My Riffs

Before planes, the way to access oversea lands was via the harbour. Some harbours needed to be protected when people intending harm were approaching. Other times the harbour was open and inviting, welcoming to people of far away lands. What is in your harbour is important. Is it welcoming? Is it full of junk and debris and unwelcoming? Have you let harmful people into it?  Protect your harbour, and keep it clean. It's the entry into your world. What you let in your harbour will overtake your entirety eventually. Don't harbour hate, bitterness, resentment. Allow the right things and people into the harbour and the land will be rich.

Truth and love are two of the most powerful forces out there. Truth has the ability like nothing else to correct and straighten things. (it always has to be done with love as I wrote about here ) If something is off, crooked or wrong, it needs truth. Truth needs to be spoken and we need to allow truth to be spoken to us. Truth is a lot like opening a new window and seeing a new view to something you never knew existed. So speak truth and allow truth to be spoken, you're opening windows and helping thing straighten.

Perspectives should self regulate. There is always group think and always ideas that get taken too far. But over time and in large, perspectives will self regulate. The major caveat is if all perspectives are allowed. It doesn't mean every perspective is equal, it just means every perspective should be at least heard. The bad perspectives will be weeded out naturally by the better perspectives. Shutting down perspective takes away the natural ability of self regulation and gives way for less than ideal perspectives to take hold. Everyone's perspective is important in playing a part in a group of perspectives that each provide balance to the whole.

My morning commute (and thousands of others) was delayed from one stalled car. That one incident/person had an effect on thousands of people, given it wasn’t intentional. But we’re all interconnected. We effect others around us whether intentional or not. This is powerful, because if we live and breathe positivity and truth, we do make a difference. Sometimes we can feel insignificant, but nobody is because we’re all connected. Taking ownership of and being intentional with our actions can change our world.

You have to keep your guard up. When it’s down is inevitably when you’ll be overcome by what you’ve been guarding against. What’s your guard? It’s your attention. Pay attention to what matters, pay attention to what could overcome you. What’s trying to overcome you? Nothing good essentially. Complacency, vices, etc. Good comes with being intentional and paying attention.

The gold is never at a superficial level. It has to be mined out. It takes work and refinement to make it sparkle. Gold isn’t easy to find, but it’s extremely valuable. There’s gold to mine and refine in everything. Find it. Dig.

Energy has to come from somewhere. We often need to tap into an energy larger than ourselves to drive us forward. It takes energy to power a person or a team. Where can we get energy for ourselves, our family, friends or communities? Vision. Vision is energy. Clear vision can be converted into energy. Running low on energy? Renew the vision.

In order to discover something, it has to be uncovered. Uncovering starts with doubting what we already know. Doubt leads to questions. Good questions lead to answers. Answers are discovery. Discovery done right should lead to positive action. The rich areas are the unknown areas, the unmined areas. Wringing value out of what we already know has diminishing returns. That's why we must continue to grow and discover by uncovering what we don't know.

How do you paint the world around you as good, bad, ugly or beautiful? With your thoughts. Your thoughts are like paint, and you can make the world around you as beautiful or as ugly as you wish. Choose bright and beautiful colours. Colour over ugliness and hate. Colour when you feel down and dejected. Colour your world as beautiful.

Kids who grew up with little or no control of things in their young life often turn into adults who control too much. Kids who grew up with too much control often turn into spoiled adults who can't handle the challenges of life. As adults the more we try and control, the more we risk frustrations. As adults with kids, we have to balance with kids how much control they should have. And they definitely should have some, and learn to handle it and make decisions. If we only allow kids to make decisions when they turn 18, they have no practice and will make more damaging decisions than if they learn decision making when they're 5. As adults we have to separate that which we can control and that which is outside our control. If we allow the things that we can't control to consume us, we will become frustrated and stalled. If we focus on the things we can control, there is freedom there.

I love simplicity. If things aren't simple, people won't do them, follow them or understand them. But life is very complex. Caution is required when distilling things of life down to a singularity. Life and people are complicated. When we say definitive things about a person or situation, we are often reducing it and taking away from it. The complexity of life is what makes it so full and rich. It's a fact that things are tied together far more often than we realize. And things are connected that we take for granted and maybe even overlook. So to reduce complexities is to make them poorer.  If we reduce someone to a singularity, we reduce them. If we reduce a situation to a singularity, it becomes less valuable. The thing to remember is this, if you have reduced something or someone to a singularity or if you've been reduced to a singularity, much was overlooked and the singularity is only at best partially true.

There's an exception to every rule. This is the reason the world isn't black and white. We have to bear in mind that for almost everything that is a surety to us, there may be an exception. The problem is when the exception becomes the rule. We can't make decision or form our lives based on the exceptions. We have to form it around the norms. Accept the exception, but let the rule govern.

Endurance. Courage. Example. Perseverance. Saying No. Risks. Adapting. Flexibility. Forgiving. Loving. The more of these you’re good at, the stronger you are. The things above (and I’m sure some were missed) are what strength is comprised of.

