My Riffs

Trust isn’t something that can be purchased or demanded. Trust costs so much more. Usually trust is earned little by little over much time. It can be lost in a moment. Be careful about breaking trust, it may never be rebuilt. Trust is worth more than anything else, so don’t trade anything for trust. 

Sometimes we abandon something too early. It could be laziness or it could be weariness. But if you stick with it, it may just succeed. Don’t stay on a sinking ship, but don’t abandon one that hasn’t landed somewhere important just yet. Stay with something until you know!

Patience pays. As long as it doesn’t turn into procrastination. Also, being patient with things that need to be changed or fixed isn’t a good thing. Patience is for things that need to grow, mature or change but you can’t speed up or change the process. Or if you did it would ruin it. So be patient in things you can’t change, it will pay. But don’t procrastinate when you can change things. 

You may have more influence than you think. We may think we have little influence, but we actually have influence by how we conduct ourselves. If we become a good, strong person we influence people around us simply by being a better person. So you can change and effect other people by being the best yourself.

Today is all you have. Tomorrow isn’t a promise. Do today all you can do. Don’t assume you can do it tomorrow. Take care of it today. Make the phone call. Start the new opportunity. Make things right. Don’t do it tomorrow. 

You need a model. We all are reflecting a model whether we know it nor not. Choose a good role model to reflect. If  you don’t have a good model to emulate, you’ll likely sink to the lowest models you’ve had. So aim high and choose a good role model. 

Petty things have a way of getting into our heads and taking over. If you give pettiness a place to gain foothold, it will move in and take over. Pettiness has to be kicked out. Make no room for petty things. The great ones have learned to rebuff the petty and focus on the critical things of life. 

If you make small changes and improvements every single day, they will add up to major changes eventually. You can shoot for the stars, but don't try and jump there all at once. Just take one step upward. Patience is key. Small but sustainable habits and improvements is what it takes. Be in it for the long game. Don't grow weary. Get better bit by bit.

We need rules. The problem is, there's an exception to every rule. So rules need to be kept. But some rules should be broken. As you get wiser, you learn which is which and you get it wrong less often. 

The heaviest things we carry are unnecessary baggage. Hatred, resentment, negativity, they’re all heavy burdens to carry. They’re easy to lift but hard to carry. Joy, peace and gratitude may be a heavy lift but they’re an easy carry. 

What's your tone? Are you a criticizer or an encourager? Do you build or destroy? We develop a tone that matches our primary thoughts. Do we think less or people and look down on them or do we look at each person as important and unique? Examine your tone and adjust your heart to what it needs to be. 

Devices control our attention. We miss so much. We miss so much with the ones who are the most important to pay attention to things that are almost non-important.

The person we lie to the most is ourselves. And we believe the lies we tell ourselves. Because we don’t practice intellectual honesty, we lie to ourselves unchecked. Hold yourself accountable for every thing you tell yourself. Fact check yourself. Don’t lie to yourself. 

It’s the day after Valentine’s Day. Are you still being just as kind and loving? Make everyday a day to show as much love as possible. 

Give more than you take. Taking actually drains us. Giving recharges us. 

Show love in a way that they will understand. Not everyone understands love the same way. There’s love languages with much nuance in language. So show love and be thoughtful about it so you speak their love language. 

People can quickly decipher if you care. If you don't care, your actions won't carry much meaning. The meaning will be equal to how much you care. If you don't care about it, don't invest. People will know your heart is missing. 

Do the most when the least is expected. Don’t do the most when doing more than the least doesn’t beat more results. Go above and beyond, but don’t be wasteful. Don’t go above and beyond for those who you are enabling. Don’t do the most for those who are only willing to do the least. 

Encourage someone. There’s too much criticism happening. You want good things to happen? Try encouragement instead of criticism. Criticism usually belittles people. Encouragement builds them up and gives them motivation. 

Make the things you save by good things. Don't save the negative and bad things. Life will have enough negativity in store for you. There's no need to save the bad things. Save up the good, you will need it down the road.

A good way to learn is to teach. So learn what you can, then teach it. You’ll learn double!

My five year old son's favourite question is, "where we going?"' And I think there may be no better question. How often do we actually ask ourself where we're going? Do we know where we're going for real? Or do we float somewhat aimlessly down the stream of life? It's good to constantly ask ourself where we're heading and then course correct for where we want to be going. So where are you going?

Don't sacrifice being love for being right. We don't have to always be right. Truth will prevail eventually and love always prevails. So if you have to choose, choose love.

In your relationships seek for quality. Meaningful relationships won’t happen without quality. Quantity can’t replace quality. 

Courage isn’t always bold and loud. Some of the most courageous people are simply the ones who show up. You never know what someone is dealing with so be grateful to those who show up. 

You may not make friends being a truth teller but you aren’t a true friend unless you’re telling the truth. Served with love the truth can be powerful.