My Riffs

A broad horizon and perspective enables one to make educated, informed decisions and provides a solid base of thinking. Narrow horizons often lead to narrow and unreasonable perspectives. Open mindedness is a term that has gained a negative connotation. But true open mindedness means considering every side of a topic, and is a sign of strength, not weakness. Accepting a position without considering all angles is the true sign of weakness. Open mindedness means considering all angles, it surely doesn't mean accepting any and every position such as the term has come to mean. It's a position of strength to tackle something with an open mind. Broaden your horizons. It strengthens your foundation. Broaden your horizons in friendships, in thinking, in skill sets, in knowledge... But with the broad horizon, narrow your focus on what really matters. Narrow your focus on the highest value tasks. Ignore noise and pettiness. Using your broad horizons to accurately determine what's...

Written communications are easily misinterpreted. A speaker can speak but needs a willing listener. Language barriers. Assumptions. Misunderstandings. Mistakes or distortion in transmission. Personality conflicts. Lack of respect. Distractions. All these and more make communication a very difficult things to accomplish. There is burden on the communicator and the receiver of communication to make it an effective activity. Breakdowns can happen on either end or in between. Communicating clearly and effectively should be the top priority for anyone who wants healthy relationships, which are fundamental to success in any regard.

Many things will distract from todays mission. The unimportant things could weigh us down and cause us difficulty in accomplishing the important. Noise, alerts, news and tasks will all jump up and want our attention. The unimportant things can be ignored though, if we are to accomplish the important.

We seem to go about our lives in search of the next boost. Likes or shares on our social media posts... A song... A book... A compliment... These aren't bad things. The danger is in becoming reliant on externals to make us happy or give us a temporary boost. It's costly too. Costly on our energy and emotions. If one can learn to live in contentment and happiness with they already have, these external "boosts" will just be extras. No need to be reliant on them.

It's the pebbles in our shoes that distract and prevent us from accomplishing great things. It's not the boulders in our pathway. If we can learn to quickly remove the pebbles from our shoes and keep moving forward, that's how great things can be accomplished. It's hard to accomplish great things when we're distracted and focused on small, insignificant things or problems.

Everyone likes to be right. It hurts the ego when we're wrong about something. Admitting we're wrong is hard and most people struggle with this. Being right isn't the most important thing though. Being true is more important. There are opportunities to prove yourself "right". It's more important to show yourself "true" though. True to your values and beliefs. True to who you are. Proving your simply right about something cannot tell the story that being true can. The power of being true to yourself far surpasses what being right can do. Being right brings little peace and provides a temporary ego boost. Being true is a lifestyle and a provides greatest benefit both to yourself and to those around you. Constantly proving you're right makes little effect and change in your sphere of influence. Be true first. Then if it works out, be right.

Tthe most irritating people you know aren't your closest friends. Are they not your closest friends because they're irritating? Or are they irritating because they're not you're closest friend(s)? It's an interesting thing to consider that possibly those who we find irritating maybe would not be so irritating if we tried to get to know them.

Everyone is dealing with some form of brokenness or incompleteness. Humans are imperfect beings. How do you deal with your brokenness? It's not a weakness to admit we're broken, it's actually the first step in dealing with it.

It's the small things that capture my attention. It's the small things that want to occupy my mind. It's the small things that get under my skin. It's the small things that seem so big when I've forgot the big picture. When I step back and look at the big picture, the small things that consume me are almost insignificant. Vision, mission and purpose are the big picture items to focus on. Focusing on those things allows the small things to remain small. It's easy to forget purpose and vision if we allow ourselves to. Build for tomorrow rather than allowing the small things of today to distract from your purpose.

Words on their own are cheap. Words backed by action is where the value is. In fact, words should almost always lead to action.

Words are powerful. Words can hurt and words can build. But, words often fail us. Words cannot accurately describe feelings. Words have double meanings. Words can often be misinterpreted. In many cases words fail us. Language and communication are imperfect systems. Maybe actions can cover for failed words.

