I knew I was the best person for the job
Donated blood (I did this for the first time 7 months ago)
Things I haven’t done yet that I really want to do.
Published a book
Owned enough rental properties to retire on
Hiked to Havasu Falls
Seen Tokyo, Hong Kong, Norway and Italy
Created a self-sustaining business that doesn’t need me anymore
Successfully launched a child into the real world
Gone hunting
Created my own highly successful brand (any category)
Become an official mentor for someone
Become embarrassingly rich
Gone skydiving (I’m waiting for that sweet spot when my dependents don’t depend on me anymore, but I’m still not wearing Depends.)
Key Takeaway
It’s important to check in with yourself regularly. You need to know what you are doing well, and celebrate that. You also need to know what is still undone, or not being done well. Knowing when to be proud of yourself and when to be disappointed in yourself is a valuable life skill. Those two forces fuel both my happiness and my hunger.
In the best-case scenario, I am nearly half way through my earthly adventure. In the worst-case scenario, I am almost done. That’s why I am living my life knowing that much sooner than I want this game will be over. So I can’t put the important stuff off. It is go-time! And there is a lot to do this year.
Special Birthday Request
If you would like to help make my birthday 38-Specialer, I would love to have you subscribe to this blog. I’ll work the next 364 days to make the blog worth reading. If you are already a subscriber, thank you for your support and your time!
Have a wonderful my-birthday! Thanks for joining me on my adventure.
Earlier this week I got a text from a friend who read my blog post Getting the vaccine = Getting together =Getting back to normal. The text said, ‘It looks like you had an eventful day.’ Indeed, my Wednesday was eventful. All by design. So I responded, ‘I did! I’m trying to create an eventful life!’
Making It Happen.
It is easy to want an eventful life. Or an adventurous life. Or a life worth turning into a book, movie, urban legend, or highway-side historical marker. But the only way to make that happen is to make it happen. Kinda like the only way to invent Facebook is to invent Facebook. #FrickenWinklevosses
The Material
While fine artists work with materials like paint, pencil, metal, and clay, there is another more valuable material we can all use to create art every day. And it’s right there on your watch, on your calendar, and in the sands rushing through your hourglass. And if you are Mick Jagger, it is right there on your side. (Yes it is.)
Time
Time is the greatest artistic medium of all. You can use time to create memorable moments, minutes and hours. You can create a beautiful day, a wonderful week, or an amazing year. By using your time well you can create your own beautiful, memorable, adventurous, eventful life.
You can use time to build a career, create a community or have a positive impact on all of the nouns around you. #PeoplePlacesAndThings You can build a business, develop relationships, create memories, or write a book. Heck, you can even write a blog post reminding people that they can do all the things they ever wanted to do if they simply use the time they already have.
Key Takeaway
Time is the material beautiful lives are made of. Every day at midnight you get a fresh delivery of 1,440 minutes to work with. Don’t waste them. Instead, make a plan for them. Create all you can with them. Remember, time is the raw material from which all great things are born. What you do with your time is the greatest decision you will ever make. Choose wisely.
Thank you for spending some of your time with me.
*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.
Wednesday was a big day for me. I didn’t win the lottery. I wasn’t named a Most Beautiful Person. And I wasn’t asked to replace Alex Trebek on Jeopardy. Heck, I wasn’t even asked to replace Alex Trebek in the Colonial Penn commercials. It was a big day simply because it was one of the normalest days I have had outside my home in 15 months.
Vaccination Nation
I got my second vaccine shot 2 weeks ago (I’m Team Pfizer, not Hufflepuff or Slytherin). I now feel that I am as protected from the COVID-19 virus as I am going to be. Better yet, I feel as protected as I need to be. So I have started doing regular life stuff again. And I am reminded how much I love regular life stuff.
Wednesday, Normal Wednesday
Wednesday I traveled from Milwaukee to Madison (which is about a 90-minute drive for those of you who are Wisconsin-illiterate). I went to college at The University of Wisconsin in Madison, and I feel as at home in Madtown as I do anywhere on Earth. I was there to see people that I hadn’t seen since before the planet went cuckoo for Covid Puffs.
