My Riffs

We're facing the end of the year. I think it's more important how you finish something than start it. Starting it clearly necessary, but how you end is more important. You don't have to finish strong or finish with a bang. But you need to get there. However you can. Limp, crawl, run or jump. Just get there. If you're here at the end of the year and it's been difficult, just finish. It's not about being swift always. It's about getting there. The journey is what matters. Journey on and be proud you're still journeying.  

You may have received a gift for Christmas this year. What made the gift special? The gift or the giver? Most likely the giver. Sure the gift is special, but mostly because of who gave it to you. That’s really what to be grateful for, the giver. 

Courage takes many different forms. Courage for one person may not be courage for another. Do what is courageous for you. Don’t worry about other peoples courage. Be courageous for you and you’ll grow in more ways that you will even be aware of in the moment. 

You can see a lot. But what will you do with what you’ve taken in? Will you use it to better yourself? Will you challenge yourself? Will you be full of more gratitude? The things around us and available to see can make us better people if we use them. 

Getting hyped up for a big day is somewhat easy. But how is the energy on the day after? How’s the resolve on the day after? It’s what we do with the big days that matters. 

Merry Christmas to everyone! Wishing the best on this day and the coming year for all. 

It’s Christmas Eve and a reminder that great things start small and humble. Humble and small beginnings are a great place to be. Launching into greatness takes a strong and foundational basis. 

Be grateful. You could easily have less. Be grateful for what you have. 

Not all chaos is bad. Sometimes having fun looks like chaos. And even when chaos happens, order eventually comes from it. Or even a reordering can happen, which is a good thing.

If you need to have a hard conversation, it won’t get easier by delaying it. Chances are it’s already past due. It’s better to have difficult conversations sooner than later. The problem usually grows, not shrinks. 

In life there will be many doors or opportunities present themselves. We have to learn wisdom to know which ones to go through. Not every opportunity is something we should take advantage of. Some opportunities are distractions. It's okay to say no. 

People deserve the best you. Get yourself to a place where you’re operating as the best version of yourself. That’s when you can be of maximum help to others. 

Life is way too short to hate what you’re doing. We all have tasks and responsibilities we may not love doing. That’s just part of life. But if we really hate the things we’re doing, it must change. There’s room for lots of enjoyment in life. If you’re doing something you don’t like and it doesn’t result in good results, you need to reevaluate what you’re doing. If you’re doing something you don’t like but it produces good results, it’s likely worth it. 

If you have peace you have one of the most valuable things there is. Find peace and keep it if at all possible. Don’t let insignificant things steal your peace. 

There’s more enjoyment in helping others than doing something for yourself. Yes, we need to take care of ourselves to help others. But true enjoyment comes when we help others and put ourselves last. 

If you have to force something, there's something wrong. Force is something that should rarely be used, and should only be used with extreme wisdom. Because things break with too much force. It's better to inspire when possible.

You can learn a lot from an honest, true friend. But you can learn a lot from a foe too. You learn about yourself. You learn about how patient you are. You may learn how vengeful you tend to be. We learn more from challenges and low times rather than high times. So if you're dealing with a difficult person or people, there may lessons to be learned.

Hope is something we can have when everything else is lost. We can always cling to hope. Without hope we effectively have nothing.

If there’s no maintenance it will eventually fall into disrepair. A lot of life is maintaining what we have. And that’s okay. It’s easier to maintain than repair. 

When you’ve left your best out there, hold your head high. That’s all that can be done and it’s the best possible outcome. Once your best has been given, you can live with the outcome. Give your best and forget about the rest. 

Life is about moments. Be present. Life will slip right past you if you don’t slow down and grasp the moments you’re given.

Show up. Be present. Shrinking back doesn’t help you or anyone else. 

What is impressive is how big of a circle you can draw to include people. Being proud of how many you can keep out of your circle is a sign of a small mind. Draw big wide open circles and include as many people as you can. 

One of the best ways to learn is to read. Read things that stretch your knowledge. As you absorb new information you grow. 

Don’t out off tomorrow what can be done today. Tomorrow may not come. The opportunity may no longer be there tomorrow. Do it today. 

You can’t get all good. You have to take some bad to get good. You have to take some pain to get some joy. Strength comes through weakness. It’s can’t be just one, it’s a mixture. One thing bring another. 

Get above the situation to gain a better perspective. Looking up at it or across from it makes it seem larger. Getting above gives perspective. One of the best ways to get above is to get others view points. That helps you see from multiple views and that way you get a higher viewpoint.  

