My Riffs

All successful people have had some admitted "failures". Bankruptcies, failed businesses, bad career and education decisions, personal failures... on and on the list can go. It's what these successful people did with failure that counts though. They used the failures to push them to be or do better. They obviously did not let a single point of failure keep them down. Do not let failure keep you down. Failure can bring you down, but only you can keep yourself there. Failure can at times be one of the greatest things to happen to you, if you use it properly. Failure isn't something to be afraid of. That goes for past failures and for avoiding risks due to fear of failure. Some of life's greatest lessons come via failure. Accept the fact, in life failure is inevitable an unavoidable, but it should be used as a learning and growth opportunity. (you could also use the word mistake here in place of the word failure, the same principal applies)

Measuring where you are and what your potential is, is simply one of the most fundamental things one should do. Constantly. Evaluating yourself again other people is a waste of time and generally counter-productive.  Evaluating yourself against what you can and should be is very productive. But not only the evaluation part, the action after the evaluation. Living up to your potential or striving to your potential is a something that can provide fulfillment, happiness and and a rewarding life. Generally, if you are doing it right, others will directly and indirectly benefit from your pursuit of your highest potential.

Mediocrity is a scary place to be. It also is a very very difficult place to leave. Generally something bad has to happen to push you from mediocrity. It does not have to be this way if you self-evaluate and are never satisfied with mediocrity. Once you become accustomed to mediocrity and settle into it, it becomes a prison. What's worse is sometimes you do not even realize it for a long time. Doing things that shake you from your comfort zone help keep you from the lull of mediocrity. Self-evalution helps prevent allowing mediocrity to settle in. Learning and challenging yourself helps prevent mediocrity. Evaluating yourself against your potential and pushing for your potential is a great way to prevent mediocrity.

Self evaluation is a critical part of growing and developing. Taking frequent progress checks in your personal life is critical. Am I getting better at the various tasks I am involved in? (Work, life, school) If the answer is no, finding the reason for the no, is imperative.  Not getting better at something in life has both a reason and consequences. Find the reason first and evaluate the task. You may not getting better because you're disinterested. Or you haven't had proper training. Or you're overspent in other areas. Or you're simply not trying. You may not value the task.  If you're not getting better, an action plan must be put into place. In some cases extricate yourself from the task. In other cases dig in harder. In some cases get help.  All of this to say, don't be satisfied with anything other than improvement. We should constantly be improving in all the areas of life. 

Life is a journey. We have destinations, but rarely "arrive". We have to be okay with that. We have destinations of being better, of attaining certain goals... But once we hit those goals, there are just new goals. We can reach goals, but quickly realize we haven't "arrived".  Stagnation is something that must be avoided at all costs. So never rest upon completion of a certain goal or task. There is always more and always better. So again, rarely in life do we "arrive". We pause, gather energy and push for the next level.

What are the most important things in your life? Will you be investing in or working towards them today? Today only happens once, use today wisely.

Are important. Your thoughts and opinions are important. Share them. You have something to contribute. Do not be intimidated to speak. Do not be intimidated to share. You have something that only you can share and contribute. Add, create and share; do not be afraid. As Dr. Suess said,  “Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”

Most of us have created patterns in life. Every time this happens I... I always say... This always makes me... This keeps happening to me... This gets me frustrated.... The older you get the harder it is to break patterns. Measure your responses to everything and make sure this is a pattern you want to create.

When things and systems are broken, opportunity is presented. The broken system or item maybe was marginal when fully functional, or maybe it was great. Being broken though provides an opportunity to refine, reduce or at minimum, learn. Use broken to improve, to learn and to change. Broken isn't bad, it's opportunity that wasn't there previous to being broken.

If one isn't careful, a whole lot of time and energy in work and life can be spent going down rabbit trails. It is important to figure out what is important and what is worth time investment.  In day to day work, focus on important tasks and avoid tasks that take away from the important.  In life, focus on the important things. Time is too precious to chase insignificant things that take away and distract from your end goals. It is so easy to mindlessly jump from one task to another, without any thought or prioritization. You can finish all these seemingly "important" tasks and still not accomplish anything. Just because something jumps up and grabs your attention, does not mean it is important. Learn when to ignore.

One of my favourite things about playing an instrument is, being in the moment. Playing music is a fluid activity where you are fully engaged and intently listening to others. You are constantly making decisions and adjustments. It requires you to be completely "in the moment". Playing with other musicians who are listening and are "in the moment" with you is a fun experience. Unfortunately so much of life can tend to be lived not fully engaged. Going through the motions. Not really invested in what you are doing. Not listening to those around you. Complaining. Getting through the day... We all have daily tasks that require our attention (jobs, school, families, friends) and it is an honour to have the aforementioned things that need us. What if we didn't have school opportunities? Or nobody wanted to pay us for our time and skills? Or we had no family that needed us? Or no friends that needed us? We all have important things to do. (including enjoyable ...

Are my actions today building for a better tomorrow?

Treading water is just a temporary stop before hitting bottom.  Unless you start swimming. 

For far too long I let life control me. That is dangerous. At some point, I realized I could control my life. There is a lot out of our control, but that does not minimize our control over ourselves. You cannot stop the rain, but you can use an umbrella, you can wear "wellies", you can wear a rain coat, you can dance in the rain... Or you could sit inside and bemoan the rain. Life is not dictated to us. Circumstances often are dictated to us, but our lives are completely our own and within our control. I am learning to get into the drivers seat of life and go where I want and need to go. Not where the winds of life blow.

