Every year my family and I select the number of photos that correlate with the last two numbers of the year. This year we will select 20 (for 2020). Last year we selected 19 (for 2019) and so on.
We select the photos from our cameras that best represent the year for us and we share them with each other. This is a very fun and eye-opening experience to see what your year was all about and hear from your family about how they saw the same year.
My challenge to you starting this week is to select the 20 photos that best represent your 2020 and share them with your family and friends.
Ready… set… go!
Many of us are starting to look at setting our goals for 2021.
When doing so, here is one small difference I found that makes all the difference in motivating me to want to follow up and follow through with goals I have been contemplating.
Try it out this week with any decision you have and see how it changes our ability to act on our ideas. Here is the video…
Every year in America, millions of families sit down together to talk about and share what they are thankful for. However, one thing we don’t talk about is… what are we NOT thankful for?
In this week’s notes I challenge us to think about what we are NOT thankful for and why. Here is the video:
What are you not thankful for and what can you do about it or how can you change your perspective around the thing you are not thankful for?
In this week’s video, I share with you the difference between the definition of entertain vs exercise when it comes to our ideas and why it matters to us as being THE leader! Here is the video:
What can we do this week to exercise on one of our ideas that we have been entertaining for too long?
Keep being THE!
Taking a look at all that is going on right now, there are three “A” words that come to mind for how we can get better results and be THE leader. Check out the 4-minute video this week (with a cameo from my son)!
What can we all do this week to pay attention to something outside of what we usually do, change our attitude to improve our character and look at our approach to better our results?
I am reading Ryan Holiday’s The Obstacle is The Way (highly recommend) this week and one thing that stood out to me is this excerpt from Andy Grove:
“Andy Grove, a former CEO of Intel, outlined when he described what happens to businesses in tumultuous times: “Bad companies are destroyed by crisis. Good companies survive them. Great companies are improved by them.” Great individuals, like great companies, find a way to transform weakness into strength.”
What is ONE way we can transform ONE of our weaknesses this week into strength?
Ready… set… be THE!
This week is all about shortcomings and how we view them.
After this week’s readings and notes, this is what I know…
“How we perceive the shortcomings in our life, will help dictate the outcomes of our life!”
What is one shortcoming we can find in ourselves and change the perspective to be more positive and grateful we are like that?
Here are my notes this week about being offended and what we can do when we are offended!
Here are the 17 events in 17 photos that best describe my 2017. What are yours? Use #17in17in2017 to connect with others and share your year in 17 photos!
The Avery Family (Penny is the one next to me)
Finding Aunt Penny
I have never been more surprised in my life! Earlier this year we found out that my grandmother had another daughter and after 33 years of searching, Penny, my long-lost aunt, found us and I am so glad she did! My father now has an older sister, my mom now has another sister-in-law and me and my sister have another aunt! Crazy! (Yes, this caption deserves that many !)
Keynoting in Frankfurt, Germany for The Global Leadership Conference
75 Keynotes
I am beyond grateful for what I get to do for a living. Speaking allows me to provide for my family, work with thousands of leaders around the world teaching them how to be strategic communicators and every day in an unbelievable adventure. With my daughter turning one this year, Chelsea and I have decided that I will be capping my keynotes at 75 events a year. This allows me to spend enough time on the road and be back enough for my family. I have 52 keynotes booked for 2018 so far and looking forward to securing the other 23 soon!
One of my many cooking classes this year 🙂
Cooking New Foods
From homemade Baklava to vanilla Macaroons, this year was full of baking, decorating and eating! This is my creative hobby/outlet and allows me to dream, create and produce and the best part is, each time I create something it gets eaten which means it goes away and does not have to stay in the house! Cooking/Baking is the perfect hobby for those of us who don’t like clutter!
Me and James at our Book Launch Party!
Motivating Millennials
I am so proud of this book and everyone who helped make it a #1 best-seller. I am even happier that I got to co-author this book with my friend and amazing Harvard-Educated Lawyer, James Goodnow. James is a great guy, super knowledgable and the perfect co-author for Motivating Millennials. Thank you to everyone who purchased a copy, wrote a review and more importantly implemented the strategies found in the book!
