My Riffs

Good is much stronger than bad. Light is much stronger than darkness. We all know this, but when we look around the world today at times it feels like bad is overcoming good. But it only takes a little good to outdo a lot of bad. It only takes a little light to drive out deep darkness. It only takes a little love to drive out the hate.

Sometimes when we do good, it doesn't turn out how we liked or had hoped . But good is never wasted. Anytime good is done, it makes a difference. It may not produce what we hoped, but it changes things. We may not even be able to always trace what difference the good makes, but it always makes a difference. Putting good into the world has ripple affects that we cannot always see the end of. Do good. Good is never wasted.

Identify your weaknesses. If you don't know where you're weak, you won't be able to do anything about it. It could be the thing that trips you up and causes catastrophe when you least expect it. If you don't have a "name" for something, you cannot fix it. So identify your weaknesses in order to "name" them. Identifying your weaknesses allows for a few things: - Fixing or at least making the weakness better. - Avoiding problems the weakness will lead to. - Allowing yourself to use other resources to compensate for your weaknesses. - Hopefully staving off catastrophe caused by your weakness.

The world is as hateful as it maybe has ever been before. Technology has allowed the propagation of hate to scales and efficiencies previously unheard of. Whatever you do, do it in love. You can do tough things, but do them in love. You can do controversial things, but do them in love.

There's places to see your reflection. We can catch glimpses of our reflection in places we have had some influence. In our friendships, in children, in groups and in any other relationships we have. We can catch glimpses of ourself and what influence we've had on these people. Will these reflections be things we're proud to see? Will the reflections we see be things we can look straight into and feel some "pride" in?

“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.” “The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.” “If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment. “ - Marcus Aurelius

What you're really searching for, you'll find. Guaranteed. Searching for the bad? You'll find it. Searching for the good? You'll find it. Searching for wealth? You'll find it. Etc. Make sure what you're searching for is actually worth it.

What will you maintain, what will you let go of and what will you reach for?

Yesterday's post said to go for it with your existing tools. Today is a continuation of that. There is stuff out there in an abstract way, it is just waiting for someone to grab it and somehow construct it into something more tangible. There's ideas out there, business opportunities, fixes for problems, new mediums, new alliances, on and on. They're out there in some un-embodied form. It just takes someone to reach out. Stuff it out there waiting for you to discover and bring into reality. Then the real goal is to use what you have created to make the world around you a better place. So reach out, stretch yourself and grasp onto something that only you can get and then give.

We usually want more. Sometimes that’s good, but often we already have what we need. Don’t wait to do what you can do until you have more. Use what you have and do what you can now.

Here's a few rules to live by daily. These should help almost everyone. Tell the truth, no matter what. Do the right thing, always, no matter what. Don't complain, about anything. Be humble, no matter what. Deflect praise, accept criticism. Accept your responsibilities, don't avoid them. Live healthy: body, soul, mind and spirit. Give more than you take. Getting these things right will set a whole lot right in your life.

We live in a world of quite possibly unprecedented political correctness. There is hyper-sensetivity everywhere you turn. A truthful word can hardly be spoken without a major offence being taken. The strange thing though, in this time of political correctness, there is a large deficit in graciousness. Those who are graceful are extremely few and far between. And those who are, shine brightly. There is a verse in the bible where Jesus said, "the meek will inherit the earth". And in this case I heard meekness defined as "someone who can use a sword, yet keeps it sheathed". And I think that is a  great way of defining gracefulness too. You could blast that individual, but you keep your sword sheathed. You could show how smart you are, but you keep your sword sheathed. You could show someone up, but you keep your sword sheathed. You may even be able to do it better, but you keep your sword sheathed. Gracefulness: the art of knowing when to sheath and ensheat...

Little parts of you die all the time. That's where your hair comes from, and your nails. The death brings about new though. It seems for something new to come, something has to die. Letting part of yourself die is so hard. But we all have some things in us that we should let die. It's so hard to face those things is us that should die though. It's hard to own up and see those bad things in you that should die. It's hard to admit to yourself. Sometimes we come to a harsh reality that there is something in us that is quite undesirable. Sometimes it's quite undesirable for ourselves or sometimes it's undesirable to other people (which hurts us too). Facing that thing, and removing it from you, no matter how difficult, is so important. When it dies, something new will go in it's place. And what grows will be so worth it.

Everyone is unique. Obviously. Everyone wants to be similar enough to everyone else, yet a little unique. It seems so many trying be “unique” often all being very similar though. Celebrate being unique. But doing something to just be unique often makes you like someone else. Be you, don’t join with the crowd “trying” to be unique.

I'm holding stresses, hurts and burdens I don't need to. For some crazy reason, I am voluntarily holding onto them. While I'm holding onto unnecessary things, I don't have room to hold more valuable things. It's easy to get this backwards. We hold onto insignificant things, or things we can't control as if they're ours. But we do it at the cost of letting go of more important things. Things like our future, what we already have and those who are most important to us. Take close inventory of what you're holding. Learn to let go of what isn't needed, and pickup the more important things. Let go and then hold on.

Here is a simple little life hack that I am working on. It's a simple thing, yet the results I think are huge. Here's the life hack: Stop Complaining. That's it. Just stop complaining. Our complaints really can pile up if we let them. Traffic, the weather, waking up, eating the same thing, people, our job, our responsibilities, and on and on. And the thing is, if we took our complaints to most people in the world, they wouldn't even begin to understand them. Imagine complaining about these things to someone who is in the hospital. Or imagine complaining to someone who doesn't have a job, or food to eat, or a car to drive, or a house to live in.... Stop complaining. You will instantly start appreciating what you have more.