There's two ways to do something. A right way and a wrong way. Even if it's a good thing you're doing, there's still two ways to go about it. Doing it the wrong way undermines the objective of the action. If I bought someone a very thoughtful gift, took it to them and threw it at their face and said, "here ya go!", that would undermine the objective of the action. We need to be cognizant of the "how" we carry out an action, even when the intention is good. Slapping someone rarely initiates a lasting change. Loving someone is the better way to initiate lasting change.

Nothing you see today can continue to exist in its current form. You can't reinvent the wheel, but you sure can invent better materials to make the wheel. The roads you drive on will eventually be replaced, and likely with better materials. The clothes you have on will wear out and eventually be something to laugh at. The phone you are using is already being replaced by the manufacturer with a much better phone. Same goes for whatever device you're reading this with. The big companies we know today (Apple, Google, Oil & Gas Companies) will be gone or it they're to survive, look completely different down the road. The processes, procedures and personnel your company is using today won't work in the future. The point? Don't buy into the notion that what you have can't and shouldn't change. Because it will. It's already over. What you have is in varying degrees, on its way to extinction. Methods, rules and traditions can, and will, chang...

Without hope, people will die, in some form. One of the most important things you could ever do is provide someone with hope.

Most of the changes we want is changes to external things, and often things we have little to no control over. We rarely want to change ourselves. Because that's the hardest change to make. It is a lot easier to wish for people and situations to change. It is a whole lot harder looking inside and making substantial changes to adjust to people and situations. But these are the rewarding changes. Because they make us a better person. A changed situation or a changed person we know rarely makes us a better person. If only we could accept that often the changes that need to be made are ones we need to make within ourselves. Such a difficult lesson to learn and re-learn and keep re-learning.

Here I am again writing about Millennials. My previous posts about Millennials have proven to be the most popular of any posts on this blog. Since I have written the posts, (and of course before writing them) I have read a lot of negativity towards Millennials. It's been said, do not criticize something you don't understand. When we criticize something we don't understand, we are only indicting ourselves. It is the duty of old generations to try and understand the Millennial generation. Not to criticize them, but to actually engage them to a point of understanding. This is easily accomplish by real listening. Not "hearing them out". I believe just like every prior generation, if we examine the Millennial generation we will find good and bad. The difference I see in the Millennial generation is two fold. 1. The new digital world. They have grown up in a completely digital world are are very different than any prior generation. So comparisons are fine, but i...

At some point it will plateau. Everything started eventually stagnates and sees diminishing returns. Too often the plateau becomes a treadmill and a seemingly infinite loop is created at that plateau. It doesn't have to be this way though. There are options at the plateau. Here are some ideas on how to get off the treadmill and make some tangible progress. 1. Deep breath. Take a deep breath, step back and analyze. Look at other people who are doing what you're doing. Analyze what they're doing right and what wouldn't work for you. Borrow some of their methods and implement for yourself. 2. Change the inputs. What you're putting into it has to change. You can alter the inputs or completely change them, depending on the desired output change. 3. Reboot. Sometimes a refresh that is deeper than an input change is needed. Reboot the program or methods used. This means changing up the processes and procedures, trying some different approaches. 4. Reshuffle. Bri...

Don't criticize yourself for what you think. Criticize yourself for what thoughts you entertain. The thoughts you entertain are the single most important thing in determining how your life will go. This quote is quite poignant:   It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. -Aristotle We all have bad, negative and destructive thoughts. You don't have full control of thoughts that run through your head. You do however have full control of thoughts that you feed and let take root. And the thoughts you let take root will become behaviours and eventually your character.  A mentally strong person has learned to properly sort and handle their thoughts More often than not. The great news is, this is a skill within every human beings ability. It's a constant battle, but it's doable. Our brains seem predisposed to thinking and seeing the negative. Unless I am the only one like this :) The other part of the good news ...

Or you can assemble a team of strong, qualified people who in synergy can accomplish things greater than the sum of their parts. The Lone Ranger can only accomplish so much. He is limited by his time and resources. But scaling becomes possible as his team expands. Create a team of qualified or skilled individuals and empower them to utilize their skills with minimal supervision. A well articulated vision unifies the team.

