Because the foolproof cure for boredom is to have big goals.
And I am the fool with the proof.
Big goals, and many of them, help fill your days with purpose.
I have so many goals that they govern my days. (In a non-political governing kind of way.)
From the moment I wake up, my routine is constructed to help me achieve my goals.
Because when you have a strong vision for your future, it shapes your now.
And you see time as a tool for you to use to achieve your goals.
Fitness goals inspire you to exercise. Even when you would rather TexMexercise.
Travel goals squash boredom with planning, adventure, reflection and memories.
Career goals inspire you to work harder, more focused, and with more zeal. (Or a more contemporary word for zeal.)
Financial goals drive you to save and invest. Even when you have the urge to splurge, Virg.
And your financial goals will inspire you to explore and discover smarter things to do with your money, honey.
Entrepreneurial goals mean you are never bored. Ever. Like ever, ever.
Reading goals mean that you always have a good reason to log off of electronics and fill your time with something that adds value to your life. (And increases your vocabularium.)
Writing goals drive you to sit down and write every day. And it is hard to be bored when you are creating. Just ask God. Or Tyler Perry.
Domestic goals around improving your home, and yard keep you busy and productive. Not bored.
Relationship goals influence the way you invest your time, the way you treat the important people in your life, and the hashtags you use on social media.
Your goals help you make decisions all day long about the things you should and shouldn’t do with your time. Which means that goals enhance productivity, decision making, time management, and relationships. Not to mention the positive impact they have on your happiness, adventurousness, and good old-fashioned usefulness. (Basically all the nesses.)
Key Takeaway
The next time you find yourself bored, think about the goals that you could be working towards. If you find that you don’t have any, set new ones that you can work towards right now. Boredom is a signal that you need more meaningful activity in your life. And goals are the greatest way to make that happen.
*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.
If you are not careful, your life will pass by in a flash. Your career will be over in a snap. Your kids will be grown and will have flown in a Blink-182. Because time is a crafty thief that lulls you into someday thinking. Like Sugar Ray. And then it yanks that someday away just like your prankster friend, pulling your chair away just before you’re about to sit on it, Potsy.
Milestones
One of the great ways to create a far more enjoyable and successful life and create memorable experiences is to utilize the power of milestones.
Milestones are those moments on the calendar that humans have made to mark the passage of time. Those days or events offer valuable markers for accomplishments, challenges and traditions. They are there to host rites of passage and other memory-making events. And without milestones, Hallmarkwould have a hard time selling you paper.
You know the big and obvious milestones. At Halloween, you dress up in a costume and do candy things. At Thanksgiving, you gather with family or friends, feast, and get thanky. At Christmas, you exchange gifts, eat, drink and praise Mary. At New Year’s, you celebrate and create lists of how the next 2 weeks will be different.
Deadlines and Opportunities
But milestones also create deadlines for accomplishments and opportunities for memorable experiences.
I sit down to write every morning by 6:10am. But Tuesdays and Thursdays are milestones to publish blog posts. Every 3 weeks, I publish Adam’s Good Newsletter. And every five years, I want to publish a new book. Those are all random and arbitrary deadlines. But they become useful milestones that make my elective activities time-bound. Milestones offer navigational markers on the naked landscape of time. Which ramps up your self-imposed productivity.
I had a major speaking event yesterday, and I used it as an opportunity to get in better shape. I committed to doing 30 minutes of cardio every day for 30 days leading up to the talk, so that I would look and feel more fit on stage in front of 1,000 people. (And I requested to have no cameras in the venue, because the camera adds 10 pounds.)
I always use my birthday as a motivating milestone. I’ve also used class reunions, New Year’s Eve, and the birth of my children as important starting points, end points and exclamation points.
I have used milestones to gain traction towards health and fitness goals, to measure my business success, and to create deadlines for my entrepreneurial launches. (Which are a lot less launchy than Elon Musk, Richard Branson or Jeff Bezos’ entrepreneurial launches.)
