My Riffs

Don't quit. Readjust? Yes. Pause? Yes. But don't plain quit. Quitting means stopping with no plan, no goal, no strategy. Making a mistake isn't a failure. Quitting is.

Not all wins have to look like big, dramatic finishes.  A win can be simple and small. You keep piling up small wins and that’s how you do great things.  Little by little leveling up and doing the right thing will get you further than a single big win. 

Get as many wins as early as possible. Small wins count.  Start with winning and you’ll set the path in a good direction.  Yes, finishing strong is important too. But if you start with wins, you can finish strong even easier. 

Winning doesn’t actually look like a big bank account, fame or corporate success.  Really true winning looks like a healthy body and mind.  Purpose.  Great quality relationships. Peace.  That’s truly winning.  Set your sights on that type of success. 

Celebrate wins. Any win. Celebrate it. We accomplish more by positive reinforcement than criticism. Celebrate, then repeat. 

If at first you don’t succeed, try again and again. Success comes to those who try again and don’t give up. 

To persevere when things get difficult. Thats what separates winners from quitters. Quitters look for a reason to stop, winners find a way. Perseverance is a quality that sets apart successful from unsuccessful. 

You don’t know if it’s gonna work until you try it. You can hypothesize about something until you’re weary, and still be no closer to a solution. Sometimes just trying something is better than being in limbo. Try something, if it doesn’t work, adjust. We’re so fearful of failure that we so often don’t try. 

Failure isn’t the same thing as a mistake. Mistakes or even unfortunate events don’t equal failure. Failure is when you give up when you shouldn’t. Switching lanes or pivoting isn’t failure. It’s wisdom. How you fail is simply to stop trying. 

We can only hold so much. But we really don’t like letting go do we? We may suspect we can hold something better but we are too scared to let go of what we’re already holding. Oftentimes we choose what we know over what we could be. Fear of letting go holds too many back from great destiny's. 

Success is never done alone. It’s always done with the help of friends, family and community. This highlights the importance of developing good relationships. Our success depends on the people we have surrounded ourselves with. And their success will depend on us behind the best we can be. 

There's no thriving when you're just surviving. At some point you have to move from survival to thriving. Survival mode can only last so long. Survival mode isn't sustainable indefinitely. Move from surviving to thriving.

The things were tempted to be proud of usually are the wrong things. We're proud of our accomplishments in work or school (and we really should be), but we should be more proud of the people and lives we've touched and effected. Those are accomplishments to be truly proud of. Any temporal accomplishment will fade fast, and any lives touched will live on.

The better definition of success is how you make others better. Success that only elevates us isn't truly success, it's selfishness.

You can succeed from anywhere. That doesn’t mean you can stay where you are and succeed but you can start from where you are. No place is too bad as a starting place to succeed. 

Plan to win. Don’t plan to fail. Plan b’s and c’s are good. But plan to win. You don’t end up winning by accident. You win by being deliberate. 

If you allow yourself to have low standards you lower your ceiling. Expect the best of and for yourself. Don't settle for lower than what you're capable of.

Today I was reminded how important failure it. We often see a setback or missed target as a failure. But failure is found when we're parlayed by fear or allow mistakes to escalate. But really, to succeed we can use failure. Failure can be used to launch us to success. There's no path to success that isn't difficult and that doesn't have setbacks.  Failure can be a great motivator. And when it's a motivator it's no longer a failure, it's only a setback.

Your best is enough. And if it’s not, that’s where having a solid crew back you up is important. 

I saw a graphic today that showed success depicted in two ways.  The first way was a circle split in half with one half called job title and the other salary. This is how we typically are taught success is measured. But it’s a shallow measurement as money and status doesn’t buy happiness or success.  The second depiction was made up of things like mental health, physical health, free time, salary, etc. A much more balanced view on success.  Getting caught up in rat races seems often to be how people chase success. Yet, success is found in slower lanes of life. Family, friends, doing things you enjoy, having purpose, etc.