Me and Carole with our inspiration (Atlas) 🙂
YES, OH YES, SHE DID
Wow was this book fun to write! After hiding it as a surprise with Atlas’ great-grandmother (Carole) for more than 6 months we published our first children’s book together. I am so thankful for everyone who bought a copy and 100% of the profits from this book go to non-profits supporting young girls around the world. We wrote our first $1,000 check to Girls, Inc. of Metro Denver.
Me and Chelsea at Tom Petty’s 2nd to last show
Chelsea
From flying to Beverly Hills for the night to see Tom Petty’s 2nd to last show to keynoting together in NY we had one heck of a year together. I enjoyed our dates, massages, parenting, running AveryToday, Inc, walks, working out and so much more with you this year babe! I am looking forward to 2018 (and 93 more years) and so glad I get to live our life together!
TEXAS + IRONMAN = AWESOME
70.3 IRONMAN
All I want to say about a 70.3 is that it is 10x better than a 140.6 🙂 Got to do a race down in my home state this year and am so thankful I have the health, money, time and energy to race in these competitions. It keeps me fit and challenges me to be healthier and better. I use everything that I experience as an IRONMAN and implement it in my daily life. Excited for our relay next year 😉
Asian Theme Poker Party (Each month is a difference theme)
House Parties
From AMAZING poker parties to my Grammy’s 90th Birthday party, we used our house this year as THE house for parties and I am so thankful we did. Having parties make you realize how much your parents spent on you as a kid and how much hard work entertaining is. I hope we get to have even more parties in 2018.
The Avery Family in Hawaii
Travel
This was an epic year of traveling. From spending my birthday weekend with my family in Hawaii to spending two weeks keynoting in the UK with Atlas and Chelsea! I knocked some states off my list like New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut and New Jersey and now have 4 more states to visit before I have keynoted in all 50.
Our inside dinning room table
The Dinner Table
From the flower arrangements to the recipes this year to the place settings and the guest, we got to entertain our friends and family so many times this year at our dinning room table and outside table on our deck. This table means a lot to me because it was the first real piece of future Chelsea and I bought and every time I look at it, it makes me feel so proud and like an adult.
Night diving with my sister in Honolulu
Scuba Diving with Manta Rays
Hands down one of the coolest experiences of my life! I have been waiting five years to do this dive and I finally got to do it. Any the cherry on top? I got to do it with my amazing sister. What an unbelievable out-of-body experience. Scuba diving with 13 Manta Rays at night.
I mean look at my dog…
Gardening
I am not going to lie, gardening is way harder than I thought 🙂 On our property we have plums, grapes, apples, quince, hops, strawberries, so many herbs and more variety of plants, flowers and trees than we can count. It was a blast learning about what we have and how to take care of them. It was even more fun to see Atlas enjoy the yard and spend quality time together outside in the sunshine!
This smile makes me smile 🙂
Atlas Turning One
How in the heck is Atlas one? It has been SUCH an epic year being a dad and am so glad she is in our life. I can say with 100% certainty as much sleep as I did NOT get this year she is worth every hour of sleep lost and besides marrying Chelsea the best decision I have ever made!
Part of our new headquarters
The New AveryToday, Inc. Headquarters
Game changer! We built an external office for us to work because come to find out working from home with a toddler is near impossible. Now we have our own space with no kids allowed and gives us the place needed to run AveryToday, Inc.
12,000 feet up!
Paragliding with My Dad
I cannot wait to do this again. One of the coolest experiences. If you have not done this, add it to the top of your bucket list and make it happen at least once. You literally feel like you are flying with the birds.
We had a lot of meals out on the deck this year!
Family
I am so blessed to have the family that I do. From family trips to bike rides with my dad to meals with my mom to seeing my sister and aunts/grammy/cousin more than we ever have. To seeing the eclipse in Kansas City with all my in-laws to having my amazing mom/dad and mother in law/step-father-in-law and father-in-law help so much with Atlas all the way to random family dinners. Family is the most important thing in this world and I am so thankful I get to spend my life with mine.
BFFs who hid in a trunk to pop out so they could surprise me!