The best view into yourself is through others eyes. Some of the feedback will be through non verbal cues. People will tell you a lot about yourself, you just have to pay attention to how they treat and approach you. The best way, but most difficult is to solicit feedback from your closest friends and family. What if we explored our weaknesses through others peoples feedback? We would be able to use the feedback to better ourselves quicker and with more support.

Routine isn’t to be despised. We rely on routine more than we often realize. Ensuring we have good routines to follow is important. With a good set of routines one can have the strength to deviate from routine in a small way to discover new ways and routines. But the solid routine provides the base to explore from. Be deliberate with the routine. Stick to routine. Explore from the routine. Grow from the routine.

Without much thought, most people will say happiness is the goal. The thing about this is, happiness is fleeting. Contentment is a much more realistic goal. It's an impossibility to live in a constant state of euphoria. So maybe happiness shouldn’t be the goal. Other maybe better goals could be contentment, purpose, fulfilled life...

Intellect is like raw opportunity. It has to be converted to wisdom in order to be valuable. The good thing is, you don’t have to have intellect to have wisdom. Intellect isn’t a precursor to wisdom.

More hours. More process. More controls. More demands. More training. More money. More perks. Maybe in a tiny way all of these help. The real key? Appreciation. If people feel appreciated, they will feel like what they're doing is valuable, effective and thus productivity will be maximized. More appreciation.

You have to feel like you're enough to get the job done, but not enough to survive the future. You're enough to get started, but not enough to finish, which is why you have to get better. If you feel like you're enough, you won't take steps to the next level. If you feel like you're enough, you won't develop. Be enough to start, but not enough in your current state to finish. Grow.

What constraints do you have? Because, those who have been successful worked through the same or similar contrasts and barriers. The difference for them is, they didn’t give up. Successful people were never given what they have. They overcame the same obstacles, constraints and barriers you are facing. There's a way though, find it.

If a situation is uncomfortable it's because you're near some type of a line. The line can be one that you need to push through or the line can be one that needs to be maintained and never crossed. So, when that uncomfortable feeling creeps up on you, recognize you're close to a line. Then determine if that line should be crossed or left alone. There are areas to push into uncomfortable areas and cross a line that's held us back. There are other areas the uncomfortableness we're feeling is a warning, and we need to hold back.

The way we learn is through examples. Be it math examples, behavioural examples, and on the list goes. The only way to learn is by building off what we already know, otherwise known as examples.  Who and what you look to out of respect will be what you use to formulate who you are. And for some even seeing people who aren't deserving of respect will help build in the way of "what not to be.". For the most part though we become some form of what we respect and look to for inspiration and as ax example. The mind doesn't take huge leaps. It takes small steps, by using previous data/examples.  The point of this is simply, it's important to be intentional about what we respect and look to, because whether intentional or not, we will move in that direction. The examples in our life are signposts that guide us.

Who would you tell that you loved and appreciated them? Do it.

The grass may be greener over yonder. And if it is, it's because the grass has been better tended to. It hasn't happened on it's own. Why can't the grass on your side be just as well tended to?

How many times do problems get rolled into emotions? How often do problems get rolled into other problems? Or on the flip side, how often do successes get lumped into the wrong thing? Separate the facts. A success can rarely be boiled down into one thing, neither can a problem be simplified into one issue more often than not. Separate the bias or agenda from the fact. Separate the bias or agenda from the story. Separate things and you will find clarity.

Things went wrong. Things go wrong. Things will always go wrong. Assigning blame is a distraction. Most of the time, assigning blame doesn't speed up the fix. The time where assigning blame helps is when the blame lies within. If blame lies without, there often isn't a whole lot of value is assigning blame.

Today’s post comes from the blog of Seth Godin: “ One step at a time ” If you want to teach, to change minds or to cause action, a consistent curriculum is always better than a single event. Drip by drip, with enrollment.

The ideal team has a good mix of old and young. Of course it depends on the purpose of the team, but for many teams you want a good mix and range of diverse abilities in general. But for sure you want young and old on the team. Young provides the energy and drive. Older provides the guidance and wisdom. When you have a balance of this, the team is poised to succeed. Young people have the energy and ideas to bore out the tunnel, or to cut out the path. Older people have the wisdom and experience and can make sure the young don’t waste time. Synergy between generations is critical. When it doesn’t exist the creative and forward moving process is stalled.

New possibilities and new worlds are opened and built through new ideas. When an idea is shut down a potential new world is shutdown. New potentials can only be accessed through ideas. Want things to stay the same? Don’t explore ideas. Want things to change? Explore new ideas.

How many little important moments do we let slip by, waiting and looking for the "big" moments. How many precious moments of simply being with a friend or family member do we overlook? We're always looking for the big, loud exciting moment. But maybe those aren't the most valuable. Sometime the most valuable moment is simply receiving an encouraging note from a friend. Or maybe just having a conversation with a loved one. These are the moments we shouldn't overlook. They're the moments we've worked so hard to attain.