I used the end of the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 as a milestone to finish the first draft of my manuscript for my first book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? Then I used Thanksgiving of 2021 as my milestone to publish the book. I made both of those goals happen, thanks to the power of milestones. (Since then, I have learned how to write a manuscript without a worldwide pandemic.)
I use milestones to schedule big travel. For my wife Dawn’s 40th birthday, I surprised her with a trip to Europe. We scheduled a trip to Europe in the summer before my daughter Ava’s senior year of high school. We realized that the milestone provided the last summer opportunity for us to all travel together before college obligations made summer travel problematic. Using milestones is one of the best ways to visit the big places on your life-travel list. (Using airplanes is the other best way.)
I used a milestone to plan a major move. My wife and I wanted to find a place where we could settle to allow our children to finish their schooling without moving by the time my daughter Ava entered middle school. We moved from Atlanta to Mequon, Wisconsin, a large-yarded, low-taxed, great-schooled northern suburb of Milwaukee that sits on the Western shore of Lake Michigan. We called this our 13-year home. Which meant that we would stay in Milwaukee for 13 years, until we hit another major milestone: our son Magnus’s high school graduation. Then Dawn and I are free to hit the road again and take on more adventures.
Key Takeaway
Your greatest ambitions, experiences and traditions are far less likely to happen if you don’t tie them to a milestone. Use those special days to inspire your work, to create deadlines, and to force urgency. Use them to create regular events to bring your people together. Or to reset your ambitions, spark your goal setting and help you accomplish more elective activity than you could without them.
*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.
Like many avid self-improvers, I’m trying to grow into the best version of myself. This means adherence to healthy and productive habits. Which is hard. Because there are a lot of fun things on this planet that are unhealthy and counterproductive. Like sweet tea and turtle sundaes.
But I have found that if you gamify your life, your life becomes more fun and you get better results. This doesn’t simply mean playing more games. It means turning everything into a game. Like Milton Bradley. Or compulsive gamblers.
My life games start when my alarm first goes off in the morning. And they don’t stop until I am in bed again at night. These games help me feel like I am scoring points and winning all day long. It’s an easy way to make the actions that I know I should take each day more enjoyable and rewarding.
Fill Your Day With Games
Your work is packed with opportunities to win every day. But so is your home life, your social life, your health, your wealth, and your general self-improvement activities.
Consider the following ideas to get started.
You can gamify your sleep. Get to bed by a certain time, and you win. Wake up at a pre-set time and you win. Get a set number of hours of total sleep and you win. Don’t get kicked out of bed for snoring, and you win.
You can make weight loss a competition. Or make weight maintenance a game. I track my weight every day with the Happy Scale app, which gives me the opportunity for daily, weekly, monthly, yearly and even lifetime wins. Plus, you get bonus wins when you look in the mirror. And every time you can button your pants.
You can make your good habits a game. Stacking days in a row of consistently completing your good habits at work or at home is a win. There are so many good habits worth developing and maintaining that there are hundreds of ways to win every day. Like Lotto games say. (But don’t play Lotto. Bet on yourself.)
You can turn meeting new people into a game. Gamifying people-meeting incentivizes you to expand your circle of friends and grow your network. Give yourself points for every new person you know by name. Having more friends expands your opportunities, supports your mental health, and gives you more phone-a-friend options if you are ever a contestant on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.
Grow-Your-Net Worth is a game that pays you a cash prize. And increases your peace of mind. Definitely track and stack your assets. And if they hate, then let them hate and watch the money pile up.
I play the Drink-A-Glass-Of-Water-First-Thing-Every-MorningGame. And I am crushing it at this game. Proper hydration is key to great health and human performance. So play this drinking game every morning.
I gamify annual adventures with friends. Gamifying it makes scheduling our time together a priority.
I play the Start-Each-Day-With-A-Smile game. And I’m happier as a result.
I try to be the first one to apologize when I get into a quarrel with a friend or loved one. I also compete to keep the word quarrel in use, since it has been decreasing in popularity for like 500 years.
I track my time on my phone each week and try to keep it below a winning standard.
