The greatest way to increase your value to yourself and others is through reading.
You could just stop reading this post now and go grab a book to read instead.
But I am going to drop some new reading knowledge on you that is worth 90 seconds of attention.
Why Should You Read?
Bill Gates reads about 50 books a year. Or about a book each week.
Warren Buffett famously reads about 500 pages per day.
Lin-Manuel Miranda bought the book Hamilton to read on vacation in Mexico.
So read books that expand your thinking and your knowledge base.
Read to understand how things work.
Read for inspiration, motivation, and all the other great ations.
Read to understand how successful people became successful.
Read about what worked in the past in your field of expertise.
And read to learn what is changing in your field, so you can surf that change, rather than get pummeled by it.
Read to improve your writing and expand your vocabulary.
Read to develop your focus and your patience for long-term goals.
But most importantly…
Read To Separate Yourself From The Pack.
Despite all of the mental nutrition and long-term success that sprouts from reading, a new study just released by researchers at the University of Florida and University College London (which sounds like the fakest British school name ever) found that reading for pleasure among Americans has declined by 40% over the past two decades.
In 2004, 28% of Americans said they read for fun.
In 2023, only 16% said they read because they wanted to.
It is not lost on me, or the researchers, that Facebook launched in 2004 and the iPhone was released in 2007. Together, social media and smart phones may be accomplices, killing reading softly, like Roberta Flack or the Fugees.
This all means that people who read books have a greater competitive advantage now than ever before.
However, this is massively skewed by the avid readers.
In fact, estimates reveal that between 25-46% of adults READ NO BOOKS each year.
And the median number of books read annually by adults is only about 4. That’s how much the average person hates paper cuts.
Which means there are fewer and fewer people after the pot of gold at the end of the Reading Rainbow.
There are fewer people who are willing to do the slow, steady, yet transformational work of knowledge gain through reading. While others are settling for bite-sized bits of video, podcasts, and tweetable wisdom served by algorithms, readers are accumulating broad and deep knowledge that helps make them more capable, valuable and irreplaceable.
The new study also revealed that those who do read for fun are spending more time doing so. Because while haters gonna hate, readers gonna read.
And in the era of artificial intelligence, it is the humans who can contribute more than the machines that will be in greatest demand.
Key Takeaway
Now more than ever, reading is your great competitive advantage. Your self-directed education makes you a valuable and irreplaceable resource. It improves your thinking. Which drives smarter decisions and actions. And it draws other people to you who want to tap into what you know.
*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.
This spring, I began a Misogi Challenge. These are demanding personal challenges that push your limits in order to develop character, confidence and self-reliance. Win or lose, they create great stories that make your obituary a more interesting read.
Such challenges are meant to push your outer limits, with a high likelihood of failure. The 2 basic rules for a Misogi Challenge are that they should be really, really hard. But you are not supposed to die. I have found that there is plenty of room for suffering within those boundaries.
To bench press 300 pounds. Because it is hard. And it’s a nice round number. Especially the two zeros at the end.
To bench press 315 pounds. Because this is three 45 lb plates on each side of the bar, and it looks freaking awesome.
To bench press 335 pounds. Because this was my maximum bench press when I was an 18-year-old high school student. Today, I am 52 years old, and have a white collar job that requires practically no physical labor beyond keyboard tickling.
To live to fight another day. Because I also want to be smart and not push myself to an injury.
This past Sunday, I made my final push to complete my Misogi Bench Press Challenge. #punalwaysintended
I took on the final challenge in my home gym, with my 3 teenage mutant children Ava, Johann and Magnus as witnesses. Not only did I want them with me to spot me, but I knew that having my kids in the room watching would provide additional motivation. And I needed all I could get.
If I succeeded, I would be setting a great example of hard work, determination and personal accomplishment for my kids. If I failed, I would be showing my kids that sometimes we set lofty goals for ourselves, and we fall short. But it’s the attempt that matters. It isMan In The Arena stuff. Which is also Woman In The Arena stuff.
I started with a 10-minute warmup on my Matrix elliptical machine. Then I stretched well. I believe that my commitment to warming up and stretching before my workouts has been key to my performance, injury prevention and longevity. My body still works and feels mostly the way it should. And I still have most of my original factory parts.
So I readied myself for the goal weight of 335 pounds. This was the weight that I had been focused on for months. It would answer the question, ‘Can you be as strong at 52 years old as you were when you were a high school kid, training during the peak of your high school career?’ I was a strong 18-year-old kid. I was the state champ in the shot put. I was the New England Champion in the discus. And I never saw another kid in my high school bench 335 lbs or more.