The Breakfast Club
I started my day at a breakfast meetup with a group of former University of Wisconsin Badger athletes. The last time I saw any of these W Club members in person was March 4th of 2020. The Crew included:
Charlie Wills: The Owner of the Charlie Wills Team -Real Estate Partners (basketball)
Scott Silvestri: VP and General Manager of Learfield’s Badger Sports Properties (swimming)
Derek Steinbach: Director of Development for Wisconsin Athletics (track & field)
Nicholas ‘Papa’ Pasquarello: Executive Director of the W Club and Strategic Partnerships – Wisconsin Athletics (soccer)
Andy Crooks: Managing Broker at T.R. McKenzie (football)
Adam Albrecht: Founder and CEO of The Weaponry and Dude Who Writes This Blog (track & field)
Kalvin Barrett: Dane County Sheriff (football (but he will tell you he was a swimmer))
Nick, Me, Derek, Sheriff Barrett, Charlie and Scott at the Original Pancake House in Madison. I’m always amazed at how many of those restaurants there are. Which makes me think most of them are lying.
It felt like a reunion. We were hugging and shaking hands and seeing each other’s naked faces. We were sharing stories, smiling, and laughing. And not once did anyone say, ‘You’re on mute.’
This was a group of ballers, that included All-Americans, Final Four participants, school record holders, Big 10 Champions, and Team Captains. But the rockstar of the group was Sheriff Barrett. Other people in the restaurant were asking to take pictures with him and to asked him to stop to talk. It was fun to see.
I asked Kalvin if he no longer likes the Bob Marley song, “I shot the sheriff.” He said that he loves that song and plays it in the office. Which reminded me of Shaq in the Grown Ups 2 clip below.
Brunch
After breakfast, I visited Dave Astrauskas, the rockstar throwing coach of the University of Wisconsin track and field team. Dave has coached 4 NCAA Champions, 1 NCAA Collegiate Record Holder, 41 NCAA Division I All-Americans, 4 Big Ten Records Holder, 11 Big Ten Champions and Olympic discus thrower Kelsey Card.
Coach Dave Astrauskas He can teach you how to throw anything but a hissy fit.
Dave has forgotten more about throwing than I will ever know. And of all the people I know Dave is the most likely to set off a spellcheck alarm. #astrauskas
I spent time with Dave for 3 reasons:
Because he is a good human.
To learn from someone who is at the top of their field.
To foster a strong bond between the UW Track & Field program and alumni.
Spending time with Dave was enlightening. He offered me a number of new ways to think about throwing, human performance, coaching, problem solving, the Big Ten Conference, athletic facilities and competition. My time with Dave was a great reminder of how much we can all learn if we ask good questions of experts, listen, and maintain a beginner’s mind.
Lunch
My lunch meeting was pure joy. I met with my friend-client-superstar, Anne Norman, SVP and Chief Marketing Officer of UW Credit Union. Anne has been a favorite human of mine since we first met for lunch at Hi-Way Harry’s in Johnson Creek, Wisconsin in 2018. We have been working together weekly ever since. But we have only seen each other in-person once since February of 2020, at our TV commercial shoot with Jonathan Taylor, running back for the Indianapolis Colts.
The 3 greatest exports of Kenosha, Wisconsin are Orson Welles, my high school teacher Mr. Bill, and Anne Norman.
Anne is a burst of sunshine on any day. Even on the phone or on Zoom. Especially if she is wearing her banana costume. But to be with her in person provides a full week’s worth of Vitamin C in one sitting.
We talked business and branding and teams. We talked about upcoming marketing initiatives. But we could have talked about hang nails, paper cuts and the DMV and I would have enjoyed it. Because spending time with Anne is even more valuable to me now than it was in 2019.
Key Takeaway
Get vaccinated if you can. See your people in real life. Spending time with great humans is joy fuel. And it is even better now that we have had that ability taken away from us. Today, life isn’t just returning to normal. Life is about to be better than ever. Because we have a newfound appreciation for all of the little things. Like simply being together with other good people. Let us never take that for granted again.
Thank you Charlie, Derek, Scott, Nick, Andy, Dave and Anne for sharing some of your valuable time with me.
*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.
The end of the school year is fast approaching. And what a school year it has been! At graduation time I often reflect on my own schooling. It’s interesting to see just how much detail I can remember from that time. I can still picture where I sat in each class, the grades I received, and the number of times I laughed until I sprayed milk out of my nose.
The Numbers
There were a lot of numbers in school. And not just in math class. Do you remember your high school GPA? Or your class rank? How about your College GPA? Or your ACT, SAT, GMAT, LSAT, or MCAT scores? (If you had experience with BVDs, HPV or OPP you probably remember those too.)
Most of us have a pretty good memory for these scores. Because it is how we measured how successful we were in school. They represented the scorecard of academic success.
However, there is another number from our school days that is even more important to your long-term success and happiness. Very few people think about it. Almost no one has it memorized.
