My Riffs

All humans need accountability. The people that reject accountability end up in horrible places. The people who accept accountability will become better people. Much better people.

We all probably have a huge stack of tasks that we should do, but are avoiding. The thing is, avoidance doesn’t seem to remove the task or issue. Generally, it makes them grow. Avoidance is a terrible tactic.

Companies that sell stock will regularly take inventory and count what they have and adjust any discrepancies. It would be a good practice for us to do the same in our own personal lives. Take stock of what we have (not just money but in relationships and true things of value) and see what we can maybe do less of. You'll find you probably need to adjust. Things like more time with friends and less time on social media. Yes, I'm guilty. The more often you inventory the less far out of line you'll get.

You're either contributing to the problem or the solution. There is one good way to know if you're contributing to the problem or the solution. That being, if you're contributing love. If you're contributing love, you are not part of the problem.

Ego happens when confidence goes too far. Ego is always misplaced confidence. Confidence is necessary, but carries the risk of turning into self destructive ego. Ego destroys ourselves first, then those closest to us. Ego has different manifestations, but the same end. Curb your confidence and keep it in check.

What’s your pet peeve? I’m sure we all have an answer readily available. We’ve somehow made pet peeves acceptable, as long as they’re termed just that way. But pet peeves aren’t a free pass. If you have a pet peeve (or pet peeves) you’ve likely uncovered something that needs to be fixed. Don’t let yourself off the hook by calling it a pet peeve.

I'm holding stresses, hurts and burdens I don't need to. For some crazy reason, I am voluntarily holding onto them. While I'm holding onto unnecessary things, I don't have room to hold more valuable things. It's easy to get this backwards. We hold onto insignificant things, or things we can't control as if they're ours. But we do it at the cost of letting go of more important things. Things like our future, what we already have and those who are most important to us. Take close inventory of what you're holding. Learn to let go of what isn't needed, and pickup the more important things. Let go and then hold on.

The Smith's are on vacation again... The Jones' have a new car... Sally got a new job... Social media provides us scripted looks into so many other peoples lives. Do we spend the same amount of time pouring over our own lives? Not the feeling sorry for ourselves kind of pouring over it, but the investing and improving kind of time? We can spend the time peering into perfectly constructed windows of peoples lives (or at least highly filtered windows) or we can spend our efforts and energy into improving our own lives and situations. It's hard to do things in our own life when we're preoccupied with peering into the windows of everyone else's lives. Peer if you want, but don't be preoccupied and miss what's going on in your own life.

Time. . . . . . . . . . . . . What are you doing with yours?

What we eat is actually very important for our health, both physically and mentally. The same came be said though for non-food diets. What we feed will grow and demand more. If you feed laziness, it will grow and grow. If you feed negativity, it will grow and demand more negativity. If you feed your desire for junk food (junk music, literature, video) it will grow and demand more. So it's just as important to be careful what actions, thoughts and tendencies we feed. They will grow. Feed the positive thoughts and actions; starve the negative or potentially dangerous. What you feed will demand more and grow accordingly.

What do you take time for? Or said another way, what do you make time for? The answer(s) to that question reveals a whole lot about your priorities and where you're heading.

When you have been done wrong (and we all have been and will be) do you make them pay? The tendency is to make them pay for doing us wrong. But does extracting "payment" even the score? It's safe to say that is doesn't. It makes both parties lose. If we can resist the urge to make them pay, we can turn a negative into a positive. Making them pay increases the negative.

There comes times in life where the only reason you do something is simply because it's the right thing to do. And that's fine.  Sometimes things get tough and doing the wrong thing is a temporary easy escape. But it's not the right choice, ever. So you do what you have to do, simply because it's the right thing to do. That will keep you and pay with long term results. Set things into proper order by doing what's right. The more you do this the more things around you will fall into their proper place.

Environment can aid or hamper development. Some children grow into adults lacking in key areas, all because their environment wasn't one where they fully developed. You do see circumstances where people are given a good environment and they don't develop. Or the opposite situation where someone in a bad environment grows into a well developed adult. Leaders need to be conscious of the environment they are creating, for leaders are responsible for the environment. Environment is set by the leaders.

The greatest question to answer persistently is "why?". Our motives can get out of line so quickly. Constant examination of our motives is required to keep them in line. A persistent question we must always be asking ourselves is, "why am I doing this?". If we're honest and examine our motives, we won't end up off track and doing things for the wrong reasons. Wrong motivations is a sure way to short circuit your efforts and success. (real success that is) Life is short and time is too precious to be doing things for the wrong reasons and motives. Only the best and purest motives can accomplish the great. Today, why am I...? - Blogging - Working - Building relationships - Communicating - Participating in certain activities A wise mentor often says, "live deliberately".

In my limited experience of how the world operates, challenging the status quo seems to be one of the very most taboo subjects or activities and often is the elephant in the room that nobody is willing to discuss. ( I just wrote a post about how the elephants in the room can destroy relationships ) This causes people to end up subscribing or forcing subscription to status quos that may no longer be serving their purpose. Not understanding the status quo can go so far as to have the opposite effect of the intended status quo. I propose that status quos need to be examined/challenged, and the need increases as they age. The older a status quo gets, the more fuzzy it's reason for existence. What if the status quos remain unexamined and unexplained? I see a couple outcomes. 1) Toxicity seeps in and slowly kills. 2) Explosive conflict. Neither result is great. Occasionally examining status quos and reviewing their reason for existence would do at least two things: 1) Remove ...

Today's post is super late. And I don't have a really good thought (not that any of the previous throughs were good :). Sometimes the most important thing is simply showing up. A lot of life can be mundane and kind of ordinary. So there are a lot of times where showing up is enough. Sometimes showing up is all you gotta do. And that's okay.

Many things will distract from todays mission. The unimportant things could weigh us down and cause us difficulty in accomplishing the important. Noise, alerts, news and tasks will all jump up and want our attention. The unimportant things can be ignored though, if we are to accomplish the important.

We will fight so hard to prove ourselves "right" and thus proving someone or something else "wrong". But I think the important thing is less about being right or wrong, but rather about being "true". True to ourselves. True to our core values. True to our vision and dreams. True to those dependant on us. If you're working at being "true", being "right' or "wrong" is less important.

What is your motivator? Like what really is the driving force behind everything you do? To become famous? To become rich? To survive another day? To change the world? To raise your children to the fullest potential? To work in order to effect change? Your underlying motivator will dictate a couple things. 1. Where you are heading (obviously). 2. If it leads to disappointment. What determines the end result of your motivator is, if your motivated by yourself or by others. The point here is, if you're living for your own self, to figure out how to benefit and make yourself great, there will ultimately be disappointment. Some of the richest, most famous people in the world are the most lonely and dissatisfied. But if you're living for others, there is much satisfaction to be had as you realize your successes. It's never too late to adjust your motivation. Adjust to work towards external things, rather than focus on building yourself up. Of course it takes...