JLM & Associates offers personal development counseling to help you take control of your personal and business success. Learn how to seize the kind of income you deserve and achieve the successful future of your dreams.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

The Best Investment You Can Make

If you feel your life needs a change for the better, if things seem to have gotten into a rut with nothing much happening, there's one thing that anyone can do and afford irrespective of race, background and economic status. Begin a continuing education program.

Start with history, world history. It's the most fascinating story every written, and it'll spark ideas. Check out a good book on world history at your local public library, or buy one for a bookstore or on the Internet, or if you don't like to read, then, checkout or purchase and audio program.

Then study world religions, another fascinating study. Most people in our society know almost nothing about the great religions of the world, how they began and what they teach. Often time, a person knows practically nothing about his or her own, the one in which he or she was raised.

After getting started with that, start on philosophy. Read or listen to the great philosophers. You can find books and audio programs with the teachings of many of the world's wisest people. After that, tackle business and investment, which are both fascinating studies, not to mention that they are critical for success in today's world.

What you'll be doing is acquiring a first-rate education, and you'll wonder why you didn't find the same subjects interesting back when you were in school.

I guarantee that once you start a program of continuing education such as this, you'll find yourself living in the most interesting world you can imagine and never want to stop learning. You'll be constantly amazed and delighted about what you learn, and you'll wonder why everyone doesn't know how much fun, how rewarding it is, to start getting a real education.

Then, add to the history, religion, philosophy, business and investment, the study of English. After you master the tricky subject of English to the point where you can talk and write with ease and fluency, then, tackle a foreign language, but don't ever be bored.

If you find you don't know what to do some evening or on a Sunday afternoon, reading a book or listening to an audio program on any of these subjects I've mentioned will fill the time interestingly and rewardingly.

You will have invested a few minutes, or an hour or two, in yourself, your mind and in your fortune and your future, and it's the kind of investment you can't lose. Your mind controls your life, present and future. There is no way a life can be better or more enjoyable, or richer that what is stored in the mind.

People will say, “I took those subjects in school,” as though you can finish with a subject in a year or two, complete as you would some special project. You could spend a lifetime of studying any one of the subjects I've mentioned and still find it a rich source of unending enjoyment and discovery.

There is no such thing as an “educated person.” You don't finish an education and then stop learning. Either you're becoming educated or not. The trouble often stems from an unfortunate memory or unrelieved boredom in school. Maybe you were too young to take a real interest in them, maybe it wasn't presented in an interesting way, but the subjects themselves are interesting to anyone who takes the time to read or listen to them, and for the person who has never tired, it opens up an entirely new world, a whole new life.

Look at your private library. Are there books and audio programs on history, philosophy, religion, English, business and investment? If not, take my word for it, they'll represent the best investment you've ever made in time and money.