To hit that same weight 34 years later was a daunting task. But a major win if I could do it. Because coming up just 5 lbs short of the mark would mean that I wasn’t quite as strong as I was at 18. Certainly understandable. But also a bummer to lose the competition with my 18-year-old Zubaz-wearing self.
I prowled around the room, yelling motivation to myself. I have always been my own best hype man. I worked myself into a lather in a process I call Summoning. The basic premise is that we all have some maximum physical capability. The key to acheiving the maximum physical performance is to summon as much of your capacity as you can. So I summon as much energy, focus and fury as I can. It may be a little embarrassing to see on film, but it has always driven results. So I go with it.
I had Limp Bizkit’s Rollin’ (Air Raid Vehicle)on 11 in my AirPods. This is my go-to bench press song. Something about the lyrics (Breathe In now Breathe out, Hands up now Hands down…) feels highly appropriate for bench pressing. Plus, swear words get me hyped. (Sorry, Mom.)
I lay down on the bench, gripped the bar, and twisted it until it felt just right. I counted aloud, 1…2…3! And hoisted the bar off the red Rogue rack. I lowered the fully-loaded bar down to my chest and pushed with everything I had.
And the bar began to rise off my chest.
I knew I had it.
I began to yell as I pushed the bar through the full range of motion.
My kids didn’t even get a chance to yell encouragement at me, because I was yelling at myself. And the bar was obviously moving north.
I locked out the top position, re-racked the bar, and went freaking nutz-o!
I was so hyped I just kept yelling, and celebrating. I grabbed the hands of each of my 3 kids who were spotting me. Johann, then Magnus then Ava.
Then I turned and yelled at the camera. It was a Seven-Yeah Celebration. Like Usher would do.
I was so freaking hyped!
I had set a high bar for this Misogi Challenge.
And I met it.
With all 3 of my kids as witnesses.
And 2 cameras rolling, to catch the result, win or lose.
But I knew I hadn’t hit my limit. So I decided to try one more attempt. This would be above my goal weight. So I turned to Ava, my most experienced offspring in the iron arts, and asked, ‘Should I go for 340 or 345 lbs?’
Without hesitating, she said, ‘340. You always tell me to make sure I get the lift, rather than stretching too far.’
So she served up the good advice I had been dishing out. And I took it.
Now I was playing with house money. Plus, at that point, I had happy-hype coursing through my system.
5 minutes later, with Black Sabbath’s Iron Man sawing through my AirPods, I lay down under the bar, again. I un-racked the bar, lowered it and pressed. The weight moved. My kids blasted me with encouragement. I pushed at full strength until I had locked out the weight. Then I re-racked the bar.
I was instantly flooded with my favorite feeling: MaxHap. It’s the term I use for maximum happiness. It’s my version of self-actualization. Or flow. Or euphoria. It’s the drug that Huey Lewis was seeking. And I still haven’t found a negative side effect.
Everything had gone right. I set and met a hard goal, with a high chance of failure. Then I exceeded it. Which meant that I can say definitively that I am stronger at 52 than I was at 18. And I was 6 feet tall and 215 pounds back then. And headed to the University of Wisconsin to throw for the Badgers. Yet somehow, 34 years later, I was still pushing myself. That’s some crazy train stuff, Ozzy!
But even better, I experienced this with my kids. They were all in the room where it happened. They saw me attempt something hard and succeed. They saw me working towards my goal for months. They saw me fail reps along the way, but I kept on going. They saw the focus, determination and craziness that I tapped into to rise to the occasion. They were there to encourage me. And to catch me if I failed.
That was an amazing experience.
Now I am done with this challenge. I have banked the results in my list of life experiences. It has bolstered my confidence and my belief that I can handle hard things. So I move forward, mentally stronger than I was before I started. Which is the whole point of the challenge.
Key Takeaway
Push yourself to do hard things. Stretch your limits. Test yourself. Make commitments to yourself that are hard to keep. Then keep them anyway. It will build your confidence and self-reliance. It will toughen you up. The work and the suffering and pushing past your past limits make you feel alive and ready for anything. Give yourself a Misogi Challenge. Because when the world becomes too comfortable, you need to seek out discomfort to grow and experience life more deeply. Make it a regular part of your life. It will help you live a life worth talking about. Which means that whether or not you win or lose your self-challenge, you win at life.
*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.
I composed my first email message when I was a college student. It was my second or third year of college at the University of Wisconsin. I wrote the email to my parents from the computer lab at college. Because back then, almost no students in my socio-economic subdivision owned their own computers.
