My Riffs

The saying says put your best foot forward.  If you’ve done that, rest in that. No need to ruminate after you’ve done your best. Because that’s the best possible outcome. Giving your best is the best possible outcome. Rest in that and move forward.  What ifs don’t net any benefit. A good debrief is valuable sure, but playing the what if game doesn’t.  Put your best foot forward. Then don’t look back, put your next best foot forward. 

If I woke up this morning, I’m blessed. The rest is just opportunity. Bad times? Opportunity. Endings? Opportunity. Good times? Still opportunity. 

Comfort isn’t entirely a good thing. Momentary comfort is good and maybe even necessary. Sleeping comfortable every night is a blessing and a luxury. But living in a state of comfort? That’s an invitation to decline.  Do things that push you out and past that comfort zone. Therein lies the albeit hard but better path to bettering yourself and making a greater impact. 

To get better you need to lose some part of yourself. You have to get tired of a certain part of yourself and leave it behind. Often we don't truly want to leave behind those parts. They have become comfortable and accepted. When we truly are tired of those parts we can move ahead. We have to be willing to truly make a change though. In a way, we have to let part of us die to make way for something new to be born.

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. 

When I get better, you get better.  We can lift each other up and we can drag each other down.  Get better and others get better.  Surround yourself with those that are getting better. 

We're all becoming someone and something. Every day. I'm not the same person I was yesterday. I'm being formed and changed daily.  There's only two options too. You're either becoming a better person or a worse one. There's no neutral. Am I more patient, kind, forgiving and loving today? If the answer is yes than I just may be becoming a better person. If you can answer yes over a sustained period of time than you for sure are becoming a better person.

A new page is only ever a quick flip away.  A change of one day. Or a change of one hour or one minute.  We don’t have to wait for big changes to flip to a new page.  It just takes one small action to start a new page. Usually you can decide when you’d like it to happen. 

To become our best we have to keep getting better.  To get better we have to be honest and accept constructive criticism.  To get better we have to be humble.  To get better we have to be willing to work hard.  So becoming our best means taking step after step of getting better. Tomorrow do something that makes you better. 

Be your best. Not their best. Be your best. Your best looks different from others. Level up to your best. Others can help challenge you to be your best, but make sure it’s you best, not what they want for them. 

Ben Franklin said to search for others virtues but for yourself search for your vices. Be generous and patient with other people but hold yourself to the highest practical standard. Don’t worry about the problem in someone else when you yourself have unresolved problems. Search for the good in others. Search yourself for areas to improve in. 

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.

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. 

How do you improve? Lots of small but repeatable good habits. Some situations call for large scale changes. But to make improvement sustainable it has to be small and repeatable. Incremental changes are long lasting changes. 

Our brains need to be trained. They are like a muscle, they need exercise and challenges to stay strong and get better. Do things that challenge your brain. That means things like puzzles, but also things like forgiving and showing mercy. Train your brain to find the good. Train your brain to see the other side. Train it and keep training because it will become who you are. Once it becomes who you are it will still require training, but it will be more natural to accept the things you trained it to do.

How to get better doesn't always require big things. Lots of little things add up to better. Lots of little habits. Lots of little improvements. Lots of little filtering out. Get better little by little. Big changes are needed sometimes, but for long-term, sustainable growth, little by little is the way to go.

You can’t change other people. But the best way to change other people is to change yourself. When you change yourself you make other people come to a decision. Your actions matter, so when you make positive changes, others around you will be presented the opportunity to change themselves too. 

Many irritants show weaknesses in ourselves. We like to blame the irritant, but many times it's actually our weakness or our vulnerability showing. Paying attention to these spots can allow us to work on them and become stronger. 

What’s pushing you? What’s driving you? One of the best purposes to be pushing you is the drive to be your best. Everybody has a best. And everyone’s best looks a bit different. But when being your best is a driving force it will push you to be better than almost any other motivating factor could. 

One of the best way to change is to change your inputs. What you read. What you listen to. What you watch. And very importantly who you surround yourself with as they will be inputting into you.