Category: self improvement

You have 1 month left to make things happen in 2024.

Welcome to December. 2024 is now 11/12ths complete. Which means you have one month left to make progress on your life and yearly goals. If you are a procrastinator, you have already hit the snooze button 11 times, and it is now time to get up and go. (If you are an amateurcrastinator you are not as good a procrastinator. But I don’t know if that means you put things off more or less. #ThingsThatMakeYouGoHmmm.)

December means you have one month left to:

Finish the year fitter, not fatter. The best way to a better body in 2025 is to start in 2024.

Revisit your New Year’s resolution. You likely left it somewhere in January.

Start a new habit. (Read Atomic Habits by James Clear to check the box on this and the next item. Plus it is half-price right now. You are welcome.)

Read a great book this year. (See above.)

Get in touch with that person or people you haven’t touched in too long.

Go to church. December is the best time to go anyway, for Christ’s sake. And for the bread and juice. And to try to get off the naughty list.

Donate to charity. (And get the tax benefits.)

Start that business. (I am working on starting an Excite Hustle with my son. We have talked about it for forever. But we are going to make it happen this month! An Excite Hustles is like a side hustle, but it excites you about doing work.)

Begin writing that book. Just start by writing down a simple outline of what you know about the topic, or a paragraph summarizing the plot, like Sir Mix-A-Plot. I write my books in a Google Doc. You don’t need anything fancy. Or schmancy.

Take that trip. Or schedule and book that vacation. It’s a great time to lock in your spring or summer travel and give yourself something to look forward to this winter. Unless you live somewhere vacationy already. In which case, pick another thing to do with your 12th month.

Do a million other things. Those first ten items were just examples. I don’t have time to write an exhaustive list of everything you could possibly do this month. Because we both have more important things to do. So let’s go, Geronimo!

Key Takeaway

Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping into the future. You have to recognize the passage of time to make its scarcity useful. The last month of the year, the last day of the week and the last hours of the day create a valuable sense of urgency, signaling it’s go time. Remember, when you hit a deadline, the opportunities afforded by that unit of time are dead. Let that motivate you to go now. There’s no better time.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

You are about to get 111 hours free. Don’t waste them.

This week, you get an amazing gift. No, Ed McMahon won’t be showing up with a humongo check. You won’t have wise men pop in unannounced to drop off gold, fruitcake and myrrh. Instead, you will get the precious gift of time. Time away from work, or school, or even working at a school.

But you don’t just get 1 or 2 hours free. And not just 8 or 24 hours either.

You get a shipload of time.

In fact, you get 111 hours free!

The Math

If you are one of the many who don’t have to work or go to school Thursday through Sunday, your time off starts at 5pm on Wednesday and ends at 8am on Monday.

In between there are 111 hours for you to spend wisely.

You can use it on quality time with friends and family. There is plenty of time for talking, playing, singing, and laughing until liquids sprays our of your nose. And if your friends don’t make you laugh until you leak, you need better friends.

You can invest in your health. Walking, turkey trotting, hiking, or any other calorie burning activity before or after the meal is a great idea.

You can read. You can read a lot in 111 hours. In fact, you could probably read all 1032 blog posts I have written here at The Adam Albrecht Blog. You could read my book What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? Or you could read an important piece of literature, a valuable self improvement book, the biography of a wildly successful human or a tale of epic human adventure and triumph. But my blog will have more random pop culture references. So I’ve got that going for me. Which is nice.

You can schedule that health checkup, or that therapy session you know you need. You could enroll in a program to stop doing that thing you know you shouldn’t do no more, like Phil Collins said.

You can start working on that master project you have always dreamed of. Or that mini project you couldn’t seem to find time to do, Mickey.

You could plan a vacation. Or book a vacation. Or at least watch National Lampoon’s Vacation.

You could transfer money to savings. Or to that investment account. Or to me.

You could plan a dinner with people you love chewing the fat with.

You could schedule a Zoom with friends or family that you won’t see in real life this holiday. But not if they are no longer in real life. (Zoom hasn’t worked out that technology yet.)

