Tag: happiness

100 Things I Freaking Love!

Happy Valentine’s Day! Lately, I have been thinking a lot about the method of modern love. Because love is the most powerful, valuable and positive emotion in our treasure chest. I have had daily reminders of how short life really is. (And not just for Kevin Hart.) So you need to make the most of your time on Earth. Spend as much time as you can doing the things you love, in places you love, with people you love. Like Doc, Isaac, Gopher, Julie and Captain Stubing.

To take stock of the things I love, I have created this list. I encourage you to take an hour to write down 100 things you love, too. Not only will it force you to think about your favorite people, places, and things, but it will also help serve as a map to live a life you love.

I did this exercise a few years ago. You can see my 2021 list here. I didn’t look at it before writing this list. So it will be interesting to see what did and didn’t make both lists.

Here’s what I came up with in 2025. There are many more things that could be on this list. Because there is so much to love in life. Never forget that.

Things I love in 2025, In A Particular Order.

  1. My wife Dawn
  2. My kids Ava, Johann and Magnus
  3. My parents, Robert and Jill Albrecht
  4. My sisters Heather, Alison and Donielle (that’s not a typo). And I love our crazy birthday story!
  5. Waking up before my alarm
  6. Creative ideas
  7. Putting a smile on my face when I first wake up.
  8. Making grumpy people smile.
  9. Helping my clients grow their businesses
  10. Reading graduate level books
  11. Skiing with my son Magnus
  12. Listening to my son Johann play piano or saxophone
  13. My home weight room. I can blast my own music and yell. It has a great vibe.
  14. Running my Ariens snowblower through a fresh snowfall. This line has been brought to you by Ariens.
  15. The taste of maple sap form a galvanized bucket. (Real Vermont Boy Stuff.)
  16. Mountain Biking
  17. Pizza
  18. Compound interest
  19. Hummingbirds
  20. Northern lights
  21. Boogie Boarding
  22. Printing photos from my adventures and hanging them on my wall as a reminder to really live
  23. Writing newsletters, blog posts, and books. Oh My!
  24. Seeing my people in real life
  25. Making a new friend on an airplane
  26. G-Shock Watches
  27. American Giant Hoodies
  28. My Topo Design Mountain pants (they don’t make them anymore.)
  29. My hiking boots
  30. Moonlight cross country skiing with my Dad in Vermont
  31. A Paris dinner cruise
  32. Floating down the Aare River in Bern, Switzerland
  33. The crazy traffic in Bangalore, India
  34. Bryce Canyon
  35. The Narrows at Zion National Park
  36. Seeing Bears in the Wild (when I’m not holding a salmon)
  37. Laughing until I cry
  38. My Jeep Rubicon
  39. The Weaponry
  40. The color red.
  41. Trucker hats
  42. My Halo pizza oven
  43. Making minds sparkle
  44. Giving keynote speeches
  45. Family reunions
  46. Guys trips
  47. My home theater
  48. Frozen bananas
  49. Getting upgraded to first class on Delta flights
  50. The Salt Lake City Airport
  51. Coaching my daughter Ava in track and field
  52. Coaching my son Magnus in football
  53. Buffalo (the animals and the wings)
  54. When things go wrong and you get a good story out of it
  55. A good comeback, in sports and in life
  56. Chocolate milk
  57. My wedding day (But once was enough.)
  58. My Grandparents
  59. My Aunts and Uncles
  60. Cousins (The relatives. Not the subs.)
  61. Black olives
  62. Grilled Cheese sandwiches
  63. Music Concerts
  64. Snowmobiling
  65. Chicago
  66. Hilton Head Island
  67. A great photo I was lucky enough to catch
  68. My Atlanta friends
  69. My friends from home in the Upper Valley
  70. Turks and Caicos
  71. Ben & Jerry’s New York Super Fudge Chunk
  72. Vermont
  73. Ginger Beer
  74. Breakfast burritos
  75. Sunrises and Sunsets
  76. Great Comedians
  77. Great Churros
  78. Long road trips
  79. Baseball and football cards from the 1980s
  80. My Gerber tool
  81. Throwing the discus
  82. My Mack Weldon Atlas Bag
  83. The Republic of Tea Ginger Peach,
  84. Darn Tough Socks
  85. Atomic Habits by James Clear
  86. Connecting dots
  87. Simon Pearce glass
  88. Being totally present
  89. Roller Coasters
  90. The Last Dance documentary series
  91. Yahtzee (especially when I get Yahtzee twice in one game)
  92. The museum of memories I am building in my mind
  93. My John Deere lawn tractor.
  94. Mt. Rainier
  95. Sweet Tea
  96. A New York Strip (The steak. Don’t be pervy.)
  97. Fishing in the rain
  98. Maui Jim Sun glasses
  99. Luftballoons
  100. Someone else having hiccups
  101. Dalmatians