I was awestruck by the idea of this new technology. It would allow me to send a written letter to my parents, but without having to find a sheet of paper or an envelope. I wouldn’t have to buy a stamp. Or lick a stamp. I wouldn’t have to find a mailbox. Or lick a mailbox. And I wouldn’t have to wait a week for them to get the letter. They would get it instantaneously! This was some kind of magic from the future. And I couldn’t wait to try it out.
But when I went to write my first high-tech email letter, something went wrong.
I quickly filled the small field provided for the message with my first sentence. Then, as I continued to type, the new words pushed the old words out of the field. It was very confusing. But, hey, this was magic mail. And I was just a regular human. So I figured I wasn’t supposed to fully understand the wizardry.
I stared at the email for a long time, trying to understand what was happening to my message. But finding no good explanation, I eventually poked the send button and sent my magic mail into the ether, hoping it would land as promised inside my parents’ home computer in the woods of Norwich, Vermont.
The next day, when I received a reply email from my parents, I realized what had gone wrong.
I wrote my entire email letter to them in the subject field.
Looking back, it is easy to laugh at that mistake. It is easy to say I was a dufus. Or a doofus. (Both of which are dictionarily acceptable.)
But I find inspiration in this story. Because it serves as a reminder that when you try new things, you will be bad at them. Or at least as bad as you will ever be.
But just because you are bad at things at first doesn’t mean you will be bad at them forever. In fact, the only way to greatness is to travel through badness and mediocrity. It’s like traveling through the wardrobe into Narnia.
My first email experience demonstrates that by trying, experimenting and exploring, you grow and expand your capabilities. You have to be willing to try new things to accomplish new things. You have to be willing to be bad to become good. You have to be willing to make mistakes to make yourself great.
I am now 9 years into leading the advertising and ideas agency, The Weaponry. And I can draw a direct connection from my willingness to try to ride a bike, to my willingness to try to write my first email, to my eagerness to try to launch a startup business. They are all plunges into the unknown. They all involved missteps, mistakes, mistypes, or mispedals.
Here’s The Recipe:
You try.
You mess up.
You learn.
You correct.
You try again.
You improve.
You try again.
You improve again.
And you just keep trying.
Forgive my braggadocio, but today, I am freaking good at writing emails. I can fill in the To, CC, and BCC fields like a boss. I can write a subject that will tell the recipient why they should want to read the email. I can craft a clear, concise, compelling and occasionally comedic message. And I write that whole message in the body section. I can add an attachment. I can change the font size. I have a standard signature that includes my name, title, office location, and website address. My email also lets people know that I wrote a book called, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? And that I publish Adam’s Good Newsletter. Which is a newsletter that I send out regularly via email. Boom!
Key Takeaway
Don’t be afraid to try something new because you think you will be bad at it. You will be bad at it. At least as bad as you will ever be. But that is the price you pay to achieve greatness. You have to humble yourself at the beginning of the process. Which helps you appreciate your growth and ultimate success. The learning journey is the life journey. So learn as much as you can. It’s how you create the most rewarding life.
*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them. And if you want to show off your email skillz, send me a note at adam@theweaponry.com.
I have been intrigued with Misogi Challenges since I was a teenager. Granted, back then, I didn’t know that they were called Misogi Challenges. I just called them Personal Challenges. Or Doing Hard Things. But I like the Japanese name for them better. Because it makes them sound more profound and official and less like a Hold-My-Beer stunt.
What the Miyagi is a Misogi Challenge?
A Misogi challenge is an annual event in which you take on a difficult personal challenge with a high probability of failure. You do this to push your personal limits, develop grit, resiliency, growth and confidence. It also provides good content for your social media network. Especially if your challenge is to step into a boxing ring with 57-year-old Rusted Mike Tyson.
My Misogi Challenges have included:
Trying to break the New Hampshire state record in the discus within 8 months of ACL reconstruction surgery. (That was freaking hard.)
Eating my lunch outside every weekday for an entire year. (I ate alone a lot in 2015.)
Launching a business. (That’s how I started The Weaponry)
This year, I have given myself a bench press challenge.
For context, I first benched 300 pounds when I was 17 years old, during the summer after my junior year of high school.
My senior year in high school, I benched 335 pounds while recovering from the ACL reconstruction surgery mentioned above.
At the end of college, when I was 23, I put up 423 pounds when I weighed 211 pounds. 423 is an odd number for weight lifting. But I was using heavy-duty, 1.5-pound collars to secure the weight to the bar. And at 211 pounds of body weight, I counted every pound to see if I could double my body weight.