I try to get to church every Sunday during Advent and Lent to win the Advent and Lent games.
By turning the positive behaviors you want to see from yourself into a game, they become fun to-dos. You can quantify your positive actions. Through small actions, you can put points on the board every day. Which means you can always count the good things you did, even on bad days.
Key Takeaway
You win at life in small ways, every day. By gamifying the actions, habits and behaviors you value, you are giving yourself a fun and easy way to track them, and stack them. It’s a great way to make yourself feel like a winner every day. It’s builds confidence and positive self talk. And it creates a clear and easy guide that you can use to measure your life. So start gamifying your life today. You can play every day. And like the state lottery commission, you can add new games every day to keep your interest up and to encourage the behaviors you value most.
*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.
This past weekend I joined 17 athletes and 5 other coaches from Homestead High School in Mequon, Wisconsin, as we competed at the 130th edition of the Wisconsin State Track & Field Championships in La Crosse. As we left for the meet last Thursday, I could not have possibly predicted how the story was going to unfold over the next two days. At least not without a DeLorean and a flux capacitor.
We knew we were going into the competition with a strong team. While most teams at this level have a few star athletes, typically in similar events, we rolled into La Crosse with a wide load of talent. We had athletes competing in the 110-meter hurdles, 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash, 300-meter hurdles, 800-meter run, long jump, high jump, shot put, and discus. Plus, we had elite teams in the 400, 800, and 3200-meter relays. (I also just set a personal record for most times I have written the word ‘meter’ in a single sentence.)
So, How Did Homestead Do?
It all depends on which lens you use.
Our relays were top shelf. We won the 400-meter and 3200-meter relays with blisteringly fast times. We grabbed second place in the 800-meter relay, behind a team that broke the state record. In fact, believe we also broke the previous state record in that race, but in the name of speed, I am not double-checking that fact so that I can finish this post quickly. #IWannaGoFast
Our hurdler, Jeridon ‘It’s a Beaut’ Clark, finished 6th in the 110-meter hurdles and narrowly missed the finals in the long jump.
Senior sprint star Sean ‘OMG’ O’Byrne took 8th in the 100-meter dash.
And Senior Terron ‘The Terror’ McCall, whom I coach, took 6th place in the shot put.
Terron on the podium for the shot put.
Together, those remarkable results helped the Homestead Highlanders boys’ team grab the State Runner-Up Title. And those were all great reasons to celebrate and be very proud of our team achievement.
A Second Perspective
However, through another lens, the meet was less satisfying.
You see, we lost the state championship by just 1 point.
Boo.
While the relays went great, the 6 races in 2 days demanded a toll on our top two all-star sprinters Sean O’Byrne and Lucas ‘Show No’ Mersky. Their selfless performances in the relays helped score valuable team points, but impacted their ability to rack up individual points and personal accolades. Sean was just .03 seconds from picking up an additional point, and .05 from picking up 3 more points. And Lucas’ specialty, the 200-meter dash, came at the end of the meet. And like The Giving Tree, Mersky had already given all he could for his team.
The Squad in the parking lot at Homestead High School, just before we left on our 3-hour drive to the other side of the state.
Now, we find ourselves looking through the results at what might have been…
We were just one height away from scoring in the high jump.
We were just 5 inches from scoring 1 point in the long jump.
The Throws
And then there were the throws. These are the events that I coached along with Jake Kroll.
I was extremely proud that Homestead was the only team with 2 throwers in the shot put finals. Junior Luka ‘The Big Red Machine’ Ivancevic finished 9th, just 9 inches from 8th and that valuable additional point. But Luka had been sick all week and gave all he had. In fact, he was the highest-placing non-senior and will come storming back for a great showing next year.
Then there was Terron McCall. Terron had been nursing a strained right pec muscle all week. In fact, he didn’t throw any actual implements last week until Thursday morning to help his injury heel.