Key Takeaway

Fill your life with the things you love. The people, places, activities, feelings, foods, and drinks you love will lead you to a life you love. And life is too short to fill with anything else.

*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.

Balancing Growth and Goals in Your Self-Improvement Journey.

We are all on some type of self-improvement journey. It’s how we are wired as humans. There are always things we can find to improve. And the beginning of a new year is like Improvapalooza. Suddenly, we are thinking of all the things we should do to make more money, read more books and look better naked. (Presumably while reading books.)

There are 3 key points on your self improvement journey.

  1. Your starting point
  2. Your current position
  3. Your ideal

To maintain motivation, you need to balance how much time you spend focused on the distance to your goal, versus the progress you have made.

If you only focus on the ideal goal you will spend somewhere between 99% and 100% of your time on the journey disappointed.

Because you are always falling short. Like Martin.

If you spend all of your time focused on your growth you can feel like you have done enough.

Which will make you feel prematurely satisfied. A condition I call PreMatSat. (Which I think is also the test you take to get into med school.)

In this case, you are likely to settle for less than you set out to achieve.

The key is a balanced diet of both perspectives.

Just as your ideal food intake requires a proper balance of protein and carbohydrates, motivation requires a balance of attention towards both your goals and your growth.

I have found a simple formula that works best for me.

2/3rd Goal Perspective + 1/3 Growth Perspective = Motivation + Reward

Think of this like spending your work week focused on your goals and your weekends enjoying your growth. It provides a great combination of grind time and satisfaction with your accomplishments.

Key Takeaway

It is important to set lofty goals to push yourself to become the best you can be. But the real win isn’t simply in achieving your goals. The win is in the improvement. The goal is the tool to keep you marching forward. The growth is the reward. It’s the fruit you harvest. If you don’t take a little time to look at your improved physique in the mirror, enjoy a bit of that hard-won money, or admire your elevated skills, you are planting a garden without ever eating the crop. Don’t focus so much on the destination that you forget that the real value is in the journey. And it always has been.

*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.

Why Everyone Needs a Wish List Beyond the Holidays

This holiday season many people have a wish list.

This is a list of things that you would like to have.

Or used to have. But you lost it. Like that loving feeling. Now it’s gone, gone, gone.

You share your wish list with the people who are apt to give you a gift.

Usually this is your family or friends.

But sometimes, it’s a bearded dude in a red suit who leads an army of magical elves.

(And sometimes that works out far better than logic would indicate.)

The wish list does 2 valuable things:

  1. It forces you to think about the things you need and want.
  2. It helps others get you the things you need or want.

But a powerful tool like a wish list shouldn’t be limited to the holidays.

And it shouldn’t just be something you offer other people.

You should create a wish list for yourself.

It should include the things you would like to have. Both needs and wants. Big and small

The things on your wish list could be:

  • Material
  • Psychological
  • Emotional
  • Physical
  • Spiritual
  • Relational
  • Financial
  • Brown paper packages tied up with string

By creating a wish list, you are identifying the things that would improve your life.

Once you know what those things are you can pursue them.

You can attract them.

You can recognize them when you see them.

You can appreciate them when they arrive.

This wish list can be used to improve your personal life.

But it can also improve your professional career.

Or your business.

Or your community.

Or your wardrobe.

Because when you become clear on the things you really want, you create your own gravitational pull.

That’s when the things you really want find a way to find you.

*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.

