(Matthew 22:36-39)
So in order to love your neighbor you must love yourself. Your own love is the foundation that supports your love for your family and others. Love who you are.
2: Invest in Your future
Investments come in many forms. You should invest in education, your financial health and your community.
Invest in education as a life long endeavor. Education transforms us. In early America, slaves were forbidden to learn how to read or write. Why? Knowledge fed dissatisfaction and spawned unrest against the unjust system that held them.
Education can change ones circumstances no matter who you are. The desire to learn will help you become whatever you want to be.
Our state educational systems are set up so we can get a free public education. Anyone can get an education if they want one.
Traditional schools are not the only way to learn. There are fashion design schools, technical schools, vocational schools, church schools, charter schools, and apprenticeship programs. Current technology has developed many on-line opportunities as well. No one has to take the same path to learning.
We learn from daily activities. Children learn respect for others in the way they interact with their playmates. We all learn how to get along with others by participating in clubs, churches, and social organizations.
How many times have you said, “I didn’t know that?” and are truly amazed at what you just learned? That joy is yours for all of your life.
Epictetus the Greek philosopher, whose philosophy of Stoicism emphasized freedom, morality, and humanity said, “Only the educated are free.”
The educated are free to make choices that affect their daily lives.
The one constant in education is reading. Read everything you can to expand your horizons. I read that if you read a book a month on any one subject for three years you would become a world expert. I do not know if that is true but think of the possibilities! Reading transports you to faraway places - running of the bulls at Spain's annual festival of San Fermin in Pamplona (Navarre, Spain), sailing the seas with Captain Ahab, and exploring the Amazon jungle or the secrets of the Nile. Discover the world through newspapers, magazines, periodicals and books – fiction and nonfiction and on-line. Reading introduces and familiarizes you with issues that affect you and your future.
David Cox said. “If you can read and don’t, you are illiterate by choice.”
Next, secure your financial health. Sound financial decisions play a huge role in how you invest in your future. We live in a credit/consumer driven society that shouts – BUY NOW PAY LATER!! Growing up my grandmother used to tell us to save for what we wanted because it did not make sense paying any “carrying charges”. That was good advice that unfortunately I ignored. I was caught in that buy now cycle for years. I faithfully paid my creditors on time with minimal payments and was happy that I had “good credit”. I finally saw the light and eliminated my consumer debt. Get out of debt!!
Another crucial element in securing your financial health is to save a portion of your paycheck. Pay yourself each month just like paying a bill. It does not matter in the beginning how much. Just start the habit of saving. What a great investment in your future. There are many reputable institutions that can help you invest you savings. I will leave that discussion to them.
Finally, invest in your community. This idea supports your connection with society at-large. The Bible says, “…we reap what we sow”. Invest in your community is a philosophy that creates a cycle that refreshes and sustains the community. When the community prospers so do the constituents. And you as a constituent will also reap the benefits.
John Donne wrote “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main…”
You should develop your talent and determine how to use it to help others. Give freely of your time and knowledge and the community that you are helping will become better and you will become better. You can look in your own past and see people that have invested their time in you. Remember the teachers, clergy and relatives that have helped you to learn and improve. The same responsibility is passed on to you.
Volunteering is a way to help others and learn more about you. My daughter, Cescili, as a freshman in high school volunteered at the local hospital to be a Candy Striper. Her volunteer experience expanded her interest in medicine and she pursued a medical career. She is now a doctor of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Her volunteering was an activity that helped her nurture her interests and what an investment in her future!!
Time spent in education, financial health and community service will secure a handsome return your future.
3: Values to Live By
Values mean different things to different people. Everyone has their own idea of what values mean. The definition may depend on if you are talking about family values, American values, personal values or “old time values”. Heads start nodding in a knowing fashion when values are mentioned.
Allen Cox said, “Values are guiding devices to enhance our ability to achieve our purpose.”
How would you answer the following questions in determining what you value?
What personal convictions do I have?
What rules guide my life?
What shapes my life?
What is significant in my life?
What do I represent?
What do I need to fulfill my passion and purpose?
Your values must reflect what you believe. You cannot be passionate and purposeful if you believe one thing and do another. Stick to your values no matter the resistance.
There are two types of values: Values we live by and values we aspire to. They are differentiated by our personal behavior. If I profess that I value a healthy lifestyle while exercising and eating nutritious meals then I am living that healthy lifestyle value. However, if I am sedentary and eat junk foods then the healthy personal lifestyle value is one that I aspire to.
Honesty and truth are values that my Mother taught me at a young age. Of course, she did not call them values. She called them “doing what was right”. I was a good student and enjoyed going to school. I recall an afternoon in fifth grade taking a history test and for some reason could not figure out the answers. Unconsciously, I turned my head and looked at the test of the student to my left. When I realized what I had done, I looked up at the teacher but she had not seen me. I felt guilty. I felt so guilty that I stopped taking the test and turned it in. I told the teacher that I had cheated. I went back to my desk and put my head down. In a movie of the week I might have gotten a second chance for being honest. In real life I failed the history test but, I passed my Mother’s test – “doing what’s right”. I made sure I was better prepared for history thereafter.
The following exercise has a list of possible values. The list on the next two pages is designed to help you identify your values and determine your highest priority values. This list is not comprehensive so feel free to add your own.
Step one – Choose twenty values.
Step two – Next choose your top ten values.
Step three - Choose your top five.
Step four - Rank the top five.
You will have your top five priority values.
| Achievement | Knowledge |
| Advancement | Leadership |
|
Affection
|