You could plan impromptu in-person get-togethers, right now, over me.

You can play games. Board games. Card games. Football games. Reindeer games. We don’t game enough.

You could start planning your own business. (Not that that’s any of my business.)

You could start filling a notebook with everything you know about a specific topic. That’s a great way to start writing a book.

You could volunteer. Even if you are not in Knoxville.

In fact, you can do just about anything you please.

But please, please, please don’t do nothing, Sabrina.

You can do nothing anytime.

Key Takeaway

You are about to receive the most precious gift of all. The gift of time. 111 hours. A stately sum. Invest it any way you like. But whatever you do, don’t waste it. Because you will never get it back.

If you found something valuable or rewarding to do with your 111 hours, please shoot me a note to let me know what you did at 614-256-2850 or at adam@theweaponry.com. I am always looking for good ideas and success stories.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

What’s far more important than your physical age.

Are you worried about your age? Are you concerned that you are too old for the types of opportunities that now interest you most? Do you feel that you are too old to learn the new thing that is transforming your industry? Do you feel like you are too old for the dream you have been dreaming your whole life? Do you think you are too old to cut the mustard and not realize that mustard no longer needs to be cut?

Or do you think you are too young? That you don’t know enough and that you are not ready for the opportunities that are at your doorstep? Do you feel too young for the next level of responsibility? Do you find yourself singing, I don’t wanta grow up. I’m a Toys R Us kid?

I am currently reading Curtis Jackson’s book Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter. You may know Curtis better by his monetary name, 50 Cent. Fifty talks about how some people have a difficult time transitioning as times change. Then he dropped these 2 cents (which may mean he is now 48 Cents):

“Age isn’t about what year you were born in. It is about how you approach the year you are in right now. “

-Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson

This is a good reminder to face today as if you belong. As if the changes, advances and technologies are coming for your benefit. Not to leave you behind, like Nicolas Cage and Lea Thompson.

Approach this year and every year with a growth mindset. As a learner. As a Curious George, ready to get into new trouble. Or as a Sponge Bob, ready to soak up new ideas and new possibilities, instead of simply becoming a Krabby Patty.

Key Takeaway

Your mindset should be an asset, not a liability. Approach each year with a youthful spirit and you will learn, grow, explore, and take advantage of all the new opportunities available. Recognize the new roles and opportunities afforded to you. Don’t get stuck in the good old days mindset. There are great things in every day. You simply need to adapt to take advantage of them.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

Two valuable money-making skills you need to develop now.

Sunday afternoon I told my 14-year-old son Magnus we were going for a drive. He looked both confused and curious as he followed me towards the garage, pulled on his shoes and hurried out the door behind me.

As we tore out of the driveway like Bo and Luke Duke in my White Ford Bronco Expedition I explained that I had just seen a brand new listing on Facebook Marketplace for 3 large boxes full of 1980s-era baseball cards. The woman selling them posted that she didn’t know what was in the boxes. She simply wanted them out of her house. $25 took all 3 boxes. And I was hyperventilating. (Well, I was actually just hyper while I was ventilating.)

I collected these baseball cards when I was a kid. And I knew this created an opportunity to teach Magnus a valuable lesson. As we sped down the rural Wisconsin highway I told Magnus that one of the most valuable skills you can develop is a sense for undervalued assets. Those assets could be baseball cards. But they could also be stocks, real estate, businesses, antiques, coins, stamps, equipment and countless other things. Including undervalued people. (Especially undervalued people.)

The other valuable skill I encouraged Magnus to develop is the ability to move quickly. You have to act on your detection of undervalued assets before other people do. Hence the quick reply on Facebook and the Smokey and The Bandit-style driving.

You can’t do what Warren Buffet calls thumbsucking, and lose time re-contemplating when you already know what the right action is. Because as you wait, other people are discovering the undervalued asset. And only one person will be able to grab that asset at that price. So you gotta act like Sir Mixalot when they toss it. And leave it. And pull up quick to retrieve it.

