Tag: best year ever

It’s time for your next step to a great 2025.

One great day is just one great day.

But if you can string together 4 to 7 great days you have a great week.

And if you can string together 4 or 5 great weeks you have a great month.

And if you string together 12 great months you have a great year.

And if you string together great year after great year, you create a great life.

And if you string together 6 great strings, you might have a guitar. Or an afghan.

Creating A Great 2025

I am trying to make 2025 my best year ever. I call it Project 2025. (Not to be confused with any other Project 2025s you may have heard about lately.) I hope you are doing the same. And if you haven’t been thinking about creating your own great 2025, now is the time to start. Because no one can make it happen but you. (With a strong assist from God, the world’s all-time assist leader.)

As we wrapped up the first 12th of the year, I spent Friday evening evaluating my January. Here are the bullet points in my self-report:

Adam’s January 2025

  • I went skiing 4 times. (That’s an average of once per week and twice the number of times I have skied between 1990 and 2024.)
  • I read 3 books. (More to come on this. But they were all great. And none of them involved coloring.)
  • I published 10 new blog posts.
  • I published 2 new editions of Adam’s Good Newsletter. (Please sign up if you like positive stuff.)
  • I met major milestones on a special writing project I have been working on. (I assume much of the world calls them kilometerstones.)
  • I worked out 16 times (despite being sick for a week with one of those little Gremlins Americans circulated in January. Which made me appreciate my good health even more.)
  • I booked 3 new speaking engagements. (Does that mean I now have 3 new speaking fiances?)
  • I bought a new set of Rogue dumbbells from 5 to 50 pounds and an additional set of 45-pound Rogue bumper plates. Then, I put them all to good use in my home gym. (I also drove from Milwaukee to Columbus to pick them up and save $300 in shipping costs. Plus, I got to see that huge candle in Indiana. #IYKYK)
  • The Weaponry conducted 2 transformative strategy workshops for new brands.
  • My great team added some cool new clients and we have several more about to come aboard, like the opening to The Love Boat.
  • I visited 5 states. And discovered that the new Salt Lake City airport is amazing. Tom Hanks should have been stuck in that terminal.
  • I visited my great friends Amy and Todd Urowsky at their beautiful home in Park City, Utah, and then skied at Brighton.
  • I spent time with my parents Bob and Jill Albrecht, in Lafayette, Indiana. Having parents is the best. Don’t take it for granted.
  • I planned and booked a spring break trip to Arizona. I’d love to hear your favorite things in Scottsdale and Sedona. (I already know about the tall cans of tea.)
  • I spent a lot of quality time with my wife Dawn, and sons Johann and Magnus. Plus, my daughter Ava was home from college for 3 weeks in January. Which was wonderful. Like George Bailey’s life.
  • I added several great new people to my Great People collection. Great people are the most valuable things you can collect.

I share this list to encourage you to create your own. You have to look back at your wins, both large and small, to recognize the great things in your life. The successes, the adventures, the experiences, the relationships, the learnings, the growth, and the commitments kept. By reflecting on them, you both tally your wins, and you get to enjoy them all again.

Let’s Go February!

Now, it’s time for us all to create a great February. I am excited about it. I hope you are, too. It all starts simply by having a great day today, whatever that looks like to you. And then doing it again tomorrow.

Key Takeaway

A great life, a great marriage, and a great career are built one day at a time. Start by knowing what great means to you. Then, live into that every day. String together great days. They create great weeks, months and years. You have to make it happen. And it is never too late to start.

*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.

Happy 2025! Here are my 52 hopes for you this year.

A new year is the best gift you will ever get. Because it has more hope in it than the Hope Solo documentary on Netflix.

2025 offers you an opportunity to apply all of your experiences, self-reflection and learning to help you do everything better than you have ever done it before.

I hope that 2025 is your best year ever. Like, ever, ever.

I hope that you love your work and look forward to all 52 Mondays. Even the manic ones.

I hope your boss recognizes how fricken awesome you are. (Especially if you are your own boss.)

I hope you push yourself to become a more valuable asset to your organization. Because your value is directly related to your contribution.

I hope you develop a best friend at work. A Laverne to your Shirley. Or like those brothers on The Bear.

I hope you have great relationships with your family, and that you look forward to going home to them each day. And that you appreciate having a home to go home to. And that you are not too good for your home, like Happy Gilmore said.

I hope you make the most of your commute. They are secret gifts of time to learn, connect, prepare, decompress, or try to figure out what these obscure personalized license plates really mean.

I hope you visit your doctor once and your dentist twice.

I hope you see your therapist as much as you need to.

I hope you keep your weight in your acceptable zone until next eggnog and coookie season.

I hope you enjoy exercising as much as your body enjoys the benefits.

I hope you make new memories with old friends.

I hope your new friends start to feel like old friends. (Because of the growing familiarity, not the declining eyesight, hearing, and ability to climb steps.)

