Tag: success

26 Rules For A Great 2026

As I start each year, I like to take a moment to remind myself what leads to a great year and ultimately a great life. Here are some of the most important rules I live by, in a particular order. I hope you find some value in them, too. If not, I encourage you to create your own list and share it with me. God knows I can use all the help I can get.

26 Rules For How To Have A Great 2026.

  1. Nothing works if you don’t. Success is a result of action.
  2. Your habits are your most important asset. You form your habits and then your habits form you.
  3. Add value before you try to extract value. Never forget the order of operations. Your value is directly related to your contribution.
  4. Your best energy is early in the day. Do the big stuff in the morning. But not the Double Stuf. Save that for dessert.
  5. In the end, the only thing that matters is the impact we have on each other. Put people first, and be a positive force in their lives. This is how you get people to show up at your funeral. (This and the all-you-can-eat ham sandwiches.)
  6. Don’t be a jerk. We have enough of them. People need allies and compassion. Not jerkitude.
  7. Get good sleep. Know your ideal amount of sleep and get it as often as you can. Sleep is nature’s power-up.
  8. This too shall pass. Even the really tough stuff will soon be in the rear-view mirror. Just keep swimming.
  9. Exercise is the best medicine. It’s better than an apple at keeping the doctor away. (But speaking of doctors…)
  10. See your doctor and dentist every year. Your scans, blood tests, ograms, and oscopies help find things when they are small and treatable. This can add years or even decades to your life. Do it for your loved ones.
  11. Do hard things. Nothing is better for building confidence and a repertoire of great stories.
  12. Always do what you know is right. This rule has never failed me. Listen to your inner voice. It knows what to do.
  13. When you are right, don’t act in a way that makes you have to apologize.
  14. Invest as much and as early as you can. Let compound interest work its magic, Johnson.
  15. Don’t put your hands in your pockets as you walk up or down stairs. If you trip, you’re going to need those hands to protect your face from the floor.
  16. Travel as much as you can. It provides knowledge, experience, understanding, stories and ideas that last a lifetime. When you are old and can no longer travel, you can always go back in your mind.
  17. Put a case and a screen protector on your phone. It will save you a lot of money.
  18. Burn more calories every day than you take in. That’s the simple formula to maintain a healthy weight.
  19. Don’t worry about how much milk you spill as long as you don’t lose your cow. There will be unfortunate things that cost you money. It’s ok. Just make sure to hold onto the thing that helps you make more money, honey.
  20. A happy marriage is the best thing in the world. I expect the opposite is also true. Prioritize your spouse. Even above your kids. It sets a great example for them.
  21. Reading books is like weight lifting for your brain. Read as much as you can. If you need to you can always buy a bigger hat.
  22. Don’t stick your tongue out when you are in a moving car. Because if you are in an accident, you will bite your tongue off.
  23. Think long term. Don’t try to make or save money today that will cost you money over the years to come.
  24. Take the red eye home from the West Coast. It’s like stealing time.
  25. Spend time with your people in real life. People are better in person. It’s one of the best things you can do for your happiness and well-being.
  26. Capacity is a state of mind. You will do more when you believe you can do more.
  27. (Bonus) Yesterday is the most important day. What you did yesterday enables everything you can do today.

Key Takeaway

The best way to have a great year is to put your accumulated experiences and resulting wisdom to work for you. You’re wiser than you were a year ago. Take advantage of it. Let’s have a great 2026! I hope we get to see each other in real 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. And consider subscribing to Adam’s Good Newsletter.

What Is Driving Your Decisions?

One of your greatest responsibilities is making good choices. (Just like your Mom and Dad used to say.)

Your choices are always based on your decision-making criteria, which are based on one of two drivers.

  1. Reaching a goal.
  2. Avoiding a negative.

Ever since I was in high school, I have been making decisions based on my most ambitious goals.

  • Breaking a state record
  • Going to a great college
  • Having a noteworthy career in advertising
  • Being a good husband and father
  • Starting a business
  • Creating a blog
  • Writing a book
  • Keeping my teeth in my mouth.

My goals have informed my decisions about what to eat, where I live, which flight I take home from business trips, what time I get up, how I invest my money and a thousand other things.

To live a great life, to enjoy a great career, and to craft an enviable story, make sure that you are making goal-oriented decisions.

Always choose the options that advance you towards your goals.

Pick things that propel you.

Opt for the path to fulfill your dreams.

It’s valuable to take on risks that take you towards the life, the results and the rewards you want.

Always pick the door that leads to growth and expansion.

Be wary of your decisions to avoid.

Avoiding the work.

Or the pain.

Or the sacrifice.

Or the awkward. (I always find awkward is an awkward word to spell. Wouldn’t ockword be less awkward?)

It’s far better to set your north star of purpose, goal achievement, and nonnegotiables.

Those propel, compel, expand and improve your life. They energize and enhance. They help you make your dreams a reality. And that is the hallmark of a life well lived.

Key Takeaway

A great life is built on great decisions. Once you decide what you want your life to be like, your vision should drive all your decisions. And the only things to avoid will be those things that hinder your progress towards your goals.