When we arrived at the seller’s home the couple selling the cards were already in the garage, ready to tote the large boxes of cards to my vehicle. After some quick pleasantries, the woman shared that right after I responded to her listing she was flooded with others who also wanted to buy the cards. This confirmed my suspicion of undervaluedness. And it underscored the importance of acting quickly. From the time I first spotted the baseball card listing to the time they were in the back of my vehicle was less than an hour. Boom.

When we returned home, we estimated that there were 9000 baseball cards in the collection we just bought. We began picking out a few random cards from one of the boxes and immediately discovered 3 Randy ‘The Big Unit’ Johnson rookie cards from 1989 that were rare and desirable because they were printed with his wrong birth year. (But his correct height of 6′ 10″!) One of those cards alone was worth more than we paid for the entire collection.

Key Takeaway

Develop a sense for undervalued assets. This comes from understanding markets just well enough to have an undervalued item ping on your radar. All you need is that ping. Because once you sense it, you can perform quick research online or by phoning a friend to get a better sense of the specific value and opportunity. As soon as you have a high degree of confidence that you have discovered a good deal that you can capitalize on, you have to act. Commit and complete the sale swiftly. Because gold doesn’t lie on the sidewalk for long.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

Do you do what you tell yourself you will do?

One of the best things you can do in life is keep your commitments to yourself.

There is no better way to build trust.

There is no better way to build confidence.

There is no better way to build personal momentum.

There is probably no better way to build a skyscraper. (But I have never done that so I’m not really qualified to say.)

Keep Your Commitments

Wake up when you say you will wake up.

Exercise when you say you will exercise.

Show up when you say you will show up. (Especially if you are a pilot, a superhero, or my cable guy.)

And don’t eat what you tell yourself you won’t eat. Even when that thing is a donut sprinkled with bacon and filled with Chick-fil-A nuggets and candy.

Resolve

Resolutions are a great idea.

The bad idea is not doing what you tell yourself you would do.

Which means that the best resolution you can make is to simply keep your commitments.

Getting Started

Start by committing to less.

Do everything you tell yourself you will do.

Because when you do that you will soon realize that you can do anything.

& If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

How to do hard things.

When I was in college I had a summer job setting up large party tents in Vermont. I loved pitching a tent. It was hard. But looking back, that’s what I loved about it.

The hardest part of the erection process was driving the 4-foot-long steel stakes into the ground. The stakes create the foundation for the tent. You tie the tent ropes to the stakes to help hold the tent upright and sturdy.

To drive the stakes into the ground we used sledgehammers that were 8, 12 or 16-pounds. Size mattered. Because if you swung a bigger hammer you could get the job done in fewer swings.

Sometimes, when the ground was soft, the stakes would go in smoothly. But in Vermont and New Hampshire where I drove most of my stakes, the ground was very hard. They don’t call New Hampshire The Granite State for nothing. (And they don’t call Vermont the Granite State at all, but that’s just because New Hampshire already took it, for granite.)

But during those college years, I learned a valuable lesson about how to do hard things. Because the only way to get those 4-foot stakes in the ground was to keep pounding away until the job was done. More often than not the stakes went in an inch or less at a time. And sinking a 4-foot shaft neck-deep at that rate can be exhausting. But it was the only way to finish the job.

I applied that just-keep-swinging-till-it’s-done lesson in my athletic career as a track and field athlete at the University of Wisconsin. Today, I apply the same lesson to building the advertising and ideas agency, The Weaponry, writing my blog posts, newsletters and books. And simply not stopping until the work is done has never failed to produce results. Even when things get really, really hard.

Key Takeaway

The only way to get a job done is to just keep pounding until you are finished. Hit the task again and again and again. This is true when you are driving stakes in the ground in Vermont, building a company, advancing your career, trying to meet your fitness goals, or getting your education. Focus your efforts. Pound away. And just don’t stop until the job is done.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

8 Ways to reload your spring every day.

A good day is full of actions. Some physical. Some mental. Some social. But the progress you make each day is a result of the actions you take. But one good day is not enough. To live a good, good life you need to create good day after good day, mate.