Perhaps the best indicator of long term happiness and success is the number of friends you make in school. While the overwhelming focus is on academic statistics, the great residual value of your schooling is measured in humans.
Me and some of my University of Wisconsin dorm mates. We had a pretty good time in Madison.
Chuck the Clique
It can seem cool to find your core group of friends and circle the wagons. Or to create an exclusive group. But that won’t serve you best over time. A much better approach is to become part of many different social circles. This vastly expands the total number of people you are exposed to. And if you volunteer to be a sketch or sculpture model for art classes you getexposed to even more people.
Me and some of my high school friends just before graduation. With t-shirts. And no masks. It was a simpler time.
Get Involved
There are a wide variety of high school and college opportunities that are ideal for developing long-lasting relationships.
Sports
Dance Team
Cheerleading
Band
Orchestra
Streaking The Quad
Clubs
Plays
Smoking In The Boys Room
Volunteer Programs
Yearbook
Food Fights
Homecoming Committee
Fraternities
Sororities
Epic Prank Planning
Class Trips
Outing or Adventure groups.
Special Interest Groups Of All Sorts
Breakfast Club
Detention
Me and my college track & field teammates. I am still in touch with many of these guys. We smile more now.
High School
In high school, make a point of knowing as many people as you can. Get involved in extracurricular activities. Introduce yourself to your classmates. Learn names. Meet the kids in grades above and below you. It is especially easy and beneficial as an upperclassperson to introduce yourself to younger students. Because younger students will highly value having older friends, who can drive a car, and grow a mustache like Pedro.
A high school graduation night party pic. We’re looking tough because we just slammed some Capri Suns.
College
In college, live in the dormitory for 2 years, or even become a Resident Hall Advisor (dorm leader). By doing this you are exposed to far more kids than you are living in off-campus housing by yourself or with a handful of roommates. Having hundreds or even thousands of other kids within your orbit on a daily basis vastly increases the total number of friends you are likely to make during that time.
Me and some of my college roommates revisited our off campus house several years after graduation. The wallpaper was still there. But they were out of paper towels.
Introduce Yourself
At parties and at bars introduce yourself to other people. Make a point of meeting someone new every time you go out. Then connect with them on social media too. Because social media is an easy and informal way of turning weak relationship into strong ones.
My college roommates at Dave and Angie Schatz’s wedding. (I have no idea if that is how you possess a plural word ending with Z.)
The Number That Really Matters
My GPA in high school and college was fine. My SAT scores were fine. But I know far more people than most people I know. And that has been one of my greatest advantages in life and business. And one of my greatest sources of happiness and fulfillment.
Me and my high school friends at our last class reunion. The guys with bad backs asked to be up front.
Key Takeaway
Make as many friends in school as you can. Because the benefit of having many friends lasts the rest of your life. And while there is little chance for you to Billy Madison your way to a higher GPA or class rank later in life, it’s not too late to make more friends. Make it a lifelong habit. Or hobby. Or both. Collect as many people as possible. Because at the end of our days the person who has made the most friends wins.
*If you know a student who could benefit from this message please share it with them.
For months I thought about making a t-shirt design I really wanted. But I didn’t do it. For many years I loved the idea of writing my own blog. But I didn’t write one. For nearly 2 decades I thought about starting my own advertising agency. But I continued to work for someone else. You probably have similar stories. Because as Maya Angelou said,‘We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.’
It is easy to consider me a dreamer, not a doer.
However, today I am wearing the t-shirt design that I wanted to print for so long. I am writing my 596th blog post. And for over 5 years I have worked at The Weaponry, the advertising and ideas agency that I always dreamed of starting. And when I pinch myself it actually hurts.
So what changed? What happened that turned these want-to-dos into dids and doings? The answer is simple. Like an OBGYN, I gave myself a due date.
‘Goals are dreams with deadlines.’
Someone Smart (But we don’t seem to know who.)
Dreams and fantasies float in infinite time. Reality, progress and completion are time-bound. To convert a dream into a reality you have to set a due date. And deadlines are like horse jockeys. (You should choose the shortest one that can do the job effectively.)
Key Takeaway
We often have a hard time getting started on big projects and life changes. So remember this: A Due Date gives you a Do Date. When you have a deadline, even a false deadline, you alchemize fantasy into reality. You prioritize. You do what needs to be done. You can then put all the steps of the process onto a timeline. And timelines are like trains that deliver final results. Choo Choo!
*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.
** This blog gets published 3 times per week, because I set those 3 deadlines.
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