    5 Things you should always be working on for a happy, fulfilling life.

    If you met a genie who could grant you 3 wishes do you know what you would ask for? I do. I would wish for happiness, fulfillment and a lifetime supply of cheese curd flavored Pringles. Unfortunately, when I was in 3rd grade, my friend Todd Brudos told me that genies are not real. They are just something lamp polish manufacturers made up to get you to polish your lamps.

    So today, I no longer dream of genies. Instead, I now realize we must work for the things we want. And if you want happiness and fulfillment, the key is to figure out what brings you those things well before you are in hospice care or the electric chair.

    Through my own research, trial and error, and a couple of lucky guesses I have discovered that there are 5 things to work on for a happy, fulfilled, and rewarding life.

    Here they are, in a particular order.

    5 Things You Should Always Be Working On.

    1. Your Health: When you stop working on your health, your health stops working on you. Eat right. Sleep right. Exercise. Drop habits that are hard on your health. Keep your weight in the healthy-and-feels-good zone. See your doctor and dentist regularly. Get naked and do the uncomfortable exams when you are supposed to. (Although if your dentist asks you to get naked for an exam consider getting a second opinion first.) If you could use a little help with your mental health see someone there too.

    2. Your Relationships: At the end of our days the only thing that will really matter is our relationships and the impact we have on each other. Develop more relationships. Develop better relationships. And see your people in real life. Live life like you want to have a packed house at your funeral. And not just because people want to make sure you are really dead.

    3. Your Time Utilization: Time is your most valuable resource. And it’s constantly slip-sliding away. Make sure to use your time wisely, old owl. Do things now. Plan your days, weeks, and adventures in advance. Recognize the things that waste your time and eliminate them now. You’ll thank me later, when you have time.

    4. Your Growth: Growth means getting better. Aim to get better every day in every way. Read and learn. Reflect on your experiences to gain wisdom. Surround yourself with great people who you can learn from and model. Develop great habits. Improve your listening skills. And your compassion. Become a better model of yourself every day. Even if you are already a supermodel.

    5. Your Wealth: When you grow your wealth, your other opportunities grow too. So does your peace of mind, freedom, and the size of the duffel bag you need to carry all of your money when you leave the country. And like the old saying goes, ‘Mo Money, Mo Pringles’.

    Key Takeaway

    To make the most of your short time on Earth focus on what matters most. Take care of your health to maximize the quantity and quality of your life. Develop and maintain your relationships. Make great use of your time while you have time. Focus on growing your wealth to grow your opportunities, freedom and peace of mind. And get a little better every 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.

    When you feel good, share that feeling with others.

    On Saturday morning I was sitting at home when Lola, my Border Collie, started barking like there was an intruder. A moment later my doorbell rang, and I understood why Lola was going off. I got up and walked to the front door. I could see through the glass there there were two pleasant-looking middle-aged women standing on my front porch, with what looked like ‘materials’.

    I unlocked my front door, while Lola lost her canine mind. Then i opened the door just enough to slip out onto the front porch without Lola following me. I pulled the door shut, then turned to face the two strangers on my steps.

    What the ladies at my door didn’t know was that I just returned home from coaching a football game that morning and was still in full Coach Albrecht mode.

    I boomed in my energetic youth football coach voice, ‘GOOD MORNING LADIES!!! HOW ARE YOU DOING TODAY?’

    The women were clearly surprised, and delighted by the enthusiastic, greeting they received.

    They both smiled and inquired, ‘Are you a coach?’ Clearly, the women picked up on the fact that I was still wearing my team cap and polo, both of which featured our team’s Cardinal mascot.

    I boomed, ‘YES I AM! AND I JUST GOT HOME FROM COACHING OUR GAME THIS MORNING! WHICH WE WON!!! BETTER YET, I AM THE DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR, AND WE WON OUR FOOTBALL GAME 2-0! AND MY SON MAGNUS SCORED THE SAFETY!’

    The women, Ruth and Chris, both smiled broadly and offered warm congratulations. (I may have just thought those were their names because I was hungry for steak.)

    Then I clapped my hands loudly, dropped into a linebacker-stance and said, ‘HOW CAN I HELP YOU, LADIES?’

    The women revealed that they were Jehovah’s Witnesses. And they were there to invite me to study the bible with them.