However, a day full of action depletes your resources. That’s why it is important to reload your spring. (#snickering) Whether you are focused on your career, caring for your family, or training for competition, it’s important to come back day after day with great energy and effort.

To create a long chain of great days of action and progress you have to reload your spring.

8 Ways To Reload Your Spring

1. Sleep: A great night of sleep is the best thing you can do to reload. After a long day of activity, your spring is fully uncoiled. Your energy is expended. Like The Giving Tree, you have nothing left to give. No leaves. No branches. No apples. But overnight something magical happens. A full night of sleep reloads and resets your spring. It makes you ready to uncoil on another day of important actions, Jackson.

2. Eating: All that work you are doing burns calories. When you feel like a hangry, hangry hippo, it’s a sign that your spring is fully uncoiled. When you eat you are putting calories back in your system. You are refueling. As you reload energy into your system with great nutrition you are resetting your spring. Also, make sure to hydrate.

3. Hydrate: Make sure you are drinking plenty of water. Humans are basically walking bags of water. So rehydrate early and often to keep your spring at full hydraulic power. Start your day with a tall drink of water to make sure you hit the day fully recoiled.

4. Exercise When you exercise you are creating a better spring. You are putting more power into it. You are enabling it to uncoil over a longer period without losing strength. Plus, it makes you look more springy.

5. Socializing: If you have extroverted tendencies, you reload by spending time with others. For extroverts, socializing is like Gatorade. (But instead of replacing your electrolytes, it replaces your socialytes.) Make sure to add social activities to your calendar to regain what you have lost.

6. Solitude: If you have introverted tendencies, you reload in your quiet time alone. Don’t neglect this time. It will help you reset and prepare for another day among the Yappers.

7. Reading: Reading reloads your spring through education, inspiration and motivation. (Basically all the ations.) Learning new things helps you find new and better approaches to add to your weaponry. Reading exposes you to people who have done great things and inspires you to do more. Plus, reading provides motivation and reminds you of the reasons you are taking all those actions.

8. Faith: Faith isn’t just for George Michael and Tim McGraw. Tapping into and practicing your faith has the power to reload like nothing else can. Don’t miss out on its power to re-energize your system and bolster your resilience day after day.

Key Takeaway

Success is a result of putting your all into each day and then reloading. The better you are at reloading your spring daily the easier it is to sustain progress and deliver results. Whether you are the CEO of the world’s biggest company or the head of your household, make sure to reload your spring. It’s the key to bringing your best to each day.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

The 3 types of affluence that lead to happiness.

There is almost nothing more enviable than affluence.

The two inventors of the dictionary, Meaning Miriam and Definition Webster, decided that affluence means an abundant flow or supply.

And when you have an abundant supply of good things your life tends to be good. Unless the things you have in abundance are news coverage and bottles of lube.

Affluence most certainly leads to happiness. But not in the way that most people think.

Here’s how it works:

The Affluence Formula

1. First develop your relationship affluence. The more and better friends the better. This is the greatest investment you will ever make. (Unless you bought Apple at its IPO.)

    2. Relationship affluence leads to financial affluence. Your relationships increase your opportunities, knowledge, support, encouragement and positive peer pressure. It’s not just about a small group of great friends like Monica and Chandler. Your outer ring of relationships is sneaky valuable as you can read here in the study The Strength of Weak Ties.

    3. Financial affluence leads to time affluence. The more financial resources you have the more control you have over your time. This is the greatest freedom in the world.

    4. Time affluence leads to happiness affluence. When you have control over your time you have control over your life. That Janet Jackson-level control enables you to spend your time doing the things you enjoy most with the people you enjoy most.

    Plot Twist!

    The great happiness in life will come from your abundance of relationships and time. Not from the money itself. Never forget that.

    Key Takeaway

    More and better relationships lead to more and better opportunities. Opportunities create financial resources. And financial resources give you control over your time. Which is the greatest affluence of all.

    *If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

    +For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

    Are you creating Onion Days?

