My Riffs

The best moments in life is when time stops for you. You may be immersed in a book or a hike or even work. But those moments are what life is really made of. They don't come often enough it seems, but they're the moments we work and built towards and live for.

Companies that sell stock will regularly take inventory and count what they have and adjust any discrepancies. It would be a good practice for us to do the same in our own personal lives. Take stock of what we have (not just money but in relationships and true things of value) and see what we can maybe do less of. You'll find you probably need to adjust. Things like more time with friends and less time on social media. Yes, I'm guilty. The more often you inventory the less far out of line you'll get.

Your time to market matters. If your product is the best but takes forever to get to market, nobody will buy yours because it's too late. You have to strike a balance between perfection and action. If you wait to perfect something, you'll likely miss out on opportunity. But if you don't put any quality together, nobody will buy it even if you're first.

We may think remaining neutral means not taking a position. But neutral is a position. It’s just likely the easiest and least effective position to take. Being neutral is like warm water. Not good enough to make something useful like coffee or tea and not cool enough to drink and be refreshing.

There is always opposition, unless you literally aren't doing anything. So opposition is no reason to stop doing something. It's a clear sign you're actually doing something. And sometimes (not always) the more opposition you come against, the greater the task you are undertaking. Sometimes the great opposition can be a sign you're doing something stupid. So make sure you know the difference.

It takes maturity and humility to celebrate others achievements with them. You can look at someones achievement and be jealous or you can celebrate with them. You know you've com to a certain level of maturity when you can celebrate someone else's achievement and be genuinely happy for them.

There are times to count. But then there are times to stop counting. The general difference is to count the good things and stop counting the bad.

The easiest path to follow is the path of least resistance. But if you've even noticed rain water, it follows the path of least resistance and ends up in the sewer. Following the path of least resistance is easier, but it never ends up in a good place. Better to follow the right path, because your destination will invariably be better.

You have to accept the other side. If you like to be happy, you have to accept there's sadness. To like the good, you have to acknowledge there's bad. Without the other side of something, you couldn't experience the side you like.

Our plans are often subject to change. It’s the nature of things where we have to constantly adjust. So only having a plan A can really cause us issues. Because plan A often doesn’t work as expected. It’s best to always have a Plan B and maybe C.

If you don't live deliberately, you will end up wasting a whole lot of time. And what's worse is, it takes a whole lot of time to even realize you've been wasting time. being deliberate with your life avoids this.

There’s always unforeseen consequences to our actions. We try and think ahead and minimize the negative outcomes from any given action. But we never know the outcomes of our actions until they’re complete. And there’s always unforseen ones. All you can do is adjust once you know of the unforseen consequence.

A missed step is a misstep. Trying to skip a step often causes problems. It’s almost always a mistake to skip a step. Some times you just have to go through the steps or the process. So go through the steps, they’re there for a reason.

You’re right. But they may be right too. We get to hung up on “or” and completely forget many things are “and”.

What you say matters. But what matters even more is how you say it. You could tell someone the words “I love you” but say it in a way that wasn’t believable. You can speak some hard truths, and said right they will be accepted. So once you figure out what to say, figure out how to say it.

Those who master the small things have accomplished something large. Too often our goals are too lofty when we haven't mastered the small things. And the small things vary. It could be as simple as cleaning your room, or a simple daily habit. The only way to accomplish the big is through mastering the small things. You can't handle something larger than the sum of the small things you can handle.

Some things only change if you chip away at them. Some things only are fixed if you chip away at them. They're the annoying problems that you want an instant fix for, but you have to instead learn patience and keep chipping away at them. You're getting a double benefit: both fixing the problem and learning patience.

Today everyone wants to be an influencer. It’s become so wanted and desired that being an influencer has lost some meaning. Wanting to be an influencer really means you want to be popular. And popularity is a terrible goal. Striving to make a difference is what a true “influencer” looks to do.

