My Riffs

You know you’re healing when you handle certain situations better than you used to. Situations may have hurt you previously and the ability to go through them better means you’re healing. Healing often means getting better bit by bit. 

If you can discipline yourself, you can do anything. Mastering ourself if the hardest thing to master. Taking on and mastering ourself is the biggest challenge and biggest victory. Challenge yourself to be self disciplined!

In nature, seasons are beyond our control. In life, lots of seasons are beyond our control too. Some seasons are our own making, but many are simply just life. Each season has a purpose, even when it's not a favourite season. In each season there are thing to do in order to prepare for the upcoming season. Failure to take advantage of the current season will affect future seasons. Embrace the current season you're in and it will make the next better.

The things we let live in our heads rent free cost us a whole lot. The thoughts we allow to accumulate in our head add weight and burden to us that is optional.

You likely can do it. Doesn’t hardly matter the task. You likely can do it if you try enough. May take 1000 times and done in a totally different way, but you can get it done. 

Once you’ve put in an honest days effort, it’s best to just let it all go. Once you’ve done what you can, don’t stress and hold onto things. Rest knowing you’ve done your best. 

You can pretty much say anything you want if you do it right. Master communicators can pretty much insult you and leave you feeling honoured. A bad communicator can compliment you and make you feel like you've been insulted. So thinking before we speak, especially something important, makes all the difference. Practice speaking precisely but also with the most uplifting way. Demeaning people never makes them want to be better. Uplifting people even through a criticism will cause them to grow upward.

You already have what most people need, that being your ear and your time. Thats what most people really need. It's not as hard to be there for people when you know you already have what they need.

Telling the truth takes work. Because when we’re inaccurate we’re not being truthful. We have to work at being accurate. It’s easy to spin things to make ourselves look better. It’s a lot more work to be accurate. So telling the truth isn’t easy, but it’s always the better thing to do. 

Yesterday I wrote about trust. Today is about character. If you don't develop good character, you will never truly develop trust. What is character? It's you when nobody is watching. It's you when you do the right thing despite the consequences.  Develop your character. From here you will build trust. With trust you can build anything.

Trust costs. It mostly costs time and experience. There are very few shortcuts to trust. And once you gain trust it may be the most valuable thing you have. When you lose it, it may be the biggest loss you can have.

The blame game. We can always find someone or something to blame. But in doing so we give our power over that issue away. When we take ownership of things that have happened, we can change them. Or we can make them better. As long as we blame others though, we can't change things. Dropping the blame game is taking back the ability to craft our future.

Pride comes before a fall. When you start seeing yourself as more than you are you're heading for some major issues. Being humble is the safest place to be in viewing yourself. Be honest, but be humble. Pride bring you down fast. Humble keeps you grounded so you can continue to grow.

What will your contribution be? Will it be criticism, slander and negativity? Or will it be building, edifying and creating? You will contribute to everything you're part of. The world doesn't need more critics, it needs more builders.

Those who can remain calm no matter what have mastered the world. When nothing or nobody can take your peace you’ve reached peak self control. It’s not to be impervious to what’s going on around you, it’s maintaining inner peace no matter the storm. 

Anything good is difficult. Good doesn’t come easy. Because something may be difficult doesn’t mean it’s wrong or not good. The journey to anything of value is tough. 

We wanna be the best at things. But we often are looking to be better than other people, not our personal best. The real person to truly beat it ourselves, to constantly be better and beat our last best.

I’ve learned that forgiveness does as much or more for the person who forgives as the forgiven. I’ve learned that withholding forgiveness is a burden that can’t be carried and a poison pill that slowly takes the life out of us. Forgiveness is necessary for freedom and life. 

Simple rule, be kind. Rare is the occasion where being unkind is beneficial. People who are kind have a huge advantage of those who can't be kind.

Contentment is truly one of the best virtues to embrace. Contentment is a path to true joy.  We must be content but also not quite satisfied. It’s two opposing positions to take. We should be content with what we have but also not satisfied with no growth. Holding those values in balance brings joy and purpose together. 

We wanna be first in all the wrong areas. First to own something, first to do something, first to think of something...  Where we should strive to be first is first to serve, first to say sorry, first to forgive. Those are the true firsts of a winner.

To love is the greatest act a human is capable of. And the faces of that love looks a lot less like romance and a lot more like maturity. People with the greatest capacity to love and amongst the most mature.

Live life back to front. That means, live life with the end in mind. That means both be aware of the time you have left and also the places you want to arrive at. We keep our eyes on the end goal to direct what we do today. 

Good is the enemy of great. It’s easy to settle for less, because it’s exactly that, easy. Know what areas to be great in. Settle for good in areas so you can be great in others. You can’t be great in every area, so choose wisely which you want to be great in, then don’t settle for good. 

How often do we get frustrated because we're not where we want to be. But we only get there by working through it. Shirking the process doesn't help. It only makes things worse. You need to work through it to where you want to be.

Do feelings matter? Yes they sure do. I don’t think it’s fair or kind to dismiss one’s feelings. But feelings importance has been exaggerated. We can’t place feelings above truth. Feelings are fickle. While they should be considered, feelings shouldn’t be the highest value. Truth should be. 

We get told to be authentic and to be ourselves. But that means be true to what you believe and who you were made to be. It doesn’t mean to be the bad versions of yourself. Be yourself, but be the best version. 

How hungry you are for something usually determines whether you will get it or not. The heart usually gets what it wants, so the things you most want, you usually get. If you want something enough, you'll make it happen. Check your appetite to learn where you're heading.

We’re in a rush for the things that don’t really matter but in no hurry for the primary. The secondary things call for our time and attention and are louder than the more important. If something is loudly calling for our attention that doesn’t mean it’s the most important. 

Make a decision based on where you want to be down the road. Because you’ll be down that very road sooner than you realize. Life comes at you fast, don’t make decisions based on how you’re feeling that day, think about where you want to be.