    I had a pretty bad day on Saturday. I coach 8th-grade football on Saturday mornings. And we lost. Like nothing-went-right lost. Like The-Bad-News-Packers lost. Like that-TV-show-about-the-plane- crash-on-that-island lost.

    Then I couldn’t get myself motivated to do anything productive the rest of the day. By Saturday night I felt like I not only lost the football game, but I lost the rest of the day as well. Unfortunately, when you lose a day you never get it back, Jack.

    But on Sunday, I bounced like Flubber. Before I went to bed Sunday night, I reflected on my day. And I realized that my Sunday was as good as my Saturday was bad. I had created an Onion Day. A day with layer after layer after layer of good stuff.

    My Onion Day.

    I woke up early to write and publish a blog post about the importance of planting yourself in soil that enables you to thrive.

    Then my family and I went to the 9am church service. (God knows that service helps you get the most out of your morning.)

    We took the slow Sunday drive home along Lake Michigan, avoiding the usual interstate route. It’s the automotive version of stopping to smell the roses. Although you can’t actually smell roses at 25 miles per hour.

    I cleaned out a significant part of our basement that had become cluttered with random stuff during the renovation we did on our home over the past year.

    I watched some of the Patriots -Bengals game, and watched my Pats look like a real team again for the first time since Tom Brady left to spend more time looking at himself in the mirror.

    I helped my son Johann think through a writing and research project for an AP class he is taking.

    I took a long walk with my wife Dawn, son Magnus and dog Lola along Lake Michigan. Which looks like an ocean, but is unsalted and shark-free.

    I picked up fun food for dinner for the family, because I was too hungry to wait for the ribs Dawn was planning to make for our Sunday dinner. (And apparently, a commercial I watched during the football game worked on me.)

    I broke down game footage from our team’s ugly loss so we could coach the team on how to do things better next time. (If they don’t do better I will cry myself to sleep every Saturday night until November.)

    I talked to my daughter Ava on the phone on the last day of her 18th year and caught up on her day at college.

    I worked out, like LFMAO would say.

    The Reflection

    I looked back at my day. And I realized that I had a near-perfect Onion Day.

    • I created
    • I churched
    • I meandered
    • I familied
    • I worked
    • I taught
    • I explored
    • I treated
    • I coached
    • I connected
    • I exercised

    It was a great Onion Day, a great way to bounce, and a great example of time well spent.

    Key Takeaway

    The best days are Onion Days. Those are the days when you layer in as many of your favorite and most important activities. Know what your perfect Onion Day entails. Then work to create as many of them as you can. That’s how you build a great and rewarding life without regrets.

    *If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

    +For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

    When you feel the heat of inspiration it’s go time!

    I have heard countless times that time is our most valuable commodity. I believe this. After all, you can’t buy it. It constantly running out. And despite what Mick Jagger said, it’s not really on your side. (No it’s not.)

    But right up there alongside time on the Mt. Rushmore of Most Valuable Commodities are inspiration and motivation.

    They light your fire. Like Jim Morrison.

    They lead to growth and improvement.

    They create the empire state of mind that builds empires. Like JAY-Z and Alicia Keys.

    They change the world.

    Yet to be effective, both inspiration and motivation require you to act. To move. To do! Do! Do! (Not da-da-da.)

    Unfortunately, both forces burn bright for a moment, then the moment’s gone. Like dust in the wind.

    Which means when you feel the powerful heat of inspiration and motivation you have to go.

    You have to cook while the heat is on, Glenn Frey.

    You have to jump on the action you feel inspired to take.

    Take steps to start that business.

    Start writing that book.

    Plan that remodel.

    Create that art.

    Build the prototype.

    Plan that travel.

    Create that event.

    Get to the gym.

    Enroll in that class.

    Reach out to that person that could change your day. Or your life.

    Acting on the heat of inspiration is how I started The Weaponry.

    It’s how I wrote What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say?

    And it is how I worked out last night at 10 pm after a 15-hour work day.

    Key Takeaway

    Take advantage of those precious sparks of inspiration and motivation. They don’t last long. But if you take action while your mind is in the red, the impact can be felt long after your time is up.

    *If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

    +For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.