    I responded like Matt Foley giving his van down by the river speech, ‘LADIES, I ALREADY HAVE A BIBLE! AND I AM GOING TO CHURCH EVERY SUNDAY (this month)! YOU DON’T NEED TO WORRY ABOUT ME! NOW I WANT YOU TO GET OUT THERE, LADIES! AND GET EVERYONE ELSE ON THE TEAM! CAN YOU DO THAT FOR ME?!?’

    The women lit up and laughed at my over the top response to their sales pitch. They thanked me for sharing my energy with them that morning. Which I am sure is a welcomed departure from the typical response the JWs get on their Ding-Dong-Divinitiy Tours.

    As they waved and wished me a good day, I shouted out one last bit of coaching, ‘NOW MAKE SURE YOU GO TO CHURCH TOMORROW! YOU’VE TO GOT TO PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH, LADIES!‘

    And with that, they left with big bright smiles on their faces.

    Key Takeaway

    When you feel happy, energetic, or optimistic, share it with others. Brighten the day of those around you. We can all use a little more of the good stuff. So when you having a great day, break off a little piece and pass it around. You never know who might need what you have.

    *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 gets you high?

    A couple of months ago I was at the airport in Atlanta, along with a few hundred thousand travel buddies, when one young man’s sweatshirt caught my attention. It was a simple black hoodie. On the front of the shirt, it said:

    Music Gets Me High.

    I loved the shirt. Not because music gets me high. But because the young man wearing it knew that music gets him high. And while I haven’t consulted with the Food and Drug Administration or Nancy Reagan, I expect that music provides a fairly safe way to get high. And somebody should tell that to Willie Nelson.

    The shirt, and the young man wearing it, made me think that everyone should know what gets them high.

    So the question of the day is:

    What activities make you feel heightened and alive? Or euphoric? Or in flow?

    This is a far more valuable question to ask yourself if the answer is not related to drugs or alcohol. In fact, the point of this prompt is to find the activities that make you feel great without the chemicals. This is particularly interesting to me because I have never drank or done drugs. But I engage in activities that make me feel great. But because my activities are positive and healthy, unlike Amy Winehouse, they are not trying to make me go to rehab.

    So what gets you high?

    Discover your most highly rewarding activities.

    Find ways to do them more often.

    And you will live a highly enjoyable life.

    *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 key to your personal happiness and the one thing that will prevent it.

    One of the greatest studies ever conducted on humans is the Grant Study, also known as the Harvard Human Happiness Study. It has tracked the same people for 85 years. And it has developed a clear conclusion that the greatest influence on human happiness and fulfillment is strong personal relationships. Having close, meaningful relationships with your friends and family will make you happier and healthier, and help you live longer. Which helps explain why Keith Richards and Willie Nelson are still kicking.

    But what if the relationship has sailed?

    Yet strong and deep personal relationships take work to maintain. You undoubtedly have good friends or family members that you were once close to, but now it has been a long time since you talked. Maybe there was an issue. Or a move. Or you no longer work together. Because many of our strongest friendships develop at work. Which is where I met my wife. And a bunch of other great friends that I didn’t marry.

    Yet studies clearly show that resuming and restrengthening your relationships will have a positive impact on your health and happiness.

    Hello…

    Interestingly, studies also show that the number one reason people don’t reach out to friends, family and former coworkers after long silences is that they worry that reaching out will be awkward.

    Which means that worrying about the awkwardness of a conversation with a once close friend or family member is one of the greatest barriers to human happiness.

    Really? Awkwardness? (Said the way Allen Iverson said ‘Practice?‘) That’s crazy. And we’re not even talking about real awkwardness. Just the perceived potential of awkwardness.

    In reality, most people are thrilled to hear from a friend or family member they haven’t heard from in a long time. Which means that by reaching out you are doing yourself and the person you are reaching out to a solid. Because reconnected and reestablishing meaningful relationships is not only highly enjoyable, it is extremely good for your health and happiness. Which makes you feel like Pharrell Williams in a room without a roof.