Accomplishment can't be measured by financial or material terms. Those metrics will expose things other than true accomplishment. Accomplishment can accurately be measured by the lives one has touched or affected and the quality in which they have been touched or affected.

Cutting through the noise is becoming increasingly difficult in this digital and connected age. It's one of the biggest drawbacks of the information age we live in. It is easy to mistake noise for substance. The most insignificant things go "viral" and capture our attention.  That is fine, but it becomes difficult to ignore noise and find substance. Progress is usually in the quiet. Not the loud.

But in reality, there will be problems that the theory could not have realized until put into action. I read a quote today from Jim Rohn saying, "Don't let your learning lead to knowledge. Let your learning lead to action". We can learn and theorize, but until we put theories and learning into action, they're useless. Theories are great, but they are only valuable if they're actioned. Your knowledge and ideas are great. But they should always lead to action or else they haven't fulfilled their purpose.

The job of the change agent is most difficult. They don't have mass appeal or support. But they have a vision or idea of how things can be better. They take unpopular positions. They live in a uncomfortable tension. They hold true to their idea despite opposition and pressure. Despite politics and others perceptions. The masses want status quo. The change agent wants better for the masses. Here is a nod to the change agents of the past, present and future. Of the present who will bring about a better future.

This is a very non-technical thought on this topic. There is way better test research and data on this topic, some of which I've read. But the question of how much an environment plays one ones development is interesting. Here are some question I have. Can ones environment stifle their growth? Can one environment stop their growth? Does ones environment dictate who they will be? Does a certain environment create a predictable outcome? There are no hard and fast answers to these questions because for each question there are both yes and nos. Certain environments may be restrictive to growth, but an adaptable person can still find ways to grow. But they may be max out to where they can grow to. Certain environments may have the conditions in which to turn out a person of certain typical characteristics. But it cannot guarantee the outcome. Certain environments can completely restrict growth once growth has reached a certain point. My conclusion is, despite envinroenmen...

You can: Resist change Shape change Embrace change Try and stop change Hate change But you cannot stop change. Your energy is best invested into shaping change and if you can muster it, embracing change. If you try and stop change, change will run you over. Better to run with change and do your best to shape it.

You can ask questions to destruct or to construct. Make sure your questions are constructive. Tough, uncomfortable questions can be constructive. A tough question does not mean it's destructive.

You can listen in order to: 1. Just hear 2. Understand 3. Learn 4. Appear interested 5. Change 6. Help 7. Speak Listening is so important, but the motivation behind the listening is equally important. The best listening motivations are to: understand, learn, change and help. This is because they make the listening activity benefit others, not ones self.

Or the older you get... 1. You realize you don't know that much. 2. You realize life is not black and white. 3. You realize and accept that life is not fair. 4. You realize people, not things, are what is important. 5. You realize life is short and you have to make the most of every moment given.

No, not everyone's "voice" is their real natural voice. Some peoples voice is poetry, for others it is some form of an action and for others it's singing, art or a multitude of things. The fact is, everyone has a voice and something to contribute. The saddest and most harmful thing is when someone has a voice, but doesn't use it. There is something called "the bystander effect".  Here is an explanation taken from Wikipedia . "The bystander effect, or bystander apathy, is a social psychological phenomenon that refers to cases in which individuals do not offer any means of help to a victim when other people are present. The probability of help is inversely related to the number of bystanders." When people cease to use their voices, it ultimately hurts other people. And the thing is, you will never fully know who you have hurt or let down. Not using your voice has consequences that cannot be quantified because they will never be known. You...

It's natural and easy to mistake the popular for the best. It's often not the case though. Popular usually means "easiest" not best. Best usually requires more than the popular belief, opinion or method. Be careful in adopting the most popular option. There are times when the popular option is in fact best. The key is to be mindful, always, and not fall into popular beliefs/opinions/methods by default.