My Riffs

Consider all angles before being certain. You can view something and be 100% certain while somebody else viewing from a different angle is 100% certain of a different view. Neither view is categorically right or wrong. Your view is only one possible angle.

Seasons are a natural part of our finite world. It seems that seasons are in place as part of the rhythm of life. What would the alternative to a seasonal life be? Probably a pretty boring and static existence. Seasons allow new life. Seasons allow for purging, regeneration, cultivating and thriving. To get the good seasons, you have to endure the bad seasons. To have seasons of gain, sometimes you have to experience seasons of loss. It takes seasons of famine to appreciate seasons of bounty. It takes seasons of loss to appreciate what remains. It unfortunately takes hard times to make us stronger. The key to remember is, life is full of seasons. If you are in a season of famine, know it will change. If you are in a season of bounty, stay humble knowing it will change. Things are never as good as they seem and never as bad as they seem. Staying level as much as possible through cyclical seasons is the best tactic to combat the ups and downs of the seasons of life.

If you cannot quickly name some role models in your life, stop what you're doing and get this figured out. Our brains work by using reference points. That goes for our memory to our behaviour. Everything we do and think is based on what we have already seen and heard. So, if we do not have a good model in which to model our behaviour after, we have no base and no target. If we aren't deliberate and clear about what we are aiming for and modelling after, our destination will be just as fuzzy. Find some people who are successful in all areas of their life. Take note of what makes them a role model for you. Learn from them. Copy from them. Improve upon what you've learned from them. They will be the base of your frame of reference.

Video from a weekend trip to Edmonton.

Yes, the main reason we work and exchange our time is for money. But is it really simply for money? Or, is it to contribute, provide, share and give? Steve Jobs died with $10.2 billion in the bank, and that was not enough to extend his life any further. Work to provide quality of life for yourself and others. You're working to support your life . Not to see how much you can amass in the bank. Work to contribute to the betterment of the world. Work to give to others. Work to support your own. Work to enjoy life. Having $10.2 billion made Steve Jobs no better off than someone with $0 at time of his death. What gives us value is life, family, friends and contributions. Better to pass away with a rich family and friend community and no money, than lots of money and no family and friends.

I have a struggle, but I do not think I am the only one with this struggle. A few days ago I wrote about the natural tendency to gather "baggage" as we get older . Another struggle to deal with the older we get is, cynicism. After being disappointed, after dealing with a lot of negative surprises, after betrayals, after hurts, and on and on the list goes... It is easy to become cynical. Dictionary.com defines cynical as : 1. distrusting or disparaging the motives of others; like or characteristic of a cynic. 3. bitterly or sneeringly distrustful, contemptuous, or pessimistic. For myself, and I suspect may others, is is easy to let cynicism to creep into our life. I have to push back though and not let the characteristics of a cynic become part of who I am. Living a life of general distrust and pessimism is no life to live at all. It is the mental version of choking ones self. Better to trust and at times be disappointed rather than never trust at all. Better to b...

Everyone has weaknesses. It is both okay and normal to have them. It is what makes us human beings :) However, we should identify and know our weaknesses. Knowing your weaknesses will help you in moments when you encounter them. Knowing your weaknesses will help you seek help and improve those weaknesses. Know your weaknesses will allow you to delegate those tasks you are weak in to someone who is good with those tasks. Knowing your weaknesses will help you determine if it is something you should invest time trying to improve or if it simply is not worth your time. Having a clear picture of yourself both in strength and weaknesses will help you in all areas of life from work to relationships.

It is surprising how often wisdom leads to silence rather than words.

If you have to think too much about your idea, it no longer becomes creative. It becomes logical and paired down. That may be a good thing if you're selling your idea, but it may be bad also. Capturing your idea in the initial creative stage is important, but it may need to be balanced with some iterative work. Finding the balance between the two is the key.

It's the little things... Taking the "high road" when getting cut off in traffic. Being honest. Saying thank you. Saying sorry. Smiling. Holding a door. Patting someone on their back. Listening. Buying someone coffee. Showing up. And on and on the list goes of the little things that we have to get right. Get a lot of these little things right, and some big things will start to fall into place.

If joy is a choice, why do we so often not choose it? It is like having access to good food and choosing McDonalds, because it may initially seem easier. The easy decision is not always the right one. If it is a hard decision to choose joy, it is still the right decision and the effort to make it will be worth it.

When things do not go my way? When I lose? When I am stressed and overloaded? When I am being asked to do more than I can? When I am discouraged? When I am not strong? I am only as strong as my weakest link/trait. When things are easy, it is easy to just ride along and think I have everything under control. When things do not go in my favour, that is when my real character weaknesses reveal themselves. Something about adversity can bring out the very best and very worst in us. I think it is a good exercise to examine the things that I do not like about myself in moments when things are not going in my favour, acknowledge them, and work on fixing them. Then next time the adversity comes, my weakest link/trait can be that much stronger. The saying goes, "when the going gets tough, the tough get going". That is what I wanna be, as hard as it is.