But that was nearly 30 years ago. That was back when Mike Tyson would have destroyed a social media influencer if such a thing existed.
My 2025 Misogi Challenge includes 4 different goals.
Bench Press 300 pounds. This is a fun club to still be in 35 years after I first joined it.
Bench Press 315 pounds. Everyone who lifts weights seriously knows that this is three 45-pound plates on each side of the bar. It’s a milestone for weightlifters. And it looks great on the bar. (But not so great if it is sitting on your chest.)
Bench Press 335 pounds.I love the idea of still being as strong at 52 as I was at 18.
Living to fight another day. I don’t want to push myself in a way that compromises my tomorrow. So I am listening to my body. And if it says, ‘Back off!‘ like those Yosemite Sam mud flaps, I will back off. You have to play the long game.
The Progress
Monday night at 9:15pm, I bench 295 pounds 4 times.
The week before, when I was fresher and lifted earlier in the day, I benched 290 pounds for 5 reps.
My Monday night workout with my undersized spotter.
While these numbers are a far cry from where I was at my best, I have learned that the decades add to the degree of difficulty. I love that this challenge is pushing me to do hard things. When I was in my teens, 20s and 30s I never thought I would still be flirting with these kinds of numbers in my 50s. But then again, I also thought I would be bald.
I plan to share updates on my progress over the next month. I should attain the 300-pound goal next week. And I expect to peak by late July or August. And most importantly, I hope to live to fight another day. Because I have plenty more challenges yet to come.
It’s Your Turn
I encourage you to take on your own Misogi Challenge. They can help you accomplish great feats, like writing books, starting businesses and running marathons. They create exciting chapters of your life, which help make the story of your life more interesting. They push you to expand and redefine your personal limits. And they fan the flames of your competitive spirit.
Key Takeaway
Do hard things. Push yourself. Challenge yourself. A good Misogi Challenge, or difficult challenge by any other name, makes you feel alive. These challenge force your to keep growing. They stoke your competitiveness. They build your resilience and confidence. They help you live a more interesting life. And they help remind you that you can do hard things. Which means that when the hard things come your way, you know you can handle them. Because you’re a badass. And you choose to do hard things for fun.
*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.
Last week, my son Magnus wrapped up his 3-year run as Magnus In The Middle School. It culminated with a graduation service on Wednesday evening. My friend Dr. Matt Joynt, the Super Duper Intendent of the Mequon-Thiensville School District, spoke at the ceremony and gave the graduating 8th graders five great pieces of advice. And since I am in the business of passing along the good advice I have heard, here is the High 5 from Dr. J.
Dr. Matthew Joynt, Superintendent of The Mequon-Thiensville School District and Dropper of Knowledge.
Do More Of What Works For You. I love this. To me, this means figure out what works for you in the broadest sense. The routines. The preparation. The responses. The flossing and deodoranting. It means spending your time in areas that offer you a strong return and doing things that build your confidence and drive good outcomes.
2.Make a plan for handling challenges. Challenges will always come. Like Cold & Flu season. In fact, life is one long hurdle race of interesting challenges. So expect them. And have a framework for working through them ahead of time. Develop a philosophy for dealing with them. (I repeat ‘This Too Shall Pass” a lot.) Keep advisors and supporters you can turn to when times get tough on speed dial. Or at least keep them on speed text.
3. Praise Your Base. And Show Your Gratitude. None of us does this, whatever this is, on our own. We all have people who support our success. It is important to recognize those who help you succeed and to show gratitude for what you have. And thank your tribe for tribing with you.
My son, Magnus, and his certificate of high school eligibility.
4. Choose a trusted adult and commit to talking to them about anything. This is strong advice for young people. Developing a trusting relationship with an adult can be one of the greatest relationships and advantages of your life. There are parents, teachers, coaches and bosses who want to help you succeed. They have already experienced many of the things you are going through, or will go through. Having that kind of resource in your corner is a huge help. Even if you don’t have an actual corner. But adults should so the same. Find someone 10 years older than you who you can talk with regularly. They can give your perspective from a decade down the road. That is a valuable resource. Kinda like Google Maps, but better equipped to eat food and drink beverages with you.
5.Thank your community. It is important to recognize that schools are supported by the community. This is through taxes, votes, volunteerism, attendance and a variety of other methods. It takes a village to create and support the schools that support your growth and development. Recognize the efforts and commitment of those in your community to your success.
However, students aren’t the only people supported by their community.
