My Riffs

It’s a New Year tomorrow! Make sustainable and small goals. Thats how big goals are attained, through many small attainable goals. 

The quality of your relationships will directly impact the quality of your life. You can't have a good quality of life without good relationships. If you have quality relationships you will have a good quality of life.

I spend too much of today stressing over tomorrow. But tomorrow will take care of itself. The energy is wasted by stressing about tomorrow. That energy was given to be used today. Stressing about tomorrow robs me of the energy I need for today.

Don’t worry about the people who you think dislike you. Don’t worry about the criticism or critics. Make friends. Invest that energy in friends. Building friendships is a compounding interest investment. You will get compound interest on your investments. Find good people and build good friendships with them. It’s one of the best ways to elevate your life. 

Merry Christmas!!! Wishing everyone the best Christmas!!

We’re all magnetic. We’re going to attract people generally similar to ourselves. If we are a kind person we will probably attract kinder people. If you’re mean and negative that’s also what you’re going to attract. Becoming someone good becomes an exponentially better undertaking because in doing so you will attract a better community and network. 

Waiting for joy to come may prove to be a fruitless exercise. Or it may come for fleeting moments. But joy is something you have to choose. Not every moment needs joy. Some moments would be inappropriate for joy. But joy is a choice we have to make over and over again. It will become more natural the more you choose it. So choose joy!

It’s a noisy world, Mr. Rogers said in an interview. That was quite some time ago though. Today’s world is noisier beyond imagination. It’s hard to focus. It’s hard to hear what people are actually saying. It’s difficult to think. It’s difficult to really learn and grow. It’s too loud and the noise pollution isn’t making anything clearer. You have to purposely get away from the noise and search out the quiet. There you can find more clarity and peace. 

If you’re wanting things to change then you have to make changes. Hoping for change won’t do much. But you have to do something in order to initiate changes. If you keep getting the same outcome, you have to change the inputs. How do you know things will be different? When you change what’s been happening beforehand. 

Choose experiences over things. Things don’t actually last, but experiences can. Experiences can live in our memories and can live with us if the experience changes us. 

There’s always a way forward. It may not always be clear and sometimes you have to blaze the trail forward. But there’s always a way forward. Stopping and giving up is never the right option. Forward is the only way to go. 

Instead of criticizing, offer suggestions for improvement. Criticism doesn’t help. But improvements do. If you suggest an improvement you give space for a review and consideration to improve. But a criticism is simply a shot that causes damage. 

Don’t leave anything on a low note. If something difficult or bad has to be said or done, leave it on a high note. It will make the experience feel a whole lot better. 

Success is never done alone. It’s always done with the help of friends, family and community. This highlights the importance of developing good relationships. Our success depends on the people we have surrounded ourselves with. And their success will depend on us behind the best we can be. 

There may times it’s tempting to repay evil with evil or just bad with bad. But it won’t help. Repaying bad with bad just makes it more bad. Do good. Don’t let your ego get in the way. Always do good and you will become a bigger and better person. 

If you want to get better, if you want a better life, fix a lot of little things. You don't have to immediately go big. Start with the small. The effect of getting lots of little things right amounts to a large effect. Fixing little things is manageable, accomplishable and helps you feel good about making changes. Write a list and start fixing things. 

If you can't say it, then it likely needs to be said. There's a time to refrain from speaking and there's a time to speak. If you feel like you can't say it, there has to be an issue that has gotten to a point where it's become larger than it should have. Speaking early and often helps prevent these situations. It's not about quantity of words or speech though, it's about quality and timing.

You will know your friends by your lows and your highs. Who shows up and who leaves during those times will say a lot. A good friend who will stay by you though lows and highs are invaluable and worth investing in. 

It’s best to make no assumptions. We do have to make assumptions in our day to day life. But it’s best to hold those very loosely. Because when making an assumption, we’re forming opinions with little to no information. And we’re not always right when we do so. When possible make no assumptions. There’s always two sides to a story and there’s always at least two ways to look at a situation. So don’t assume, there’s a good chance your assumption is wrong or incomplete at best. 

Just be kind! There is a huge kindness deficit in the world. We don’t need any more mean people, mean comments or mean behaviour. Add kindness to the world, because it’s contagious. Your kindness will start a kindness cycle and reach more people than just the one you’re being kind to. 

The biggest regrets we have is when we haven't given it our all. It's a lesson to give it our best. Whatever we're involved with, our best should be given. You can feel good after you've given your best, no matter the outcome.

Things don’t grow without a lot of care. Care can mean different things based on the situation. But if you want to grow anything, you have to care for it. When things aren’t cared for they go into disrepair. What you want to grow, you just invest in with much care. 

If you're not getting better, you are getting worse. It may be very slowly worse, but you're for sure getting worse. We have to continually be getting better or else we slip backwards. It's part of being human always having to push forward and never being able to successfully rest on our achievements.

The more honest you are the stronger you are. Dishonesty makes us weaker and less effective. Honesty can transform our world from something chaotic and unsure into something we can put our hands around and work with. This means honesty with ourselves and honesty with others too. Honesty in our actions and words. Honesty is the only policy. 

The best investments are in people not things or financial mechanisms.

Your attitude directs the outcome. Whether things go good or bad your attitude still shapes the real outcome. The worst outcome can be shaped by a great attitude. 

Sometimes the wind is at your back. Sometimes it’s in your face. Running into the wind isn’t an enjoyable experience but there’s value in it. There’s value when things go our way but also when they go against us.