I ask myself, what I am doing different than I used to? Hopefully the answer to this question for anyone is a list of positive things. The goal is to always be improving, striving for better. Never arriving, but using each new level to step up to the next. It is when we think we have "arrived" we usually set ourselves up for failure or disappointments. It seems to be a law of nature that when we we think we really have something figured out, we stumble and realize we really do not have it figured out. It is important to have goals and milestones as I blogged previous in Destinations  and we must be continuously improving, but realizing we never "arrive". Life is a non-stop journey. Stopping is fatal.

One of the most complex, interesting and important currencies we will ever encounter is, trust. Trust can be earned, but rarely is given unearned. The currency of trust must be used with most caution. The currency of trust must be generated over time as trust is built through experience. Lost trust is extremely hard to ever recover. Trust should never be something you "use" or "take advantage" of. Trust is the base of all relationships. Remove trust and the base of the relationship will have nothing to stand on. If you do not have ones' trust, you do not really have any tools to help, support or influence.

Disappointment is a very unfortunate part of life. It is guaranteed there will be disappointments in life. They will come in varying degrees, but it is guaranteed they will come in some form. Staying on course following disappointments is extremely difficult, and at times we have to make major adjustments. These disappointments can destroy you, define you or better you.

Had some old footage of the Skyline Luge in Calgary and put this together. Camera is very shaky and blurry unfortunately .

I've noticed a trend... The older one gets the more baggage we accumulate. Baggage meaning things life has thrown at us and we hold onto. Fears, biases, opinions, handicaps, judgements, guilt, anger... I think it is easy to lose sight of the fact that, holding this baggage is optional. So many times we just hold it and wrestle with it indefinitely, but we can let it go... Why let a fear paralyze us our whole life and hold us back? Why let a prejudice keep us from experiencing more? Why let our opinion get in the way of a fact or truth? Why hold a judgement and keep ourselves or someone else in prison? On and on this list can go. Why? The beautiful thing here is, we have been given choice. We are not powerless. The beginning of overcoming a lot of this "baggage" life hands us is simply, choice. Decide you do not have to live with the baggage. Decide to put it down, move onward and upward. Oh what needless pain we bear... Lay it down. 

There is a real danger in seeing everything in black and white. This is a lesson I have struggled to learn. But realizing and accepting things are not always A or B can help eliminate many frustrations, disappointments and even points of contention with others. The more life experience you gain, the more things you see add up differently than you predicted. You see outcomes that you could not have foreseen. You see disappointments in things that were seemingly rock solid. If your cognizant of these things, you will find your opinion and philosophy evolving to accommodate the endless possibilities of life.  This post isn't to say there are no absolutes in life, but rather in most things there are endless permutations and variations.  Allow yourself to work with outcomes a-z, rather than just a & b.

I'm happy our friend Mark King is podcasting from London, England. Below is the latest episode in the "beloved" podcast. You can follow the podcast using the various channels below: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/MarkDanielKing iTunes Podcast:  https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/beloved-by-mark-king/id1093350721?mt=2 Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/mark-king-932818264

A wise man (Andrew Bentley) said he always view things in life through two panes of glass, and with the knowledge there are ditches on both sides of the road. Panes of glass 1. A mirror to see myself and what I can change about myself to help the circumstance 2. A window to look into the situation to assess, learn and grow Ditches 1. There are dangers on the extreme of your side or position 1. There are dangers on the extreme of the other side or position This is so true. In all situations, challenges and circumstances of life, there are things to learn and improve about oneself and there are things to learn about others and things outside of ones self. There are also dangers on the extreme of either side of almost every issue, including the side or position you are taking. Putting every trying circumstance we face through this filter can help us approach the circumstance in a more balanced manner.

I have known a lot of talented and gifted people. Some who have been able to use their gifting/talents and others who seemingly have fallen short of utilizing their gifting. Often times, the individuals who have trouble realizing their giftings are missing a key ingredient of consistency. It would be difficult to find a successful person who lacks a level of consistency in life. Consistency seems to be the glue that holds together your talents, abilities and learned skills and turns them into tangible success and production. Skills without consistency are almost useless. Showing up every time, no matter what, no matter how you feel, doing the right thing every time = consistency. Without an abundance of talent even, consistency can be the one factor that sets you apart from other, possibly more skilled people, in a given area.