I recognize the variety of communities that support me. As a parent, I recognize that my local community helps support my children’s education and development. As an entrepreneur and business owner, my community of clients, partners and advocates support me and my team in a wide variety of ways. As an author, blogger and newsletterer, my community of readers, including you, provide valuable support through your time, attention, purchases, endorsements, recommendations and feedback. As a track coach, a strong community of athletes, parents, fans, coaches, trainers, administrators, officials, referees and media support my efforts.
Thank you to all of you who help support my efforts. You are much appreciated.
Key Takeaway
Thank you, Dr. Joynt, for sharing this good advice with our kids. But commencement speeches are not just valuable for the graduating students. They offer great advice and reminders for everyone willing to listen. So do more of what works for you, make a plan for facing challenges, praise your base, find a mentor, and thank your community. It’s timeless advice that will compound in value over time.
*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.
Two weeks ago, my daughter Ava and I traveled an hour and a half to attend a Wisconsin high school sectional track meet in Neenah, Wisconsin. (Which is near Pinta and Santa Maria, Wisconsin.)
The meet was the last stop before the state championship meet. I coach 2 athletes who were competing that day in the shot put and discus. Both throwers, Terron ‘And On’ McCall and Luka ‘Ivanarock’ Ivancevic, finished in the top 3 of both events and qualified for the state meet last weekend in La Crosse. Which makes this story a prequel to the post I shared earlier this week about the state meet.
However, just before the shot put was set to start, after all of the throwers were fully warmed, hyped and ready to rock, a thunderstorm rolled in, like a Garth Brooks song, and forced a 1.5-hour delay in the competition. Boo.
This was double boo for me, because I had to leave the meet at 6pm, no matter where we were in the competition. It was my son Johann’s 18th birthday. And we had a family dinner celebration back in Milwaukee.
Terron and Luka, after taking 1st and 2nd in the shot put and second and third in the discus. They qualified for the state meet in both events. Fun Fact: behind Luka’s head, you can see part of the sign for Neenah’s school mascot: The Hot Pockets. Their school song is simply the Hot Pockets jingle.
When it was clear that I would miss the boys’ shot put competition, my daughter Ava and I left the shelter of the shiny new Neenah High School and headed for the parking lot to jump in our Expedition and hurry home from our northern expedition.
However, between the school and the parking lot, I spotted two familiar faces. One belonged to my college track teammate Scott Hammer. Hammer coaches at West Bend West High School, which is in our conference. So I see him regularly throughout the spring. His son Carson is a great 800-meter runner and qualified for the state meet in the 4 X 800-meter relay.
The other familiar face belonged to Josh White, another college track teammate, and one of my roommates for 3 years of college.
My University of Wisconsin track & field teammates Scott ‘Hammer’ Hammer and Josh ‘Slosh’ White. (In college, everyone had a nickname. Hammer’s was pretty obvious.)
It had been a few years since Josh and I had seen each other. Following huge smiles and hugs we quickly caught up. We said funny things to make each other laugh. We have a lot of funny history. I shared that Ava would be living just a block from our old off-campus house in Madison next year.
We then told Ava a story about the night we threw our first college house party, and how the cops showed up at our door at 4am, telling us there had been noise complaints.
But the noise complaints were not related to the party, which was long over, and very underagey. The loud noise was my roommates and I singing loudly, and repeatedly as we tried to leave the perfect answering machine message on our house answering machine. It’s fun to be around someone with whom you have so much shared history. It’s also fun to spend time with someone who remembers answering machines.
But of course, our time was short. Ava and I had a birthday dinner to get to. As we said our goodbyes, Josh said, ‘It was so good to see you. Even just 5 minutes together was awesome.’
We had to hurry back to Milwaukee for dinner and fun with Johann, the newest adult Albrecht!
As we pulled out of the parking lot and pointed the car south on I-41 towards Brew City, I kept thinking about what Josh said. ‘Even just 5 minutes together was awesome.’
He was right. And I am so thankful he said it. I asked Ava if she remembered what Josh had said before we left. She remembered it word for word, just as I had. We both reflected on the power of that statement.
Reminder
You don’t need a lot of time to catch up. You don’t need a lot of time to have a positive impact on someone. Or to make progress on a challenge, or to make something important happen. 5 minutes well spent can create magic.
In 5 minutes you can:
Catch up with an old friend
Make a new friend
Have a career-altering interaction
Make Minute Rice
Discover the key to unlocking a problem
Connect important dots
Make a big decision
Learn an important lesson
Have an aha moment (And write Take On Me.)
Start a flywheel spinning
Have a breakthrough
Say your are sorry
Tell someone you miss them
Ask for that thing you really want and get it.
