My Riffs

Yes, it's a song, but it's more than a song. What more powerful force is there in the world than love? We often choose to fight, to divide and to tear down when love would do a much better job.

Without bridges we become isolated. So bridge building is a good thing. Bridges should be built for many different reasons. But a bridge should never be built to a place you have no business going. Build lots of bridges but let them be for reasons of making you or someone else better. 

Rejection is something most people fear. Strive to be somehow who will make others feel welcome and comfortable. Be someone who people feel safe around. 

I read a quote from James Clear today that basically said you don't have to tear down every bad idea you come across. Sometimes it's best to just let bad ideas die. The best way to fight a bad idea is a better idea.

Happy thoughts make for a happy person. There's no person whose ever been happy without happy thoughts. If you can't seem to find happy thoughts, you have to check your environment and circle. Are you surrounded by people whose dispositions are happy?

Social media is largely responsible for so many people looking for conflict. So many seemingly wanting to look for a fight. But the people who make peace are the ones who will be blessed. Search for peace and you will have a better life. Those who constantly live at strife will live shorter more miserable existences.

The most precious moments in life are not repeatable. But the most sustaining way of building and keeping is sustainability. If something isn’t sustainable, it obviously won’t last. Make things repeatable in order to be sustainable. 

Anything worth having takes work. To shy away from work means to shy away from anything worth having.  

You can justify pretty much anything and everything. I've heard and seen some crazy things be "justified". Coming up with some semi-rationale way of excusing something doesn't make it right. When mental gymnastics are required to make something okay, it's probably not. Be careful what you start justifying, it will become allowed and then the norm and you will end up thinking it's okay.

One of the best ways to love someone is to show them and teach them how to do something. Yeah, we should do selfless things for others, that's important and necessary. But real love will show and teach someone how to do things for themselves. And in turn, they will do the same to others.

We all want immunity. Immunity against anything negative and bad. Unfortunately immunity doesn't come free. Immunity requires some form of immunization or exposure. You have to put yourself out there to get hurt in order to gain something. Completely protecting yourself means you won't even gain strength or immunity. You have to go through something adverse to get better. That's the way to look at going through tough things.

What energizes you? Spend more time doing those activities rather than draining ones. 

Truth always prevails, it just may not always happen quickly. Never abandon the truth, no matter how slow it may seem to go to get out. 

How many things do we expect but haven't actually asked for? It's a simple formula, ask and you will receive. You're not gonna receive without asking.

Experience should teach.  If you keep encountering the same issues over and over again, chances are you have missed a lesson. Experience should make things more easy to navigate. If things are getting more difficult and you're spinning your tires or circling the same problems over and over, you need to find the lesson.

You can define how you want to be treated in how you treat others. 

Be true, live out your beliefs. Be honest, live out what you say. Doing these things will make your world a better place.

You will have a legacy. It will be formed by your habits. Practice good habits and it will be a legacy to be continued. 

How much do we chase out of vanity? How much do we put into getting ahead out of vain reasons? Why are some of the happiest people sometimes some of the poorest financially?

You’ll accomplish a whole lot more by making peace than going to war. 

 The more we focus on goodness and gratitude the better quality life we will have. This is thanksgiving weekend in Canada and a good reminder to focus on goodness and gratitude. 

Strength doesn’t always look muscular :)  It doesn’t always look tough. Sometimes strength looks like asking for help or admitting a fault or weakness. Sometimes strength looks like sheathing your sword.  Sometimes using force is weakness.  Strength is often quiet, gentle and kind. 

What’s important is often dictated by what’s the loudest. But the loudest thing is rarely the most important. You’ll find out what’s most important when you’re truly facing the finite. 

What also says a lot is how you treat someone who is above you in status and someone who is below you. 

What says a lot about someone is how they handle being on top of the mountain and how they handle being in the valley. 

Why are we so scared of weakness? We’re scared of weakness and vulnerability. But we’re human and those thing are part of the range of human experience. You have to experience some weakness to appreciate some strength. You have to be vulnerable to grow. You have to experience the full range of human experience in order to appreciate it. Weakness is a place to learn. 

Life is comprised of many different cycles. And we all get caught in them. Some are egos and some aren’t. It’s hard to break out of the bad cycles though. The best way to break from a bad cycle is to surround yourself with people who won’t allow you to go into that cycle. Or start small daily habits that won’t allow you to repeat bad cycles. Sometimes we make lofty goals and can’t attain them and get disappointed. With smaller goals they should always be manageable. 

I’ve come to realize after some life experience everyone is broken to a degree. We’re all not so different. Different people handle being broken differently but they’re still broke. It doesn’t mean you can’t be healed but it does mean to be patient with other people. They’re likely broken and trying to heal from something. Just like you.