It is good to identify the things that inspire you. When lulls, discouragement and creativity blocks come, it's good to have a list of things that you can look at for inspiration. Everyone has sources of inspiration, if you can identify them, you can easily "go to" them. Some ideas of things that could inspire: - a walk in the mountains. - the ocean. - a particular book, author or poet.  - a particular artist, either visual or musical.  - a place.  - a particular friend.  - an activity. (bike riding and etc). 

A) Talk is cheap. A penny for your thoughts. Words can never hurt me. B) The pen is mightier than the sword. Words change. Words hurt. What is the difference between these two opposing philosophies? I think, intent, empathy and love. You can say all you want to say, but without love, words are like "noisy gong or a clanging symbol". Cheap, worthless vibrations that move matter for a moment and are forever dead. Or with love, words are mighty and their effect is never dead. Also, words laced with hate can forever make an effect and are equally powerful as positive, loving words.

Something/someone could have 9 positive aspects and 1 negative aspect and what aspect will be focused and discussed more? Probably the one negative. It seems if there is any negative to grasp onto, we will. We will overlook so much positive to focus and grasp onto the negative.  Negativism doesn't need to be fed. It seems to grow without any assistance.  Feed positivity and choke the life out of negativity.  Focusing on negative not only wastes time, it is counter reproductive.  The point here is not to be okay with broken/negative things, but to not expend energy and time on ones that cannot be fixed or are truly not a big deal. Positivity requires more effort, but produces way higher dividends.

Every action you make and every word you say leaves footprints that can and will be followed. I want to make sure my words and actions are leaving footprints worth following. It's easy to think and act selfishly, but realizing that my actions and words have an effect requires maturity. There are feet following the path I make, so I will walk carefully.

In everything, you can choose to say or think something positive or something negative.

Maya Angelou said, "At the end of the day people won't remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel." Consider your actions and words beyond merely what you're saying and doing. How are your words going to make this person or these people feel? How are your actions going to make this person or these people feel? It is nearly impossible to influence people if they no not respect you; people will not respect you if you do not make them feel important.

I have been thinking about the important of structure. Structure on a personal level. Structure on a organizational level. Structure in any form of unit or group. Structure is absolutely critical to success. A flawed structure will eventually bend or break. A solid structure will stand time tests and be able to bear great weights and tests. A solid structure will lead to success. What forms your structure? It your structure strong and sustainable? Structure has to be balanced to stand. An unbalanced structure puts too much weight on one individual/area and collapse is inevitable. Is there enough structure in place? Not enough structure puts too much pressure on one individual/area. An organization that lacks proper structure is operating with a handicap. A good structure enables an organization to be focused, balanced and enables the whole organization to run at peak efficiency. Every structural break down causes inefficiencies and moves the organization away from its focus. ...

Why do we seemingly have this underlying supposition that what we don't have, is better than what we do have? Stop and consider, what you already have quite possibly is sufficient.

Everyone has influence. Your smile (or your unfriendliness) influences people. Your kind word (or unkind word) influences people. Your positive (or negative) talk influences people. Do not underestimate your influence. Whether people are looking at you as a influencer or not, your actions, words and thoughts do influence people.  

I have touched on this previously, but this topic deserves its own post. One of the most underrated skills, in any context, is listening. Listening skills are imperative to learning, to communication, to empathy, to balance, to growth and to change. As a musician, I cannot overemphasize how important listening skills are. But I do not think listening skills are any more important in a musical setting. In fact, they are far more important in life settings. What is my spouse wanting to tell me? What are my children wanting to tell me? What is my family wanting to tell me? What are my friends wanting to tell me? What do people want to tell me in groups I oversee? What is there to learn listening to co-workers? I will never know these things if I do not stop and listen. I will never learn from these people if I do not listen. I will not grow in areas where they can help me if I do not listen. Positive change cannot happen if we do not listen. Communication cannot happen if we ...

As a parent, it is easy to teach my children rules. And rules often seem to be the right approach in fixing behaviours I dislike. However, rules change and rules often do not impact deep enough. Rules actually teach very little. That is why I feel that teaching values is superior to making rules. There is undeniably a need for rules, but rules are inferior to values. Instilling values minimizes the need for abundant rules. Instilling values will guide when rules are unclear. Values will guide when the rules are changed. Values will guide when the rules have difficulty covering the present dilemma. Values provide the "why" that rules simply cannot. Rules say, "don't!" Values ask, "why would you?" Values > Rules.

Somebody who knows less than you can still teach you something(s).

If everybody around you is agreeing with you on everything, it's time to expand your circle of friends :)

The older I get the more answers I have, but at the same time, I am learning there are more questions than I realized and more questions than answers.

Being overwhelmed is one of the most difficult states to be in. It often causes people to make wrong decisions. To get from being overwhelmed to feeling on top of things is extremely challenging. What has worked for me is itemizing the tasks in front of you, prioritizing them and then crossing them off as completed. The visual reference seems to help. You can see what is in front of you and see your progress as you work your way through them. The incentive to completing a task sometimes is to see it crossed off your list. This similar approach can work for being overwhelmed with life. Itemize what tasks in life are overwhelming you. Then work through the list figuring out how to minimize each task or divest yourself of the task.

To be wrong. So long as you are doing something about it. 

We all are. You are either biased or dishonest. :) I'll chose biased. If you can identify your biases, then you can at least look at things from a clearer (still biased though) lens.