Do that simple thing you have been putting off for too long
It only takes 5 minutes to do something that has a major impact on your life, career, or the lives of others. Meaningful reconnections, introductions, breakthroughs, discoveries and actions can happen in a flash. Never underestimate the power of these short blocks of time. Life and success are not built on hour-long blocks. They are built in meaningful moments. Take advantage of those small opportunities, and they can positively impact the rest of your life in big ways.
*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.
I just had another birthday. Which I think is great. But it is easy to not think your birthday is great. When you are happy with your life, family, career, health and finances, birthdays can be enjoyable reminders that you are doing well. Because you are where you thought you would be at your stage of life. And not living in a van down by the river.
However, the opposite is also true. When you reach your birthday, but feel that you are not where you expected to be at your age, it can make you feel like you are behind the pace you set for yourself. And the farther off pace you feel you are, the more likely it is to affect your happiness.
A great exercise to do when you feel off pace is an honest self-evaluation. This helps you identify where you are feeling short of your expectations, which gives you an area to focus on for greater happiness and accomplishment.
The other benefit of the self-evaluation is that it often highlights all the things that are going well in your world. This can help you shift your focus from your shortcomings to your longcomings. (I don’t think I will use that parallel phrasing again.)
Despite the fact that I am feeling good about my life right now, I find the annual self-evaluation valuable. It serves as a reminder of the good in my life. And it highlights areas for growth and improvement and helps me prioritize experiences and actions that I identify as important. Remember, what is important to you is both highly personal and fluid. Like your blood, sweat and tears. So your list can change significantly from year to year. Just like your hairstyle or the style of your fashionable jeans.
So without any more color commentary, here’s Adam’s Annual Self-Evaluation 2025.
Doing Well
I am happy.
I smile a lot (Smiling’s my favorite.)
I am very happy in my marriage.
I have a good relationship with my 3 kids.
I enjoy my work.
I have seen my doctor and my dentist in the past year. (And I play Doctor My Eyes by Jackson Browne as my appointment walkup music.)
My health labs and screenings are all up to date and in the right zones.
I continue to both develop and maintain good relationships .
I seek out a lot of knowledge and self-improvement.
I believe in myself (Someone has to.)
I gather people (Kinda like Noah, but without the ark and the imminent doom.)
I read dozens of books each year.
I talk to my parents regularly.
I believe in my ability to improve.
I exercise regularly.
I feel strong for my advanced age.
I have relatively good endurance. (but not for long boring meetings)
I don’t drink or do drugs. (But I understand why others do. #raisingteenagers)
I have hobbies and activities I enjoy.
I have added to my investments in the past year.
I vote regularly. (Typically for Pedro)
I travel regularly.
The Weaponry is healthy with a great outlook.
My speaking opportunities are exciting.
I have prioritized my annual guys trip for several years now, making it a real thing.
I typically get good sleep.
I volunteer a lot of my time.
I am sharing my knowledge with youth.
I think I am pretty good at admitting when I am wrong.
Want To Do Better
Be more patient and tolerant.
Be a better Christian. (And a better Adam.)
Less time on my phone.
Be more present. (Because the present is a present.)
Follow through on all the things I say I will do.
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.)
Think bigger.
Create a better system for giving to charities and other worthy causes.
Things I have done.
Started a business (The Weaponry LLC. This was on my Life List when I turned 40.)
Created a blog (AdamAlbrecht.Blog) (I tried starting a blog 6 times before it finally took.)
Created a newsletter (Adam’s Good Newsletter) (This was on my life list last year. Now there are 16 issues.)
Traveled extensively across America (49 Countries and Puerto Rico – no Hawaii by the time I turned 5-0.)
Traveled to 6 countries in Europe
Traveled to India and Argentina
Been married for 22+ years
Own a home
Paid off my cars
Coached Track & Field at a proficient level
Coached youth football
Helped kids improve their skills and confidence
Made people smile and laugh. (I don’t know if they were laughing with me or at me, but I’ll take it.)
Found a great wife (Yes, it is you, Dawn!)
Created and partially raised 3 pretty great kids
I have ridden a snowmobile 113 mph
I have bounced back from failure. (And I am still bouncing.)
I have volunteered for hard jobs when I knew I was the best person for the job
Donated blood regularly (Which I had never done until COVID. This was on my list of things I regretted never having done when I turned 40. Now I give regularly, which is proof that this evaluation helps. And that I have blood.)
Things I haven’t done yet that I really want to do.
Write more books.
Give a commencement address.
Travel to East Asia.
Travel to Africa (And bless the rains, like Toto.)
Travel to Australia & New Zealand.
Travel to Italy and Norway.