How much restraint can you show? You can test this by measuring how you can keep your mouth closed. The tongue is the most difficult thing to restrain. If you can master control over your words, you have mastered restraint.

So much to be thankful for that there’s no time to complain. 

If you’ve never been low you don’t know how to appreciate the higher moments in life. You can’t experience one without the other. Take the lows for what they are, use them to reach higher. 

Fighting rarely accomplishes what we want. It's not a good use of time and energy. Loving does much more.

The harder things you choose to do, the easier life gets. The easier things you choose to do, the harder life gets. 

Don’t seek controversy. Seek peace. Stirring up controversy doesn’t add to the world. But peacemaking does. 

Rest is critical. If you don’t stop to rest, eventually rest will choose you whether you like it or not. Rest often and you’ll go longer. 

 Failure is when you give up, not when you lose.

Good things don’t usually happen unless you plan on them. If you leave everything to chance or to others, there’s a good chance you will miss good things. So you have to go seize good things. 

You have to enjoy most of what you do in life. Or your life becomes miserable. There's certain things we all have to do that we don't enjoy. But if we're doing enough activities we enjoy, it makes it okay. Misery is doing things you dislike. Find things you love and enjoy and you will stave off misery.

You have to advocate for yourself, cause you can't rely on others to do it for you. Don't be obnoxious or boastful, but learn to advocate for yourself. People may not know unless you advocate for yourself.

Discipline is key. But there has to be enjoyment too. All discipline and no enjoyment is a recipe for misery and burnout. Find things to enjoy and learn to do them in moderation. 

Focus is one of the hardest things in modern times. The things that grab our focus most, often mean the least. The last temporal things grab our focus the most. The most lasting things seem to escape our attention. 

Growth is impossible without love. Fear and hate will inhibit or have the opposite effect of love. You want to grow, love. You want to see something else grow, pour in love!

You want to change the world? Start at home and be an example. That’s the most powerful thing you can do. 

Comparison is the thief of joy. The best comparison is to compare yourself against the best you. Don’t compare to other people. Compare to what you are capable of. Compare to what you are supposed to be. 

Trust is the foundational currency. Without trust there can be nothing built. Trust is something that has to be earned through time and experience. If you can build trust, you can build something great. Without trust you can’t build something great. 

What makes one rich? Meaningful relationships.  Health.  Wisdom. 

Health is a complex thing. Only when health is achieved in the major areas of life is one truly healthy. Imbalanced health isn’t true health. To achieve true health you must be healthy is multiple areas. 

Love has many looks. It looks like kindness. It looks like patience. It looks like preferring others. It looks like humble. There’s many ways to show your love and love looks a lot like self control and preferring others. 

Learn to laugh. When we laugh we feel better. Joy is strength. 

Faster isn’t always better. Usually faster means quality goes down. If it’s faster and quality stays high then it may be better. But better can be slower too. Slowing down and being present or slowing down and producing higher quality work can be better. 

We’ve been given a voice, but it only means something if we use it. And use it with wisdom, your voice won’t help people if you don’t use it with love. 

When you work, do work as if everyone is going to see it. Don’t do work as if it’s never to be seen. The goal isn’t for it to be seen but to produce quality that should be seen. Do quality work! That in itself is the reward. 

There’s a bad side to everyone. If we don’t keep that side in check, we are capable of being someone we aren’t proud of. There is a war inside everyone and we get to decide which side wins. If you sense the bad side creeping up, don’t give it an inch. Clamp down on it immediately. Stifle it. Extinguish it immediately. 

Find things in life to be able to laugh about. Laughter is the best medicine. There's enough sad and heavy things that we could always be down. So we have to choose to elevate ourselves. A great way of elevating yourself it to laugh!

Today is the first day of a new month. It’s a reminder you can turn the page on a previous chapter just that easily. A wise person will learn that you don’t have to wait for a calendar date to turn the page. You can turn it anytime you need and move forward. Dwelling on the past has little value. Move forward and strive upward. 

Always be preparing. Don’t live in fear, but always be preparing for things to change and things to go wrong. It’s gonna happen, be as prepared as possible without living paranoid. 

If at first you don’t succeed, try again and again. Success comes to those who try again and don’t give up. 

 Communication requires what you're saying to be heard. Or else it doesn't count as communication unfortunately. It's on the speaker to get their message delivered. Of course there's circumstances where a recipient refuses, but other than that blatant type of disregard, it's all on the communicator to get their message across.

