My Riffs

The interesting paradox is those who are really givers are the the most fulfilled people. You don't become fulfilled by hoarding. There are gains when you give. But you don't get those gains when you hoard. Interesting. Better to give than to receive. Living a life of giving is MUCH more fulfilling when you're in giving mode.

Today my third child was born. It reminded me how important life, people and relationships are. What else matters other than people?

Love has many looks. Love isn’t always romance. In fact love often isn’t romantic. Sometimes love looks like getting out of bed and going to work. Sometimes it looks like putting yourself second, third or even later. Sometimes it looks very vulnerable and scary. Love looks like patience and kindness. It looks like believing the best and hoping the best. It looks like humility. Maybe the neatest thing about love is it’s eternal.

It’s easy to find commentary on everything and anything today. Internet has allowed the mass of opinions to be heard. But it’s very difficult to find commentary’s today from people who truly understand. People want to get their opinion out more than they want to actually understand an issue. Understand before providing a commentary. Or else you’re just creating noise.

One thing I've learned about negativity... It's weak. You starve it for just a bit and it dies. So don't feed negativity. You feed positivity a bit and it will last a long time. Positivity is strong.

What does worry accomplish? Nothing. Concern is worry in moderation. Worry is concern overdone.

Is this a problem or an opportunity? Because we actually get to choose. We don't choose problems, but they come up. But we do choose if we use them as an opportunity or just leave it as a problem. You may get dealt a lemon, but you can make lemonade or eat the bitter lemon.

The older you get you may have more trouble believing the best in people. Probably because you’ve been hurt, betrayed and seen too much. But that doesn’t mean it’s the best way. The best way this to keep believing in people. Keep hoping for the best. Keep believing in the best. This doesn’t mean being naive. But it means being positive.

There’s always more going on than you realize. We can only focus on one thing at a time. So in any given situation we’re only paying attention to one thing at a time. That means we’re also missing a lot of information. What’s the moral of this thought? To be a whole lot slower to judge. Both situations and people. There’s always more going on that we are aware of.

What you know doesn't matter as much as how much you care.

We've reached peak activism around the world. There is non-stop protests and activists for almost every issue you could imagine. While speaking and getting the message out is important, coming up with solutions and being the change is even more important. It takes little to no sacrifice to be an advocate or activist. It takes much more sacrifice to be part of the change or to come up with good solutions to the problems. Maybe instead of protesting and demonstrations we could start demonstrating solutions. You don't fix something broken by screaming that something is broken. You fix something broken by fixing it or at least proposing something better. Take to the streets with a proposal. More people would listen.

When you see the word "Free" don't believe it. Pretty much nothing being advertised as free is completely free. Find the hidden cost or the hook. Companies aren't out there trying to see how they can give you more so they take less.

I heard the CEO of a multi billion dollar company today say they were going to shut down a division because it wasn't doing "much". The division he was speaking of makes around five million per year. I'm sure the CEO was right, from his perspective it probably wasn't a worthwhile use of company resources. From many other peoples perspective a five million dollar a year revenue company would be a big deal.

It's the middle of fall right now. Every year we have a full season dedicated to things falling. Maybe falling isn't such a bad thing. If it happens every year for multiple months, maybe it's an important part of life. I know a child can't learn to walk if they won't fall. I know that if you don't risk falling in life, you won't attain much. Fall maybe should be an opportunity. An opportunity to revisit how you sowed the previous seasons. An opportunity to better prepare for the seasons next year. Sometimes things have to die to give way to new. In our part of the world trees must shed their leaves to make new ones the following year. Things have to die and fall into the ground to become new again. So falling can represent a new starting line. An opportunity to do better next time. The fall isn't the problem. Not getting up and doing better is the real problem.

There's a difference between being tired and being weary. Being tired is usually a sign that you need more rest. And it can be a good thing. A good productive day will make you tired. Being weary could be a sign of a vision problem. You may have lost sight of the vision or maybe you've forgot it entirely. You can be doing good things and get weary. A fresh vision will usually address the weariness.