On his first attempt, he had a big throw that landed foul, just left of the sector line, and smashed into the 59-foot marker box. For context, had that throw landed fair, it would likely have earned him a top 3 finish. (Even though he isn’t Finnish)
On his second throw, he hit 55 feet even, good enough for 6th place. Unfortunately, the throw re-aggravated the pec injury. And despite a run to the medical tent and an attempt to tape the shoulder to protect the injury, the 3rd attempt confirmed he could no longer continue in the competition.
Just before the finals began, I had to inform the judges that Terron, who was sitting in 4th place at the time of his injury, would have to drop out of the competition. I don’t ever remember having to pull the plug on an athlete in competition. And I hope I never have to do it again.
When the competition was finished, Terron’s best throw sat just 7 inches off the extra point we needed to win the meet.
We’re happy to leave La Crosse with La Hardware.
Luka and Terron both qualified for the discus on Saturday, too. Luka went hard to try to make finals, but in his go-big-or-go-home mode, he fouled 2 throws and missed making the finals.
Terron showed up like a champ. Despite the injury to the muscle most vulnerable in the discus, he attempted 2 ultra-light warm-up throws, which clearly bothered him.
But rather than withdraw from the competition, Terron decided he had to take one attempt in the competition. His competitors, teammates and many of the coaches and fans in attendance knew his situation. The crowd held their collective breath as Terron stepped into the circle, and launched into a full force attempt at a miracle ending. But it was not to be. The pain was to much to complete the mission. The discus fluttered out of his hand and Terron immediately grabbed his right pec in pain. And his senior track season came to an end.
Terron’s best throw of the season of 184’3″ broke the 15-year old Homestead High School Discus Record. And anything within about 20 feet of his best mark would have won us the state meet.
Through this lens, the meet felt as if we missed a golden opportunity.
Me, Terron, and Luka fueling up for the meet.
However, There Is A Third Lens.
While we lost to De Pere by just one point to finish second, we also beat another team by just 1 point. Yes, the top 3 teams in the state scored 46, 45 and 44 points. Arrowhead Union High School, the defending state champ and a perennial top finisher, came in 3rd place. While the winning team and the runner-up both get trophies and recognition on the podium at the end of the meet, 3rd place simply gets a long, quiet bus ride home.
So through the ‘At Least’ lens, every point mattered. Every point by every athlete earned us a very special and memorable award experience that provided a cap to a fantastic season. Through that lens, we were thankful for all of the effort and didn’t take a single point for granted.
Key Takeaway
There are several different ways to look at everything in life. Each lens tells a different story. Use each lens as needed. Some perspectives will instill confidence, some provide satisfaction, and some sting and drive you to improve. They all have their time and place. Remember, the human is the most complicated of all machines, requiring highly nuanced tools to perform at its best. Always tell yourself the story you need to hear in the moment.
Thanks to the 2025 Homestead Boys Track Team and coaches for a remarkable season. I was proud to play a small part in this great season. And I can’t wait to see what we can do next year.
*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.
*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.
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.
*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.
There are proven ways to get results in every area of your life. Some methods are universally true. Some are proven to work for you. But when you discover a process that gets you results, use it. And don’t lose it.
I have proven processes:
To help me shed pounds when I creep above my target weight. (Like a creeper.)
To help me gain strength.
To help me put out 3 blog posts per week. (Which is a safe way to put out.)
To help me grow my business.
To feel closer to God.
To wake up well-rested. (Instead of feeling like I rested in a well.)
To make my hedges look good.
To read 3 books every month
To make sure my teeth don’t fall out
But sometimes I get away from my processes. And I gain weight, lose strength, fall off my reading pace, wake up tired, think less about God, write less, and give the Cavity Creeps a shot at my teeth.
When these things happen, and I realize I have strayed from my ideals, goals and norms, it is time to get back on track, Jack. And to get back on track, I give myself a 3-word reminder:
‘Trust The Process.‘
You have developed great habits that are proven to get great results over time. But only when you follow the process. If you are not getting the results you have come to expect, chances are that you have gotten away from your best habits.