Too often we sell short.  We can quit to soon, or lose belief too soon.  We back out too soon. We don’t think we can be enough.  On and on. The things we do to ourself are far worse than what others do to us.  Make sure to value yourself high enough (not too high) and to not give up too quickly.  Because when we do, that’s on us, not anybody else. 

Certain things come easier to us, and we become good at them. Individually or as organizations or businesses. The trap is that one we get good at those things feeling that they're good enough. What was enough to get you to where you are, won't be enough to take you to the next level. This doesn't mean discarding what you've gotten good at, but what other opportunities are available? What areas can you improve in? Those are the places to look to get to the next level. 

Rest can fix you. Going at 100 miles per hour is good, but only for periods of time. You can't run that fast all the time. When you've been running fast, you need to slow down and fix yourself. And rest can and will do that.

What impacts us more than anything is the words and stories of other people. Our experiences impact us, but the words and stories of others actually shape us and direct us more than we could ever realize. Sometimes its negative words that motivate us, or hopefully it's positive words that propel us forward. Sometimes its the stories of what other people have done that push us forward. Make sure you listen to people who care for you and are going to tell you things that make you better and challenge you to be better.

Its difficult to move forward or up without footing. What that “footing” looks like varys depending on the situation. So getting footing is sometimes the goal, more than even moving forward.

Sometimes people get possessed by an ideal. And it's rarely a good thing. The ideal may not be entirely good or bad, but being possessed by it, all balance is lost. Ideals a good, but we need to possess the ideal, and not the other way around. Possessed ideals can be used for good, but being possessed by an ideal usually ends up with the ideal being used for bad.

You have to make sure you're always trading up. Whenever you have to make a trade off, make sure you're trading up. Tradeoffs shouldn't mean you're stepping down, it should mean you will be stepping up. Even if not immediately, at some point, you should be stepping up.

My child has been sick for a number of days now. Throughout the process of being sick I’ve had  to clean up, change, bath her. And she really didn’t like it. She wasn’t in the mood to go through the perceived discomfort I was putting her through. But I realized I had to risk “offending” her in order to do what was best for her. And sometimes you have to risk offending people. When you challenge preconceptions or seeming norms, you risk offending people. But you have to risk it for the good of the greatest amount of people. How can you change a bad idea if you don’t challenge it and risk offending? You don’t go looking to offend people. But you go about putting the greater ideas above the risk of offence. Then you can push things forward and it will help everyone, including the ones you’ve potentially offended. That’s the true mark of a good offends, is when it helps the offended.

How do you reach a consensus? It's very very difficult, unless it's a very straight forward obvious thing. But finding a consensus is about as easy to making everyone have the same tastes. To reach a consensus, you need to build it. People need to be informed. They need to buy into a vision bigger than their current vision. So you have to lay the ground work and follow up, then follow up again... It isn't something you can just demand or expect. Consensus takes time and is cultivated with wisdom.

The difference between good and excellent is in the little things. It takes paying attention to the small details to go from good to excellent. It's a minor shift with a major impact. So start paying attention to the details, you can go from good to excellent. The small details often mean lots of work for a small details, but the cumulative effect is worth it.

The results from positive reinforcement for outweigh the results from force. So when there is opportunity for positive reinforcement, always use it. Force wears out FAST. Positive reinforcement never wears out.

Noise comes in many forms. Sometimes it's too much information. Sometimes it's hype. Sometimes it's literal noise. Sometimes it's unsolicited feedback. Noise usually isn't a place to learn. Noise usually ins't a place to relax. Noise it something you have to learn to filter, to tune out and to get away from. Learning happens more in the quiet. Wisdom is found in the quiet. Clarity is found in the quiet.

Taking a quick break is often a good thing to do. For instance, when you hit a wall problem solving, take a break. When you hit a creative wall, take a break. When you hit a snag in a negotiation, take a break. When you've been working super hard, take a break. A break can fix you.