A plants life starts below the surface where no one can see it. It is developed and formed in a place that isn't readily visible. It develops roots and pushes them down into the soil. As it matures it pushed upwards and outwards and all of a sudden one day it become visible above the surface. And that is when we first notice it. However, a lot of work and development was already completed at this point in time. I cannot help but think there is a parallel to human development. A lot of our development is below the surface, away from others eyes. Once the proper amount of time has been spend developing, one day it is time to show the visible signs of development. And when we see someone who has qualities and traits that show maturity and development, we can know for sure there is a lot of substance below the surface that supports them.  Invest in learning, character development. Listen. Ask questions. Read. These things will being to build a foundation to support you. These t...

What is the key ingredient for growth? I submit, LOVE is the key ingredient for growth. It's love that nurtures a garden and producers food/fruit/flowers. It's love that nurtures and allows a child to blossom into a successful adult. It's love that a leader poures into people and helps them become. It's love...

A quote from the book "Possibilities" by Herbie Hancock. "Meeting resistance when you're moving forward is similar to how a car moving forward meets resistance from the wind. The fact that you can feel that resistance tells you that you're moving...".

Misinformation is as common or more as accurate information. You can find supporting information to back almost anything you wish. Does that make all information valid and equal? Take a position then find information that supports your opinion; not the best way to use information. Sorting, filtering and evaluating information is a skill everyone needs to learn. This will become increasingly important to teach younger people and children as they are being bombarded information overload and lack of principled thinking. Principles > facts, information and opinions. Things that are given as factual can absolutely change. Science has a history of reversing things stated as facts. "Truths", "norms" and "values" change in society and popularity. Teaching independent thinking and values is more important than ever before.

Rarely, if ever, does "plan a" go as expected. Being limber and fine with plan b, c or d is key. And often plan b, c or d ends up being better. Either because of lessons learned following the alternate plan or the end product is simply better. Inflexibility makes life a lot more difficult as so many factors are out of our control. But the outside factors can only derail us if we let them. Move along to plan b, c, d...

WARNING: This may sound dangerously close to a rant... It's not supposed to be though :) Something that has for a long time confused me is, why do we wait until people are gone to talk good about them and tell them how important they are? It seems like when someone is gone (moved away/quit/passed away) all these kind words about them are spoken. What if the words had been spoken when they were near/working? Shouldn't we let people know they are needed and appreciated in the present? Being needed and appreciated is a human need. If someone is needed in your life and appreciated, waste no time in letting them know! I think it is a good idea to let people know we appreciate them while they are present and engaged.

Because something is "established" don't let that stop you from a disruptive idea. If there had been no disruptive ideas in the past, I wouldn't be typing this from an iPhone and you wouldn't be reading on an electronic device, from potentially anywhere in the world. Do not let the fear of disruption hold you back from a new idea. Innovation requires disruption. Progress often requires a form of disruption. Because something is "established", that doesn't make it right or the best. Put your idea out there, if it disrupts, that may be a good thing.

Highly amateur, but was fun :)

Every idea ends up being disrupted and replaced by another idea or way. The new way is often polarizing, with a lot of people opposed to change and another group happy for change. Change is inevitable though and seems to push through the opposition. The world looks vastly different than it did even 100 years ago. And I assume it will look vastly different in another 100 years. Here are some disrupters that have made our world what it is today: - Car travel - Air travel - Radio - Television - Internet - Phones Some more recent disrupters are: - Uber - Airbnb - Amazon - Social Media Platforms - Smart Phones Some new ideas are better, and some are worse. I think the important thing to be aware of though is your core values. Most of what I wrote above was related to technological changes. Where we see a lot of change now is societal/social changes and there is a lot of confusion and a lot of junk to sift through. As a parent (or any leader) teaching values and principl...

Life has twists, turns, ups, downs, fast times and slow times all analogous to a large river. If you cannot learn to flow with the craziness and unexpectedness that sometimes is life we will be swept up ashore losing all progress. Progress is often not a smooth ride. Flow with the turns life throws at you and do your best to stay afloat.

Chances are, you already have the tools you need to do it. It being, whatever your hopes and dreams are. If you have the dream or vision, you already got what you need. The rest is just work and details. Apple, a company worth over 700 billion dollars, started in a garage with essentially no resources. But the founder(s) had a dream and a vision, and that was the important ingredient. There are no insurmountable roadblocks to you starting, doing or making whatever you wish. You have a dream, goal or vision? There is nothing that can hold you back from that, except yourself. Every barrier can be overcome, somehow, someway. Today more than ever, you can do anything. You just need a vision, a goal or a dream.

I was told once, "don't chase money, work hard and the money will come". We often think money will lead to happiness, but I think we all can be a lot happier if we focus on things that bring us happiness and work hard. Don't chase money, just for money. Work hard, invest in people and the money will come. Hard work will be rewarded, both financially and otherwise. The people with the most money are DEFINITELY NOT the most happy. Work hard and invest in people, happiness can be found there.