Living is very different from surviving. Seasons in life come and go and sometimes there are seasons to just survive. But survival is a far cry from living. Living is where you’re experiencing life in its fullest. You may be in a meaningful and challenging role in the job, you may be in an important relationship, you may be adequately challenged and you may be giving of yourself. That’s a lot of what living looks like. In seasons of survival most of those things are missing. If you’re in a season of survival, start making some changes. Start giving. Start challenging yourself. Start finding new friendships. Start living! There’s nothing like it.

In Canada it’s thanksgiving weekend. Its a good reminder to take inventory of all the good in your life and be grateful for it. Everyday should be Thanksgiving day, because every day is a gift.

Stories are so important. They're the primary way we teach and even learn. We tell stories to teach. We listen or see stories to learn. I read stories to my children that are teaching them. They don't even realize they're learning values and right from wrong from these stories. These stories are influencing who they will become. Stories are how we carry on traditions and how we preserve history. Our children will tell stories about us. Our friend will tell stories about us. So, our story is the most important. Our story tells of our destination. Will our story be one of growing, or will it be one of fighting against the forces that are trying to shape us? Our story will be read by others and it will influence them. The stories you read matter. The stories influencing you matter. The story you are writing matters even more.

Simpler is better. That’s all there is too it. Complicated means it’s still in a chaotic state.

It’s so easy to dismiss someone else’s perspective. But many times they’ve come to their perspective with equal amounts of thought and experience as we’ve come to our own. We shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss others’ perspectives.

If something is bothering you, you can’t hold it inside forever. Eventually it will cause you to fracture. If it minor it will pass. But if it’s major it will bother you until it’s forced out into the open. You can’t permanently live with internal conflict. It’s best to get it out and deal with it before it majorly effects you.

I came across a few scams today. A text scam and a few email scams. They were somewhat obvious scams but got me thinking about other scams that are less obvious. Here’s a few less obvious scams I thought of: - from marketers, “you NEED this..” - likes, follows, subs, reposts, etc - keeping up with the Joneses - trends - many “shortcuts” - hate and anger

It's okay some days to mainly just get through the day. Some days are tougher than others and on the tough days getting through the day is fine! You don't have to hit a home run every day. It's okay.

Let's start with the bad news. Your default destination isn't a good place. By default we're headed no where good. If we just take our hands off the wheel and foot off the pedal of life, we won't end up anywhere remotely good. That's our default destination. We can sit back and accept that or we can take ownership of our destination. Life will never go according to your plan, but nonetheless you must still take ownership of your destination. People don't end up in good places by accident. It takes being intentional and pushing back on our default destination. If you see someone in a good place, you can know they didn't end up there by accident. The good news is you can do the same thing as them. They took control of their destiny and you have the same ability.

It’s said that comparison is the thief of joy. I have to fully agree with that. What would be the opposite of comparison then? It’s likely a good place to find some joy. I would say contentment is the opposite of comparison. And it’s a great place to find joy.

I think everyone is born with a desire to be part of something. Is unique as we all think we want to be, we still don’t want to be the only person doing something. We want to be part of something bigger than just ourself. We need to be part of something bigger than ourself. In some ways you’re always gonna be part of something bigger than yourself, whether you like it or not. You can be part of something constructive or something destructive. The choice is yours.

It’s amazing now everything is connected. It’s said we’re only six degrees apart from any other person in the world. That’s means if you want to meet any human being you already know someone who knows someone, etc to another four degrees to meet them. And in our lives things are connected. The bad day at work likely carries into the home life at night. And a bad home life would carry into your work life. And on it goes. If one area of your life is way out of balance it is going to drastically effect the other areas of your life. If things aren’t going well there’s likely an area or two of your life that needs correction. And because everything is connected it could be throwing your whole life off track.

You won't earn respect if you don't give respect. Respect is something that can be purchased with itself. Meaning you gain respect by giving respect. You can't demand it, you can't steal it, but you earn it. Chances are you've earned respect by giving it or showing it to other.

We place high value on convenience but convenience always costs more than we realize. Convenience almost always costs quality. You have to give up quality to get convenience. And what truly enhances your life, convenience or quality?