Smooth seas never made a good sailor, or something similar is the saying. The storms of life make us into better sailors. The storms are gonna come, so may as well use them to get better.

Living for yourself is the most extreme form of shallowness there is. The more you do to help others the more depth you have in life. 

Celebrate the little things and the little wins. Don’t overlook all the good small things that happen. It’s worth acknowledging them as it builds gratitude. 

Today was only successful if you showed love and touched somebody. Everything else we do should be a foundation to love and serve from. 

Change! And keep changing! Being set in your ways is no sign of strength or wisdom. Holding to your morals and values is wisdom and strength, but refusing to change is nothing but a sign of weakness and fear. So change and dong stop changing!

Life feels like highs and lows. It feels like fun times and painful times. The thing is, we need to know both sides of good and bad to appreciate the good. If things were always good, we wouldn’t appreciate them. So life is both sides. When things are good, appreciate it! When things are bad, breathe in deep because you’re living life and it will get better! Don’t get too high or too low because it will wear you out riding the ebbs and flows of life. As much as you’re able to, keep an even keel. 

It's hard for some people to say no. But every no means a yes to something else. So saying no means we can be better in the areas that are important to us. Learn to say no and how do it with grace.

We have to know what refuels us. It's important to go to those things that truly refuel us. Not bad distractions, but true things that refill us and make us better.

Pace yourself, if you don’t you’ll hit exhaustion. Proper pace is necessary for longevity. 

Gratitude is like exercise. There’s so many benefits it’s not easy to summarize the benefits down to just one thing. There’s so many benefits to gratitude that a life without is one devoid of much of its worth. 

Some days your best has to be enough. Some days your best is not as good as others. But if you give your best consistently it will be enough! Don’t ever give less than your best. 

Sometimes you have to push people. But more often it’s better to pull them with purpose. 

Going through something hard? There’s gold to be found. It may be nearly impossible to fathom it, but be assured there’s gold somewhere. Keep digging and searching. 

We can learn to live with our dysfunction. But it’s no way to live. Be better than that. Don’t allow yourself to learn to live with unnecessary burdens. Drop them and be better. It may initially be harder but it will be worth it. 

Stand for truth unwavering. Because no matter what comes, truth will eventually prevail. 

Your words are given to build people up. Don't waist a single breath using your words to tear someone down. Only build people up. There's never a time where your energy is better used destroying rather than building. Build, build and build. There's enough destroyers out there.

Hate is too heavy of a burden to carry. Life is also too short to carry hate. You'll be done wrong in life. It will happen but you don't have to shoulder the burden of hate, that's optional.

Listeners can accomplish as much or more than talkers. Words are ever so important, but if someone isn’t hearing the words it doesn’t matter. And many people simply need to be heard. 

Helping people is a nuanced thing. Sometimes you need to carry them. Sometimes you need to lead them to water. Sometimes you need to teach them to fish, but sometimes you need make a meal for them. A sharp EQ helps us clarify needs. Increasing our EQ makes us much better equipped to help others. 

Everyone has boundaries, at some point. The better we maintain them the better we are, provided they’re healthy boundaries. Rebuilding boundaries are harder than building them to start. Sometimes you have to fail at boundaries to learn they’re important. But once the lesson is learned, put up boundaries and enforce them. A city without borders isn’t a city. A person without borders is a disaster waiting to happen. 

Many things can be renewed. Sometimes we pronounce something done or useless before it's time. We may even tend to the same behaviours with people. But so many things can be made new. Many things can be regenerated or restored. Before throwing something or someone on the junk pile, maybe think about restoration.

Someone is looking to you. And if they’re not looking now, someone will be at some point. Be the best you and be what other people need, that’s the path to fulfilment and purpose. 

You're gonna have to trust someone. You can't go through life not trusting anyone. Life will be much harder for you if don't trust. Trust is earned, but you still need to trust some people.

Build bridges. You can always abandon them if you need. But you never know when you may need to cross something, so the more bridges you have, the better. You can't cross every river or gap on your own. Connect with as many people as you can to build as many bridges as possible.

There's little value in looking back. One of the better uses of looking back is simply to find more gratitude for where you are. But there's little use in looking back because there's nothing to change back there. Looking ahead is where the actionable life is. Looking back at accomplishments doesn't even provide much value because we still have to strive forward even after accomplishments. Looking back will only cause us to trip. Look up and look ahead.