I hope you don’t take things personally.

I hope you swear less this year. You always have other options. (poo, darn, fudge, heckaroo.)

I hope you laugh more.

In fact, I hope you laugh until you cry several times this year.

And I hope you laugh until you blow liquids out of your nose at least once, thanks to unexpected hilarity.

I hope you are comfortable sharing the truth.

I hope you fondly remember the people you have lost, and it hurts your heart a little.

I hope you build momentum every day.

I hope that you recognize that you are writing the story of your life every day, like Elvis Costello. And that it is your job to make it a story worth reading.

I hope that you create and maintain great new habits. And that when you have to skip a day you get right back to it the next day.

I hope you spend more time in a different room than your phone.

And that you don’t look at your phone first thing in the morning.

I hope you see your people in real life. They are better than they are on the socials. And more interesting. Remember that social media is just a bridge between in-person experiences.

I hope you share lots of compliments because you are impressed by the people around you.

If you are not impressed by the people around you, I hope you surround yourself with better people. People who are easy to compliment.

I hope you go to your place of worship. God knows you need it.

I hope you remember to wear sunscreen. And maybe a floppy hat.

I hope you get prints made of your favorite photos and hang them on your wall. Don’t just settle for pics in digital form. Eventually, those printed photos will become your most valued possessions.

I hope you enjoy more game nights. Game night is when we really live.

I hope you experience the great joy in giving your time, talent or money. Teach your kids by example. Or teach other peoples’ kids if you don’t have your own.

I hope you find something you like enough to collect in reasonable quantities. (But don’t wind up on an episode of Hoarders.)

I hope you remember all of the important dates in your life.

I hope you read great books that improve you and the way you think about the world.

I hope you struggle and suffer just enough to be reminded how tough and capable you really are.

I hope you don’t give up when things get hard.

I hope you tell your closest friends and family members that you love them while you still can. That window closes without warning.

I hope you find splurges that are totally worth it. (And then tell me what they are.)

I hope you find great new music that makes it into your Spotify 2025 Wrapped. And I hope that you aren’t afraid to admit that Sabrina Carpenter, Taylor Swift and Kacey Musgrave were all in your Top 5. (There, I admitted it…)

I hope you can understand some of the slang that kids are using today. But not all of it. Unless you are a kid.

I hope you find yourself in nature and stop to just listen.

I hope you use all of your vacation days, but none of your sick days.

I hope you get all the sleep you need.

But I hope you get rid of all the other things you don’t need.

I hope you forgive and move on.

I hope you experience thrills. Without spills.

But most of all, I hope you enjoy great happiness and share it with everyone you meet.

Happy 2025.

Let’s do this!

*If you know someone who could benefit from kicking off their 2025 with this New Year 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.

It’s halftime of 2024. Time to evaluate your progress and make adjustments.

Today marks the midpoint of 2024.

We have completed 6 months. We have 6 months left. And because this is a leap year, you can actually divide the year into neat 183-day halves. Today is like that point in the song I’m Gonna Be where the singer had walked 500 miles, and he still has to walk 500 more just to be the man who walks 1000 miles to fall down at your door, having crushed his daily step goal.

This is an important day to check in with yourself and evaluate how your 2024 is going.

At Halftime 2024 are you winning? Are you losing? Do you know the score? Do you even know how to keep score?

Whether you wrote down specific goals or just had a general sense of how you wanted the year to go, it’s time to reflect and compare your 2024 to the 2024 in your head.

If you have no idea how to evaluate your 2024, because it didn’t come with a simple Yahtzee-like scorecard, here’s a sample checklist of mine you can use.

In 2024 How Am I Doing?

  • Physical Health
  • Finances
  • Personal Growth
  • Personal Life
  • Career
  • Business
  • Life Goals
  • Travel
  • Spiritually
  • Core Relationships
  • Mental Health
  • Community
  • Presidential Election Decision (Oy…)

If you are where you want to be in those areas, congratulations! You are having a great 2024. You will start the second half of the year in a strong position. Carry that momentum into next year. Or better yet, build on it. And give yourself a headstart on a great 2025. (And if you are feeling great about your vote for president right now I would love to see your decision tree.)

If you are behind where you want to be in 2024, the good news is the year is only half over. There is plenty of time to create a great year. But the best way to make that happen is to use halftime as an inflection point. Which means it is time to Reflect, Refocus, Recommit and Re-energize yourself for a strong second half.

3 books to consider ordering today as part of your 2024 game plan:

  1. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
  2. The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller & Jay Papasan 
  3. What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say?: 80 Important Life Lessons The Universe Is Trying To Share With You by Adam Albrecht

Key Takeaway

Midpoints are a great time to evaluate progress. Take a few minutes today to compare the year you are having to the year you want to have in key areas of your life. If you are not having the year you want, now is the time to make changes. Remember, time is your most valuable asset. Don’t waste it. Take advantage of the next 183 days. And make this your best year ever.

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