    Key Takeaway

    Strong personal relationships are the key to happiness, health, and longevity. Invest time and energy in your current relationships. Reconnect with friends and family members you have not been in touch with lately. Get over the awkwardness. It will be worth it.

    *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.

    If you are struggling to find your next great job, create it yourself.

    In 2014 I moved to Atlanta. The amazing advertising agency I worked for had been acquired by a public holding company a year earlier and the new company wanted me at the Atlanta headquarters. I had been banana-splitting my time between Atlanta and Columbus for 3 years at that point. And I was happy to finally move to the ATL full-time. But I could tell the new holding company was going to make things very different. And I expected a plot twist. And I wanted to write the script for that twist myself.

    Shortly after moving to Atlanta, I began looking beyond the horizon to plan for the next step in my career. I was looking for the next great ad agency to join within a circle of acceptability near my nearly retired parents and my mother-in-law (who was not actually a lawyer). After living in 3 states in 8 years I was making plans to set the circus down someplace where my 3 children could enjoy middle school and high school in one town.

    I had conversations and meals with many different agencies. But like those guys combing the dessert in Spaceballs, I didn’t find what I was looking for. Not to say there were not a lot of great people and great agencies. But I could afford to be choosey. I had a new job. And a jar of Jif.

    The conclusion I came to was that the business I was looking for in the place I wanted to live, with the culture I wanted, with the compensation I expected, did not exist. So I decided that I would create my own business. Within a year I had a full-fledged passion project on my hands. I spent my nights planning and building what would become The Weaponry. And it checked all my boxes. Because I designed it specifically so that it would.

    Creating your own business means that you get to create your own dream scenario. Like Wayne and Garth. You get to decide what you do every day. You get to decide where you live, what the culture is like, and who you work with. Better yet, you never have to apply for a job, wait for a gatekeeper to reply to you, or wonder why some other employer didn’t like you more. Which is pretty fricken great.

    Key Takeaway

    If you are not finding the place you want to work, consider creating that place yourself. Don’t wait for someone who doesn’t know you or recognize your full potential to get back to you. Don’t let other people close doors on you. Take control of your future. And your income. And your happiness. It’s easier than you think. I started the advertising and ideas agency The Weaponry 7 years ago. Along with asking my wife Dawn to marry me, it was one of the 2 best decisions of my life. If you have questions about how I did it, email me at adam@theweaponry.com. Or reach out to me on the socials. I’m typically @adamalbrecht. If you know someone who really should start their own business please share this with them too.

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

    Why the 4th of July should be thought of as Pursuit of Happiness Day!

    On the 4th of July, we take a moment to reflect on our freedoms. That includes our right to vote, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, our freedom to wear skimpy American flag swimwear, and our freedom to protest beer companies who get too un-beery.

    But today it is important to think about your pursuit of happiness. This inalienable right, as spelled out in the Declaration of Independence, is the most important freedom of all.

    It is not only your right but your responsibility to determine what makes you happy.

    That includes:

    Surrounding yourself with people that make you happy.

    Finding work that contributes to your happiness.

    Discovering your happy places, and spending more time there.

    Recognizing the activities that enhance your happiness, and finding more time for them.

    Discovering and enjoying your happy meals, with or without Grimace and The Hamburgler.

    Happy doesn’t mean easy. Or stress-free. The things in your happysphere can be strenuous or even grueling. But ultimately, they make you feel happy for having completed them. This could include hard work of all sorts, from physical exercise to mental, emotional, or psychological activities that lead to exhaustion before they lead to happiness.

    Today, consider the great undertakings of your life that you have not yet started or completed, that will increase your happiness. Think about the travel you always wanted to do. Consider the business you always wanted to start. The organization you wanted to create. The book you wanted to write. The great challenge you wanted to take on. Or the music you always wanted to make. And make a plan to pursue it, and the happiness that comes with living the life you imagined.

    Key Takeaway

    Eliminate the limiting beliefs that prevent you from pursuing your own happiness. Surround yourself with people that help contribute to your happiness. Fill your mind with things that contribute to your own happiness. Remember, no one else on the planet is responsible for your own happiness. It should be your number one priority. And it is one of the core beliefs that our great nation was founded on. Happy 4th of July! (Emphasis on happy.)

    *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.