My Riffs

Real power is love. Hate can do lots of damage, but the more powerful thing is love. 

Leave everyone a bit better than you found them.  Say something nice. Do something nice.  Just do something small to make their day better.  That’s how you make the world a better place. 

Focus can be your best friend. Focus can help you accomplish a whole lot more in a shorter amount of time. However, focus is a scarce commodity today. Our attention spans are attuned to a few seconds at the most. It takes practice and discipline to strengthen your focus muscles beyond that couple seconds and truly focus on one task.

Make hay while it’s day.  Slacking off will cost you when the sun goes down. 

A good speech leads to action. Speech alone doesn’t mean much. Words can be cheap. But words can compel people to action.  Refine your speech. Speak truth in kindness. Speak life and positivity. It will cause positive action. 

Find friends. Find great friends.  Great friends will make you better be association. Spend time with them. Talk with them. Observe how they handle things.  

Save the fight to fight things that matter.  Fight laziness in yourself. Fight to provide for your family. Fight for justice. Fight for the person who can’t defend themselves.  Don’t fight social media battles. Don’t fight political battles. Fight for your family. 

Experiences really are the best when you can share them with someone else.  Some experiences have to be solo. But the best memories and experiences are things you’ve done family, friends and the ones you love.  

Work hard. Go the extra mile.  Don’t shortcut.  Do quality work.  Don’t allow laziness to settle in. 

Even on days that aren’t great, we can find so many blessings. One, two or a few things going wrong can’t outweigh all the good things.  Always keep focused on the good things. That will help soften the days when things may not go the best. 

Quality of life is directly proportional to quality of relationships.  Money isn’t proportional. Fame isn’t proportional. Possessions aren’t proportional.  Only relationships are. 

Don’t be a weight. Don’t be a downer. Be a lifter.  Lift people. Elevate situations. Provide value. Don’t drain. 

We only have right here right now. But that doesn’t mean we live only for the here and now.  We live for the future.  We live to make things better for tomorrow. For our children.  Living in anxiety about tomorrow is a waste of energy.  But living in the present to prepare for a better tomorrow if the best way. 

Don’t leave it to others to make it happen for you.  But also don’t think you can do it by yourself. We all need help. At some point you’ll need some help. Sure you can do things by yourself, but if you’re doing something great at some point you’ll need help. 

It’s Valentines and the day we designate for love.  If you haven’t been showing love prior to today though, today’s showing of love will be shallow. If it’s an outflow of true love it will make its mark. 

You have to take good care of yourself.  If you don’t, you won’t be able to take care of others.  So keep yourself healthy and strong, so you can be what other people need when they’re not healthy and strong. 

Getting ahead and getting out in front of something gives you a huge advantage.  Getting started is more important than making the perfect plan. Get started and adjust. Waiting for the perfect plan may set you too far behind to catch up. 

If you really want to learn, teach.  Teaching means you have to truly know. You can’t teach what you don’t know. 

It’s a noisy, noisy world. There’s very little place for quiet. There’s little place for solitude and contemplation. We don’t look inward. We look outside for validation and get it in echo chambers. We seek out those who agree with us and feed our egos. Discomfort is something we avoid at all costs. Silence is uncomfortable. But in the uncomfortable is where the gold is. The rest only holds fools gold.  Slow down and think. Slow down and dig deep.  Check your assumptions.  Be open to changing your mind.  Do the hard work.  That’s where the real important stuff happens. 

One lesson I’ve learned as a parent is kids will learns far more from my actions and behaviour than what I say.  What matters most is the example I’m setting. My words matter, but what’s being caught is what my behaviour says. 

It could change fast. Hold onto hope.  If something is out of your control, hold onto hope. Sometimes things change in an instant. Hope. 

It’s worth celebrating so many things. Life has so many gifts and wonderful things; take the time to celebrate them!

Your connections are your real value.  Strengthen your connections and strengthen your life. 

Thank people! We need lots of help, be grateful.  It will inspire more help and pay it forward. 

Words are so very important. But only if they lead to action. So action is more important than words. Doing something is better than saying it. Doing something proves and does more than just saying things.

Sometimes you just have to start to get it done.  That sounds like a dumb statement, but so often we freeze trying to figure everything out first. Then we never get it done. We don’t always have to have the complete plan or the perfect one. Start, adjust and get it done. 

You attract what you are. Negative people tend to attract negative people. Same goes for positive people.  So if you want to have positive friends, be a positive person!

Travel and learn. You’ll learn more by experiencing new things in new places. If you want to expand you have to travel.