Rim-to-rim hike of the Grand Canyon. (While drinking Brim)
Walk a marathon.
Attend a Super Bowl, The Grammys and The Oscars.
Become proficient at an instrument. (Preferably a musical instrument.)
Become reasonably fluent in another language.
Do everything I say I will do.
Own enough rental properties to support my retirement.
Hike to Havasu Falls.
Create a self-sustaining business that doesn’t need me anymore.
Go hunting. (Like Good Will)
Create my own highly successful brand.
Become embarrassingly rich.
Go 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
To create the life you want, give yourself an annual self-evaluation. Focus on the positive. Note your accomplishments and what is going well. Then consider areas of improvement, experiences, actions, and accomplishments that would be meaningful to you. Identify them. Prioritize them. And deadline them. It’s the best way to do more of the things you value in the year ahead.
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At least not any meaningful goals that stretch your current skillz and abilities.
Now, for the good news:
You can do something every day to make meaningful progress towards your goals.
Boom!
When you have a clearly identified goal, you can clearly identify actions that will help you make progress towards that goal every single day. Even if you are not single. Or ready to mingle.
If you want to get in great shape, you can make time each day to lift weights, do cardio, eat well, or get good sleep. All of which are steps towards your goal. Even the sleeping part. (How sweet is that?)
If you want to write a book, blog, newsletter, song or screenplay, you can write a few lines every day. That’s how it is done. (And it’s how the 27 lines of this blog post ended up in your eyeballs.)
If you want to start a business, you can work on your offerings, plan your business, map out your next steps, put some money away, talk to other entrepreneurs, or read relevant books every day. That is the business of developing a business.
Recognize that your goals are destinations. You can make progress towards them every day through productive actions. And when you arrive at your goals, you’ll be happy that you started taking those daily steps. Because simple daily steps get you to the finish line.
Key Takeaway
Today is a great day to make progress towards your biggest goals. Make the small investment of your time and energy today that will compound with your small investment tomorrow, and the day after that. Start now. You’ll thank yourself tomorrow.
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Reading is better for you than you know. Yes, reading is a great way to learn things. That’s why I read Judy Blume novels in middle school. But that’s only part of the benefit. Just as importantly, reading is mental exercise that helps you maintain your mental strength and fitness. Which means that reading can help prevent your brain from getting any softer and flabbier than it already is.
One of the most important reasons to read books is that reading for long periods of time is hard. Reading is a grind. And not the kind R. Kelly sang about. Reading is not something you can rush through. It is slow, deliberate, unrushable work. Reading is something you have to do at a walking pace. And walking a great distance takes time and steady effort. That slow, steady effort is how things get done. It is how learning happens. It is how knowledge gets accumulated. It is how brains and the humans that walk them around transform into better versions.
Remember, success, like reading, is slow. So is growth. And wisdom accumulation.
Reading helps you develop your patient pursuit of greatness. Word by word, day by day, you learn to stay with your self-improvement tasks.
If you hired someone else to read for you, which is essentially what you do when you listen to an audiobook, your pace is basically the same. You just read with your ears, rather than your eyes. Which means there really isn’t a way around the pedestrian pace of reading. There is no hack, other than hacking your way through a book like a slow, steady walk from Hackensack to Hacksaw Ridge.
It is often said that the average CEO reads a very above-average number of books each year. That number has been reported to be as high as 5 or 6 books per month, or 60 books per year. The question is, do CEOs start to read a lot once they become CEOs? Or do people who have trained themselves to slowly and steadily accumulate knowledge through reading become CEOs? The answer should be clear.
Brain coach and speed-reading expert Jim Kwik breaks it down like this:
“I went to Amazon and looked at the medium average number of words per book, and it came out to about 64,000 words. So let’s say the average person reads 200 words per minute. We’re talking about 320 minutes to get through a book, which is about 45 minutes a day, to read a book per week. That makes it a little more realistic.”
-Jim Kwik
Have you ever thought about reading in terms of distance? I have. Because I am curious, like George. If all those lines you read in an average book were laid out in a straight line, on the earth, you would read for half a mile. This is according to my calculations of width per line (4 inches) multiplied by number of lines per page (27) multiplied by pages in book (263). Then I converted the inches into miles. Because I read on American roads. And always on the right side.
That steady mental march along mile after mile of words laid out in books improves you along the journey. As you travel that great literary distance, you pick up new words and expand your vocabulary. You gain new knowledge. You learn about people and places and things. (Oh, my!) You improve your understanding of people, history and problems. That’s why reading creates such a valuable adventure.