In those times, return to the process. Resume the great habits. Trust the process. The results won’t come the same day. (Like Amazon.) Or overnight. (Like FedEx.) But be patient. The results will come.
Key Takeaway
Trust your proven processes to get you the results you seek. Give your processes time to work their magic. Your good habits are like the processes in an assembly plant, creating great results. You have to run the process through the full line. And when you do, you will be happy with the final product that rolls out of the factory.
*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.
You have a lot of amazing things you could do in life.
Adventurous travel.
Creating your own business.
Writing that award-winning thing that only you could write.
Doing things so interesting that you find yourself rubbing elbows with people who have really nice elbows.
But are you doing any of these amazing things?
Are you ticking things off Your Big Life List of amazing things that add to your life resume and make your enemies mad that they envy your experiences, accomplishments and elbows?
If so, you probably feel happy, fulfilled and purposeful.
If not, it’s time to jump on it, Kemosabe.
You are not getting any younger. (And after seeing how The Substance ends, you won’t want to try.)
Remember, you don’t know how much time you have.
Start Today
Consider the things you would regret not doing if tomorrow your ability to do was done.
Make a list. (Check it twice. Find out who is naughty and nice.)
Start with the biggest, most important activities.
Set self-imposed deadlines.
They are amazing tools to help you accomplish more.
Reflection
On a recent flight, my seatmate and I were talking about our lives and experiences. She commented on the number of impressive life-listy things I had accomplished. I told her that a Big Bertha-sized drive for me was that on the eve of my 40th birthday, I reflected and wrote a list of all the things I was proud to have accomplished. Then, I turned to consider all the things I had not yet done, seen or experienced.
That list of Things Undone has been a great driver for me ever since. Today, I am keenly aware of the many things I still want to do. So I keep a list. And I set deadlines. And I keep ticking them off.
You can too.
Key Takeaway
I encourage you to write your regret list this week. Find some time when you can reflect on what you would regret not having done, accomplished, tried, seen, tasted, explored, or created if you were to die this year. Then get going. It will lead to a more interesting and adventurous life. A life that you can be very proud of. And it will help you finish your time here with no regrets.
*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.
The end of the year is always an exciting time for 3 reasons.
We get to reflect on our wins and successes from a good year, preferably with a Kip Dynamite fist pump.
We get to leave a bad year behind the way Bill Murray sneaks away from Father Rat Farts after he gets struck by lightning in Caddyshack.
We get to start a fresh new year full of hope, like Hope Solo.
Preparing For 2025
Now it’s time to prepare for a great 2025. Why prepare? Because great years, like great lives, don’t just happen. You make them happen.
A key element of living a great life is self-reflection. Asking yourself good questions is like conducting your own performance review. It’s a simple way to discover where you need to course correct, where your course is already correct, and where your corset could help correct.
1. Am I educating myself? Getting better starts with getting smarter. Continue to self-educate and your knowledge, abilities, and competitive advantages will grow like compound interest.
If you only read one thing in 2025, I suggest reading The One Thing.
2. Am I exercising enough? Your body is your life vehicle. Regular exercise keeps it in top shape. Which will allow you to travel further, faster and over rougher terrain without breaking down, like Tone-Loc.
3. Am I giving enough to others? Shel Silverstein famously wrote about The Giving Tree. But there is also a magical Giving Boomerang (perhaps made of wood from the giving tree). Because when you give your time, talent and treasure to others, good things come back to you in even bigger and better ways.
4. Am I disciplined enough? Discipline is what gets the job done. If you are not doing the things you’ve committed to, or if you are not avoiding the things you should avoid, check your discipline. Remember, you only need enough to create a habit. Then the habit takes over and discipline can be deployed towards something else. Read James Clear’s Atomic Habits if you want to become great at developing great new habits.