It's possible to take different routes to the same end result. Sometimes we let other peoples routes completely distract us. If somebody isn't doing it the same way as you, wait and see, they may end up with the desired result. Yes, people take wrong paths, but it's usually recoverable. It's an opportunity to learn. If someone is on a fatal path, by all means shout, scream and wave your hands to get them off it! But if someone is merely taking a different route, try and trace out how they could conceivably get to the end result desired. When we insist on those around us doing things the exact same as us, we hamper the creative process and discoveries to be made from that process.

If you're building a team, make sure the team isn't separated into silos. Silo'd teams/team members become problematic. One test of a good team is if the activities of the various members all contribute to the overall vision. If a member of the team is contributing but it doesn't contribute to the overall vision, it's not a well functioning team. Review the team members and ensure the activities are contributing towards the overall vision or goals. Otherwise the team is fragmented and not functioning properly.

I know I’ve posted this before in some form(s). But again today, I’m reminded, embrace the hard and the difficult. Don’t run from the hard and challenging things you’re facing today. Don’t duck your responsibilities. Stand tall and meet those challenges head on. Face them, for you won’t defeat them unless you do. Why do this? Why not run? Running often seems easier. Because the value is in the difficult. The more difficult, the more value there is to extract. The taller you stand and the bigger the task you face, the more you have to gain. You almost assuredly won’t lose. Because when you stand tall and face the task, you’ve already won largely.

Your decisions almost always will make someone happy and someone else upset. That's the nature of decisions, they naturally divide. How do we make decisions then? How do we know what's right? It's hard sometimes to know. There are some guiding principles though. - What's best for the largest amount of people. - What's best for the future. - What's best for those who will be impacted the most. - What causes minimal disruption/damage/harm.. The tendency is to make decisions based on what we want, or what we think is best for us. Then we lose sight of the long term, or the ramifications of the decision on others. When we at least pause to consider those things, we can make a more informed decision.

Today calls for your complete attention. The problems and challenges of today are for real and require much of us. But if we only focus on the here and now, we may miss out on some big things later. If we focus on the immediate, then life, friends and family may slip past us. We may be stuck in the office as those things slip past. Or we may be stuck on today challenge or problem and allow the bigger things to go past us. Or we may just be in neutral as those things go past us. What do you want to be known for when your life is done? If you’re not focusing on those things today, what’s going to make you focus on them tomorrow? Life life back to front. See where you want to be, where you want to go, then begin today. Start with the end goal and work it backwards to today. What needs to be done today to reach that goal?Otherwise, we just get caught up in the day to day and never reach the bigger goals. Is what you’re chasing today truly worth it?

The thoughts you think, the dreams you dream and the activities you do in your spare time, by yourself, are greatly predictive of where you’re heading.

What have you done with the ideas you subscribe to? If you haven't incorporated them into who you are, they're just somebody else's ideas your restating. If you're just repeating someone else's' idea, what is the real value of it? An idea or belief only becomes something once it becomes part of you. So the idea (or belief) is someone else's until it become's part of who you are. Only then it can become yours. There's a HUGE difference between knowing and being. Those who have the larger disconnects between the two are the most fragmented. Those who integrate their beliefs into who they are are the most congruent.

We're only as healthy as the weakest part of ourself. We're complex beings, and being healthy is more that just doing one certain thing. You can be physically strong, yet completely unhealthy. So make sure your in complete health. Here are some areas to check your health in. This is by no means comprehensive: - Healthy mind, are you thinking good healthy thoughts? - Healthy body, are you eating relatively healthy, nutritous food? - Healthy body, are you taking care of your body through some form(s) of exercise? - Healthy ears, are you listening to good, rich, positive things? - Healthy heart, are you free of hate, bitterness and just general ugliness? - Healthy spirit, are you taking care of your spiritual being? - Healthy mouth, are you speaking life, or death? - Healthy emotions, are you monitoring and guarding your emotions to keep them level and controlled? - Healthy environment, are you surroundings positive, mind clearing, and life giving? Did I miss any other...

My 4 year old daughter recently got a Betta Fish. He looks something like this. He's a sight to behold! But we learned that you can't put other fish with him. He doesn't get along with other fish, he's very territorial. What good is our image if we can't truly get along with other people? We become nothing more than another sight to see. Our effectiveness has more to do with our action that our exterior. Doing things to enhance our image is one of the shallowest existences. Doing things to enhance our character is one of the most fulfilling existences.

The pressure can cause you to crumble. The pressure can make you hard. The pressure can cause you to crack. The pressure can make you strong. The pressure can make you succeed. We need the pressure. We need to use the pressure. We need use the pressure to make things better.

There’s something to learn every day. It just requires us to pay attention. Don’t let a day pass without seizing every opportunity to learn. Wondering through life without paying attention costs us much growth.

To beat something you gotta rise above it. But to rise above something, you kinda need to get to the bottom of it first. You have to understand what’s the base, what’s beneat it. Otherwise you don’t truly know what makes up the structure of what you’re trying to rise above. So get to the bottom of something, then you can rise above it.

If you don't a vision for something, say no. Don't take on something you have no vision for. Your ability to make it better starts with vision. Vision is the highest form of function. Vision drives all action. So only jump into something if you have that vision for.

The outcome of a narrative can be determined by how it's framed. By how the narrative is presented. By how the narrative was started. Any narrative could be presented in a negative manner. That's actually easy. But how do we frame difficult narratives? If it's framed with a positive and optimistic outlook, chances are the outcome will be much better. So, in discussions, make sure the narrative is always framed with hope, positivity, optimism.  Negative topics and situations can always be framed in this manner. Framing them with positivity and optimism will create a better end, always. Choose your frame, don't allow negativity to frame the narrative.

To bring order to chaos, truth must be spoken. Sometimes truths from multiple perspectives must be spoken.  Truth from only one perspective may cause more chaos.