As you read, you collect knowledge to draw upon to create new and novel products, services, and art. You collect tools that can be used to solve problems. And you accumulate best practices and all the things that people before you learned in much harder ways than reading.
Strengthening your reading muscles helps you develop mental stamina to focus on all kinds of tasks longer. Reading helps you write for longer stretches. It helps you sit still and quiet. (And if I can sit still and quiet, you can too.)
By learning to read books, you become better at reading reports, studies, and briefings. All of which help make you smarter and more informed. And if you ever find yourself in court and they try to throw the book at you, being able to read that book is highly beneficial to you and your lawyer.
But patiently reading books also helps you learn to read the world. Including nature, people, weather, and art. You learn to slow down and pick up on clues all around you. You learn to slowly and patiently observe how the world works and how humans and animals feel. You notice the health of plants. And countless quiet signs and signals from the universe.
So put down your phone and your other electronics. (After you finish this post.) Find books on bestseller lists. Find the greatest books you haven’t read. They get you on track for developing those very valuable reading muscles that will improve your life.
Key Takeaway
Dedicate time to the slow, deliberate process of reading. It helps train your brain to work at its most effective pace. It teaches you patience and rewards you with a steady, long-term return on your invested time. It strengthens your focus and task stamina. And it provides a road map to reach your most important long-term goals.
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Back in 2008, the movie Slumdog Millionaire hit the big screens. This smash hit was about a young boy in India, growing up on the streets of Mumbai. Through a series of fortunate events, he becomes a contestant on the game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. And apparently he wanted to be a millionaire.
The thing I loved most about the movie was that every question our hero, Jamal (Mr Slumdog), is asked triggers a flashback to the moment or event where Jamal learned the answer to that question.
I have been thinking a lot about this movie lately, even though I only saw it once, nearly two decades ago. I am thinking about the movie now, because I am recognizing the same flashback effect in my own life. It’s kinda like the flashback scenes from Wayne’s World, but without the wavy lines and sound effects.
Today, as I am digging into my ever-larger collection of knowledge, I often experience flashbacks to the moment I acquired the now-useful knowledge. It is as if I am playing an epic game of connect the dots, and as I connect dots, I am not just drawing a line between the dots; I am understanding the origin story of each dot. Which I recognize is getting pretty deep for dots.
This is happening for 2 reasons.
First, I am thinking about the original knowledge-gain experience as I am dippin’ into my dots. I am not mindlessly accessing the answers. I am watching it happen in my head, as if I were the third person, observing the story.
Essentially, the things I could be doing involuntarily, I am performing voluntarily or consciously, which creates a deeper level of insights and understanding.
Second, I am actively trying to collect more dots. Like a knowledge farmer. Or maybe a knowledge hunter and gatherer. I read books with the purpose of collecting dots, which include facts, trivia and history. I am actively collecting tips, tricks, best practices, insights, study results, good news, quotes and positive examples. I ask a lot of questions. I listen closely to details in my conversations. And I am mindful of the knowledge harvest as it happens. It enables me to sort, label and store the knowledge harvest more effectively. Which means that a great reason I am easily accessing my dots is that I am cataloging them on arrival. Like a nerdy librarian. Which may be the only kind of librarian.
The natural question is, ‘Why am I consciously labeling and sorting the new dots I am collecting?’ I believe that this is a result of blogging and writing books. It is rewiring the way my brain works. (Which is good, because my brain has always had pretty wonky wiring.)
As a writer, it is useful to file, organize and label my dots for future use. But the same approach is also beneficial as an advertising professional, strategist, creative thinker and entrepreneur. In fact, creative thinking is nothing more than connecting dots in new and novel ways.
The Insight
We are as wise and worldly as the dots we collect and the dots we can connect. To become a better thinker, more insightful, more creative, more strategic and more empathetic, collect more dots. As you collect, consider the lessons, insights and knowledge you are gaining as you gain them. This helps you store them more effectively and access them more easily. When you have a greater collection of valuable dots, well cataloged, like spice jars stored alphabetically in your spice rack, you can access them when you need them, and create a greater range of outputs with deliberately nuanced flavors. This is a valuable skill and asset. It improves your thinking, and your value to others.
Key Takeaway
Collect more dots so you can connect more dots. Recognize the value of your dots as you amass them. Think like a prospector, and learn to recognize gems when you see them. When you understand what you have collected, whether it is the results of a scientific study, or a broken heart, it becomes more valuable to your human experience. Because you never know when you will need that information again. But when you can easily access your knowledge, you can profit from it greatly, just like the Slumdog Millionaire.
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Adam Albrecht Blog 