5. Am I thinking big enough? The answer for 99% of us is no. So start thinking bigger! Think as big as you can. Think Elon Musky. Because bigger thoughts lead to bigger results. It costs the same amount to think big as it does to think small. But the return on your thinking investment is much different. You can always go bigger. #TWSS
6. Am I taking the actions that matter most? Not all actions are created equal. Remember the 80/20 rule. Find the small actions with the biggest rewards. There are a lot of actions that generate very little results. Simply taking the right kinds of action (interacting with the right people for example) can change your life. For proof see Sliding Doors or Run Lola Run.
7. Am I getting better or getting worse? Check your trajectory. You are either headed up or down on every possible measure. The good news is that with all but some physical aging issues you can always improve your own angle through focused effort, commitment and mindset.
8. Am I strengthening my network? Most people think far too little about the strength of their network. But take it from the mobile carriers, it is all about the strength of your network. Continue to develop and maintain meaningful relationships. Make as many genuine friendships as you can. When you do, your social, professional and political capital will continue to grow. Which opens you to more opportunities. Remember, opportunities come through humans.
Some Milwaukee W-Club members flashing our gang sign. (I am very pleased with my font choice.)
9. Am I valuable to know? Do you add value to others? Are you kind, helpful, or inspiring? Do you offer access and connections? Are you are great listener? Really think about the value you offer others. The more value you offer, the more people will seek you out. And you want to be sought after. Just not by police. Or hitmen. Or Glenn Close.
10. Am I keeping my word? Trustworthiness is the bedrock of relationships, and the gateway to opportunity. Check your trustworthiness more often than once a year. Keeping your word is required on a daily basis. Like flossing and changing your undies.
11. Am I living into my vision for myself? You have aspirations. But simply having aspirations is not enough. You have to get yourself to the destination. You have to become the person you imagined, dragon. Do the doing, not just the dreaming.
My son Magnus envisioning at Yosemite this summer.
12. Am I noticing those who need me? We all have people who need us. Family, friends, clients, employees, community members. Do you see them? Do you notice what they need from you? Do you notice what you have to give?
13. Am I being present? Be now. This is all you ever have.
14. Am I taking care of my health? Have you seen your doctor and dentist lately? Do you have a doctor and dentist? How about a mental health specialist? A chiropractor? Take care of yourself. Because everybody needs a body.
15.Am I eating well? You are what you eat. Literally. Be mindful of your personal building materials. It makes a difference. Because you don’t want to look like Cheetos in your Speedos.
16. Do I have a healthy way to de-stress? The world is an all-you-can-eat stress buffet. You need to have ways to rid yourself of the stress. Sleep, exercise and church are my go-to’s. Find your ways to de-stress best.
17. Am I spending enough time in nature? Spending time in nature is great for re-grounding yourself. A little quiet time with Mama Nature provides peace and perspective you can’t get anywhere else.
18. Am I getting enough sleep? Sleep is the great reset button. It enables you to regenerate your best self. Take advantage of it. Get as much as you need.
19. Am I finding joy in my work? Work fills half of your waking hours. Finding joy in work is finding joy in life. If you are not finding joy it is time for a change. A new approach, a new job, or a new career should be on the table. And a bottle of Joy should be on the counter next to the kitchen sink.
20. Does my boss value me? An unfair amount of your happiness is tied to your relationship with your boss. If you have a boss that values you and treats you well you have won half the battle. If not, make a change. Life is too short for bad bosses.
21. Am I living a story worth reading? You only get one shot at life. Make it great. make it a story worth telling, worth hearing and worth reading.
22. Am I positively impacting others? At the end of our days, the only thing that really matters is the impact we have on each other. Focus on making a positive impact and you will live a great life.
23. Am I laughing enough? This is the easiest way to measure happiness. Laughter is more valuable than money. Spend more time with the people who make you laugh. They will make you feel most alive.
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24. Am I investing enough in my most important relationship? Think of the one relationship that means more to you than any other. A spouse or significant other. A parent, child or sibling. A friend, partner or neighbor. Are you investing in that person as much as you should? Always give the most important people the most.
Key Takeaway
Self-improvement starts with asking yourself good questions. You are a work in progress. Knowing what you should work on is how you make the progress.
*If you know someone who would benefit from these questions, please share this with them.
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