Learn to turn the page. The longer you’re hung up on the past the longer it takes to move forward. There’s opportunity cost when you don’t move forward. You miss out on future opportunities when you stay stuck on the past. Turn the page, move forward and forget the past. 

If something is in disrepair, fix it. Don’t leave things in disrepair. It will beg for more disrepair. If you fix the little things, you should avoid big things breaking. Big breaks usually come after smaller things have been left in disrepair. 

Progress is uncomfortable. If it was comfortable it wouldn’t progress. You have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Then you can move forward. 

Emotions make a horrible masters but are good servants. We’re given emotions for good reasons. But when emotions take the role of our master, it sets things backwards. We drive our emotions, not the other way around.  

Your emotions are to inform you. But not drive you. Emotions inform you of deeper information, but shouldn’t have their hands in the wheel. They’re informational not directional. 

Stand firm for the things that you believe in. Be flexible in the things that aren’t as important. Digging in on things that don’t matter doesn’t make you a better person. Learning to be flexible but also standing firm is maturity. 

Dream! Day dream! It's important to dream. Don't allow fear to stop you from dreaming.

Appreciate what you have. It's not guaranteed you will always have it. So appreciate it while you have it.

It’s better to fan the flames of a small spark than trying to ignite a wet blanket. If you see something good in someone, fan that! Don’t try and make them do something if you see a spark. Use your energy to fan that spark and have it grow!

Build people up. They don’t need you to tear them down. People usually know where they’re wrong, they’re looking for someone to build them up so they have the strength to change. 

Always be kind. Even when you have to be firm, be kind. That doesn’t me getting trampled on though. Be kind but don’t allow yourself to be used or abused. 

We waste too much… time on social media. Energy on perceived wrongs. What we don’t have. The past. What might go wrong. All these things rob us of the here and now. Be very selfish over your energy and time. Don’t sink it into things that don’t matter. 

It’s the opportunities we don’t take that we will regret more than anything. Don’t skip on opportunities. They turn into your biggest regrets. 

Honesty is truly the best policy. I’ve learned though that honesty isn’t simply “not lying”. Honesty means sharing what you need to share. Being dishonest can look like being silent sometimes. To be honest often means speaking up and speaking out. Always with love and kindness though. True honesty is served best with love. 

Some things can spiral out of control fast. Recognize them and react fast and early before they get out of control. Wisdom is knowing when to react fast and when to go slow. 

Tough situations will prove a lot. They will expose what we’re made of. Tough situations have a way of bringing out either the best or worst in us. Who we are and what we’ve been working on inside is who we become in tough times. Do the inner work long before the tough time and you’ll get through it and be better for it. 

One of the worst things about the digital world is we lose sight of what's actually important in life. What takes place on the screens in front of us feels all so important, but in reality it's not. The digital world makes our lives better in many areas, but we have to be careful because in the areas it makes out life worse, it makes our lives much worse.

You will find time for the things that are important to you. So review where you spend your time and you’ll learn a lot about your values. 

Help, but don’t enable. If you’re enabling dysfunction, then you’re not helping. Help those who can’t help themselves. Help those who aren’t strong enough to do it on their own. Help those you love who just need a kind gesture. Just don’t enable bad behaviour with your help. 

Laughter is known as the best medicine, and it very well may be. But it may be the connection and friendship that really is the best medicine. So create deep connections and that may be the real best medicine ever. 

Use your words to build. Don't waste words to tear down. Don't' waste words at all. Use your words to build people up. Even if something needs to be said that's unpleasant, you can still build.

Prepare. You don’t have to over prepare, but if you know something is coming, it’s necessary to prepare. It’s negligent to not prepare. People who succeed are usually prepared. 

It’s so easy to just give things the minimal effort. But what if we started giving our best in more things? Just giving it a better effort in some small things. Maybe mundane things. But if we have them just a better effort we may have a bigger effect than we realize. 

Minimize the unnecessary but expand the necessary. Relationships are necessary. Stuff isn’t necessary. Expand the people you know and minimize the stuff you accumulate. 

You get to decide. We have to train ourselves that our impulses, our weaknesses don’t get to decide. We get to. If we follow our impulses we have little strength. But when you decide what you’re going to do, you build strength.  

We need wisdom when we speak. But we also cannot hold things inside too much or too long. Holding things inside is only a delay and magnification process. There has to be some form of processing or letting out. Find someone safe to talk to. Find a safe way to get your thoughts and feelings out. Suppressing them doesn't work.