Friends
From Andrew, Jef and Marcos flying down from Texas and NYC for my book signing, to Cassie meeting us in San Fran, to dinner night with Jimmy and Steph to Devin and Jessica to my BFFs Matt and Alison giving me of the best surprises ever to sending magnets to Martin to my accountability buddy Taryn to my Facebook buddies and college roommate David to all my friends I got to meet in cities that I flew into for the night, this year has made me realize how lucky I am to have the friends that I do!
I am very thankful for 2017 and looking forward to 2018! Thank you to everyone who made 2017 special! I hope you had a great year and I am looking forward to seeing your #17in17in2017
Every year I put together the top photos that correlate with the number of years in our millennia. This year… 16! My challenge to you is to take uninterrupted time this week to scroll through your phone or review photos stored on your computer and find the best 16 photos that represent your 2016!
This process always provides me with gratitude, love, happiness and reflection on the year while also giving me hope, desire and energy for the year ahead.
Here are my 16 photos from 2016 and I hope you will share yours with me either by posting a link to your article in the comments below or by using the #16PhotoChallange on your social media!
My favorite lady and I doing our favorite thing together… traveling!
Chelsea: I know some people save acknowledging their loved ones at the end or speeches or blog articles… not me! Family comes first! We celebrated 9 years together this year and I hope I get another 93 with her! She is my best-friend, my partner in life, my partner in business and the mother to my child! She is literally… the best!
Literally… the best!
Atlas: We welcomed Atlas Turner Avery into the world this year on September 1, 2016 at 10:22pm weighing in at 8.0 lbs and almost 22 inches! Chelsea delivered her naturally at the MMC center and I got to catch her with my own hands; literally one of the best moments of my life! She has been our favorite adventure to date! It is so fun watching her grow. Everyday when I feel like I love her the most, my love for her grows even more!
My awesome family! (not pictured here are my awesome in-laws, cousins, aunts and Grammy)!
Family: This year has been ALL about family for me! My parents moved their life ENTIRE life to Colorado to be closer to me, Chelsea and Atlas. I have seen my mom and dad more in the past three months than I have in the past DECADE (literally)! I have seen my sister TEN times this year and my aunts, cousins and Grammy more than ever too as we have made it a priority to spend quality time with family! So grateful that my parents moved to CO to help with Atlas and so thankful for my in-laws who have played a HUGE role in helping us be parents!
Crossing the IRONMAN finish line has been one of my greatest accomplishments to date!
140.6 IRONMAN: When I found out Chelsea was pregnant I wanted to do something that was the “male equivalent” to giving birth and the IRONMAN popped into play! I had never run a marathon. I had never biked more than around the block and I had some swimming experience. This was going to be a HUGE challenge. My commitment to my family was that I would not do it if it jeopardized my physical or mental health and I am proud to say that after 16 hours and 54 minutes I completed the Boulder IRONMAN on August 7, 2016 fully healthy! It was the single hardest thing I have ever had to endure.
The perfect spot to raise our family!
House: I semi-joked with Chelsea at the beginning of the year that I would buy her a house for Christmas this year and we closed on our dream home 19 days before Santa arrives! We love this place. It is the PERFECT place to raise our growing family, to entertain, to have Sugar run in the back yard and we have plum trees, apple trees, grapes, hops and more types or trees/flowers than I can count! It is the perfect place to come home to after traveling and seeing Chelsea, Atlas and Sugar sitting on our couch in the living room… priceless!
This used to be our view that we woke up to every morning outside of our front door when we would take Sugar on walks! I thought I would miss it but I am really happy where we are now!
Portland, OR: I cannot believe we lived in Portland THIS year! That still blows my mind. In the past twelve months we have had THREE addresses! Portland was such a fantastic spot for us and making the decision to leave that city and our friends and uproot our life was one of the hardest decisions we had to make this year. Without a doubt, it was also one of the top decisions we made this year!
Thanks Littleton 🙂
Littleton, CO: I love our new little town! It has everything I need. I can walk to the lake from our house. I can get on the bike trails for my triathlon training. They have cute neighborhood activities and we are going to be here for a long time! I can see our children growing up here and it makes me really happy and proud to think of them as Coloradans!
