My Riffs

Incremental, steady progress is exponential over time.  Daily get better. Just small steps. But constant. Don’t let down. Only get better. Will some backwards progress happen? Absolutely! But the mission remains the same. Only steps forward. And small steps are okay. 

Sometimes we slip. But don’t allow yourself to slip twice. Step forward. Stepping forward is always the right response when things slip. 

There’s only growth or decline.  Don’t stop, that means decline. 

Keep pushing.  Don’t sit back and relax. At least not for long.  Sitting back means moving back. Push forward. 

It’s so easy to slip.  When we do well we tend to slip backwards.  Don’t let yourself slip. The progress you’ve made, don’t go backwards. Progress isn’t linear and sometimes we can’t help to go backwards or sideways. But don’t allow the trajectory to continue. Get back on track and aimed in the right direction asap.  If you’re slipping, aim forward and you’ll get there even if it’s two steps forward and one back. Keep aiming forward. 

Disappointed? Don’t stop.  Set backs? Don’t stop.  Plan changes? Don’t stop.  Criticism? Don’t stop.  A pause? Still don’t stop.  Barriers will come. But don’t let them stop you. Let the barrier be the way forward. 

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. 

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

It’s best to forget the past but remember where we came from. The past includes all the bad things that have happened. The past even includes accomplishments.  Yesterdays accomplishments shouldn’t occupy any of todays space, because it doesn’t do anything but slow us down. So forget the past. Remember where you came from so you can measure how far you’ve come. But keep your eye laser focused on where you’re going. 

So many situations we don't have control over and often we're left with less than ideal situations. Learning to make the best of situations is often the best way forward. We can spin our wheels being frustrated at situations, but once we decide to make the best of them, we can move forward. 

Sometimes we're a lot closer than we think. And sometimes it's something actually really small holding us back. My mom was trying to sew some clothes this weekend, but the sewing machine wasn't cooperating. After some investigation, it was the tiniest screw and tiniest little piece of metal that was making it unusable. 99.9% of the machine is working just fine but that .01 percent was enough to stop the whole thing from operating as it should. We ordered a replacement part and it will be in good working order in no time. But it got me thinking what small thing or things could I possibly change that could have big impacts in my life? Are there some habits or some lack or habits that we could adjust to make some big gains?

We see so much inadvertent judgement these days based on identity politics. What's sad is, the dream that Martin Luther King Jr. had about people being judged based on the content of their character, is still just a dream. We may have been closer in the past to realizing that dream but we're drifting away from that as a society. Everyone is being judged based on identity politics, rather than their character. This can only change if we change ourselves. If we start looking at people based on who they are rather than all the other factors people are judging by today.

Starting something is half the battle. It could be a walk a run, and New Years resolution. But keeping that in motion once the natural tendency to die off is much more difficult. Keeping momentum when you want to let down, let go or slow down is the hardest part. It's at these points when many quit. It's at these points when you need to dig in. If you leave something alone, it will slowly degrade. So to just stay the same,  you have work harder. The forces of nature are against you. But you can push through those forces.

You have to work harder to even stay the same. So if you’re gonna work harder, work a lot harder and get better. If you keep doing the exact same exercise, you're gonna peak, then decline. So to stay the same you have to work harder. Same goes for life. You slow down or let your guard down for a moment and you get into trouble.

You have to constantly update yourself or you become irrelevant. It may be as simple as keeping your knowledge updated. But also you need to keep you education updated, your health updated and your relationships updated. Update before you become extinct.

You rarely arrive somewhere by skipping. We want shortcuts and helicopter rides to places. But life doesn’t come with those options. Life works one step at a time. To get somewhere you just go through the steps. Shortcuts are actually rabbit trails. So take steps, one, two, three...

Things can get off to rocky starts. And it can impede overall progress. But if you finish well, the bad start won't even matter. It matters much more how you finish than how you start.

Disappointments usually lead to "what if" questions. It's natural. But dealing in "what if" questions of the past is an exercise in madness. You will drive yourself crazy if you deal in them for long. You will never have concrete answers to "what if" questions of the past. The good news is, you can ask "what if" questions about the future, even coming from disappointment. And those are productive questions. The "what if" questions concerning the future can be answered and they can change things. When those questions come, make sure to navigate them forward, not in reverse.

The past is over. It doesn't have to dictate today. So forgetting what previously has happened, what now? It's a different answer when you forget the past. And it's always a better answer.

The first step is often the most difficult. Business venture, new product, difficult conversation, starting a dreaded task... Once we get past the first step we often get the sense “we can do this”. But it’s stepping out into the unknown that is so extraordinarily challenging.