*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. And consider subscribing to Adam’s Good Newsletter.

How some people do so much more with their time.

We all know people who do more than everyone else.

They do the family things and the home things.

They do the friends things, the travel things, the work things, and the wild things.

And miraculously, they seem to be enjoying it all.

Like cyborgs. Or Stepford Wives.

They are creating things that interest them.

They are volunteering for causes they care about.

They are having success in their career, running their own business or leading their family.

They do the networking activities you would like to do.

They exercise.

And they get to worship, too, God bless them.

Plus, they coach or chaperone or team parent for the activities their kids do.

You wonder How do they do it all?

How are they involved in so many things? How do they fit it all in? And how do they not Chernobyl like it’s 1986?

The answer is simple.

Capacity is a state of mind.

You decide how much you can handle, how much you can take on, how much you can fit in.

You decide how much you can do with your hours, days and weeks.

When you decide you are full and overwhelmed, you stop. (Presumably in the name of love.)

People who do more believe they have a capacity to do more.

They see spaces to add things.

They find time in their schedule to make things happen.

They see opportunities that are worth their time and their energy.

And they recognize that at some point, they will run out of time, energy and opportunity.

So they go now.

The scarcity of time is precisely what drives them to see more capacity in their everyday.

Now is the time.

Now is the opportunity.

Now is the alternative to never.

Key Takeaway

If you want to fill your life with meaning, action and contribution, adjust your mindset to create capacity. Because when you want to find the time for more, you will find it. Or you will optimize, prioritize, reduce or eliminate things to make room. There is more space and time in your continuum for the things you really want to do. Find it. Enjoy it. Do more with it. And make others wonder how you do it 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. And consider subscribing to Adam’s Good Newsletter.

How to use milestones as the secret to your success.

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, Hallmark would 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.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned, check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media. And consider subscribing to Adam’s Good Newsletter.

The Power Of Enthusiasm And Teamwork.

Last week I had a fun and unique opportunity. Some of the coaches and parents of my son Magnus’s freshman football team asked me if I would come speak to the team at their Wednesday night team dinner before their final game of the season on Thursday. I jumped at the chance, nearly pulling a hamstring in the process.

The team had a frustrating season and hadn’t lived up to their own expectations. Despite good coaching and plenty of talent, they were going into their 8th game with a 2-4-1 record. They were just 5 points away from being 4-3. Which is like the difference between being cute and having a nice personality.

So on Wednesday night, I talked to them about two things that could have a major impact on their final game.

First, I talked about the energy and enthusiasm they brought to the field. The psychological force you bring to the game offers a major advantage. I noticed that they weren’t bringing their full allotment of energetic horsepower to their games, and that hurt their play. (It was like their 10-gallon hat was feeling 10-gallons flat, and they hankered for a hunk of cheese.)

Then I talked about the importance of playing as a team. Even when you make mistakes, and everyone makes mistakes, you have to support each other and move forward. You have to include everyone in the team huddle, treat each other like a band of brothers, because you are stronger when you play together. Otherwise, you’ll all end up living in a van down by the river.

I also shared that when I played football and the other team started pointing fingers and fighting with each other, we knew we had won. Because when teammates fight each other, they beat themselves.

To add color, I told the team that my freshman football teammates were still many of my closest friends. We stood up in each other’s weddings. We helped each other start businesses. And even though we are scattered from New England to California, we still have a group chat, do team Zoom calls, and get together back home every few years. And we have more inside jokes than most people have outside jokes.

This group of 14 and 15-year-old boys listened intently as I encouraged them to bring their best energy and enthusiasm to the field on Thursday. They paid attention as I urged them to end the season on a high note, with the right trajectory going into the offseason, their next sports, and the next football season. I encouraged them to play like a team, feed off each other’s energy, and good things would happen.

So what happened?

From the moment the boys took the field, I could see the difference in their attitude, energy and team dynamics. They were fired up, they were connecting with each other, and ready to bring the heat. (And maybe da noize, and da funk.)

And they did.

On the opening drive, the Homestead Highlanders’ freshman team was hitting on all 11 cylinders. The boys marched down the field with attitude and scored a touchdown and a 2-point conversion to go up 8-0.

On their following defensive series, they bent, but they didn’t break. They played united as a team. Then, cornerback Markey Walker intercepted the opponent’s pass at the 3-yard line. With a key block from my son Magnus and an escort of teammates, Markey returned the interception 97 yards for a touchdown. Boom!

That play fanned the flames of their team spirit. (Not Teen Spirit.) And they just kept rolling. The score at halftime was 20-0.

They came out sharp and aggressive in the second half. Like aged Wisconsin cheddar. In fact, when the opponent fumbled the opening kickoff, our boys jumped on it. A minute later, we punched the ball in for another touchdown.

At that point, the opponent began fighting with themselves and blaming each other. And our boys knew they had won.

Our team scored again. Everyone got significant playing time. The sideline was spirited and the play on the field was inspired. The camaraderie was palpable. And the boys were a force to be reckoned with. The coaches were pumped up. The parents were proud. And when the final whistle blew, the scoreboard accurately summarized the story of the game with the final score of 33-8.

