Your most powerful weapon in life

It’s that time of the year wherein we are forced to remember and reflect about life & death. Or perhaps some of us are worried about future trials that will surely come. And that Life will get hard. And deep down, you will want to quit. But we are also reminded that you have a choice: Will you give up? The choice you make will determine much of the rest of your life (or maybe sometimes for the rest of the year before re-evaluating again).

Nelson Mandela once said that education is the most powerful weapon, which can be used to change the world. Also, education is what other people do to you, while learning is what you do to yourself!

A lot of us go through life simply trying to survive. Many of us are buried under with work and perhaps the heavy responsibility of supporting ourselves and others, or trying to make a difference in the world. We must rush toward life and move beyond surviving to thriving.

Instead of looking at pressure and trials as the reason to quit, choose to see them as the very thing that will make your life the beautiful thing that you desire it to be. See it as your opportunity to learn, to grow, and to be transformed. See these trials as the very things that will enable you to have the life that you dream of.

“If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.” – Benjamin Franklin

 The ability to learn, unlearn and relearn is very important as well. You may find yourself in a state of despair but with the right knowledge, information and actions, one can definitely rise above it. While formal education is good, unfortunately there are some things that are not taught in school. But with persistence, one can choose to seek knowledge outside schools, through extra-curricular, supplemental learning.

The best investment you can make is in yourself and your financial education. All you have to do is put out the effort, and a lifetime of benefits is yours for the taking. It’s critically important that your financial intelligence grow because there is nothing more financially dangerous than millions worth of investment decisions being made with thousands worth of financial intelligence.

Your financial intelligence acts as a ceiling that limits the growth of your wealth. As you raise your financial intelligence, you raise the ceiling on what’s financially possible for you. The sooner you get it, the more it’ll be worth to you. The longer you wait, the more it’ll cost you. Which path will you choose?

An example of supplemental learning is the Aboitiz Future Leader s Business Summit (AFLBS) which will be held here in Cebu towards the end of this week.

The AFLBS brings together the top college student leaders from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao and the top executives across the Aboitiz Group to share and learn about business and leadership. The program aims to hone the leadership skills and potentials of our young students through various activities, workshops, and small group discussions, as well as prepare them for their future role in nation building.

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The writer is an RFP® - registered financial planner of RFP PH, Licensed Real Estate Broker and Director of CERTA, Inc., a family estate planning and investment advisory firm. To know more, please visit www.certa.ph