A word to the wise on self investment

There is an ancient proverb that goes by ‘The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in battle’, it is a admonition on how a lack of personal development can lead to ‘bleeding’. Your battle might not involve spears and shield walls, but you will one day have to face challenges that are unprecedented. It is on these day that you will wish that you would have ‘sweat’ more when things were much easier.

People who train for sports can relate to the proverb easily as they have real life reference points of times when they did not perform at optimal levels due to less than optimal training. Olympians know that the hardest part is not performing in front of the world and other elite competitors, the hardest part is the training. Everyone watches the Olympics but no one notices the training regimen that each competitor follows in the four years that precede the games. Your life is similar to an Olympians in the sense that it is the work that you do every day that will determine how well you will face the adversities of life.

Battle | Will you be ready?

We keep alluding to some challenge or trial, what exactly should we be preparing for anyway? It is true that you can not predict future contingencies, however you can make yourself a more seasoned warrior by fighting your current battles. The challenges that you might have to face are dragons that can come with several heads, for example: What if the economy goes to shit like in 2008, and you are let go from work? What is the plan B? How long can you go on without getting paid? Is it years, months or days? If you had sweat a bit more when times were easier you would be in a position to go on for months without an income or perhaps not even need one when the economy goes down ( which it inevitably will at some point in your life).

What if your battle involves you losing everything you own to a natural disaster, would you have the resources to recover from it easily or will it take you years to get back to the position that you had once held? If you suddenly had to change your job would you crumble under the new responsibility or would you rise to the occasion? What if you lost a loved one, would you emotionally and financially be able to deal with the situation? Would you be able to lead people and make sure everything goes ok? These are the questions of battle, and they are not only restricted to money issues. Adversities will come in life, and you do not want to be the one lying down on the battlefield of life bleeding, wishing that you had sweated more when things were much easier.

Sweat now | Personal development is key

Personal development helps you understand the necessity of sweating now, it teaches you how to swing your sword and hold your shield. Most people live their lives in a perpetual loop of chasing pleasure and avoiding pain, a cycle that is influenced by the primal reptilian brain that does not always serve us in the 21st century. When you try to improve yourself you learn to see through the facade of ‘the easy way out’, you start to cultivate discipline doing what is necessary everyday. Those who value their self-improvement and refuse to stay in the same place for too long are the ones who will be best prepared when adversities arise. If you want to have an easier life in the future, you better start investing in your personal development now while it is easy, you do not want to be the guy who brings a knife to a gun fight.