After shaking hands with the opponent, a fired-up group of young men rushed to gather in the endzone, as a team, one last time. The team energy was palpable. The pride and togetherness hung like a halo over the huddled players and their coaches. It was the perfect ending to an imperfect season. A great step in the right direction. And proof of what happens when you play together, with energy.

I am thankful for the opportunity to talk to the boys the night before their last game. I was extremely proud of the way they took full ownership of their mental approach to the game. And I am delighted to see this group finish on such a high note. I hope that over the course of their high school careers they create deep and lasting relationships with each other that last a lifetime. Like the relationships I have with my high school football teammates. And I hope that they learn the most important lesson of all. And that is that the same things that make you successful in sports, make you successful in life. Which is why youth sports are so important.

*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. And consider subscribing to Adam’s Good Newsletter.

Success Is A Percentage Game.

Success is a percentage game.

The more options you create, the more success you will find.

Comedians know this.

The more jokes you come up with, the more likely you are to have really funny jokes.

To be a raging success, you write lots of jokes. Perform those jokes in front of small crowds. Keep only the ones that work. Toss the rest. Repeat.

If you want more innovation, explore more what-ifs. While it may only take 3 licks to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop, it took Thomas Edison 10,000 attempts to create a light bulb. (And it took Natalie Merchant 10,000 Maniacs to create a hit song.)

The more people you know, the more likely you are to know a person who can help you open the next door, overcome a challenge, or offer you a kidney.

To find your prince or princess, you must kiss a lot of frogs. Or frogettes.

To catch one muskie, studies show you have to cast an average of 3,000 times.

To create a bag of tricks, you need many tricks. (And a bag.)

At The Weaponry, the advertising and ideas agency I lead, one of our hallmarks is that we explore a lot of options.

We explore a wide variety of strategies.

We explore as many creative options as the time and budget allow.

Great advertising doesn’t come from crafting one great headline. And designing one look.

There are often hundreds of headlines explored when creating a single ad. And dozens, if not hundreds, of looks.

It creates a large population of options to choose from. And large populations increase the potential for greatness.

So consider many strategic options.

Consider many, many creative options.

Consider many candidates.

And life partners.

Write a lot of jokes.

Pick only the very best ones.

That’s how you do smart things that set you apart.

Key Takeaway

To be successful, you first have to be productive. Create lots of options. You will both become better and create better by doing more. So drill more holes. That’s how you find the gusher.

*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. And consider subscribing to Adam’s Good Newsletter.

Act As If.

Go through life as if all of your dreams have come true.

Or are coming true.

Act as if you are the you that you imagined you would be.*

Do the things that the person you want to be would do.

Make the decisions your ideal you would make.

Act as if you have the role you want. And maybe the roll you want. (Kaiser, Lobster, Tootsie)

Act as if you are the person who does what you want to do.

Talk the talk.

Walk the walk.

Think the way you want to be.

And you will become the person you think you are.

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. And consider subscribing to Adam’s Good Newsletter.

*The quadruple-you sentence. The Triple Lindy of sentences.

Gamify your life for more daily wins.

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-Morning Game. 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 just gamified a bench pressing competition with myself. You can read about that here.

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.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media. And consider subscribing to Adam’s Good Newsletter.

People are reading less. Which is great news for you!

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.

The statistics are fascinating.

The average number of books adults read each year is 12. Which was also my favorite song from Sesame Street.

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.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.And consider subscribing to Adam’s Good Newsletter.

Are you playing small ball or swinging for home runs?

Last week, I talked to my friend Ashley Skubon about her fun wine-focused business in Austin, Texas, called Snooti. Ashley and I worked together at Engauge. The first time I met Ashley, she said, ‘My name is Ashley, by the way.’ So naturally, I asked her if she was related to any other Bytheways.

I had seen through social media that Ashley and The Snooties had introduced some exciting new offerings recently, and I wanted to get the scoop.

During our conversation, she said something that has stayed with me.

As she told me the story about the big idea she recently launched, she shared that she felt that she had been playing small ball.

Which is a way of saying that she hadn’t been thinking big enough.

In baseball or softball terms, small ball is a careful approach that focuses on small opportunities for singles, walks, bunts and stolen bases. But when you play small ball, you are not swinging for the fences. You are not hitting home runs or grand slams. And AC/DC won’t sing songs about you.

The small ball mindset can keep you in the game. But it will also prevent you from recognizing when a home run opportunity is perfectly teed up for you.

Remember, Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth are American legends for their home run hitting prowess. While Brett Butler, the all-time leader in bunt hits, is the baseball player most likely to be confused with a character from Gone With the Wind. Or Grace Under Fire.

It is easy to buy into the safety of small-ball thinking. It keeps the lights on. It allows you to live to fight another day. But it doesn’t change the world. It won’t change your fortunes, your career or your tax bracket.

Key Takeaway

If you find you are playing small ball in life, in your career, as an entrepreneur, leader, innovator or artist, it’s time to carve out time to think bigger. Consider the smash hit opportunities right in front of you. See the benefits of your big swings. They can change your trajectory and your life in an instant.

*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. And consider subscribing to Adam’s Good Newsletter.