Day 16: Send a care package to a solider across seas! We might have gone a little overboard!
#31DaysofKindness: This started three years ago as something I wanted to do with a few friends and over the years has grown into almost 1,000 people joining in on the adventure. We do it every year from August 1st to August 31st where we collectively do the same act of kindness around the world together. This year as a group we did more than 18,000 acts of kindness! Our goal next year is to do over 30,000 acts of kindness!
I get messages like this posted on my wall and it literally makes me SO happy!
Letters: This year I started my hand-written letter campaign where I write a letter everyday to someone who wanted one. This was one of my favorite things I did this year. I heard from people all over the world about their dreams, about their struggles, about their hopes and questions. Some of the people I knew personally and others I had never met before. Some wrote in asking me to write their loved ones and others asked for advice. I have written more than 300 letters this year and I hope people continue wanting them because it makes me really happy! Want a letter: Here are the details 🙂
I mean this dog literally might be the cutest dog in the world!
Sugar: I can’t tell you how happy this dog makes me. She is always happy. She always snuggles. She always loves to go on walks and gets excited when I walk in the front door. Dogs really are a human’s best friend (sorry cat lovers) and I am so thankful to have this little white 16 pound bundle of joy in our life!
The week I took this photo my travel/speaking schedule was insane! I did MN, HI, CO and WA in the same week!
Travel: After traveling to every continent in the world last year I thought I would go through travel withdraws sticking to North America destinations but I could not have been more wrong! I got to see so much of the United States this year from Hawaii to Hotlanta to Texas to Tennessee! I got to see and spend time with many friends and family members and Chelsea and Atlas got to join me on most of my trips! This year, if my calculations are correct, I stayed in more than 115 nights of hotels, got on 98 planes and spoke in 25 states and 38 cities!
You can learn more at www.Vistage.com!
Vistage: Vistage has been the single best professional group without a doubt for me! I get to speak at their events, I get to sit on one of their boards, I get to interact with Vistage WHQ staff, members, chairs and they let me do what I love to support those that I love and it is the best! I am so thankful to be part of the Vistage community!
The sign you get when you come visit us 🙂
Friends: I feel like I have been blessed with some of the best friends in the world; friends who challenge me, friends who make me want to dream bigger, friends who all are living out their own passions and focused on helping others succeed too!
No matter how many restaurants I eat at… home cooked food still tops the list! #BreakfastForDinner
Food: One of the best parts of my job is I get to enjoy my passion of food every week and try local restaurants and cuisine! Taste is one of the best parts of life and looking through my phone photos besides Chelsea, Atlas and Sugar… food tops the list of things I take the most photos of!
This is hanging up at one of my clients headquarters and it pretty much sums up who I am and my word of the year! 🙂
Secure: Every year I pick a word that I want to focus on and that drives my decision making for the next twelve months. I have had my yearly words be “Focus” which is the one in 2012 when we won the World Championship. “Grow” which was in 2014 when we wanted to take our business to six figures and this year was “Secure” because I wanted to be more secure in who I am, what I stand for and the people I want to spend time with. I wanted to be ok with saying YES or NO and ok with my decision. In the past I have been more of a “people pleaser” and I think it is good to make others happy but not in the expense of your own happiness!
Ryan Avery, Keynote Speaker
Speaking: Speaking professionally is the best job in the world. Everyday I get to do what I love all while being able to teach people how to be better at what they love to do! I get to meet great leaders, see fascinating places, taste awesome foods and learn about unique cultures/industries. I am always learning. I am always challenged. I am always moving. I never take my job for granted and make sure that every time I speak, I act like it is my last opportunity to get in front of an audience. Thank you to everyone who worked with me this year. Thank you to all my mentors, friends and family who support me and Chelsea in this business and thank you to everyone who attended one of my trainings/keynotes this year! As a professional speaker, I can’t put into words how grateful I am for what I get to do for a living!
I hope you have an amazing rest of your 2016 and I am looking forward to staying in touch! remember to keep working towards your BIG dreams because they matter! As always…
Dream BIG,
Ryan Avery
